Friday, March 27, 2015

Spring-Even though its not "spring-like"outside

Parents,
Since the office will be closed on Monday April 6, if you have an absence or need to share any information, please email me at sgloudemans@stedwardk5.org or text my personal cell phone (920-585-2822).  I will not have access to the voicemail in the office, and since we don't have a phone in the room, it will also be difficult to answer the school phone.

Since we have a lower number of students (no wrap around care is offered so many wrap around students will not be in attendance), there will be a slightly modified lesson plan (projects that other students will not be making up if they aren't there).  We will not be having library on Monday.

In the upcoming events section below, I have many dates through April. Though these dates seem far out, the number of things going on at this time of year can sneak up on you so I wanted to make sure you had the dates as far out as possible.  I will do my best to keep  it updated each week.

This week we talked about spring.  Students started the week with following directions on how to make rabbits by taking the correct shape and correct number of that shape and then putting it where the directions said.  This worked on their close listening skills and following multi-step directions.  The bunnies are in our hall and they look really cute!

Students worked on an egg rhyming sheet throughout the week.  Students matched two halves of an
egg with rhyming pictures.  They then worked on writing the words.  Some were able to do this independently, some with tracing, and some needed a great deal of help.  Please continue to have your child work on writing at home and writing the letters correctly.  An important part of being able to write correctly is holding your writing tool correctly.  Please be sure to hold pencils in a 3point grip (as shown).

Writing the letters correctly will help them greatly in kindergarten as they will be more fluent in their writing if it is done correctly.  A good rule of thumb: START AT THE TOP AND CIRCLE BACK.  Circle back homework came home this week as well; it is essential students circle back rather than forwards for the correct formation of the letter.   I can send home the correct formation of the letters to help you work with them (this also came home in Holiday Homework).

Students also took an adorable picture holding their invisible umbrella.  We then had them cut out and paint an umbrella and placed it on the photos.  They are being blown away and rained on in our hallway!  Cutting skills are getting much better!  There were curved and straight lines on this project and students did well with both.

On Thursday, students created another bunny, this time cutting the shapes out for themselves.  Some of our bunnies are furrier than others but all in all cutting is greatly improving in this class. Please continue on working on cutting thumb up and smooth cuts on the black lines.
Upcoming Events:
  • Spring Break runs March 30-April 5.  
  • Classes Resume Monday April 6.  St. Edward school does not resume on Monday like the district.  We will be in session, but the only ones in the building.  There will be no Extended day with Mrs. Zajicek or After School Care with Mrs. Schmitz offered.  Students ALL must be picked up by 11.
  • Spring Family Event at HES April 9.  Permission slips came home, please do your best to get these in.  This is very similar to the 4k family fun night we had in the fall with a variety of fun centers spring based.  I send the numbers to the teachers at HES so please send the slips in so I can pass on that number.
  • Our school will be going through the Accreditation process April 13-15.  There will be additional people in our building observing the classroom/school environment as well as the teachers.  
  • Final Reading with the Stars will be Monday April 20.
  • Graduation Photos April 22 during class time. We have a professional photographer (the same one that did school photos) come and take pictures of your child in Graduation gear (provided by her).  You will have the opportunity to purchase these photos like you did the school photos.  We will be sending out permission/payment envelopes.  Please be sure to turn these in regardless of whether you intend to purchase--we cant take their picture without your permission.  We use the photos in the graduation slide show.
  • Spring Field Trip April 23.  Permission slips will be coming out right after spring break.  We will be going to Mosquito Hill in New London to talk about how animals wake up in spring.  Students will need to be dressed for the weather and hiking outside.  If you are interested in chaperoning and have not done so already please take the VIRTUS class and fill out all the appropriate background checks.  These take time so you can start now before the permission slips come out.
  • St. Edward Spring Program April 29 (All St. Edward Families) will participate in.  It is a Matinee and evening show times. Hortonville families will receive a permissions email (like the Christmas program) closer to the date to watch the matinee performance.
  • FINAL BOOK ORDER WILL BE DUE MAY 15.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms. 
Important Notes:
    •  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
    • Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
    • Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
    • Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
    • Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays.
    Next Week:
    Theme: return from break: Insects
    Letter of the Week: Yy
    Snack: Van Camp (again)

    Friday, March 20, 2015

    St. Patrick's Day

    In the upcoming events section below, I have many dates through April. Though these dates seem far out, the number of things going on at this time of year can sneak up on you so I wanted to make sure you had the dates as far out as possible.  I will do my best to keep  it updated each week.

