So, the day is here. The last day of Kindergarten....I thought the the best way to end this year's blog was to hear from the kids what they liked the BEST about the year.
-Hannah: "When I got to spend time with you"
-Kaylee: "Spending time with you"
-Tayla: "Spending time with everybody"
-Graham: "Spending ttime with you"
-Hutton: "Reading books"
-Kara: "Everything! Even the teachers"
-Ava: "You"
-Austin: "Playing blocks"
-Max: "Spending time with you"
-Madison: "Spending time with you and Ms. Gradner"
-Will: "Everything!"
-Mark: "Lunch"
-Caleb: "Playing at recess"
-Reid: "Playing games with you"
-Georgia: "Going on a field trip to the pumpkin patch"
-Eve: "Everything!"
-Ada: "Recess"
-Isabelle: "Recess"
Thank you for letting me apart of your child's life this year. I hope you will still stop by and let me know how your child is doing (even though they are not 'mine' anymore). Have a wonderful year in First Grade :-)
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Field Day and Last Week of School Activities...
Field Day tomorrow!
Just a friendly reminder....
Field day is tomorrow. Here are a few reminders...
-send your child to school with sun screen already applied to their body
-send your child to school with a bathing suit already on (there will be water activities during field day)
-send your child to school with shoes they can run in AND that you won't mind getting wet
-bring a change of clothes (including underwear) and a towel (please write your child's name on it)
-you are more than welcome to send in a water bottle with your child, however water will be provided at the water station during field day. If you choose to send your child with water, please write your child's name on the water bottle.
Last Week of School Activities
Monday- Favorite Book Day & Wear Black and White to school
On Monday we will allow our students to share their favorite book with their classmates. Please have your child bring in their favorite book from home. Make sure that your child’s name is somewhere on the book in case we have duplicates. J
Tuesday- Bubble Day & Backwards Day (wear your clothes backwards)
We will rotate through the different bubble activities with our friends.
Wednesday- Game Day & Wacky Tacky Day
Your child is allowed to bring in one family friendly board game or card game to play with other students. We will rotate through the different games while we play with our friends. Please check to make sure that all necessary pieces are included with the game and your child’s name is on it before sending it to school. Electronic (battery or plug-in) games need to stay at home
Thursday- Hawaiian Day & Kindergarten Celebration
Have your child dress up in some Hawaiian inspired clothes. We will see you at @2:00 in the cafeteria for our end of the year celebration .
Friday: School Spirit (wear your Banks Road shirt or Green and Blue)
Thank you to everyone who has signed up to bring in items on www.signupgenius.com I am continually amazed at how fast you all respond!!
I feel very lucky to have such a supportive group of parents.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Important Updates...
Some some quick updates for everyone....
Kindergarten Celebration
On Thursday June 27th @ 2:00 (note the time has changed from last week's post), track 4 kindergarten will be having an ice cream social. It will be 'icecream truck' style with the teachers handing out ice cream cones, push up pops, ice cream sandwiches, etc...
Our intention is for everyone who is attending to enjoy some ice cream, so a form will be going home in your child's Friday folder to determine how many people will be attending. Please return them ASAP.
Field Day
Field day is next Friday, June 14th. There WILL be WATER ACTIVITIES during field day. Please send your child dressed in their bathing suit and sneakers to school that day. They will also need a towel and a change of clothes to change into after field day.
Last week of school activities
6/24 Black and White Day
6/25 Backwards Day
6/26 Wacky Tacky Day
6/27 Hawaiian Day
6/28 School Spirit Day
I am also thinking of doing some fun activities (watermelon in the afternoon, bubble day) during that week, just our class. Please email me and let me know if you are interesting in helping/donating, or have a fun activity we can do that week:-)
Kindergarten Celebration
On Thursday June 27th @ 2:00 (note the time has changed from last week's post), track 4 kindergarten will be having an ice cream social. It will be 'icecream truck' style with the teachers handing out ice cream cones, push up pops, ice cream sandwiches, etc...
Our intention is for everyone who is attending to enjoy some ice cream, so a form will be going home in your child's Friday folder to determine how many people will be attending. Please return them ASAP.
