Updates for the Week of December 12th

Please send your child's holiday tradition to school by Friday. If you need the weekend to work on it, please send it in early next week. Please try to include a picture or photograph.

The children have been doing amazing work during Math WYNN!! Their number identification has increased greatly since last month!

We will be having our holiday party on Friday morning December 23rd. We will also have a school assembly that day.

We will be filling our last week of school before vacation with Gingerbread Man activities!

Math WYNN

The children will be having Math WYNN (what you need now) groups for the next few weeks instead of reading. The reading teachers will be instructing these groups along with me. Each child got to meet their new teacher today! They were so excited.

Please have your child continue reading their books in their reading bags each night for the next few weeks. Some teachers will be putting practice books in their bags.

As always, thanks for your help.

First Week of December in Room 24!

It was so nice to meet with all of you this week. It is so exciting for me to show you all the fantastic things your children have been up to in Kindergarten. They have all made tremendous growth in a few short months!

Thanks to many of you who purchased books for the classroom. The children will love them!

If you are our Mystery Reader, please do not let your child in on the surprise. The children get so excited to try and figure out the clues that day. Thank you.

Please practice identification of numbers to 30. Our goal is that most of the children will be able to identify these numbers by the end of the year.

We will begin a new science unit next week about properties of matter.

Updates

*Please place your orders on line for Scholastic Books or send in your checks by Friday. I will place the order over the weekend.

*Please look for your conference confirmation form tomorrow. Please send back your response as soon as possible. Thanks

*Your child will have a sheet in their folder tomorrow with numbers that they need to practice. They should read these numbers at least twice a night in order to strengthen their number identification.

Please read old posts if you haven't done so.

Scholastic

Parents-

Please order your Scholastic books by Tuesday. You can do this on-line by using the activation code JHZTW or send in your order and checks and I will place the orders next week. Please let me know if you are saving these for holiday gifts and I will not send them home with your child.

Conferences

Report Cards will go home the Tuesday before Thanksgiving recess.

Conference forms went home today. These are the dates and times that I will be available. I can't wait to show you all the wonderful work your children have been doing!

November 29th - 10:30-12:00

November 29th - 6pm-8pm

November 30th - 8:30-12:00

December 1st - 10:30-12:00 and 6pm-8pm

Dismissal on November 29th, November 30th and December 1st is 10:15am

Week of November 7th

It is so nice to be back at school!

What is going on in room 24???

Math - We will be exploring 3 D shapes and patterns

Concepts - left and right narrow and wide

Writer's Workshop - We just started a unit on writing small moments. These are little snapshots of things that happen in our lives. We started this unit by reading Donald Crews' books Big Mama's and Shortcuts. Shortcuts is a small moment in Donal Crews' life. The children began writing their own small moments today and did a wonderful job. I was very impressed!

Science - temperature

Week of October 24th

*Please send in your $10 for the classroom parties as soon as possible so that I may send them to the class mothers.

*Please let me know if you would like to volunteer during stations (centers)

***Please continue to practice addresses and home phone numbers with your child. I will be asking them their phone numbers this week.

Our Halloween parade will be on Friday at 10:30AM. Children will come to school with their costume in a bag and they will get changed before the parade.

Happy Monday!

*Firefighters will be visiting us on Friday. It was delayed due to the rain last week.

*Our next Scholastic book order will be on-line! I will send home the flyer and you can place your orders. Our activation code is JHZTW.

*Please remember to send all library books back on Monday.

*Mrs. Young, our school guidance counselor, visited the class on Friday and read the Winnie the Poo book Believe in Yourself.

*Please practice the concepts - right and left.

October Update

We are off to a wonderful October!

The children are working on their picture/label books. Please ask them about their books.

Our Smart Board is up and running! We have been using it daily and the children are really enjoying it.

We are working on breaking words into syllables and rhyming.

The children have been keeping an eye on the weather and charting on their own weather graphs.

It is Fire Prevention Week. We will have a visit from the Monroe Fire Department on Thursday.

In math, the children have been practicing number formation with their Monster Math. We are also exploring numbers in our math topic this month.

Please let me know if you are able to volunteer during centers as soon as possible. Thanks

Volunteers Wanted

I will be asking for volunteers to come in once a month to work with the children in their stations (centers). The room parents will be coordinating this. Please let me know via e-mail if you are interested in volunteering. You will need to have a background form completed before you volunteer. Volunteer dates will be on Wednesdays from 9:45-10:30.

Thanks

Fall Fun!

**School pictures are this Wednesday.

**Letters we are working on - Cc, Oo, Aa, Dd, Ss, Ff, Gg
Please work on the formation of these letters at home. The open house packet has the proper formation of all of the uppercase and lowercase letters.


**We will discuss the folk tale of Johnny Appleseed this week.

**Ask your child about The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree and the art project they did about the seasons.

**In math we are comparing data and discussing the concepts more and less.

Week of September 19th

Please send in any old magazines. We will use them for projects.

Please have your child practice the formation of the letters Aa, Oo, Cc, Gg. Discuss the sounds that these words make. Look for them in print. Search for things around the house and neighborhood that begin with these sounds.

We read There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly. Ask your child about the book. Find books at home that have rhymes in it and read them together!

Important Information from Room 24

*Picture Day - September 28th

*We are a peanut free classroom because children in Kinder Academy who use our classroom have severe peanut allergies.