    Late last week we started yoga in our classroom.  We have little dots all around our room (evenly spaced out) called "exercise dots" During yoga time (in morning circle) students hear quiet music and try their best to copy me in various poses. They then work on taking deep yoga breaths. These wake up our brains (kids then kiss their brain good morning) and their hearts to love their classmates (kids kids their heart) and prepare them for the day. We also talked about how this can be used to help us calm down. I overheard 2 kids already on Monday tell a friend, "STOP, take a yoga breath!"....AND IT WORKED!! Have your child show you some moves and if they get upset encourage them to try a yoga pose or yoga breath!


    This week we  had a little visitor!  Each night, the leprechaun got into trouble in our room and left us little notes.  The notes encouraged the students to write him notes, draw him maps, and build traps (and label them do not break).  It was nice to see kids writing that do not typically do so!



    Students have begun to measure using non-standard measurement--in this case cubes.  Students had to put cubes from one dot to the other across St. Patrick's Day themed stuff and then write that number.  Our number writing is getting better, but keep working on that at home!

    One day this week, the leprechaun asked the kids to mix colors to discover what made his favorite color, green.  Students used q-tips and stirred together colors to discover that blue and yellow make green!

    Our sensory table was filled with "liquid gold" (clear elmers glue, liquid starch, and glitter).  It did not work out as the directions said, but the kids still had a blast playing with it!

    Students made a spring rainbow by reading the color words on the rainbow.  If they didnt know the whole word, we problem solved by sounding out the first letter sound and thinking what color starts with that sound (thank goodness the colors all start with different letters).  Students then asked for that color, ripped it up, and filled it in their rainbows.  Ripping works on the fine motor skills critical for writing and other activities later in life.  They then cut out the rainbows and 2 clouds and now our halls are oh so colorful!
    The letter of the week was Xx. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

    Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

    The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter Xx to look like an x ray.  On Thursday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, X is for X-ray.

    Upcoming Events:
    • Book Order due March 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms. FINAL BOOK ORDER WILL BE DUE MAY 15.
    • Spring Break runs March 30-April 5.  
    • Classes Resume Monday April 6.  St. Edward school does not resume on Monday like the district.  We will be in session, but the only ones in the building.  There will be no Extended day with Mrs. Zajicek or After School Care with Mrs. Schmitz offered.  Students ALL must be picked up by 11.
    • Spring Family Event at HES April 9.  Permission slips came home, please do your best to get these in.  This is very similar to the 4k family fun night we had in the fall with a variety of fun centers spring based.  I send the numbers to the teachers at HES so please send the slips in so I can pass on that number.
    • Our school will be going through the Accreditation process April 13-15.  There will be additional people in our building observing the classroom/school environment as well as the teachers.  
    • Final Reading with the Stars will be Monday April 20.
    • Graduation Photos April 22 during class time. We have a professional photographer (the same one that did school photos) come and take pictures of your child in Graduation gear (provided by her).  You will have the opportunity to purchase these photos like you did the school photos.  We will be sending out permission/payment envelopes.  Please be sure to turn these in regardless of whether you intend to purchase--we cant take their picture without your permission.  We use the photos in the graduation slide show.
    • Spring Field Trip April 23.  Permission slips will be coming out right after spring break.  We will be going to Mosquito Hill in New London to talk about how animals wake up in spring.  Students will need to be dressed for the weather and hiking outside.  If you are interested in chaperoning and have not done so already please take the VIRTUS class and fill out all the appropriate background checks.  These take time so you can start now before the permission slips come out.
    • St. Edward Spring Program April 29 (All St. Edward Families) will participate in.  It is a Matinee and evening show times. Hortonville families will receive a permissions email (like the Christmas program) closer to the date to watch the matinee performance.
    Important Notes:
      •  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
      • Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
      • Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
      • Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
      • Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays.
      Next Week:
      Theme: Spring.Easter
      Letter of the Week: None--make up any missing letters
      Snack: Van Camp

