Mrs. Childress' Kindergarten Blog

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to the Grocery Store We Go!

2011-12-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

Who knew a trip to the grocery store could be so much fun! We visited our neighborhood Dominicks as an enrichment activity to our “Food” unit. We explored the different sections of the store, why certain foods need to be kept cold, and how foods are grouped together. We were excited to have the store manager Mr. Dave showed us the back of the store where the dairy products are brought in. We visited the bakery section to see a birthday cake being made and 90lbs of frosting being mixed (while munching on cookies). We were also treated to a fresh fruit cup while we did our shopping for our class fruit salad. What a fun day at the grocery store! Thanks to parent volunteers Ms. Russell and Mr. Moroney for chaperoning!

In math this week, we made wonderfully creative pictures using pattern block pieces and practiced skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s. We also practiced making and reading graphs.

In science, we began to learn about the moon. We learned that the moon has a light side and a dark side, that it is made of rock, and that the moon orbits the _____ . See if your kindergartner can help you fill in the blank. Next week, we will discuss the phases of the moon.
We continued our Gingerbread Man unit this week. We’ve read and compared many versions of this story. Ask your kindergartner which one was their favorite. Next week, we will read the “Runaway Tortilla” a gingerbread man story with a Spanish twist.

Report cards were sent home today. Please keep the copy of your child's report for your files. Please sign and return the report card envelope to school on Monday. We will use the same envelope for the 2nd and 3rd trimester report card.

Please continue to send in pennies for our Student Council sponsored fundraiser "Pennies for Prakash."

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
December/January
9th - Report Cards sent home
22nd-Winter Wonderland Breakfast
26th - January 6th Winter Break
January 9th - School Resumes

Stay warm and enjoy your weekend!

Look Who's Blooming in Kindergarten!

2011-04-25T08:33:00.000-07:00

In language arts we are study the idea of perseverance or “sticking to it”. The students shared wonderful examples of times when they tried and tried again. We read and discussed the story, “Tillie and the Wall” by Leo Lionni. This week we will begin our “By the Sea” unit.

In math we started our “Time and Money”. The students have done an amazing job of telling time to the hour. This week we will discuss coin values.

In science we started our “From Seed to Plant” unit. In the first lesson, the students used their prior knowledge to sort seeds. They were surprised to find that all of their sorted objects were seeds. Thanks to Mrs. Hess, we now have a blooming classroom garden. Later this week we will observe what happens inside of a seed.

Looking Ahead:

May 11th-13th- Mrs. Childress will be absent: I will be at Camp Edward’s with my 5th grader.

May 17th- Brookfield Zoo: All Parents/Guardians are welcome to join us. However, if you plan to bring siblings, you will have to meet us at the zoo. Permission slips will be sent home soon.

May 25th- Kindergarten Three Piggy Opera: 6:00pm in the Auditorium. Students should meet in the Commons at 5:45pm. More information to come.

May 27th-Olympic Day: A day of fun and activities for all students.

June 1st- Kindergarten Block Party. More information to come.

Here's to another great week!

Dr. Seuss

2011-03-21T13:19:00.000-07:00

Leaping Leprechauns

2011-03-11T11:08:00.001-08:00

This week in Language Arts we continued our review of blending and segmenting. We focused on blends found at the end of words. We also practiced the skill of summarizing, using the books, “Three Wishes” and “Clever Tom and the Leprechaun”. Your kindergartner can practice this skill at home after reading with you.

In math we continued to work on adding single and double-digit numbers. The students are using our new sign-in system each morning to practice this skill.

Next week we will start “Mystery Bag” our version of show and tell. Please click on the link to the right for more information.

We have more than enough boxes for our leprechaun traps. Thanks to all of you that sent them to school with your child. We are still in need of Clorox “Green Works” disinfected wipes. If you have not done so already, please send a large container of wipes to school with your kindergartner next week.

Our class is going green. Please dress your child in a green shirt on Thursday, March 17th, for St. Patrick's Day.

Have a Great Weekend!

Oh' The Place We Will Go!

2011-03-04T12:49:00.001-08:00

This week in kindergarten we celebrated Dr. Suess’ 83rd Birthday. We read many of his books and we even got a chance to see several of them come to life on film. We also reviewed rhyming words, cvc words, and the /gr/, /pl/, /cr/, /pr/, /sc/, /sk/, /st/, /gl/, and /sn/ blends. We continued practicing writing 2-3 sentences using developmental spelling. Please remind your kindergartner to always put a finger-space between words when they write in their journal at home.

In math, we have been adding single- digit numbers. Some of us have gotten so good at this we have challenged ourselves by adding double-digit numbers too. We learned a new game called, “Top-It Addition”. Ask your kindergartner to teach you how to play this game at home. We continued practicing counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. Next week we will review geometric shapes.

