Happy Holidays

Thank you so much for all of the great gifts today, I truly appreciate them and all of you.  Thank you so much to all of the parents who helped with our party today.  The kids behaved so well and it was very organized!  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.  Don't forget 12:15 dismissal tomorrow.

All the little reindeer

We read Imogene's Antlers and made antlers today.  Look how cute we are!

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays  to all of our Rummel Creek Families!

 

Just a few reminders about the end of this week:

• Thursday, December 18—Holiday Parties
  12:30 Pre-K Party
  1:00    Kindergarten, 1^st and 2^nd grade parties
  2:00    3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade parties
  ****Please do NOT park in numbered parking spots****
  (You may park in the WAIS parking lot as they will be out of school at 12:00)
   
• Friday, December 19—Early Dismissal
  All students will be dismissed at 12:15pm
   
  We’ll see everyone back at school on TUESDAY, January 6, 2015!!
   
  Nancy Harn
  Principal

Hour of Code

If your child is interested in computers and technology check this out.  Rohan's dad shared this with me and it is really neat.  I am going to be showing the kids on the active board how it works, but you should check it out as well.
The statistics on computer science education in the US are troubling. Take a look:

  1.           By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs in the computing field, but just 400,000 college computer science majors to fill them.
  2.           A.P. Computer Science is taught in only 5% of U.S. high schools
  3.           Computing occupations are among the highest-paying jobs for new graduates. Yet fewer than 3% of college students graduate with a degree in computer science.

•         But through education opportunities like Hour Of Code, we can change that. Last year over 15,000,000 students joined Hour of Code!
 
Hour of Code is very simple.  Simply take an hour to take a lesson on coding on your own time.  Here is the link for the online class:  http://code.org/employees/workday<http://t.signauxsix.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs8pTpVMVdVkg61qMK5CVQsyTK56dGW6f1KpqNb02?t=http%3a%2f%2fcode.org%2femployees%2fworkday&si=5709701534711808&pi=309849feabdf430398119382435e4401>

Here is a link to the Hour of Code web site which has a great intro video:  http://hourofcode.com/us<http://t.signauxsix.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs8pTpVMVdVkg61qMK5CVQsyTK56dGW6f1KpqNb02?t=http%3a%2f%2fhourofcode.com%2fus&si=5709701534711808&pi=309849feabdf430398119382435e4401>

THE AN FAMILY | Sound Blending Songs

News

Please continue to send a jacket for your child on these colder days.  Make sure your child’s name is in it J

 Last week and over the next two weeks, I will complete  mid year testing.  So far, I have tested the children on letters/sounds, sight words, Ohio Word List, and dictation.  This week I will continue with concepts about print, writing vocabulary, and reading levels.  Next week, I will do all math mid year testing.  I will use these results to complete your child's report card, which you will receive after the winter break.  Because I am testing, your child isn't receiving a new home reader that we would have worked on in small groups.  This friday, your child will bring home his bag with all books read so far.  After the break, we will clean out our bag at school and begin getting new books...hooray! 

Theme: Happy Holidays!!

Reading:  Shared reading and Interactive read-alouds about holiday themes, making predictions, re-telling the story, recalling

the sequence of events and discussing the characters, the rising action in a story that forms a story arc.

Writing:  Writers Workshop!  Shared, Interactive and Modeled writing and Independent writing. We will be continuing to use a book format to write our own stories.

Word Wall Words:  Review: I, can, see, a, go, the, to, and, is, in, it, you, me, he, she, of, can, said, red, blue, green, orange, yellow, brown, blue, black

NO NEW WORDS!  We will use this and next to test the children on the above words.  They need to be able to read them quickly by sight (not sound them out). 

Word Family:  This we will explore the word family of AN.

Math: Review: Ordinal Numbers, measuring length/width, tally marks, graphing, counting aloud, counting sets, counting objects with one to one correspondence, and determining more/less.

Science:   Finishing Magnet and Starting Rocks

Social Studies:  Holiday Traditions

Homework: Read 20 minutes every night.

Optional Activities:

·        Monday:  Ask your family what their favorite holiday symbol is:  dreidel, Christmas tree, or a candy cane?  Record their answers with tally marks!.

