Happy 2015!
Welcome back to 2015! I am so excited to start a new year with this awesome group of kids! We missed each other greatly and had a great first week back! Cheers to a new year!
Thank You!!!
I just wanted to say thank you to all the families for the generous gift at our Winter Celebration! It will be greatly appreciated! I feel so very fortunate to be teaching such an amazing group of kids with such supportive families! I hope you all had a great vacation and were able to spend some quality time with your loved ones!
Raz Kids
Great job readers! I’ve been seeing in the weekly reports all the students who have been logging regularly (even through the holiday!!!!) and making reading progress! Some of our students are moving along through the levels. You can find the website through the “Links” page under the Resources tab. All students were set to start at the AA level in September, so if you’re just starting, it may take a little time to get through a few levels until you get to your child’s current reading level. If you can consistently have your child log in 2-3 times a week it will help to consistently progress their reading level. Your child should be able to read these books independently and will be able to continue their progress next year.
Try to take advantage of this online subscription that our generous AFP has purchased for our students. Don’t forget these online books/reading time can be added to your Homework/Reading Log.
Stamina – Reading Independently
We are going back to one of our earlier goals from September…Build your stamina. We have talked as a class about what this means and know that Stamina is built little by little, over time. Our goal is that students can build up to reading independently for 15-20 minutes. Some of our students can do this now, but many of our students read for 5-7 minutes and are done. Here are a few ideas to help work on this goal at home.
- Set a timer (phone app, microwave, etc) for a reasonable starting time (5-7 minutes would work unless your know your child is able to start at a longer time) and have your child start reading and aim to keep reading until the timer goes off. This will likely mean reading the same books over and over until the timer goes off (that is a good thing) or to keep reading on RAZ kids until the timer goes off.
- As your child needs (this could be every night or every few nights) increase the timer another minute. Challenge your child to keep reading the w-h-o-l-e time.
- Praise your child and have a cheer session if they can make it until the timer ends. If not, still praise them and leave it at the same time until they are able to read the entire time.
- Remind them this means taking no breaks, looking at their books or the computer the whole time, reading the whole time.
- Add a star or happy face to their reading log for each time they increase to a new length.
Penguin Parade – January 16th
This is the first annual Penguin Parade. Our school will be walking up to the Community Park to walk for something we believe in. I had students nominate ideas that we could walk for. The list is attached to show the ideas and words they came up with. After choosing ideas, each student had a chance to vote by putting a line by the idea they wanted. After totaling the votes, the class chose….
“I can do it!” – DETERMINATION
This is a an idea we have talked about since the first week of school. It goes along with the “Growth Mind-set” that I spoke with you about at Back to School Night. It is building strength and praise in effort, not ability. There are many kids that want to stop trying the minute something gets difficult. In class, we encourage these moments, with…”Just say..’I can do it!’ and keep trying!” Some students strive for perfection and can fear trying or fear the frustration that comes with less than perfection. Again, we encourage our class that it is not perfection we are aiming towards, it is the ability to keep on trying. (if you missed Back to School Night, see the link above and view this 12 min. video on Growth Mind-set).
Since it is has been a hot topic for our class, and we bring it up often, this was our winner. This week week will make signs to carry and show our “I CAN DO IT!” spirit!
ATTIRE: Wear a RED or BLACK T-shirt or sweatshirt to show your EBS Spirit! Surprise…I will be wearing a black EBS T-shirt (Still trying to build my Red spirit wear ;).
How to participate? If you’d like to join us walk, come to our class on Friday at 11:00. We’d love to have families come on out and join us walking. Let me know ahead of time so we know how many to expect. I will likely spread families out in the line to help keep us safe during our walk.
Johnny Can Spell (letters and sounds)
This week we started our Kindergarten letter and sound program. This program focuses on letter sound, letter representation, letter formation and phonics (for example it goes over the different ways that /ur/ is represented – ir, er, ur, wor.
To start this off, students had to be familiar with the “clockface” as we use specific numbers on the clock as starting or marking places. This week there was a lot of talk about the “2” as that is a common starting place for many of the letters. We also spoke a lot about the Top Line, Middle Line (dashed) and Bottom Line. This week we will start with formation and phonics.
Number Formation Packets
This week I will be sending home a number formation packet. This is not homework and does not need to be turned in, but is being given as practice only and teaches you and your student the rhymes we have been using to help form the numbers.
New Student joins 206!
We welcomed a new student to Room 206! We were pleasantly surprised to gain a new shining 206 student for the new year! She joined us mid-week and I can’t tell you how excited the class was to welcome her! They have been so kind and excited to sit with her, play with her and show her how our school works. She is so kind and has fit in so well that you’d never know she just joined us! If you haven’t met her and/or her family, make sure you say hello and welcome them to San Diego, EBS and 206! …and praise your own kiddos for being so hospitable!
Character Education – FORGIVENESS
This week, we had a Character Education lesson taught by Angela Weathers! It was so great and spoke about a new word for our students. The lesson was around Forgiveness. Angela read them a story about Forgiveness and spoke about what it means and why it is important. The students also tried the lingo on of saying “I forgive you” after someone says “I’m sorry.” The lesson also spoke about moving on after a situation is taken care of rather than bringing it back up after its been solved.
Then she had the students go to their desk and cut out a heart. She had them decorate it and make it beautiful and special. Then she had them trade the heart with a friend sitting next to them. Then she had everyone crumble up their friend’s heart. This brought many students to a state of shock or surprise. Angela then went on to explain that when words hurt another friends feelings, it is impacting and important that we say sorry and when we are on the receiving end we can forgive them for hurting us. She also gave every student a Forgiveness card to help explain and remember what it means.
Survey for this week
What did you miss most about school while you were on vacation? Click on the red link below to see your students response. (responses are listed by number) We also use this time to practice responding in complete sentences. Practice using complete sentences at home. This can be challenging for many of the students and is a great oral language skill to practice.
Monday – 1/12
- PE with Mrs. Blower…wear Tennis Shoes! (this is required to participate and receive an accurate grade from Coach Blower)
- Renew Book Borrow Bags (return the bags to receive new books)
Tuesday – 1/13
- Return School Library books
Wednesday – 1/14
- Library Visit at 12:30 (TK dismissal at 12:55 in the library)
- Computer Lab
Thursday – 1/15
- Minimum Day (dismissal at 12:30)
- Mission Federal Credit Union at School for deposits!
Friday – 1/16
- Penguin Parade (sign up just outside the 206 door if you plan on joining us)
- Homework/Reading Log Due (aim for 20 minutes of reading a session…break in two parts if needed)
- Run Club for K Students (Wear Tennis Shoes)