Ask your kindergartner about the little green leprechaun that is running around our classroom. We are planning to catch him soon. Each kindergartner will need to bring a cardboard shoebox (with a lid) to school with them by Friday, March 11th. If you have an extra box or two we will gladly take it off your hands.

e are in desperate need of more Green Works “Clorox” disinfected wipes. We use these once a week to wipe down our desk and chairs in hopes of keeping germs to a minimum. Please send a large container of wipes to school with your kindergartner as soon as possible . Thanks in advance.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Conferences

2011-02-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Kindergarten Families,

Thank you for your patience as I try to reschedule our 24 conferences from Thursday afternoon. I am working on a schedule for in-person conferences. I am also offering phone-conferences if you would prefer to speak with me via telephone during my planning times or in the evening. In order to make sure I accomodate everyone's needs, please e-mail me back if you would like a phone conference. Otherwise I will assume that you would like a face-to-face conference with me and will plan accordingly.

As for the 100th Day Celebration, Mrs. Rapoport and I have moved our celebration to Tuesday morning from 8:30-10:30. Parents, please let Jocelyn Adkins know if you are able to join us and help out that day. This gives you more time to help your child assemble their 100 items for the class trail mix (remember no nuts) and their white t-shirt/sweater with 100 items attached.

We will exchange Valentine cards and treats on Monday, February 14th. Please make sure all cards are filled out and treats attached. I will send a student list home on Monday, February 7th.

Enjoy your weekend!

Snowy Day!

2011-02-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Good Evening All,

Due to the our snow day tomorrow we will have to change our 100th day of School celebration to Friday at the same time. I hope everyone can still make it.

Sorry for the inconvenience.
Happy Snow Day!

Hip, Hip, Horray, We're Close to the 100th Day!

2011-01-23T20:06:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, February 3rd, we will celebrate the 100th Day of School. I am asking that you help your kindergartner create a 100-day t-shirt or sweater to wear to school that day. Don’t worry you don’t have to be a seamstress to do this. A hot glue gun or safety pins will go a long way. Some possible items that your child might want to glue/pin to their shirt are listed below. Feel free to be creative and remember to have fun!

-buttons
-foam letters
-feathers
-stars
-stickers
-iron-on
-beads
-numbers
-letters

We will also share a 100-Day snack that day. Please help your child count-out 100 small food items to add to our trail mix. Some possible foods are listed below (no nuts please).

-raisins
-goldfish
-fruit snacks
-Chex
-pretzels
-popcorn
-animal crackers
-Plain Cheerios
-mini marshmallows
-yogurt bites

Thursday, Feb. 3rd: Parent/Teacher/Student Conference Students are dismissed at 11am

Friday, Feb. 4th: Half Day Students dismissed at 11am.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-07T11:07:00.001-08:00

This week in Language Arts we started our “Wind” unit. We read several stories about the wind. We really enjoyed “Gilberto and the Wind”. In this story a little boy plays, and sometimes struggles with “Wind.” Through colorful illustrations, we follow Gilberto , his dog, and Wind through different seasons and all sorts of weather. Ask your kindergartner to tell you some ways that wind can be helpful/harmful.
Also in language arts we wrote about our goals for the new year. We added new words and names to our Word Wall; a, at, big, down, go, has, I, it, in, is, like, my, on, see, small, the, to, we, went, and you. Please be sure to have your kindergartner practice reading/spelling these words regularly.

In Math we have been working on counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. Ask your kindergartner to skip count for you and other family members at home. Next week in math we will review geometric shapes (hexagon, trapezoid, triangle, rhombus, and square). The kindergartners are becoming very excited about the 100th day of school celebration next month. Please look for emails from our room parents soon about volunteering during our celebration.
Earlier this week we discussed the important work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We talked about segregation, peace, and love. The students offered very thoughtful and heartfelt comments and questions to our conversation. We will continue our discussion next week.

We would like to thank the Saydah Family for the $300 grant they gave to the class. We will use the money to update our Housekeeping area.

This week we were very fortunate to have Ella D. join our class. Welcome to Beye School Ella!

Enjoy your weekend!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Break We Go!

2010-12-17T13:13:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a busy month December has been. We have worked so hard learning all of our letters and sounds. We have added fifteen new words and ten names to our word wall and we have read several version of the Gingerbread Man story. Ask your kindergartner which story was their favorite. Over break please help your kindergartner continue to practice reading the sight words.

In math we have been focusing on counting and reading numbers 0-50. To practice, we've played many games like, Rainbow, Top-It, and Give Me 5. Over break please continue to help your child with recognizing, counting, and writing numbers from 0-100.

