T-Shirt Decorating for International Day

**This activity is not mandatory, but it is TONS OF FUN!** 

 

To get the students excited for International Day. Our class will be drawing/ painting West African symbols on t-shirts. (I have capied and pasted a few of the favorites on this post. These are ones I've drawn many time through the years.) To see all the symbols, go to this link. 
When the students bring a t-shirt to school, they will be asked what symbol they want drawn on their shirt. During Recess time the students will have the opportunity to paint their symbol with black paint. ~Many of you are probably thinking what shirt color... The answer is any solid color t-shirt! Since the symbols will be painted with black paint, all t-shirt colors will work!~

***T-shirts need to be sent in by May 5.*** 
I will hang the t-shirts in the closet at school and save them for International Day on May 12th. :) 

 Here is a slideshow of pictures showcasing some of the students from my class last year making their International T-shirts. :)

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Home Learning Packets

Home Learning News Flash!

Last week I had a meeting with all of the Kindergarten Teachers.  We all decided that next week would be our last Home Learning Packet. So on Wednesday, April 26, this will be our last Home Learning Packet. :) 

We all wanted to give the students time to practice the items they have not yet Mastered. 

With that being said... I will still send home Leveled Readers and Saxon books for Reading Challenges. Along with Duval Math homework sheets.

Library Visit with Mrs.Noah Thomas

Yesterday's Library Visit with Mrs. Noah Thomas did not disappoint! She is amazing!! I hope you visit the Webb Wesconnet Library and meet her. She's the best!

 She began by reviewing questions about the Library:
*How many Libraries are in Jacksonville? She called 8 different students, but no one remembered that there are 21 locations.
*How many weeks can you check out a book for? Joey answered correctly with 3 weeks!!
*Then she asked the name of the gentleman that did our story time when we had out Library Field Trip. TiDarius remembered that his name was the name of one of the Ninja Turtles... Mr.Raphael.

After that, she started her lesson by having the students name animals that fly and then rearranging her felt letters to spell the animal word BIRDS. Chloe tried and had a little trouble, so she called on Joey to help her. Together they did it!
 Next, she read the students two books: I Spy in the Sky and Cock-a-Doodle Quack Quack. The books were very interactive!! I Spy in the Sky gives the students a little peep hole as to what bird the page is talking about. The students were great using the tiny clue and the words to figure out the birds. Then in Cock-a-Doodle Quack Quack the bird was figuring out what sounds would wake up the animals. The students were laughing and yelling out with excitement, "That's a cow! Ooh that's a dog's sound!" haha
(You can check out both books at the bottom of this post. There was only 1 video for Cock-a-Doodle Quack Quack. So spread the word about the book and hopefully there will be more readings online! )

Then she also played a "Find Baby Chick Game" with Easter eggs. She had about ten eggs and the students reviewed their colors by naming which egg they thought baby chick was hiding in. She had a lot of silly shape and other animal pictures in the eggs... it took the class a long time to find baby chick! :)  Then they did a movement game with the eggs and danced to a bird song~ Rockin' Robbin!

Finally we had CRAFT TIME!! All the students made a parrot and they were the most beautiful parrots I'd ever seen!! Enjoy the slideshow of the students with their Pet Parrots. ooh they also received Tropical Fruit Snacks, but most were eaten during Recess time as their snacks. :)

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Chimney Lakes Summer Camp!!

I know everyone thinks Summer is far away, but it's coming FAST! You have many choices when it comes to Summer Camp and yesterday you all received a blue paper telling you about our camp here at Chimney Lakes. :) 

Well, I am working the Art Activity Rotation this Summer with Mrs.Phillips. I'm so excited!

So I thought I should take a minute to remind you of all the great things we will be doing!! We go on Field Trips (Bowling, Movies, Legoland, Orlando Science Center, etc), we have Activity Rotations at school  (Art, P.E., Crafts, Video Games, Cooking etc.) and we provide Breakfast and Lunch. 

Camp runs from June 7th to July 21.

The hours for Camp are 8:30-4:00

(Open from 7:00am-6:00pm)

**All Camp Fees must be paid in full by June 11th**

If you have any questions, please contact Dawn Little. Her number is 573-1100 ext.2493. Her email is littled@duvalschools.org.