Field Day
Field day is next Friday, June 14th. There WILL be WATER ACTIVITIES during field day. Please send your child dressed in their bathing suit and sneakers to school that day. They will also need a towel and a change of clothes to change into after field day.
Last week of school activities
6/24 Black and White Day
6/25 Backwards Day
6/26 Wacky Tacky Day
6/27 Hawaiian Day
6/28 School Spirit Day
I am also thinking of doing some fun activities (watermelon in the afternoon, bubble day) during that week, just our class. Please email me and let me know if you are interesting in helping/donating, or have a fun activity we can do that week:-)
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
It's the end of May....already?
I don't know about you, but I feel like these past few months have flown by!
Homework This Week
Due to the holiday weekend, there is no homework this week:-)
Kindergarten Celebration
Save the date...Thursday June 27th @1:00 2:00pm. More details to come soon. Please note, this will be a celebration and not a graduation (no caps and gowns).
End The Year Data
As the end of the year approaches, myself and Ms. Gardner will be collecting data on the kiddos that include running records (reading levels), sight word mastery, and math skill mastery.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to begin running records with the kiddos and I cannot tell you how amazing it is to hear the kiddos reading and using their strategies....using sight words, sounding out words, using the pictures, chunking words, skipping unknown words and coming back to them later. Music to my ears......
Specials This Week and Next
Thursday: Music
Friday: Curriculum Focus
Next week-
Monday: Media/Technology
Tuesday: PE1
Wednesday:PE2
Thursday: Art
Friday: Music
Reading, Writing, And Arithmetic
In reading, we continue to work on using the above strategies to read on grade level books. In addition, we continue to work on retelling these stories character, setting, problem/solution (for fiction texts) and main idea/details, facts you have learned (for non-fiction texts). This is especially important because your child's comprehension becomes a determining factor of your child as the move up in their reading levels. Reading at home and talking about what you read is a perfect opportunity to practice this skill.
We have finished up our 'small moments' in writing, and are moving onto investigating how an author makes their writing more interesting (author's craft).
In math, we are finishing up our unit on representing/solving and creating equations for addition/subtraction stories and will move onto measurement later next week.
On a Personal Note
I want to take a moment and thank you for letting me be apart of your child's life this year. My Dad used to say to me that children are like flowers. You give them water, sunshine, a little fertilizer and then you have to stand back and watch them bloom. And although they are not 'my kids', getting to be a 'drop of that water' in their lives and watching them bloom over these past few months has been an honor. I will miss their smiles, hugs, and excitement for learning. However, I know they are prepared and ready for first grade. And I have no doubt they will continue to grow and reveal the beauty that makes them one of a kind.
Homework This Week
Due to the holiday weekend, there is no homework this week:-)
Kindergarten Celebration
Save the date...Thursday June 27th @
End The Year Data
As the end of the year approaches, myself and Ms. Gardner will be collecting data on the kiddos that include running records (reading levels), sight word mastery, and math skill mastery.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to begin running records with the kiddos and I cannot tell you how amazing it is to hear the kiddos reading and using their strategies....using sight words, sounding out words, using the pictures, chunking words, skipping unknown words and coming back to them later. Music to my ears......
Specials This Week and Next
Thursday: Music
Friday: Curriculum Focus
Next week-
Monday: Media/Technology
Tuesday: PE1
Wednesday:PE2
Thursday: Art
Friday: Music
Reading, Writing, And Arithmetic
In reading, we continue to work on using the above strategies to read on grade level books. In addition, we continue to work on retelling these stories character, setting, problem/solution (for fiction texts) and main idea/details, facts you have learned (for non-fiction texts). This is especially important because your child's comprehension becomes a determining factor of your child as the move up in their reading levels. Reading at home and talking about what you read is a perfect opportunity to practice this skill.
We have finished up our 'small moments' in writing, and are moving onto investigating how an author makes their writing more interesting (author's craft).
In math, we are finishing up our unit on representing/solving and creating equations for addition/subtraction stories and will move onto measurement later next week.
On a Personal Note
I want to take a moment and thank you for letting me be apart of your child's life this year. My Dad used to say to me that children are like flowers. You give them water, sunshine, a little fertilizer and then you have to stand back and watch them bloom. And although they are not 'my kids', getting to be a 'drop of that water' in their lives and watching them bloom over these past few months has been an honor. I will miss their smiles, hugs, and excitement for learning. However, I know they are prepared and ready for first grade. And I have no doubt they will continue to grow and reveal the beauty that makes them one of a kind.
