100th Day of School was SO FUN!!

Check out our cute hats! Each hat should have had 100 stickers and drawings between the 10 strips of paper! I must say these were the cutest hats I saw yesterday!!

It is hard to believe we are 100 days smarter!!!

Field Trip Tomorrow...

I wrote the wrong time on your Homework page for our field trip. We are walking to Hillcrest at 8:00 for the 8:30 show. Please dress your child in warm, comfortable clothes!!! Thanks!

"J says /j/, /j/, JUMPROPE!!"

We added a jumprope to our letter J on the authentic alphabet today. Every child got a chance to jump rope...some were more successful than others, but we all had a great time. Here are a few snapshots--my camera ran out of battery so I don't have a picture of every child. I hate that I could not get all of thier pictures because they sure were funny!! Ask your child about their jump rope experience today!!
Katlyn has been practicing at home!

LaDarius is getting after that jumprope!

Alyssa shows us a little "skip-step" jumproping style!!

Not such good news...

This short week has been a tough one for many of our students. I am sure it did not help that I was out for two days, but we need to fix some issues before they get out of hand. Please read through the following and discuss with your child. I would like to begin next week normally, and have a much better week!!

1. Toys at school?!?!? This is a new development--kids are bringing LOTS of different toys to school and wanting to play with them throughout the day. This distraction will not be tolerated. Here is your child's warning...I will begin taking up toys if they are out of backpacks during the school day--including unpacking and packing up!!! I plan fun activities throughout every school day so toys are really not necessary!!

2. SillyBands--same as the toys...I do not care if your child WEARS SillyBands to school, but if they are playing with them, I will take them up.

3. Not completing Big 4 and work throughout the day?!?!?!?!?! All of a sudden, children are taking FOREVER to complete work that did not used to take as long. Kids are playing, talking, and not paying attention. We have got to FOCUS!!!! I have tried to tell the kids that the quicker they complete their work, the faster they get to do the fun stuff. Please encourage your child to do their best!!

Our children have so many expectations, and I am expected to teach them. We are now having required math assessments every 9 weeks--multiple choice tests for your 5 and 6 year olds. That is in addition to the DIBELS assessments in the fall, winter, and spring. Kindergarten is no longer "play time" or "getting ready for school!" It is school!! I promise I am doing my absolute best to make this experience fun for your child, but they have to stop playing so much and get the work done. They are doing an awesome job on these assessments, I just don't want to have to fuss or take away toys that should not be here anyway!!

As always, thanks for your support!! Let me know if you have any questions!!
MM

Sorry that I have been out...

Hey Parents! I have been hit with a double whammy...I am used to being "pregnant sick," but I have had a bad sinus infection and the crud the last few days. So, we will not have a sight word assessment this Friday. I apologize for not being there Tuesday to get them out to you. I will be back tomorrow, and everything will be back to normal--enjoy the break from sight words this week. Thanks for understanding!!

Needed items...

Hey Parents! I need a few supplies for some learning activities. If you can send them, I would really appreciate it!!

-gummy worms
-Cheerios
-a flashlight (I will return this when we are finished!)

Thanks!

WAY TO GO!!!

I am so proud of our class! 100% of our kids benchmarked on the Winter DIBELS test yesterday! I have never had a class with these kinds of scores!! You will be proud of your child's scores as well...they are coming home today on a blue piece of paper. Please sign and return that paper to school tomorrow.

There were two new assessments given yesterday: Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) and Phonemic Segmentation Fluency (PSF). Here is a brief description of these tests.

NWF--students are given a page of "short-vowel" words to read. For example, the test will look something like this:

vut wac tik jun rog rab

and students are to sound out and blend the words together. (There is more space between the words, but when I publish this post, it squishes the words back together...your child will be able to easily distinguish between the nonsense words!!) You can see that these are not "real" words; that is why this test is called Nonsense Word Fluency. But, it does do a great job testing to see if your child has a good phonics foundation.

PSF--students are given one-syllable words that they have to break into as many sounds as they can. For example, if they were given the word "sat," they would say, "/s/ /a/ /t/."

