What's New in our World?!
Ms. Fichter's Kindergarten Newsletter
The First Semester is Almost Over!
Show-and-Tell and Homework this week
Show-and-Tell for this week is to bring something that shows what you will be doing or celebrating over the Winter Break! Bring something that represents a fun trip your family plans to take, a holiday you will celebrate, or just something you are excited to use now that the Winter season is upon us (December 21st)! I know these are lots of options- try and help your child choose one item.
This last week of school is busy for everyone as we prepare for the Winter Break so there will be no homework packet this week. However, on Wednesday your child will come home with a few fun Winter Break assignments. We will have an optional holiday homework packet, a Winter break journal, suggested activities to prepare for the 100th Day of school (tentatively scheduled to fall on January 22nd), and I will formally assign the 100th day of school poster project!
Elementary Winter Celebration is coming up this Thursday!
Karaoke CD’s Wanted
Ms. P will be bringing her Karaoke Machine for the “Club Penguin Room” but we need some Karaoke CD’s. If anyone has some we can borrow, please let me know.
Material Sign-Up sheet
We’re still missing items- most importantly the prizes and sandpaper. Sign-up if you can!
A big thank you to those parents who have already signed up to donate materials, money, or their time! We appreciate you and you are such an important part of making these special days so special :-) Check out the links below to sign up if you haven't yet!
Guest Storytellers Needed
The last two Guest Storyteller's we have enjoyed have been siblings of the children in our class! Jade's brother Colt came to read at the end of November, and Anaiya's sister Siyona came to read on December 5th. The kids absolutely LOVED hearing these "big kids" read so eloquently and entertainingly.
We have no else signed up as of right now so please check out the sign-up sheet to the right of out "Giant Gingerbread House" classroom display!
Darsh's 6th Birthday
No After School Clubs this Week
Science Fair Success!
Both of the Kindergarten classes had a fantastic time collaborating on their Science Fair experiments. Check out the final results hanging outside of our Kindergarten classrooms. Also enjoy the photos and videos below. This week I will be sending leftover photographs home in some of the students folders.
Team #8's Water Volcano
Team #6's Arctic Blubber Demo
Team #7's Water Wheel
Team #1 Teaches Raisins to Swim
Team #5's Sink or Float Experiment
Sink or Float Independent Study
Thankful Feast Video
Uniform Policy
Before returning from Winter Break, please be sure to review the uniform policy with your student. The uniform policy can be found in the students’ agenda. Please use this as a reference to make sure that you are sending your child to school in their proper uniform every day.
If for some reasons you have not yet ordered your uniforms, please use the following link to order. The uniform policy will be strictly enforced when we return to school on January 6th. Please make sure your child is properly dressed every time they come to school next semester!
Check out the Land's End link below in case you need to order any uniform pieces.
Brand New Folders for the New Year!
Reading Logs and AR
Your students are doing a great job with their daily reading at home. Please keep working hard on reading and AR! I will collect our December reading logs when we return from Winter Break - make sure you keep up the great reading!
We will continue with our AR goal for the month of December... If your child took at least two AR tests and they earned a score of at least 85%, they will receive a special Dress Down Day, popsicle, and Pizza slice in January for meeting their December goal. Good luck and please let me know if you have any issues logging in or need to know your child's password. The reward date is to be announced.
When we return from Winter Break our AR goals will become a bit more challenging! I am so proud of our great readers.
Curriculum Corner
Reading and Language Arts: In Reading and Language Arts this week we will be continuing our Gingerbread Literature Study! We will compare and contrast different versions of the story "The Gingerbread Man". Your students will participate in a variety of fun, hands-on, and exciting reading and writing activities to finish up our first semester together! On Wednesday, we will finish up our unit by baking some gingerbread men in class from scratch! Let's hope none of them run away like the tricky gingerbread man from all of our stories...
Social Studies: In Social Studies, we will be talking about the weather and the different seasons more in depth than we do during our calendar time. We will learn about meteorologists and look at the different types of weather and weather maps. We will be creating our own Weather graph when we return in January.
Science: We will do a fun "Frosty Mug" experiment that helps us learn about the different states of matter. We will continue describing and discussing things like a scientist would do. We will also be observing frost through a fun and hands-on experiment where students will create their own frost on a plastic cup! So much fun!
Math: This week in Math we will continue with Chapter 6. Your students will continue to practice using the tens-frames model to help them count and identify numbers. We will continue to compare numbers by talking about how they are more than or less than, and we will continue to practice simple addition and subtraction. In Math this week, we will also be preparing for the 100th day of school when we return in January.
Save the Dates
December 18, 2014: Elementary Winter Celebration
December 19, 2014: Elementary Talent Show
Kindergarten "Frozen" Day!
Elementary Awards Ceremony (this does not include Kindergarten classes)
December 19, 2014: Last Day of 1st Semester