Friday, May 10, 2013
What a way to make a teacher feel appreciated!
Thank you so much for all the goodies this week. Between the cards, flowers, and goodies, I can you tell you that you all definitely know how to make a teacher feel appreciated:-)
Literacy
Writing: In writing, we continued to write about small moments. The kids wrote about a time they got hurt focusing on how they felt, what they said, and their actions. Even more, we worked on adding sentences that showed how our feeling changed from the beginning of our story, to the end.
Weekly Sight Words: what, that
These words join our other sight words from the quarter "in", "some", "your", "where". Make sure to ask your child to show you the gestures for these sight words.
Reading: We reviewed the word families -ip, -ot, and -ug that we have worked on in the past. Word families are important in that the more word families they know, the more words they can decode. Words from these word families will be going home in your child's homework this week to practice.
As always, the kids continue to make growth individually during guided reading. This week, we adding the strategy of "chunking" to determine unknown words. For example, the word "jumping", the kids would chunk the work they know 'jump' to help them figure out the word.
Math:
We continue to work on representing/solving "plus/take away stories". It is important that the kids be able to share not just the solution, but how they know how to solve it. For example, "How did you know that was a plus story? How do you know that 4 and 5 are the partners in the equation?" Research has shown that "math talk" is just as important to cementing student understanding of math concepts as being able to find the solution.
Special Schedule for 5/13-5/17
Monday: Music
Tuesday: Curriculum Focus
Wednesday: Technology
Thursday: PE 1
Friday: PE 2
Please take a look at the important dates for May/June, as there are a lot of fun things coming up:-)
Literacy
Writing: In writing, we continued to write about small moments. The kids wrote about a time they got hurt focusing on how they felt, what they said, and their actions. Even more, we worked on adding sentences that showed how our feeling changed from the beginning of our story, to the end.
Weekly Sight Words: what, that
These words join our other sight words from the quarter "in", "some", "your", "where". Make sure to ask your child to show you the gestures for these sight words.
Reading: We reviewed the word families -ip, -ot, and -ug that we have worked on in the past. Word families are important in that the more word families they know, the more words they can decode. Words from these word families will be going home in your child's homework this week to practice.
As always, the kids continue to make growth individually during guided reading. This week, we adding the strategy of "chunking" to determine unknown words. For example, the word "jumping", the kids would chunk the work they know 'jump' to help them figure out the word.
Math:
We continue to work on representing/solving "plus/take away stories". It is important that the kids be able to share not just the solution, but how they know how to solve it. For example, "How did you know that was a plus story? How do you know that 4 and 5 are the partners in the equation?" Research has shown that "math talk" is just as important to cementing student understanding of math concepts as being able to find the solution.
Special Schedule for 5/13-5/17
Monday: Music
Tuesday: Curriculum Focus
Wednesday: Technology
Thursday: PE 1
Friday: PE 2
Please take a look at the important dates for May/June, as there are a lot of fun things coming up:-)
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Helpful tidbits for the week...
Language Arts
Phonics- we have introduced the "-ug" word family (rug, bug, tug, lug, hug, mug, etc..) . We continue to tap and drag out words to help us figure out unknown words.
Sight words- your, where, some, in (ask them to show you the gestures for the sight words)
Writing- We are making our way back to writing 'small moments'. That is, sharing moments and/or events in our lives. When we focused on this in the beginning fo the year, our focus was on being able to draw a picture that had details and maybe some labeling of the picture, or a perhaps even a sentence. Now, our focus is on being able to use/show talking, feelings, and actions in our pictures and our sentences. We started our first small moment stories today and they are soooo excited!
Math
We continue to work on representing and solving math stories using our strategies (ask your child what they are!), as well as writing an equation for each math story.
Early Release
Friday, May 10th @ 1:15
Specials for this week 4/29-5/3
Monday: Technology
Tuesday: PE
Wednesday: PE
Thursday: Art
Friday: Music
Specials Schedule for next week 5/6-5/10
Monday: Curriculumn focus
Tuesday: Technology
Wednesday: PE
Thursday: PE
Friday: Art
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
And we're back!
