Winter Weather
As you know the weather has changed drastically in the last few weeks. Please make sure that your child is bringing their outdoor weather clothes daily to school - a winter jacket, snow pants (please check them for holes), boots, warm socks, hat, gloves/mittens and anything else they may need to stay warm. It is important to label these items (I know this is tricky), because we are losing things left and right! We ask that your child bring their winter gear home daily because often times it is soaked and needs to be dried overnight at home. Please check daily to make sure. We have had a few snow pants come back on the second day already pretty stinky because they've sat wet in backpacks overnight. The school district policy is that we are outdoors unless the windchill is below 0 OR the precipitation falling is too heavy or too wet for the kids to be outside. This past week we had several indoor recess days due to the cold wind chills.
Book Fair
This was a record breaking year for the Book Fair!! Our Media Center sold over $10,000 worth of books!! Thank you to the many generous families who helped donate money to our classroom for books - you should see the pile of new books I was able to shop for at the Book Fair. Your generosity is appreciate and noticed! As a result of the Book Fair being in the Media Center the last two weeks, students have not been able to check out books to take home. Today we finally returned our books and your Weckie should come home today with a book as long as they turned in their book. Remember, next Friday we have no school, so these books are not due back officially until January 6, however the Library Tub is always in our classroom and available for book returns any day.
Winter Holiday Party
In place of the traditional holiday party, I like to do it a little different in Kindergarten! You should have received a note home last week explaining that we will be doing a Polar Express party. The kids are pretty hyped up to be going on the Polar Express and I have been pretty vague! The room will be transformed into a train and yours' truly will be our conductor! We are looking for a few parents to help during the party. Our Super Mom Maria French has been through this one before and has volunteered to handle all of the tokens the kids receive along the way on the party but we need help with the following jobs:
-2 Hot Cocoa Makers - this job needs a little explaining but if you can bring and help make hot cocoa and serve it for our train ride, you're on :-)
-1 Reindeer Food Mom - We have all the supplies, you'll just help run the station
-1 Cookie Mom - please bring 30 cookies (we have 25 kids) and help serve them at the party
If you are able to do one of these jobs, please email me ASAP at JenniferPhillips@wlcsd.org. Our Party will follow the school sing along. The Sing Along begins at 2:00pm in the Cafeteria and then our train ride will begin from our room at 2:30pm approximately. Please remember your child can wear their pajamas to school on Thursday to help set the mood for our party :-).
Reader's Workshop
We have been BUSY in workshop doing all sorts of great things!! First and foremost, we LOVE partner reading! We have been taking time to get to know our partner's better and learning how to have good conversations. What can we talk about? We share our favorite parts in books, a part that made us laugh, a part that reminds us of something we have done before (making connections), or a part that surprised us. It has been fun to pop in and listen to the conversations the kids are having about their books!Slowly but surely we are launching our guided reading groups! Look for a bright colored baggie to begin appearing home with your child in the next few weeks with activities and books to share at home! More info to come - they are pretty self explanatory early on as we learn this new routine.
Writer's Workshop
We continue to move along in our Writing Wizard unit and it has been awesome to see more of our kids taking risks and writing during workshop time! Many have got the drawing part down and can label their illustrations. The Wizard's role helps model how to stretch out words and write sentences which is what I'm seeing happening more and more in my writing conferences with the kids! This is great! Typically around the middle of January we will start a writing folder at home as well. We ask that you take some time 2-3 nights a week and write with your child. You'll want them to do the writing but you can be that knowledgeable other that coaches and guides them to stretch out words and listen for the sounds as they construct sentences.This week we also set goals in workshop! This was a big deal! We talked about what a goal was and why it should be challenging! Here's what we have so far...
Math Workshop
In Math we have been doing all sorts of great work focused around numbers. We have added daily number writing practice into our routine as we continue to build our knowledge of numbers and number sense. We have been working in our number writing journals at Math Stations and are up to the number 7. As a whole group we have actually written all of our numbers on the whiteboards up to 100 a couple of times over the course of a week! Math Stations have focused on counting objects, counting successive numbers as well as learning some of the Everyday Math games. We have mastered: Top It, Spinning Numbers and the Number Grid Game.
Social Studies
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| The latkes were a hit with the kids!! Everyone enjoyed the potato pancakes and cleaned the tray empty! |
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| Then it was on to making gingerbread men cookies! We couldn't wait to eat them! |
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| They looked awesome and smelled wonderful! |
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| We went to the staff lounge to get our cookies and they were gone!! So we ran to find Mr. Drewno in the office and he was STUNNED! |
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| We even checked all of the surveillance cameras throughout the school to see if we could track them down! |
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| We'll keep you posted! Be sure to follow us on Twitter for any breaking news updates! (@wearetheweckies) |
Important Dates/Info
Please remember Winter Break begins at 4pm this Thursday, December 22nd and school resumes again on Wednesday, Jaunary 4th. Please have a wonderful holiday with your families, be safe and stay warm!
