Author: Anna Williamson

January 24, 2020 Class News 

We had a wonderful week in Room 1! We are excited in preparing for Catholic School’s Week. Take a look at what we have been up to.

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: all and were. Next week we will learn we and when. Are you practicing sight words at home? You can make simple flash cards out of our words and practice them with your child!

Phonics: Our phonics focus this week was a review of the two digraphs ch and sh. Students cut out their sort cards, glued them onto their graphic organizer and lastly spelled our own words and drew pictures that began with ch and sh. Ask your child if they know what the word digraph means! Next week we will learn th and wh.

Literacy Centers: Thank you so much to the parent volunteers who come in to help during literacy centers. The students love having parents in the classroom and the support you provide during this time is much appreciated. At the library center, students enjoyed reading picture books independently. At the sight word center, students worked on writing sentences that use the weeks sight words. At the phonics centers, students walked around the room finding cards that had words with a matching picture on them, they then had to look at their recording sheet and figure out which word rhymed with the card they were looking at. For example, a picture of a hat was on their recording sheet and the rhyming card they had to find said “cat”. At our guided reading center, we worked on letter sounds and brainstorming words that began with those sounds. We also continue to move through reading our leveled reading group books.

Writer’s Workshop: In celebration of the upcoming Catholic Schools Week, we wrote about what we love about our school. We continue to focus on beginning the sentence with a capital letter, finger spaces and finishing the sentence with a period. Some students wrote how they love P.E., recess, and hot lunch, others wrote about how they love reading, writing, and their friends! Come check out these writing projects when you come on Sunday for Catholic Schools Week open house!

Math: We are finishing up Chapter 4, composing and decomposing numbers 1-10! Students are using manipulatives to show multiple ways to make a number or take it apart. We are showing different ways in our math journals and in groups!

Students continued working with Counting Collections and really enjoy their time counting fun items and recording their findings! They are practicing making groups of 5’s and 10’s to show their recordings instead of groups of just 1’s. Ask your child what bag they counted and how they went about counting it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Step: Ms. Shaw visited our classroom this week to begin the Kelso’s Choice lessons again. This week the students learned about Share and Take Turns. Students discussed what it means to share and brainstormed times in which they feel that it is easy to share and times in which it is hard for them to share. They talked about what they can do and things they can think about when they are patiently waiting their turn for something. Taking deep breaths and reminding yourself that it’s ok to wait are ways that students can regulate their feelings when they are waiting for a turn. Students shared what they can say to someone when they’d like them to know they want a turn with something. For example, “Can I use that now please?”, “Let’s do it together”, or “Can we take turns?”. The lesson ended with students demonstrating how they can offer someone else a turn, like saying “Do you want a turn now?” or “You can have a turn now”. Practicing sharing with your child at home and ways in which to express that they would like something is always beneficial!

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

Important Dates: 

• Sunday, January 26^th– All School Liturgy/Open House for Catholic School’s Week
• January 27^th-January 31^st– Catholic Schools Week. Please see school website for more details on this week!
• Wednesday, February 12^th– All School Liturgy for Saint Valentine’s Day!
• Thursday, February 13^th– Saint Valentine’s Day Celebration!
  • Please bring in a covered shoebox (any plain paper will do, do not decorate!); we will be decorating them in class!
  • Your child may bring in one Valentine for each student in our class, there are 20 students. No names please!
• Friday February 14^th, Monday February 17^th, Tuesday February 18^th– No School, Winter Holiday

Best,

Miss Williamson

January 17, 2020 Class News 

We had a nice week together in kindergarten, reflecting on Martin Luther King Jr. and enjoying watching the snow fall and weather change!

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: not and what. Next week we will learn all and were.

Phonics: Our Words Their Way lesson this week focused on a new digraph (two letters that go together to make one sound)! We reviewed the letters c and h and learned that together, they make the ch sound. During spelling, students cut out their sort cards, glued them onto their graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled their own words that begin with c, h, and ch. Students also worked on a little ch book and used each ch word in a sentence! For example, one of the words in the book was chips, students had to brainstorm a sentence using the words chip and write it in their book! Have them read their little ch book to you!