·        Tuesday:  Write a sentence using the word SAID and a sentence using the word OF.

·        Wednesday:  Put five toys in a line.  Practice describing them using your ordinal numbers (first, second, etc.)

·        Thursday:  Visit www.raz-kids.com

·        Friday: Read your Home Reader Book at least 2 times. Bring your library books back on Monday

Gingerbread Man

We have been reading lots of gingerbread books all week.  Today we read the Gingerbread Girl and did a story arc about it.  In Math, we graphed what part of the gingerbread we bit into first.  (Thank you Heidi Castaneda for the yummy cookies!) Then we did a gingerbread science experiment to see what would happen to the gingerbread if he got wet.  It was a busy day!  

The most people bit the head first.

Writer's Workshop

We have been working hard making books.  They are really beginning to be good little writers.  While they are writing I go around and conference with them.  We talk about what they are doing well and things I would like them to try.  It is so exciting to see the next time when they try my suggestions.  Below is a picture of one our friend's writing.  His books at first did not stay on topic and his words were so big there was no room for a picture.  Today when I looked at his book I was thrilled!  He is on topic and writing smaller so he has room for a picture. This is just 2 pages because he is not finished.

Letter Sounds and Sight Words

I have started mid year assessments and have noticed that some of our class still needs to learn letter sounds and sight words.  We work on this daily, but some kids need extra practice at home. I am attaching a link for a free sight word app you might want to add to your phone or ipad for your child to practice.   https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sight-words-list-learn-to/id445708245?mt=8

I am also sending paper flash cards for some who know less than ten of the first 50.  Please help them with these.

Gingerbread Man

We read the Gingerbread Boy and then we made one and drew the characters from the story on it.

AT Song--Short Vowel Word Families

Spirit Night this week!

We have TWO nights to choose from this week.  I love this place, my friends own it.  If you have not been, check it out!

RCE Spirit Night

     Tuesday, December 2 OR

     Wednesday, December 3

  Hugo Caliente

790 W. Sam Houston Parkway, Suite 112

(Between AT&T and Flemings)

Bring this flyer with you!!                                                                                   Check out the website: http://hugocaliente.com/

News

Kindergarten News

Week of Dec. 1^st-5^th, 2014

Theme: Holiday Time!

Reading:  This week we will continue to enjoy the many versions of a favorite tale, The Gingerbread Man, focusing on retelling using story arcs!  Creating story arcs will aide us as we write our own narratives. 

Writing:  The children are doing a wonderful job making their own books. We continue to focus on use of capitals, periods, and spacing!  We will continue to add details to make our writing more interesting. As we enjoy read alouds, we notice things we can add to our own stories such as, illustrations that show movement, sound words, speech bubbles, and pictures that spread across two pages- to name a just a few!

Word Wall Words:  REVIEW: my, is, red, green, yellow, orange, purple, blue, white, pink, brown, black, I, can, a, see, go, the, to, and, it, in, you, he, she, of, an. NEW WORDS FOR THE WEEK: SAID, ME. We are testing the children on their sight words this week.  Please review the words J

Word Study: Now that we have reviewed the letters, we will begin word families.  Our first word family will be AT.  With these two little letters, we can read and write so many words (cat, fat, bat, attack, etc.).  Look out…we are readers/writers!

Math: During math workshop, we will reinforce the skill of more and less.  Specifically, we will use this concept to help us solve story problems.  We will also create numeral sets to 20, count aloud to 75, and back/forth to 30.  We will tally and graph!

Science: We will continue to explore Magnets!

Social Studies:  Traditions

Homework: Read 20 minutes every night.

Optional Activities:

• Monday: Make a list of AT words. 
• Tuesday: Visit www.raz-kids.com 

• Wednesday: Write 3 simple sentence using any of our sight words.    Do you have a capital and a period? 
• Thursday:  Using a deck of cards, play War with a parent.  While playing, say, “I have more” or “I have less”

This is easier if you don’t play with the face cards (Jack, Queen, etc.)

• Friday:  Return your library books and practice your home reader!  Send your bag on Monday.