Griffin Gazette for January 30th - February 3rd

THINGS TO DO:
1. Start counting and packing your 100 snack items into a zip-lock bag!
Good things to bring: pretzels, m&m's, marshmallows, peanuts, raisins, chocolate morsels, chex-mix, cheerios, or any other small item. We will be making 100th day snack mix! YUM!

2. Buy or bring a simple plain white t-shirt to school between now and Monday, February 6th. We will be creating 100th day t-shirts! FUN!
3. Please bring in a shoe box or cereal box for our ANNUAL valentine box day!!! Wahoo.
4. Tracy Poduska will be here on Friday and the writing facilitator (Wendy Hultman) will be here on Wednesday. I am excited for Ms. Hultman to teach writing on Wednesday.
5. VOLUNTEERS: I am still needing felt scraps cut...A BIG thanks to Becky and Liz for cutting MUCH burlap! :)
 
This week in reading...
We are reading some good read-alouds such as "Too many tamales" and "Animals should definitely not wear clothing" to learn more about inferring while reading.
This will be on going for the rest of the year and you will notice a gradual release of responsibility.
Questions for your little reader:
How do use what we know (schema) and clues from the text to make an inference when we read?
How do readers use inferences to draw conclusions?
Letter of the week: Dd
Snap words of the week: look, see

Writing this week...
Writers explore summarizing versus storytelling.
Interactive writing while focusing on conventions.

This week in math ...
We will be reviewing our teen numbers.
We will be wrapping up unit 3 by practicing pocket problems, assessments, and multi cultural games.

GRIFFIN GAZETTE: Friday sharing begins

READING this week:
The family times that I send home will be covering the letter of the week and the snap words, but no longer the books. They don't always align with our new KINDERGARTEN reading maps! Please keep doing them, but know that the story isn't always are weekly story.
Letter this week: R
Snap words: with, she, was, me
Comparing fiction and nonfiction during reading and writer's workshop.
Learning about VERBS.
ASKING questions: What kinds of questions do readers ask themselves before they read...while they read and after they finish a book? What makes a good question?
Today we learned about question dice (some kids will be bringing them home tonight for homework)...
Kids practiced rolling the dice while we read and used what word it landed on to help us make a question about what we were reading...
SOME GOOD QUESTION WORDS:
How, What, Why, Which, Where, When, Is...etc.

WRITING:
Begin learning about GOOD LEADS! What makes you want to keep going? What is a good lead? Why? We will be reading lots of GREAT books like:
Owl Moon, Where the Wild Things are, Night Driving, Grandpa Loved, Blue Moon Tortilla...and many more.

Wednesday, January 25th we will be leaving our school heading to the PUBLIC library for story-time led by Ms. Crista Pentz. We are so excited that we got invited.

Math stuff:
Probability and the probability tray
Shape ART and craft stick patterns
Train games (addition and subtraction)
Number writing practice
Graphing

Some things to know:

Monday was NATIONAL HANDWRITING DAY! WE celebrated by writing handwritten letters to someone we care about with the middle room. Please bring in any handwritten letters that you have at home from grandparents. If you have a grandparent that might be interested in writing our class a letter, let me know.

The middle room visits us to write letters too

Heading to the stationary and envelopes...gotta seal this puppy up!

Best printing!

Room full of 22 kids! :)

Some parents have contacted me about setting up a meeting time between now and our March conference time. If you would like to do that as well, let me know please. I am more than happy to meet with you about any concerns that you might have.


Friday sharing begins this Friday. If your child would like to bring something to share we will begin a more formal sharing process. Kids seem to be very interested in sharing stuff all the time right now. So FRIDAY is our new day!

TO MY VOLUNTEERS THIS WEEK: I need your help with a FABRIC project coming in February so if you are volunteering in my classroom this week I am hoping it's okay if you can help me with cutting BURLAP and FLEECE. Please let me know if you are not okay with this so that I can find some more volunteers. I am working with the Art teacher Ms. Farrier on a big FABRIC project. We cover FABRIC in science....and will begin in February!

Yes...we can get dressed in under 3 minutes...

WE earned a BANANA Split party!!!!!

Short week: Martin Luther King, Jr.