Literacy Centers: Students were busy practicing their literacy skills during literacy centers this week. At the library center, students enjoyed reading picture books, writing the title of the book, giving it 1-5 stars and then drawing their favorite part! Thank you Miss Annie for helping! At the sight word center, students worked on writing complete sentences using sight words. At the iPad center, students worked on reading stories and following along to the words. At the phonics center, students “wrote the room.” They carried clipboards as they wrote different January and Winter themed words around the room. Thank you Mr James for helping! In our reading groups, we are working on fluency and comprehension. We are asking questions while we read stories. Can we retell the beginning, middle, and end? What sight words can we spot? We continue to sound out words slowly to hear every letter in the word.

Writer’s Workshop: Students are continuing working on beginning sentences with a capital letter, including finger spaces and adding punctation at the end of their sentences. Students are challenging themselves to give more information to their reader and provide more than one sentence!

We read the winter book, “Snowmen at Night” and wrote our own version of what we would do if we were a snowman at night. We ripped up paper to create a mosaic snowman to go with our writing. Then, we read a different version, “Snowmen at Christmas” and used a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the two stories.

Math: We continue our chapter on “composing” and “decomposing” numbers 1-10 (the breakdown of numbers into their sub-parts, for example we can break apart 4 into 2 and 2, 3 and 1, 4 and 0). We are busy showing composing and decomposing numbers by using hands on manipulatives during our math groups.

We also continued our Counting Collections work this week! Students worked with new bags of items and practiced recording their findings in new ways! Ask your child what bag/bags of items they counted and how many they counted!

Social Studies: We read books about Martin Luther King Jr. and took time to notice and celebrate the differences in our own classroom! In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., we had a long class discussion about that idea that just because you look differently than someone else, not only because of your skin color, but maybe because of your hair color, your eye color or the clothes you wear; we have to show kindness to everyone and be welcoming to them because we never want to dip into others buckets and make them feel hurt by our actions! The students made really great and heart felt connections about times in their lives that they showed someone different from themselves kindness!

Auction Art: Thank you to Miss Shana and Miss Carol who came into our classroom on Friday to help the students create the Auction Art Project! They took their time and did their very best work! We look forward to you seeing it at the Auction!

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

Important Dates: 

• Monday, January 20^th– Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School
• Sunday, January 26^th– All School Liturgy/Open House for Catholic School’s Week
• January 27^th-January 31^st– Catholic Schools Week. Please see school website for more details on this week!
• Wednesday, February 12^th– All School Liturgy for Saint Valentine’s Day!
• Thursday, February 13^th– Saint Valentine’s Day Celebration!
  • Please bring in a covered shoebox (any plain paper will do, do not decorate!); we will be decorating them in class!
  • Your child may bring in one Valentine for each student in our class. No names please!
• Friday February 14^th, Monday February 17^th, Tuesday February 18^th– No School, Winter Holiday

Important Information: 

• Comfort Kits: I still have a lot of missing kits for the classroom.  Here is what you need:
  • Small working flashlight
  • Stocking cap
  • A small package of Wet Wipes
  • One or two-family photos not larger than 4”x6”
  • One page letter to your child to comfort him/her while awaiting your arrival
  • One pair of tube socks
  • One small plastic drinking cup – 5- or 6-ounce size

  Place all items in a one-gallon Ziploc bag labeled with your student’s name.

• Kindergarten is sponsoring Bruno, a child from the Unbound program.  He is from Bolivia and speaks Spanish!  He is 5 years old and enjoys playing ball, putting together puzzles and watching television. Every first Friday of the month, or whenever it is convenient for you, your child is welcome to bring in a $1 donation to help support Bruno. Thank you! Your support will help Bruno get a wonderful education and new pen pals from Seattle.

Best,

Miss Williamson

January 10, 2020 Class News 

It was such a wonderful first week back from Christmas break!  All the kids seemed very happy to be back in our normal school routine and see their friends again.  We were all very tired by the end of the week – make sure to get lots of rest this weekend and we will start fresh again on Monday!