In science we wrapped-up our "Moon" unit. We have fun learning all about the moon phases and some of the other objects in our solar system. Ask your kindergartner about the red dot on Jupiter or the rings around Saturn. When we return to school in January we will begin our "Water" unit. It will certainly be a splashing good time.

I am very happy and sad to share that Brody G. will be leaving our class and moving to Mrs. Louthan's class in January. We are all very proud of him and we wish the best of luck.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for the generous holiday gifts and treats. I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to work with such a hard-working, caring, and fun-loving group of students. Thank you for sharing them with me.

Have a wonderful and safe winter break.
See you all next year!

Love,
Mrs. Childress

Canned Food Drive

2010-11-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

Hello Beye Family!

The third graders are doing a little canned food drive to help the homeless and hungry during the Thanksgiving season. They have been talking about how important it is to help others and have compassion. We have so much to be thankful for!

Please spread the word to your kids. They can bring in canned food and put it on the table in the Commons.

Thanks,
Beye School's Third Grade

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2010-11-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

Last week we welcomed Mrs. Allen as the new assistant in our classroom. Mrs. Allen holds a degree in Early Childhood Special Education. She is a wife and mother of two kids that attend Lincoln Elementary in Oak Park. She is very excited to work with us this year.

Mrs. Woodall thanks you all for the very generous gift certificate to the teacher store. She has already used it to buy supplies for her first grade classroom.

In language arts we completed our “Shadows” units. We explored the sounds for the letters /p/, /q/, /r/, /s/, and /t/. We also spelled many cvc words and read our seventh decodable book. Next week we will wrap-up our sounds study and begin unit 3. Please continue to help your child practice rhyming and punching out words. Ask your kindergartner to show you how we punch out words.

In science the students also investigated how some objects cast shadows and others do not. We also drew silhouettes of each other. Next week we will begin our study of the “Moon”. If you have books or artifacts that you would like to share with the class during our study please feel free to send them to school with your child. We will return all artifacts/books at the end of our study.

In math we explored reading and writing teen numbers and comparing sizes of objects. We also played the “Rainbows” game. Next week we will compare the length of objects and grouping numbers. Please continue to help your child with reading and writing numbers. This is an on-going skill that we will work on this year.

Upcoming Events:

November 23rd Field Trip to Cernan Earth and Space Center. Permission slip will be sent home Monday, November 15th.

November 24th Institute Day (No School for students)

November 25th and 26th Thanksgiving Break (No School)

Please visit the Student Work Blog to see what your kindergartner has been up to.

Have a Great Week!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Our class will celebrate Halloween on Friday afternoon. Victoria Wipf and Jocelyn Adkins have been busy organizing our classroom celebration. Please contact Jocelyn if you would like to contribute snacks or volunteer in the classroom.

Our morning is extended until 12:00 --- the students will eat lunch at 12 instead of 11. If possible, I would encourage you to pick up your child at 12 to eat lunch and put his/her costume on at home. Please let me know ahead of time if this is your plan. Students can be picked up in the office if you are taking them home (they need to be signed out/in when they leave for lunch). Lunch will end at 12:55. Students should not wear their costumes to school on Friday.
• We will start our parade at 1:15 after all the students are dressed. Our class will walk with our 4th grade Reading Buddies. The parade route is explained in Mr. Ellwanger’s letter found in the Thursday packet online.

• If your child is getting dressed at school, please send his/her costume in a labeled bag that can be used for other clothing when they change. The students will put on their costumes after lunch. We will have adults here to help get students dressed. Please remember scary masks, weapons, or anything that is considered violent will not allowed in the school.

Happy Halloween!

Conferences

2010-10-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Kindergarten Families,

I have made a few more time slots available for conferences this week. If you would like to change your scheduled conference for one of the times listed below, please let me know as soon as possible.

Wednesday
2:00-2:20
2:20-2:40
2:40-3:00

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Patterns are all Around Us

2010-10-08T13:14:00.001-07:00

This week in Language Arts/Science we started our “Shadows” study. We began our unit by reading and discussing the book, “Shadow Magic” by Seymour Simon. This story taught us that there are three things needed to create a shadow. These things included a light source, a place to cast the shadow on, and _____________. See if your kindergartner can tell you what the third thing is. Also this week, we study the sounds for the letters /f/ and /g/ and read our fourth decodable book.

In math we explored patterns. The students had fun creating, extending, and naming different patterns. Please continue to practice these skills with your kindergartner at home. On Tuesday, I am asking that the student wear an item of clothing that has a pattern on it. We will use our clothing to continue our pattern exploration.

Reminders

The change in weather increases the chances for the transmission of head lice. Please stress to your child the importance of not sharing hats, combs, coats or hair accessories. This will decrease the risk of transmission of head lice.