      Friday, March 13, 2015

      Dr. Seuss Week 2

      In the upcoming events section below, I have many dates through April. Though these dates seem far out, the number of things going on at this time of year can sneak up on you so I wanted to make sure you had the dates as far out as possible.  I will do my best to keep  it updated each week.

      We continued to talk about Dr. Seuss this week.  We started the week off with Red Fish Blue Fish.  We read the book, and then made a math art project.  Students first rolled a regular dice.  That is how many fish they needed.  They then rolled a colored fish dice.  That was what color they had to color their fish.  They then did this a second time.  We then set it up into a math problem __+__= ___.  Students did really well!

      Students also worked on a rhyming sheet.  Students cut out a variety of little images.  Then, Mrs. Drummond read the students a word and they had to find the image that rhymed and glue it by the word.  This worked on our cutting (its always good to get more practice), gluing (how much do we really need?) as well as the actual rhyming.


      Students who are ready with their letters and their physical writing of the letters began journaling. These students will be journaling once a week.  If more students become ready to journal before the end of the year, We will add them to the group as well.   In this journaling time, student will be posed a topic (Ex: What did you do during your stay at home days).  Students will then illustrate that first and then begin doing their invented spelling (write what they hear it does not matter if it is correct).  

      Our math lesson on Wednesday was two
      different sheets, based on what would make your child most successful.  Some were adding by looking how many hats were on one side, how many hats on the other and then how many hats in all.  Other students, used cubes and put the first number of cubes on their paper, then the next number of cubes on their paper, and then counted how many cubes in all they had on their paper.  These will be coming home with some notes on them to let you know how they did with their specific paper. 

      The letter of the week was Ww. We learned the sign language for a letter, the literacy link sound symbols, the letter sound, and looking at and writing it in both capital letters and lower case letters.  Click here to view the many ways we learn the letter of the week!

      Each week we watch letter videos from "Have Fun Teaching" and the students are really picking up the names of letters, formations, and the sounds of letters.  Check out these videos with you child!  Click HERE.

      The Tuesday project of letter of the week is to decorate a letter with something that starts with the letter. This week we decorated the letter Ww with  watercolors.  On Thursday, our letter of the week project was to read a page from our alphabet book, W is for Whale.


      Upcoming Events:
      • Book Order due March 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.
      • Spring Break runs March 30-April 5.  
      • Classes Resume Monday April 6.  St. Edward school does not resume on Monday like the district.  We will be in session, but the only ones in the building.  There will be no Extended day with Mrs. Zajicek or After School Care with Mrs. Schmitz offered.  Students ALL must be picked up by 11.
      • Spring Family Event at HES April 9.  Permission slips came home, please do your best to get these in.  This is very similar to the 4k family fun night we had in the fall with a variety of fun centers spring based.  I send the numbers to the teachers at HES so please send the slips in so I can pass on that number.
      • Our school will be going through the Accreditation process April 13-15.  There will be additional people in our building observing the classroom/school environment as well as the teachers.  
      • Final Reading with the Stars will be Monday April 20.
      • Graduation Photos April 22 during class time. We have a professional photographer (the same one that did school photos) come and take pictures of your child in Graduation gear (provided by her).  You will have the opportunity to purchase these photos like you did the school photos.  We will be sending out permission/payment envelopes.  Please be sure to turn these in regardless of whether you intend to purchase--we cant take their picture without your permission.  We use the photos in the graduation slide show.
      • Spring Field Trip April 23.  Permission slips will be coming out right after spring break.  We will be going to Mosquito Hill in New London to talk about how animals wake up in spring.  Students will need to be dressed for the weather and hiking outside.  If you are interested in chaperoning and have not done so already please take the VIRTUS class and fill out all the appropriate background checks.  These take time so you can start now before the permission slips come out.
      • St. Edward Spring Program April 29 (All St. Edward Families) will participate in.  It is a Matinee and evening show times. Hortonville families will receive a permissions email (like the Christmas program) closer to the date to watch the matinee performance.
      Important Notes:
        •  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
        • Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
        • Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
        • Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
        • Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays.
        Next Week:
        Theme: St. Patrick's Day

