BOOK ORDERS!

As always, I highly encourage you to look into ordering books from scholastic!  Such a great bonding experience between  you and your child!

I will be submitting book orders TOMORROW morning.  It would be safe to say if you order by midnight tonight you are good to go!  If you have any extenuating circumstances, let me know and I can work around that.

We will also have the order in April (25th).  If needed/wanted we may we able to work out another order in May, but that would be on an interested basis.

March 18-March 21

Our letter of the week was Xx.  We talked about the sound Xx makes (like in X-ray and inside: exclamation and excited).  We practiced our hand symbol IT LOOKS LIKE A PIRATE HAND!, practiced the hand writing sheet, and made our hand print book page (X-ray), and we decorated the letter Xx to look like an X-ray.  The students are doing really well with our alphabet letters even though the Xx is so tricky.  I am so proud of their progress with the sign language symbol, the sound symbol, the letter and even our handwriting sheets are improving!  

We some students watched this ABC video and really liked it. They asked that I put it on the website to show you and watch at home!

Please click HERE It should bring you to a google document.  When you get in the document, you can save it (download) as a PDF.  You can then view, rotate counter clockwise to get a better view.***

I wanted to try something new.  I am working on more technology integration and I found this app in which you can record your voice and your writing.  Let me know what you think either via comments on this blog, email, or in their folders!  I am interested to see!

Our theme this week was Easter/Spring.  We talked about what it means to be spring, what we see in the spring, and that even though it is spring, it doesn't feel like it, yet.

We continue to write in our  journals.  We are getting better and the concept of picture on the top, pencil words on the bottom and trying to sound out the initial sound.  They are getting better at "reading me" their writing as well.

Monday, students filled out information on what they see, hear, play, and like about spring.  They drew a picture and helped us spell it by telling us the initial sound we needed to write.

Students illustrated an egg book.  They read the color words by looking at the initial sound and comparing it to what they know and/or the color word posters on the wall.  They did really well with this. They are doing great with this concept.  Have them read you their book!

Students also  made an egg book with positional words.  The put the egg on some grass, over a carrot, in a basket, next to a bunny, and under a cloud.  They did great with these books as well!  Have them read you this one as well!  Make sure they are using that reading finger!

Students worked on their shape names, concepts, and shape recognition.  They made garden rabbits completely from shapes.  They had oval bodies, circle heads, oval ears, oval feet, half circle pants, rectangle straps to their pants, a triangle nose, and circle eyes.  They turned out cute! They can be seen hanging in our hallways!

Students continue to practice staying quiet when a teacher is talking, in the hallway, and when we are in line.  We are also working on keeping our hands to our selves and making sure the classroom is a safe place. As we continue to practice this, please reinforce at home. These are critical elementary/kindergarten skills I truly hope to send them to school with next year!

As always, photos available by email at your request.  Additional photos are available for viewing on the website: http://mrsgloudemans.wix.com/stedward4k 

Important Notes:

• Field Trip information forms came out 2 weeks ago. Please be sure to send the payment with the slips as CASH. If you have donations, you can send those to school as well and I will bring them all together with us to the trip.  A list of needed items came home with the permission slip.  If you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to contact me!
• Chaperones are still needed for the trip, especially for our AM trip.  Many noted they could volunteer depending on the date.  Again, the date is April 24.  Bus: 8:45-10:45 and 12:05-2:15.
• Book Orders are due March 22nd (MIDNIGHT).  There are some great new collections. Also, if you order online you get a coupon for free books.  It also earns points and free books for our classroom as well!  Find the link the scholastic section of the website: http://mrsgloudemans.wix.com/stedward4k
• Spring Break is the week of March 25th-29th.  We will have school on Monday April 1, 2013.  St. Edward school will not be in session, but our class will run like normal.  
• Reading with the Stars Monday April 15, 2012!
• Dress for the Weather.  We go outside Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Students need coats, hats, and mittens.  If there is snow or even if it is in the 30s I would suggest snowpants and boots for warmth and dryness.  St. Edward Extended day families, these students go outside for "long recess" after lunch daily and need to be dressed for it daily.  Please come with everything they need to stay warm and have fun!
• Even as Spring approaches, if there is snow we need your child to come in snowpants and winter gear for playing on the playground.  If they do not have the proper clothes, they will need to stand on the blacktop with the teachers.
• Lost and Found.  Our lost and found is growing.  If you are missing something please feel free to check out the box on top of the lockers by our door, or email me and I will take a look for you!  
• As always, any questions or concerns please feel free to email me!  Have a great weekend!

Next week:

Theme: SPRING BREAK! Pets when we return

Letter: Yy (when we return)

AM Snack: Frenkel Family

PM Snack: Nobody signed up at this time, but we do have extras donated by a family if nobody signs up.