Storybook Tea Time with Mom

On Monday, May 1 we will be having Storybook Tea Time with Mom event in the Library and Courtyard. The event takes place from 3:15p.m.-4:15p.m.  The letter going home says to bring a blanket and your favorite book. 

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend this event, but I hope you all are able to come and participate! I look forward to hearing all about it from the students on Tuesday morning. 

**If you're worried because Mom can't make it. Have a Grandma, an Aunt, or a female family friend join your child. :)

Please RSVP by April 25th. 

Week of April 17

I have begun testing for Progress Reports and the students are doing great! The only concern I have is completing the questions. For example: in Math a lot of the questions are 2-part ones and the students only complete the first half of the question. in Reading/ Writing it's remembering all the writing rules and applying them. The students can tell me "Use uppercase letters at the beginning of the sentences, stretch unknown words and write all the sounds you hear", but completing the steps is tricky.  So practice and I know everyone will continue to excel!!

Our Resources for the week are: Monday:MUSIC, Tuesday:COMPUTER LAB and Thursday:ART. On Wednesday, Mrs. Noah Thomas will be stopping by for a Library Lesson. :) Friday is School Spirit Day~ make sure to deck out in Blue and Yellow. Even with sunglasses or a hat too!! Show all your school spirit!! Gabriel will be bringing in Fun Friday Snacks. 

MATH

We are continuing to break up the teen numbers the Say 10 Way and getting ready to count to 100 the Say 10 Way. For example: we have been breaking up the teen numbers as a group of 10 and ___ more. Now we will learn how to skip count the Say 10 Way. Get Ready!!

10= 1Ten

20= 2Tens

30=3Tens

40=4Tens, etc. 

I wasn't able to find a Say 10 Way of counting video, but Jack Hartmann revamped his counting to 100's by 1 and I thought the class would enjoy it!

SAXON, SIGHT WORDS, BLENDS & MORE!
In Saxon we are continuing to stretch words for beginning, middle and end sounds. Then we are discussing the Combination sound of qu as /kw/. Next week the students will learn to code a combination by putting an arc below the two letters. We are also completing the decodable reader Spin to Win. (This is a reading challenge book AND can be written down on the Reading Log three times because that's how many times it needs to be read for a challenge. :)  
Our Sight Words are: them, were, other & first. **If your child has already read 80 sight words, I will not be testing them again before Progress Report time. So continue to practice and know that they will be tested for their total number of Sight Words before Report Card time. If you have any questions about this, please email me.)
Our blend is gr- and our Word Family is -ump. Plus we will be working on short and long u sounds.

READING
We are continuing with Eric Carle! We will work on retelling with the story The Tiny Seed. Then we will work on figuring out the meaning of unknown words with the story The Grouchy Ladybug. On Friday the students will have a Comprehension Check~ so review the stories with your child.
WRITING
We are finishing  up our Animal Report Books with Zebras. The students have done an amazing job!! They have used their research to write great sentence facts and I've noticed better writing as we have progressed through the animals.
On Thursday the students will each get a turn reading about one of their animals to the class. Then on Friday we are discussing Memory Books and what we should add to our Kindergarten one. :) 

Reading Logs

All year I have sent home Reading Logs for you to fill out with your child. Some students have done great at filling them out!! Others are taking a little bit more time to participate, so I wanted to remind you all one more time...

The past few years, the students that met the Districts Reading Goals were invited to a Reading Extravaganza and the Top Reader from our Class is presented with an Award at the End of the Year Award Ceremony!!
Here is a Video of Dr.Vitti promoting reading and below it you can find the Goals for each Grade Level.

Annual Reading Expectation by Grade Level

Grade	Books
Pre-K to K	75 picture books read with an adult or independently
1st	75 picture books or 25 chapter books read with an adult or independently
2nd	150 picture books or 50 chapter books independently
3rd	200 picture books or 30 chapter books (large type of 100 pages or more) independently
4th	30 chapter books (large type of 125 pages or more) independently
5th	25 chapter books (large type of 150 pages or more) independently
Middle School	25 young adult novels (small type of 150 pages or more) independently
High School	25 young adult novels (small type of 175 pages or more) independently

**If you need a new Reading Log, please write me a note in your Child's Blue Folder. :)