I hope you enjoyed your day off if you had one...and I hope there was talk of MLK. I challenged the kindergartners to do something nice for anyone today. We will be learning more about Martin Luther King this week. To do or learn more...click here.

Reading this week...
We will be reading Little Panda (non-fiction) to carry over last weeks' unit on Asking Questions before, during and after reading a text. We will be comparing both fiction and non-fiction during reading and writing. We will be completing Martin Luther King journals during class this week too. Our journals will focus on ourselves, our dreams, and our goals.
Letters of the week: Nn and Bb
Snap words this week include: was, with, me, she
Practice nonsense words as home such has: jip, zep, nez, lek, etc....to develop phonemic awareness.

We got our DIBELS results back from Ms. O'Brian. The Kindergarten class as a whole looks great. I am more than happy to discuss the results with you after school if you wish. Otherwise I will be sharing the results with your at our March conferences. Since March is so far away, please let me know if you would like to just do a quick catch up sometime between now and the end of the month. I am happy to sit down with you.

Math this week...
Number writing practice
Number card games (example: top it, it's like WAR with cards...you can play it at home.)
Count by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's...Count backwards from 20.
Probability stories (introducing language of probability)
Probability tray (develop understanding of probability)
Pan Balance: Level 2 Heavier versus lighter

Writer's workshop...
We will continue to plan, map and create our SMALL moment stories.
This week will focus on setting, plot, and GOOD LEADS...
Try reading stories at home and notice what makes a story good...try reading books like the following:
My Mama Had a Dancing heart
Owl Moon
Too Many Tamales
STrong to the hoop
Mud
Alexander and the TErrible, Horrible, No good, very bad day

Other things...
I am working on my ABC tubs at school. I am filling them up with tiny little objects...for example for
B-button, black fabric, baby, bear
I am looking for little objects to add to my ABC tubs...let me know if you have junk or things lying around that you want to donate.

Friday, January 20th we will be taking pictures around the school of ALTA kids doing the four B's!
BE SAFE
BE RESPECTFUL
BE RESPONSIBLE
BE FRIENDLY
We will be trying to capture images of the kids doing the right thing. We are making POSITIVE BEHAVIOR posters for our school. We are very excited about this project at our school.

NATIONAL handwriting day is Monday, January 23rd and we are still looking for STATIONARY, note cards, postcards, fun paper...envelopes so please send it in my this Friday. I have a white bucket by the door that you can drop it right in. THANKS! Remember we will be celebrating by writing handwritten letters to friends, family or someone who just might appreciate it.

Check back later this week for some pictures!! And some video!

From Mrs. Poduska's desk....

 From Principal Poduska….

Communication Improvements

We are pleased to announce the launching of School Messenger at Alta School!  This dynamic program has the ability to send electronic messages to all parents, which will improve our communication and school safety efforts.  School Messenger will be used to notify you via phone, email, and/or text with important reminders or in emergency situations.   We’ll send our first reminder phone call to you the night before next week’s Winter Sports day.

 

Take Home Flyers

Alta School is now allowing “approved” flyers to go home with students.  Only flyers that advertise opportunities for students are allowed, and all will be pre-approved by me or a designee.  If you do not want your student to bring home these types of flyers, please contact his/her teacher.  Thank you!

Kindergarten snow bunnies!

Yesterday we had our first SKI day at Targhee! It couldn't of been more perfect. It was sunny, warm and amazing. We never took a break in doors..we even enjoyed our snack outside in the sunny weather. For the next 5 weeks Mondays will a tiring way to begin our week. Please make every effort that your little K's get plenty of rest on Monday after a big ski day.

This week in READING...
We are focused on the comprehension strategy: Back up and reread
Our letter this week is still /Ii/!!! When we learn a vowel, we usually concentrate on it for 2 weeks so we can really master the sound.
Snap words: for, he
We are reading Whose Garden is it?
The text is Realistic Fantasy and we are learning more about text like that. We talk about how the things could all happen, but that animals don't wear clothing or actually talk to each other.
Today we will use the same text to begin learning more about about ASKING QUESTIONS before, during and after reading. We will be practicing this skill whole group and learning why readers even ask questions.