March 11- March 14

Our letter of the week was Vv.  We talked about the sound Vv makes (like in Vehicle, vroom, vest, and viper).  We practiced our hand symbol, practiced the hand writing sheet, and made our hand print book page (vehicle), and we decorated the letter Vv with vehicles going VROOM VROOM.  The students are doing really well with our alphabet letters.  I am so proud of their progress with the sign language symbol, the sound symbol, the letter and even our handwriting sheets are improving!  

**** Found the correct wording on how to write the letters. Please click HERE It should bring you to a google document.  When you get in the document, you can save it (download) as a PDF.  You can then view, rotate counter clockwise to get a better view.***

We started off the week with St. Patricks day measuring.  Students saw how many cubes fit in between the dots on St. Patrick's Day themed materials.

In small group, students took turns rolling the dice and using the bingo dotter on the correct number.  Students enjoyed the bingo dotters!

We introduced the CD player in the listening center. Students learned how to put the cd in correctly, pick which number they want, push play, and follow along in the books with their reading finger.  The book I introduced this with was There was an old Lady who swallowed a Clover.  Students really love the There was an Old Lady books!

Students had the chance to rip up various paper and make rainbow.  The rainbow was labeled with the color word.  Students practiced early literacy skills of sounding out the first letter and thinking of what color makes that sound first. They also used the Color words on the wall to reference.  Which one looks like the one on their paper and then what color is that poster.  These are great problem solving skills and literacy skills to have!  The rainbows look great and will be going on our ceiling soon!

Some students had the opportunity to do lucky charms tasting (5 senses).  Not all students got to this area as we are having a few troubles with our listening ears and being quiet on carpet/clean up time so that we can get to play time and have enough time to do all the fun play time. I hope to keep helping them work on these important skills of stopping and listening to the teacher when needed so they can be successful in kindergarten.

Our Green Dress up day!  Sorry the email /blog came out so late and not all got it, but we had a pretty good turn out!  The kids were so cut and we had so much fun!

We also had the chance to have a  Leprechan visit our room.  I did not intend to make this an activity, but after reading, The Night before St. Patrick's Day

 students got very excited to build traps and write letters to the leprechaun   Since this gave them an imaginative direction to the block center and a reason to write, I welcomed the idea into the classroom. 

All Day on Monday and Tuesday, students spent time writing letters and building traps! 

Friends making a leprechaun trap!

The Leprechaun tracks up to the empty letter drop box!  and a Note!

 On Wednesday, the Leprechaun left us a note: 

Thank yee for very much for the notes and letters, but I won't tell yee where me treasure is,  not yet!

But I want to give you a clue to magic you may have never seen....
What colors do you mix to make me favorite color green?

Upon reading the note, I gave the students the supplies they needed to go and discover what colors to mix to make green! We got it!  Blue + Yellow = Green!  We even have a song!  Blue and yellow make green, Blue and yellow make green, Mix them together, Blue and yellow make green! (melody to Farmer in the Dell).

On Wednesday , students spent the day writing notes to the leprechaun answering his question about colors, and other various things.  They continued to build traps.  

On Thursday we got a new note!  It sent students on a magic treasure hunt with clues (under the teacher chair, under one of the traps, under the discovery table and finally to the treasure: hiding on the top of each of their cubbies!  Students were delighted to get the gold!

As always, photos available by email at your request.  Additional photos are available for viewing on the website: http://mrsgloudemans.wix.com/stedward4k 

Important Notes:

• Field Trip information forms came out last week. Please be sure to send the payment with the slips as CASH. If you have donations, you can send those to school as well and I will bring them all together with us to the trip.  A list of needed items came home with the permission slip.  If you have any questions/concerns, please feel free to contact me!
• Chaperones are still needed for the trip, especially for our AM trip.  Many noted they could volunteer depending on the date.  Again, the date is April 24.  Bus: 8:45-10:45 and 12:05-2:15.
• Book Orders are due March 22nd (MIDNIGHT).  There are some great new collections. Also, if you order online you get a coupon for free books.  It also earns points and free books for our classroom as well!  Find the link the scholastic section of the website: http://mrsgloudemans.wix.com/stedward4k
• Spring Break is the week of March 25th-29th.  
• Reading with the Stars Thursday March 14, 2012!  Please RSVP (even if it is a no) so I can get an accurate count.  Thank you!
• Dress for the Weather.  We go outside Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Students need coats, hats, and mittens.  If there is snow or even if it is in the 30s I would suggest snowpants and boots for warmth and dryness.  St. Edward Extended day families, these students go outside for "long recess" after lunch daily and need to be dressed for it daily.  Please come with everything they need to stay warm and have fun!
• Even as Spring approaches, if there is snow we need your child to come in snowpants and winter gear for playing on the playground.  If they do not have the proper clothes, they will need to stand on the blacktop with the teachers.
• Lost and Found.  Our lost and found is growing.  If you are missing something please feel free to check out the box on top of the lockers by our door, or email me and I will take a look for you!  
• As always, any questions or concerns please feel free to email me!  Have a great weekend!