"Hi ho, hi ho, it's back to school we go. We are are learning all day long, hi ho, it's back to school we go." We are back and the kiddos have been amazing! It's like we haven't even been away for 3 weeks, they have not skipped a beat. Here's a quick low down of what we are learning this week...
Language Arts:
In writing, we have continued our unit on non fiction texts by creating an "All About School" book. The book incorporates non fiction text features we have been talking about including, sub-headings and photographs. They have had a lot of fun creating these books, since they are the experts on school. Of course, we continue to focus on using capital letters at the beginning of each sentence, spacing between words, spelling sight words correctly, using beginning, middle, and end sounds to spell unknown words, using a punctuation mark at the end of each sentence, and writing 2-3 sentences on one topic.
In reading, our skill focus is on retelling a story (have you seen a theme here?). As you can see, we are including our focus of not just reading the words, but also understanding what we have read (critical thinking skills, anyone??). This includes being able to retell the characters, setting, and problem with fiction books, and knowing the main topic and the sequence of events with non fiction text. As always, you can 'sneak' these skills in at home when you are reading to your kids.
Math:
In math, we continue to work on addition and subtraction, with this week's focus on being able to decompose numbers 7-10 using a tens frame. For example...
X X X X X
X X
We would use a 'fast 5' to count the number of Xs. "5, 6, 7). Then, we would create an equation and say
5 + 2 = 7
PTA Family Bingo Night this Thursday
Family Fancy Dance
BRES 1st Family Fancy Dance! Friday, May 24th, from 5:45pm-7:45pm. All Banks Road students are invited to come with their families to this FREE event. Come in your Sunday best to the Multi-Purpose Room and dance with your BRES family to celebrate another successful school year. Diane McKinney Photography will be on hand to take family pictures that will be available for purchase after the dance. The DJ will keep the fun going all night. Light refreshments will be available. Do not miss this exciting event which is possible due to the efforts of our teachers, staff, amazing PTA, and fantastic student council!
Language Arts:
In writing, we have continued our unit on non fiction texts by creating an "All About School" book. The book incorporates non fiction text features we have been talking about including, sub-headings and photographs. They have had a lot of fun creating these books, since they are the experts on school. Of course, we continue to focus on using capital letters at the beginning of each sentence, spacing between words, spelling sight words correctly, using beginning, middle, and end sounds to spell unknown words, using a punctuation mark at the end of each sentence, and writing 2-3 sentences on one topic.
In reading, our skill focus is on retelling a story (have you seen a theme here?). As you can see, we are including our focus of not just reading the words, but also understanding what we have read (critical thinking skills, anyone??). This includes being able to retell the characters, setting, and problem with fiction books, and knowing the main topic and the sequence of events with non fiction text. As always, you can 'sneak' these skills in at home when you are reading to your kids.
Math:
In math, we continue to work on addition and subtraction, with this week's focus on being able to decompose numbers 7-10 using a tens frame. For example...
X X X X X
X X
We would use a 'fast 5' to count the number of Xs. "5, 6, 7). Then, we would create an equation and say
5 + 2 = 7
PTA Family Bingo Night this Thursday
Please join us for a FUN night filled with lots of prizes and chances to win BIG! You
are welcome to bring your dinner with you and eat in the Banks Road Cafeteria while
playing Bingo, and there will be drinks and snacks available to purchase.
Along with playing FREE Bingo, there will be items to be raffled off such as:
*KINDLE FIRE
*$100 Gift Card to Great Wolf Lodge
*NC Symphony Tickets
**Must be present to win!**
Raffle ticket prices: 1 for $5 or 5 for $20
BRES 1st Family Fancy Dance! Friday, May 24th, from 5:45pm-7:45pm. All Banks Road students are invited to come with their families to this FREE event. Come in your Sunday best to the Multi-Purpose Room and dance with your BRES family to celebrate another successful school year. Diane McKinney Photography will be on hand to take family pictures that will be available for purchase after the dance. The DJ will keep the fun going all night. Light refreshments will be available. Do not miss this exciting event which is possible due to the efforts of our teachers, staff, amazing PTA, and fantastic student council!
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