Sight Words:  This week we learned two new sight words – by and words. Next week, we will be learning the words what and not.

Phonics: We learned our first “digraph” this week – two letters that when put together, make a whole new sound.  We learned the digraph /sh/.  We sorted pictures that began with /s/ /h/ and /sh/.  As a class, we brainstormed words that begin and end with the /sh/ sound.  Next week, we will be learning the digraph /ch/.

Literacy Centers:  In reading groups this week, we brainstormed and wrote words that began with the digraph “sh”. Students then picked one of the words we brainstormed and used it in a sentence. The students continued to do the sight word center with Ms. Miller and independent iPad center.  In the phonics center this week, students looked at a picture and had to cut and glue letters in order to build the CVC word that matched the picture, they then had to write the word and at the end created a secret word based off of the letters they had left.  They are all gaining confidence in sounding out and blending these words independently!

Writer’s Workshop:  On Monday morning, the class was so eager to share all about their Christmas break.  We wrote at least two things we did over break in our Writer’s Workshop notebooks and drew pictures to go with our writing.  We continue to practice beginning sentences with an uppercase letter, using finger spaces between words, and ending our sentences with a period.

In honor of our new year, students learned what a resolution is – a goal you set to help yourself or others be better. Students came up with their own goals for 2020 and wrote them using complete sentences. One student’s goal was to help their Mom and Dad make breakfast in the morning; another’s was to feed the homeless. We also created a self-portrait to go with our new year’s resolutions! Come check out your child’s project!

Math:  We began a new Common Core Standard this week – composing and decomposing numbers 1-10 (breaking apart numbers into their sub-parts, for example we can break apart 4 into 2 and 2, 3 and 1, 4 and 0).  We explored this concept by using pipe cleaner and beads to show how different ways of grouping can create the same number.

We also began Counting Collections in Math this week. Counting Collections consist of students grabbing a bag of items that are sorted, for example, some they can choose from are dinosaurs, erasers, gold coins, and other small items. The students take a recording sheet and go anywhere in the classroom to count their bag. Once they have counted the items, they have to record that number on their sheet. They can do this in many different ways, for example, tally marks, ten frames, circles or groups of 5 or 10. Students counted up to two bags of items during this time. Incorporating Counting Collections into the classroom gives students practice with not only counting but counting objects and recording their findings. We will continue to do this same routine once a week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Studies: In preparation of celebrating Martin Luther King Jr., we read a mini book about his life and circled all the words we were able to read independently. We then wrote about one dream that we have for the world and glued our writing on a blue cloud. This work is on our Wow Work Wall, come take a look!

Religion/Peacemakers:  On Monday, Mrs. Dahlgren came in for peacemakers (a monthly discussion about bullying). Here is a not from Mrs. Dahlgren:

January – This month’s lesson was about bystanders. We talked about the choices a bystander has to make (to do something to help the person in need or to ignore the problem), what happens if the choice is to ignore the problem, and who has the power when choosing to be an up-stander.  We read Willow Finds A Way by Lana Button.

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

Important Dates:

• Monday, January 20^th – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – No School
• Sunday, January 26^th – All School Liturgy/Open House for Catholic School’s Week
• January 27^th – January 31^st – Catholic Schools Week. Please see school website for more details on this week!
• Wednesday, February 12^th– All School Liturgy for Saint Valentine’s Day!
• Friday February 14^th, Monday February 17^th, Tuesday February 18^th – No School, Winter Holiday

Best,

Miss Williamson

 

 

December 13, 2019 Class News 

It was a very busy week in Room 1!  The kids could not be more excited for Christmas and their spirit grows each day in anticipation of this very special holiday.

Volunteers:  Amy, our fabulous room parent, has opened up the volunteer signups for the rest of the year. Parents, thank you so much for signing up to help with literacy centers, library and parent led art! The kids love seeing you in our room and I appreciate your help!  We truly couldn’t do all that we do without volunteers like you.