*Please help your child practice writing their names with the correct letter formations.

*Practice writing the letters Cc, Oo, Aa

*All are welcome to come in to read a story on your child's birthday. Please let me know the day before so that we may schedule a time.

Welcome to Kindergarten!

We have had a great first few days of Kindergarten. The children are all eager and willing to learn. I can't wait to meet you all at Open House and tell you about all the exciting new things that your child will be learning about this year. Open House is Monday, September 12th.

Please make sure that you send your child's folder to school each day. It is our main source of communication.

Please send all important paperwork as soon as possible. If you elect not to participate in the insurance, the paper must be marked accordingly and signed by you.

If your child's dismissal plans change in any way, please send in a note that morning. Please let any friend or family member know that if they are the designated person picking up your child, the child will not be released without a note from you and proper identification from the pick-up person.

If anyone is willing to handle monthly Scholastic Book orders, please let me know.

Please contact me via e-mail, crenwj@monroeps.org, if you have any other questions.

Welcome 2011-2012

Welcome to Kindergarten! This is such an exciting time for all of us. This is your child's first experience in an elementary school and we want them to love coming to school every day. Please send in a 4 x 8 family picture so that we may keep it in a special place in our classroom. Also, make sure that you check your child's take home folder daily for any important notices or information. It will also be important to check my blog weekly for updates on what is happening in our classroom. Please send a snack to school with your child each day as well. Please label backpacks, lunchboxes, sweatshirts, coats and folders with your child's name. Thanks in advance for all your help in getting our year started on the right track!

Happy Spring!

It seems like we have been waited a long time, but spring is finally here! We have been very busy in room 32. We began a non fiction writing unit and wrote How To stories. These are stories that explain "how to" do something. Currently, we are writing All About books. The students are having fun writing about a topic where they are the expert. They are working very hard and I am so proud of them. In math, we are learning skip counting, describing equal groups, adding groups together, and sorting between two groups. In science, we began our plant unit. We discussed living and non living things. Soon we will be planting a bean seed and making observations. We love our books and read alouds! We made a calendar and each day a different child reads a book they have practiced. Enjoy the weather everyone!

Happenings in Room 32

We celebrated our 100th day of school on February 22nd. We stayed silent for 100 seconds, wrote about what we would do with $100.00, and completed a graphing activity. The sight words we have been working on are: came, after, just, make, before, one, school, then. In phonics, we are learning about long and short vowels, silent e, digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh), & contractions. For writing, we are beginning a unit on non-fiction writing. Our first piece will be "How To" stories. The students will have the opportunity to write about something they are an "expert" in and how to do that certain task. In reading, we are continuing with learning stations and guided reading groups. For math, we finished a unit on 3D shapes and weight. Our next unit is on adding and subtracting using different techniques.

It's A Boy!!!

Hello Everyone! It's Ms. Nizzardo. Mrs. Crenwick gave me her blog information so I can create postings. As you all know, Mrs. Crenwick had a baby boy on February 8th. Johnny was 6.5 lbs and the Crenwick family is so excited to welcome him. The students made cards and the messages were delivered to her in the hospital. Hopefully, I will get some pictures soon.

The students all seem to be adjusting well. We have been getting to know each other and establishing some new routines. Since we have had so many snow days our schedule was disrupted. I am glad for the full week this week! We have been working on long and short vowels and the past 8 sight words are: many, could, over, us, into, who, because, & too. Please make sure sight words are reviewed on a daily basis. I have been assessing their reading and each child will be getting new books for their book bag. In writing, we sent our Valentine letters in the mail and are currently working on story elements such as character, setting, problem & solution. For math, we began a topic on 3-D shapes. We are learning the names of the shapes and how to describe them.

We will be having our Valentine party on Monday, Feb. 14th. The students will have an opportunity to pass out their Valentines and enjoy a treat. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Please make sure to use my e-mail address: cnizzardo@monroeps.org

I look forward to working with all of you!!! Have a Happy Weekend!

Week of January 24th, 2011

Thank you to those of you that sent in binders for our poetry. Please do so as soon as possible if you haven't done so yet.

The mittens are wonderful! Please have your child complete theirs this week if they haven't done so.

The children are learning all about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and what he did for civil rights in our country.

We are beginning to write a class story about a fat cat named Polly. This week we will put Polly in a situation in which we will have to have a solution for before the end of our story. The children will then begin writing their own stories.

Phonics: *ed suffix *ate, ake, ay in words *ee and ea which makes long e
*new sight words - little, would, now, out, who, into, too, because
*district wide mid-year phonics assessment

We are beginning a unit on scientific measurement this week in science.

Math: place value, district wide mid-year assessment

Happy New Year

We have started the New Year off strong. The children were happy to get back to school and their daily routine. We began reading groups again and all of the children are progressing well. Thanks for all of the hard work at home - it is really paying off!

Ms. Cindy Nizzardo will be taking over as my long-term substitute sometime over the next 6 weeks. I plan on working to the last possible moment:) Ms. Nizzardo will spend a week with our class next week to get to know the children and our routine. Please visit our classroom on Tuesday, January 11th at 2:50 to meet Ms. Nizzardo. She is eager to meet all of you.

What is going on in Room 32:
*verbs ending in -ing
*synonyms
*long and short a
*fact families in math
*ordinal numbers
*counting by tens
*new sight words - put, will, when, there
*exploring Mem Fox's characters and their traits