Next week:

Theme: Spring/Easter

Letter: Xx

AM Snack: McKee Family

PM Snack: Gorges Family (already brought in)

Green Day

Hello Parents,

I meant to send home a note today, but the day got away from me.  

If you get this: Please try to send your child in their green, what ever green you may have.  We will be celebrating St. Patrick's day and I thought this would be a fun and easy way to do that.  

If you do not have any  green, please do not go out and buy some, this is just meant to be a fun thing to do our last day before St. Patrick's day!

See everyone tomorrow!

Spring Forward

Parents, don't forget to reset your clocks and "spring forward."  I will see everyone 1 hours sooner tomorrow. :)

Mar 4- Mar 7

Our letter of the week was Ww.  We talked about the sound Ww makes (like in watermelon, whale, and watch).  We practiced our hand symbol, practiced the hand writing sheet, and made our hand print book page (Whale), and we decorated the letter Ww with watercolor paints.  The students are doing really well with our alphabet letters.  I am so proud of their progress with the sign language symbol, the sound symbol, the letter and even our handwriting sheets are improving!  

**** Found the correct wording on how to write the letters. Please click HERE It should bring you to a google document.  When you get in the document, you can save it (download) as a PDF.  You can then view, rotate counter clockwise to get a better view.***

This week we finished up Dr. Suess-Green Eggs and Ham and  Dental Awareness.  

We read Green Eggs and Ham, again looking for they rhyming words.  We then did a math activity in which the students rolled and put that many eggs on their plate.  They did this two times and then picked the plate that had more and the one that had less.  We continue to work on figuring words out (more or less) with sounding out the first sound of the words.

We did a play on words from Green Eggs and Ham and integrated some technology by typing "I am ____"  on the computer. This introduced more letters to look for, as well as the space bar and the shift key to make it capital. We will continue to increase our technology skills that help us work on our academic areas as well!

We set up an experiment with eggs representing teeth.  We put them in water, milk, and soda. We observed what the teeth looked like before and predicted what we thought would happen. We wrote down our answers as a class.  We then checked them again at the end of the week and discussed what we saw and what it meant for our teeth and what is healthy to drink.  Students helped me write down the answers.

Students had the opportunity to floss the play dough out of the teeth!  Play dough was stuffed in between the pieces of a large lego.  They used yarn to floss it out.  Great practice on flossing and the purpose of flossing!



We had a dentist visit as well. Afternoon students and students that stay for extended day were able to hear some dental awareness information and learn about healthy teeth!

Marshmallow and paper mouths

Apple, peanut butter, and marshmallow
mouths

Tooth counting addition

Students made marshmallow and paper mouths, apple mouths.  Students counted their 20 teeth and worked our fine motor skills putting them on.  We worked with matching a toothbrush to the teeth, and did some teeth math with some unifix cubes (white) as manipulative to help with the math problems. 

It was a crazy week with my being gone two days, but things looked great when I came back!  Students are doing a lot of learning and having a lot of fun!

Thank you for those of you that made it out for conferences.  It was nice to touch base and be able to chat about your child and their progress.

As always, photos available by email at your request.  Additional photos are available for viewing on the website: http://mrsgloudemans.wix.com/stedward4k 

Important Notes:

• Field Trip information forms came out this week. Thank you for your feed back. As of now, it looks like the trip is a go.  Dates are being finalized as we speak and will be out next week along with a permission slip and waiver.  We do know there will be a small fee ($2/$3) for each student and volunteer/chaperone, but it is all given as a donation to the shelter. If you would like to add on to your payment for the trip or send in an animal related donation, they will be openly accepted by the shelter.
• Book Orders are due March 22nd (MIDNIGHT).  There are some great new collections. Also, if you order online you get a coupon for free books.  It also earns points and free books for our classroom as well!  Find the link the scholastic section of the website: http://mrsgloudemans.wix.com/stedward4k
• Spring Break is the week of March 25th-29th.  
• Reading with the Stars Thursday March 14, 2012!  Please RSVP (even if it is a no) so I can get an accurate count.  Thank you!
• Dress for the Weather.  We go outside Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Students need coats, hats, and mittens.  If there is snow or even if it is in the 30s I would suggest snowpants and boots for warmth and dryness.  St. Edward Extended day families, these students go outside for "long recess" after lunch daily and need to be dressed for it daily.  Please come with everything they need to stay warm and have fun!
• Even as Spring approaches, if there is snow we need your child to come in snowpants and winter gear for playing on the playground.  If they do not have the proper clothes, they will need to stand on the blacktop with the teachers.
• Lost and Found.  Our lost and found is growing.  If you are missing something please feel free to check out the box on top of the lockers by our door, or email me and I will take a look for you!  
• As always, any questions or concerns please feel free to email me!  Have a great weekend!

Next week:

Theme: St. Patrick's Day

Letter: Vv

AM Snack: Rach Family

PM Snack: Sawinski Family