Sight Words:  This week we learned the sight words from and or.  Next week, we will learn the words one and had.  The kids are continuing to build their Sight Word Notebook each morning and continue to use them as a resource during Writer’s Workshop and Literacy Centers.

Phonics:  This week we studied the letters and ending sounds /t/ and /x/.  We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by ending sounds, and glued them on a graphic organizers.

Literacy Centers:  We continued with our reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, phonics center and iPad center.  During the phonics center, the students moved about the room completing their “Write the Room” activity sheet.  The words displayed throughout the room were all about December, Christmas, and the Holiday Season. In reading groups, we played a game using a puzzle and had to build CVC words by looking at the picture on our puzzle piece! Once we thought we created the word, we would sound out what we had spelt to make sure it was correct!

Writer’s Workshop:  This week, we made little books that described the special gifts we would give Baby Jesus on Christmas.  Kids brainstormed and wrote what gift they would like to give Baby Jesus. Gifts ranged from toys, pacifiers, and bottles to friends, love and animals.  We also completed writing an Acrostic Poem using the word Christmas! Students wrote words that began with each letter in the word Christmas. Some of the words students came up with were cookie, tree, Merry Christmas, and hot coco!

Math:  We continued counting and writing numbers greater than 10 this week.  Our favorite strategy is counting on, which allows us to use ten frames to count big numbers quickly.  Next week, we’ll be doing a variety of Christmas math activities.

Science:  On Tuesday this week, we adventured up to the 3rd floor to participate in Hour of Code.  The kindergarteners sat with their 7th grade buddies and solved block code puzzles to the theme of Frozen, Minecraft and Star Wars.  It was so much fun and they enjoyed the time with their buddies in their big classroom! Photos have been uploaded on the website of them coding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Religion:  We continued to discuss the season of Advent this week and read books about the Nativity Story.  The kids continued to decorate their Jesse Trees each morning with a new ornament. Mrs. Costa’s first grade class comes to our classroom every morning during Advent so that we are able to celebrate together! During this time we watch a short video from Brother Francis about that specific day of Advent.

Second Step: Ms. Shaw came to our classroom again this week to teach us about walking away and situations in which it would be best to just walk away. Students learned that if someone is too close to you in line, walk away; if someone is teasing you on the playground, instead of engaging, simply walk away; or if someone is bothering you on the carpet, walk away. Students brainstormed other situations in which it would be best to just walk away. Some situations they came up with were if their sibling was bothering them, they would walk away or if someone sitting next to them at their table was talking too loud or was distracting them, they could walk away. Ask your child to brainstorm other situations that it may be best to walk away and see if you can practice with them!

Mrs. Dalhgren came to talk to all of Kindergarten again, this time about bullying. The children gave examples of what bullying looks like. We talked about the difference between being mean (random, causes feelings of regret and apology) versus bullying (on purpose, repetitive, done expressly to make someone feel bad). We read Hugo and The Bullyfrogs by Francesca Simon.

Parent Led Art: A big thank you to Miss Daytona and Miss Laura for leading and helping with Parent Art this week! Students used paper and markers to create snowmen inside a snow globe!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

 Important Dates:

• Thursday, December 19^th – Christmas Concert, 6:15pm in the Church. Meet in our classroom at 5:50pm. Wear “Sunday’s Best!”
• Friday, December 20^th – Noon Dismissal
• No School Dec 21^st – Jan 5^th – Winter Break

Best,
Miss Williamson

December 6, 2019 Class News 

We had another fantastic week together in kindergarten. We are getting ready for Advent and thanking God for all we have! Your children are progressing tremendously in so many ways. They are growing into confident learners!

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: this and have. Next week will be from and or.

Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we learned the letters /y/ /v/ and /z/.  We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with y, v and z.

Literacy centers: We continued with our reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, and iPad center. At the phonics center, students used stamps that had a picture and then the word with missing letters and students had to write the missing letter t in order to finish spelling the word. Students used their own stamp pads to stamp the picture and then sound out the word to complete it. In reading groups, we continue to practice CVC and some CVCe words in our decodable books.