        Letter of the Week: Xx
        Snack: Dunkleberger

        Friday, March 6, 2015

        Dr. Seuss

        Check out our faces of Dr. Suess characters.  If you would like the print you can 1) email me and I can send it, 2) click on the below link, enlarge the photo of your child, and click download at the top (it looks like a half a box with a down arrow)  Enjoy!

        Dr. Suess Faces :)






        On Monday, we watched Cat and the Hat read aloud on the computers and then we got to making our own hats.  Students first thought of rhyming words in the at family and wrote them on their hats.  They then patterned red, white, red, white.  They could then wear their hats around or put them in their cubbies.

        We also introduced some Dr. Seuss Apps on the iPad for the students to work on letters, rhyming, and listening to some books.

        We created some Dr. Seuss Dough with baby oil, flour, and red and blue glitter.  Students really have fun with this table--though it is not very good at staying in our sensory table!







        On Tuesday we read There is a Wocket in my Pocket. We discussed that they are imaginary creatures and they can look any way that we want but they must have all the body parts.  We made a list of what body parts it needed to be a Wocket and wrote them on the board.  On Wednesday morning, they designed their wockets and pockets.

        On Wednesday, we read Green Eggs and Ham and we made a project with them.  We rolled a dice, counted that many eggs, colored them green and glued them on a plate.  We then repeated that for a second time on another plate.  Students then compared the plates to see which at more and which had less.  They then circled the word more and the word less by the appropriate plate.

        On Thursday, we made some green eggs to try.  We first made our own small batch, then we all had to take a try.  If we did not like them they went in the garbage, but if we did like them, we ate them up.  They then had t write their name by how they felt about the eggs.   At our circle time, we discussed our results.  Students then helped me write the summary by helping me with the initial sound of each word.



        Upcoming Events:
        • Book Order due March 27.  Please click on the link for scholastic at the top of this page.  When you buy books for your child, it helps buy books and supplies for our classrooms.
        • Half Day Wednesday March 11 for students who stay all day.  I will send an email finding out how students get home the week of.
        • Reading with the StarsThursday March 12 5:30-6:30.  More information and an RSVP (electronically) will come out this week.
        • Spring Break runs March 30-April 5.  
        • Classes Resume Monday April 6.  St. Edward school does not resume on Monday like the district.  We will be in session, but the only ones in the building.  There will be no Extended day with Mrs. Zajicek or After School Care with Mrs. Schmitz offered.  Students ALL must be picked up by 11.
        Important Notes:
          •  Dress for the weather.  Please send your child dressed for the weather as we go outside as long as it is not raining or below 0*(students are more than welcome to bring layers daily or to leave in their lockers)  It may also be time to change out the change of clothes to make sure they are weather appropriate.  If you send a new change of clothes, we will send the warm weather clothes in their backpacks.
          • Folders. Please be checking your child's daily folder each night.  We put notes on the notebook pages in their folders as well as any notes we may have for you.  Artwork is also sent home this way. As we start letter of the week, we will also start sending home homework to help reinforce the letter concept and identification.  Please work on this with you child to help the students make the connection between home and school. 
          • Also, Please check the student's Wednesday Folders.  Please try to take info out and return the folder and any forms/info/payments in those folders a day or two after receiving. 
          • Literacy Bags come home every three weeks.  Students will have a week to complete the project inside and can then return the bag with completed sheets in it on TUESDAYS.
          • Library Books come every week.  We go to library on Monday and student have the opportunity to check out a book and keep it for a week. It can be kept in their back packs or at home, but please remember to bring it on Mondays.
          Next Week:
          Theme: Dr. Suess (again)

          Letter of the Week: Ww
          Snack: Peterson