Again, I am super-proud of our progress and cannot wait to see how far we can go this semester!! Please let me know if you have ANY questions!! Thanks for all of your support!!

MUSICAL CHAIRS!!!

I decided to "spice up" our free center time today by playing Musical Chairs--we are so very tired of the cold weather!! But, we had a blast dancing around the circle while we got rid of some extra energy...
Practicing!

Down to three--Micah, Deacon, and Matthew...

Two left...

and the winner is...Matthew!!

"Let's play again!" We "bunny hopped" around the circle this time!

Down to two...Caleb and LaDarius...

And the winner of the second game is Caleb!!
The kids who were "out" had a great time playing train...

Matthew wanted a picture of the two winners! So Sweet!!!

Did you know your child can...

During our Literacy Block, we are learning to read to ourselves...a HUGE task for such little children. This is our chart of responsibilities, and the kids are learning it well! We have worked up to 5 minutes of independent reading--that may not seem like a long time to you, but to have 15 kids READING and following these guidelines--it is a BIG deal!! Remember, your child can read three ways:

1. Read through the pictures.
2. Read letters they know.
3. Read words--either by sight or blending.

I am so proud of this class...you should be, too!!

What have you learned about Earth or the Sun?

The sun is made out of fire. -Katlyn
The Earth is made of water and land. -Matthew
The sun is a big fire-ball! -Jaelyn
I love the sun. -Caleb
The Earth goes around the sun. -Chante'
Pluto is the smallest planet. -Layla
The sun is a lot bigger than Earth. -Kylie
Planets can move. --Micah
The sun is taller than Earth. -Alyssa
If Earth was closer to the sun we would be too hot. -Connor
If Earth was further from the sun we would be too cold. -Sarah
The sun gives us light. -Deacon
The sun gives us heat. -LaDarius
Earth has all kinds of weather. -Caleb
The moon gives us rest. -Matthew
The Earth has lots of countries. -Jaelyn

Playing a new math game...

I introduced a new ladybug math game to the class today. One side of the ladybug has between 1 and 5 dots on it. The kids take turns rolling a dice on the other side of the wings. Then, they have to add the two numbers. So, if thier ladybug had 5 dots on it, they would add 5 to each number they roll on the dice. They caught on pretty quickly and seemed to have a good time...we TRY to have a good time all day long!!! Here are some quick snapshots of a few of the kids playing!!

This would be a great way to practice addition at home as well!!! Let me know if you would like the ladybug pattern--or you could draw it pretty easily!! As always, I will be happy to help any way I can!!

Graphing our Hair Color...

To get some extra graphing practice, we graphed our hair color today in Math! We have discussed how a graph lets us gather/sort information to be able to answer questions. You will see more graph practice coming home...the kids are getting much better at graphing!!

Getting started...

Each child put their own "post-it" on the graph.

Our finished product...we are missing Zachary and Hope today! Our blonde column would have two more post-its!!

SNOW DAY TOMORROW!!!

It is official...no school tomorrow, Thursday, January 7th. Watch the news for updates about school on Friday! Enjoy the snow!!!

Happy New Year!

I hope that you have all had an awesome holiday! The Miller Family had a wonderful break, but I am ready to see all of the smiling faces that will greet me in the morning!!! I hope that all children made a New Year's Resolution to complete all work and follow every direction Mrs. Miller gives!!! HA!

We will be getting back into the swing of things quickly, and I expect your children to continue making the rapid progress they made during the first semester!! Sight words will begin again next Monday. We will begin doing some Reader's Theater in reading groups, and your child will be encouraged to begin checking out library books they can read independently...or at least partially independently!! In short, your child will begin to have more responsibilities...later in the spring, your child will begin transitioning into a first grader!!

I am looking forward to a great semester, and I am excited to see your little ones tomorrow...unless we get "snowed out!" Make sure you watch the news for any school closings! If we are out, have fun and be safe in the snow!! Take lots of pictures...snow pics are always so special!!

Either way, I will see you all soon!!! MM