Writer’s Workshop/Social Studies: To assist in the understanding of the Advent season, this week we spent time discussing the difference between a need and a want. We defined a need as something we have to have in order to live. Some needs we came up with are – water, healthy food, clothes to keep us warm, and shelter. Some wants we came up with are – phones, iPads, video games, toys and junk food. You can keep this conversation going at home by donating things you no longer need to others during the Advent season, or maybe as a point of prayer to thank God that we have all that we need.

We also learned all about elves this week! We brainstormed ‘adjectives’ – words that describe elves. A few we came up with are: happy, sneaky, and little! We used a writer’s workshop skill to label the parts of an elf, and noticed patterns and trends of clothing we often see Elves wearing – hats, belts and pointy shoes. We exercised our creative writing skills this week by writing what we would do if we were an elf! On Friday, we had fun making our own elves to display in our classroom! Come check them out!

Math: This week, we continue to learn numbers beyond 10 (10-20). We are showing numbers 10-20 on tens frames to help us grow our number sense and understand the place value of teen numbers (group of ten and how many more?) When we count numbers 10-20 on a tens frame, we start at ten, then count on from there – “Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen…”

Religion: We began Unit 3 in our religion books: Jesus is God’s Son. We are learning that Jesus is God, he is the Son of God, and we call Jesus Lord because he is God. We will continue this unit through Advent to learn about the birth of Jesus! We also learned who the Holy family is – Mary is the Mother of Jesus, Jesus is the Son of God and Joseph cared for Mary and Jesus. We read the story of the birth of Jesus. Each morning, as a part of our Advent prayer, we learn a new symbol of Advent. We then add that symbol as an ornament to our Advent trees. Some of the symbols we have learned about so far are – sun, hand, dove, cross, garden and the evergreen tree. Ask your child if they can remember what any of these symbols mean. We will gather with the first grade every morning to celebrate each week of Advent. We continue to practice the Sign of the Cross and our daily prayers.

STEM/Science: We had the opportunity to travel to the Makerspace in the portables to create snow launchers with Mrs. Ocampo! We used cups, balloons and cotton balls to create snow launchers that shot our snow at targets. Students poked holes in their cups, put a balloon over the end and then decorated them to look like a snowman. They would pull back on the balloon and the cotton ball would shoot out. Students were shooting their snow at snowmen, into blizzards and at different targets. It was a great opportunity for students to have creative freedom and we look forward working in the Makerspace again in January! There are photos from this activity on my website!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Second Step: Ms. Shaw visited our classroom again this week to teach another Kelso’s Choice lesson to the students! This lesson was about ignoring and how we ignore when we are being bothered or someone is saying something unkind to us. Ignoring requires students to use their eyes to look away, zip their lips so they don’t engage, calm their body and keep their hands to themselves and think about something that makes them happy or that they look forward to. Ms. Shaw acted out ignoring with various different students so that they had the opportunity to practice this skill. She would say something that was unkind and they had to look away, zip their lips, calm their body and think of something that made them happy. Students shared that while they were ignoring, they were thinking of Christmas, spending time with family and playing with their friends! I encourage you to ask your child about ignoring and even practice with them at home!

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

Important Dates:

• Monday, December 9th – All School Mass, Dress Uniform
• Thursday, December 19^th – Christmas Concert, 6:20pm in the Church. Meet in our classroom at 5:50pm.
• Friday, December 20^th – Noon Dismissal
• No School Dec 21^st – Jan 5^th – Winter Break

Best,

Miss Williamson

November 22, 2019 Class News 

We had a fun week in kindergarten! Students are getting excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families! See what we were up to this week!

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: at and be. Next week, due to the short week, we will not be introducing any new sight words. We will of course keep reviewing the ones we have learned! The students continue to use their sense of sight and hearing to spot sight words everywhere!

Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we reviewed the letters During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we reviewed the letters /l/ /k/ /j/ and /w/.  We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with l, k, j and w. When students are finished, they work hard writing words and drawing pictures that begin with our letters of the week.