Picture Day is Tuesday, October 19th

October book orders are due by Sunday. You can access the Scholastic Book Club through our blog.

Our Room parents are looking for volunteers to work in our classroom on Thursdays and Fridays. If you are interested please contact Jocelyn Adkins at jadkins10@earthlink.net

Our Halloween Parade and Classroom party will be held on Friday, October 29th in the afternoon. More details to follow as we get closer to the date.

Thank you to all those parents that have donated snacks.

Before leaving our blog please take a moment to visit our "Student Work" blog to see the kindergartners latest work.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Things are Shaping-Up in Kindergarten

2010-10-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

This week in language arts we wrapped-up our first reading unit, “School”. In this unit the students were introduced to various letters and sounds, rhyming, visualization, and asking questions. Next week we will begin Unit 2, “Shadows”. This is always an exciting unit for the students because it aligns perfectly with our first science unit, “Sunshine and Shadows.” Many of our lessons in these units are taught outdoors so please be sure to dress your child appropriately for the weather.
In math this week started our unit on, “Geometric Shapes”. Some of the shapes that we explored were the trapezoid, hexagon, triangle, square, big and little rhombus. We had fun using these shapes to make pictures. Next week, we will use these shapes to explore and create patterns.

Before leaving our blog, please take a moment to visit the “Student Work” link to take a peek at some of our work.
Enjoy your weekend!

We Are Making Moves

2010-09-17T19:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, can you believe this is already our fourth week of kindergarten? We have been busy learning so many new things. In Language Arts we continued our Unit 1 study, “School”. We are getting better at rhyming, more and more each day. Please continue to play rhyming games with your child at home to help them practice this skill. Rhyme Time is a game you can play with your kindergartner as you prepare dinner. In this game, you and your child will work together to see how many rhyming words you can come up within a minute (The sillier the better). Also, in Language Arts, we started our Letter Sounds Unit; for every letter we explored, we created a movement to help us remember. So far, we have learned the sounds for short and long vowel /a/, /b/, and /c/. Next week we’ll explore the letters /d/ and /e/.

This week we also started our Star Reading Log. Every Monday your child will bring a book home to read throughout the week. Students should return their Star Reader Log, book, and Ziploc Baggie back to school on Friday, so they can read to me and earn their star sticker. Once students have earned their star sticker for a book they can add that book to their collection at home (an old shoebox works well for storage of Decodable Books).

In Math we continued to explore numbers 1-20. We practiced counting, writing, and recognizing these numbers. Number recognition and writing can sometimes be a challenge for students. Please continue to practice counting and recognizing these numbers with your child. We also learned the game “Top-It” in math this week. Ask your kindergartner to teach you how to play it at home.

Reminders
Please remember to send a healthy snack with your kindergartner each day. We would like to thank those parents who donated snacks to the class. We are enjoying them!

Also if you have not signed up for Fall Conferences, please contact me as soon as possible to do so.

Enjoy your weekend!

Another Great Week

2010-09-06T18:06:00.001-07:00

What a great week! The kindergartners have been working hard to learn all the new routines and procedures here at Beye School.

In Language Arts, we have been reading stories and songs that rhyme. We really enjoyed reading and acting out the rhymes, “I’m a Little Teapot” and “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”. Also, this week, we shared some fun things that we like to do with our friends and families.

In math, we explored numbers 0-15 and we began counting down to the 100^th day of school. The kindergartners are already discussing what activities and games we should organize to celebrate this special day. We also had our first “Munchie Math” lesson. It was yummy!

I would like to thank all those families that were able to join me for Curriculum Night. The students were thrilled when they entered this morning to find the special love notes left at their seats. The looks on their faces were simply priceless.

Our Wonderful Room Coordinators are:

Victoria Wipf vbrownwipf@comcast.net

Jocelyn Adkins jadkins10@earthlink.net

Here’s to Another Great Week!

What A Great First Day!

2010-08-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful first day of school. We stayed busy getting to know each other, taking a tour of our school, and reading a fun kindergarten story.

See if your kindergartner can tell you:

-Where we line up each morning
-What story we read today
-What games they played outside during recess

I know that tomorrow will be just as exciting!

Reminder: Thursday, August 26th is our Kindergarten Curriculum Night. We will begin promptly at 6pm in our classroom. The PTO will provide free babysitting services that evening for any family that may need it.

Welcome

2010-06-16T07:28:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Kindergarten!

I have designed this blog to help keep you informed of events and activities taking place in our classroom. Please remember to check back frequently to get a glimpse of all the fun and learning your kindergartner will experience this year.

Before you leave, please take a moment to complete the forms located in the right sidebar.

Here is to an Exciting Year!