This week during writing we will be taking our PLAN of our small moment story and really focusing on the CHARACTER in our book. We will be doing a thoughts and feelings survey for our character so that we can really understand them so that they can really develop in their story.

During Math this week:
Measurement with objects and measuring the BLUE whale...
More Pocket problems (understanding addition and subtraction)
Number card games (sequencing and number recognition)
Continue using Math workbook (to practice skills and writing numbers)

Other things:
Way to go PARENTS for remembering all of your child's ski stuff....checks and snacks and/or snack money! You deserve a HUGE pat on the back! I am so fortunate!!!!

Wednesday, January 11th is our BANANA split day. We have been working hard on our goal of getting dressed in under 3 minutes...and we have consistently met it now for weeks. Wahoo! 

Thursday I will be out. Heather Dolman is my substitute. I am headed to Idaho Falls to check on my eyes after my lasik surgery last year. No worries...just a follow-up.

Monday, January 16 is Martin Luther King's birthday. There is no school for students.

Monday, January 23 is National Handwriting Day.  Please help me by donating between now and then stationary, envelopes, pens, little notes...cards...etc. We will be celebrating by taking time out of our day to write handwritten notes, letters, cards to people that might need it in our school or in our community. This will be during handwriting/Writing time. Feel free to stop in and deliver your child a handwritten note or send one in their folder. Or you could just stop by and write with us.

A special visit...

Before Holiday break we had 2 special visitors come to our classroom. It was Bob and Laurie (Cecilia's grandparents from California)! They asked to come in and play guitar and ukulele and sing Christmas carols...well, no one in their right mind would turn that down right?!

It worked out perfectly because Kindergartners had just finished their Writer's celebration with the Big room!

The BIG room helped us out cause they know a lot of the songs.

Not to mention that Bob and Laurie brought us donuts! Yum!

They were so cute. It's so fun to have grandparents in the classroom.

Thanks you two! You are welcome back anytime!

Welcome back y'all!

You might notice that I sound more southern....well, that happens when I spend 10 days with my mom and dad. We had a blast hunkering down...cooking...baking...EATING...and just being together. I hope you had a nice break too!
It was nice to be back in a routine today as all settled in at school. I missed your little love-bugs and was happy to receive hugs, touches, smiles and snuggles! What a sweet little crew!

WE are are back at it here in Kindergarten!
This week in reading we will be learning the letter: /Ii/
Snap words this week include: for, he
This week we will focused on the plot of a story. We will be reading many texts as we discover what the sequence of events is. This is perfect too for writing as we will begin our "personal narratives" this week. Today we began by looking at our heart maps from the beginning of the year to make a list of ideas that we might want to STREEEETTTTCCCCHHHH out into a story. This will be our YOUNG AUTHOR's focus this year. I look forward to teaching this unit and having it highlighted in the Spring at our YOUNG AUTHOR's celebration.

Math this week includes:
Number practice
Domino concentration
Pan balance review
Measurement
Pocket Problems (simple addition and subtraction)

Other things to know about:
Skiing begins next MONDAY. Remember to dress your child accordingly and bring all appropriate equipment to school. Stay tuned for more about skiing later in the week.

Tardy note came home today. Please know that on 8 tardies your child will spend lunch/recess in my classroom. On the 10th, they have to stay after school. Yikes. Give your BEST effort to have your child here to school on time.

Classroom shoes are a must. Wet boots aren't allowed in the classroom. Please pack or leave a pair of shoes here for the classroom.

Classroom goal WAS to DRESS for RECESS in 2 minutes or less....we have spent 3 weeks in training and as a class we haven't met it...after spending some time today studying our goal...we decided that everyone is under 3 minutes so maybe we should change the goal...we did!
WE also said that if we can continue to dress in 3 minutes or less until next Tuesday then on Wednesday we will be REWARDED with BANANA splits...cause January the 11th is National Banana Split day....:)

Volunteers begin the week of the 9th...here is what I have:
Wednesday 9:15-10:00 Crista  10:45:11:20 Liz
Thursday 9:15-10:00 Kurt or Becky (I still have the 10:45 slot open...let me know if you are interested)

WANTED: Snowboarding instructor for the next six Mondays...let me know if you are INTERESTED...