Literacy centers: We continued with our reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, and this week instead of iPads, we worked on a play doh center. At the play doh center, students used a jar of play doh to create letters and then used the letters to create words that they recorded. At the phonics center, students used clip boards to find Thanksgiving themed words taped around the room and copied them onto their recording sheet. In reading groups, we use alphabet cards to practice sounds and play a game that requires students to think of a word that begins with the letter card I show. We continue to make predictions using word clues and picture clues, using our reading finger to track words, sound out words and identify sight words. Thank you to Miss McKenna, Miss Mary Ann and Miss Katie for volunteering with centers this week!

Writer’s Workshop: This week, we began by writing about something that makes us excited! Some students wrote about playing with friends, the holidays and even going to Target! We also read the book “Friends” and wrote about what makes us a good friend! We are working on “adding on” to our stories using the words “and” and/or “because” to tell the reader more information!

Math: Our essential question for chapter 3 is “How can I show numbers beyond 10 (10-20)?” We are showing numbers 10-20 on tens frames to help us grow our number sense and understand the place value of teen numbers (group of ten and how many more?).  We ordered and glued down number cards 11-20 on a sentence strip. We created a “foldable” and filled missing numbers to complete a number line up to 20.

Science: Today we worked on space post cards given to us from Mr. Bosza that will be flying up to space and then returning back to us! We copied the St. John School address and then drew a picture using colored pencils about something that excites us when we think about space! We are so excited to be sending our post cards to space!

Parent Art: Thank you Miss Amy for coming into the classroom and leading a fun art lesson! Students used foil and paint to decorate a fall tree!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

 Important Dates:

• Monday, November 25^th – All school Thanksgiving Mass, Dress Uniform
• Wednesday, November 27^th – Friday, November 29th, Thanksgiving Holiday, No School
• Thursday, December 19^th – Christmas Concert, 6:20pm in the Church.
• Friday, December 20^th – Noon Dismissal
• No School Dec 21^st – Jan 5^th – Winter Break

 Important Information:

• The 6^thgraders are putting on a food drive to stock up the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The drive is from now through Monday, November 25^th. Thank you in advance for your help!
• St. John School and Parish are very excited to announce a partnership with Unbound-a charity that allows us to directly help children in need. Kindergarten will sponsor Bruno.  He is from Bolivia and speaks Spanish!  He is 5 years old and enjoys playing ball, putting together puzzles and watching television. Senora Blanca will incorporate lessons where she will create a class letter in Spanish to send to Bruno throughout the year. Every first Friday of the month your child is welcome to bring in a $1 donation and make cards or write letters to Bruno. If you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thank you! Your support will help Bruno get a wonderful education and new pen pals from Seattle.

Best,

Miss Williamson

 

November 15, 2019 Class News 

We had another wonderful week in Kindergarten! We have been working hard, having fun and learning new things!

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: they and I.

Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we learned the letters /j/ /w/ and /q/.  We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with j, w, and q.

Literacy centers: We continued reading groups, sight word center, phonics center, independent library center, and iPad center. At the phonics center, students read sight word cards, used letter beads to string them into the words, and wrote the word down! In reading groups, we used expo markers and foam letters to finish spelling simple CVC and worked on sounding them out! We continue to use our “Eagle Eye” to observe picture clues and word clues to make predictions about what the story will be about.

Writers Workshop: This week we started a Thanksgiving project. We are making placemats to use at your Thanksgiving dinner! Students wrote the prayer before meals, “Bless Us Oh Lord” and watercolored items that relate to Thanksgiving. We will laminate and send home soon for you to enjoy at home! In celebration of the upcoming holiday, we discussed what it means to be thankful for something – to feel happy and pleased that you have something or someone in your life. We first brainstormed as a class about things we are thankful for (mom, dad, the Earth, recycling, sunshine, teachers, and Jesus!). Then, we then took those ideas and wrote them on a graphic organizer. In order to spell words, students are working on “best guess spelling” and doing their best to hear every sound in the word so they know what letters to write down. At home, when your kids ask you how to spell something, remind them about “best guess spelling” and putting down all the sounds they hear! We used our graphic organizers to make turkey’s, writing down the 6 things we are thankful for on the feathers of the turkey! They are up on our Wow Work Wall, come take a look!

Math: This week, we continued to work on using the vocabulary of “greater” and “less” than. Students use these words during calendar time to make observations about the weather chart and which days are “greater” and “less” than others! We also practiced looking at numbers that are one more, and one less. Students used a number line to write down numbers that are one more and one less than the number given!

Second Step: Ms. Shaw, our school counselor visited our classroom to introduce the class to our conflict management skills curriculum, Kelso’s Choices. There are 9 different specific strategies for children to use to solve small problems on their own. The choices are wonderful because it empowers our students to solve problems at recess, in the classroom, at home, everywhere! It might be helpful for you to familiarize yourself with the choices and reinforce them at home – the “wheel of choices” are attached. They also can be found in the “helpful handouts” page. This week, students discussed the difference between a small problem and a big problem as well as the difference between tattling and reporting. Students listened to a scenario and categorized it as a small problem that they should use a Kelso’s choice to solve, or a big problem where they need an adult’s help. We learned that tattling is when you tell an adult about a small problem that you can solve on your own with a Kelso’s choice. Reporting is when you tell an adult about a big problem.

Religion: This week we spent time re-focusing our intention and reverence during our afternoon prayer when we ask our Guardian Angels to watch over us. “Angel of God, my Guardian Dear…” We also worked on a social and emotional book where students had to read the emotion the girl or boy was feeling and draw what their face may look like. We are working empathy and being aware of what others around us are feeling so that we can best help them!

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
• I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
• Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.

Important Dates:

• Wednesday, November 20^th – Picture Retakes
• Thursday, November 21st – Dress Uniform, Grandparents and Special Friends Day (Grades 2-5)
• Monday, November 25^th – All school Thanksgiving Mass, Dress Uniform
• Wednesday, November 27^th – Friday, November 29th, Thanksgiving Holiday, No School

 Important Information:

• The 6^thgraders are putting on a food drive to stock up the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The drive is from now through Monday, November 25^th. Thank you in advance for your help!
• John School and Parish are very excited to announce a partnership with Unbound-a charity that allows us to directly help children in need. Kindergarten will sponsor Bruno.  He is from Bolivia and speaks Spanish!  He is 5 years old and enjoys playing ball, putting together puzzles and watching television. Senora Blanca will incorporate lessons where she will create a class letter in Spanish to send to Bruno throughout the year. Every first Friday of the month your child is welcome to bring in a $1 donation and make cards or write letters to Bruno. If you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thank you! Your support will help Bruno get a wonderful education and new pen pals from Seattle.

Best,

Miss Williamson

 

November 7, 2019 Class News 

We had another wonderful week in Kindergarten! Take a look at what we have been up to!

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: with and his. Next week we will learn they and I.

Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we learned the letters /l/ and /k/. We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with l and k.

Literacy centers: This week we continued reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, and iPad center. At the phonics center, students colored and read a book about Veteran’s Day, they circled all the words they were able to read! We are working hard at vowel sounds! In reading groups, we continue to use our “Eagle Eye” to observe picture clues and word clues to make predictions about what the story will be about. We are stretching out words to hear every letter in the word. We continue to practice reading CVC words and sight words.

Writers Workshop: We continue to practice using three steps to write a story – think of a story and picture it in your mind, draw the pictures, write the words. We wrote a three page story about what we will be doing for Thanksgiving. Including information about where we will be going, who we will be with and the plans we have for the day!

Math: We continue to review our tens frames and dot cards, which help us learn how to count on from the larger number to get the total. We practiced “shake and spill” where students decomposed 5 or 10 on a tens frame. We filled a cup with 5 or 10 two-sided math tokens (one side yellow, other red), shook the cup and spilled them. Then, we moved the tokens to show the number on a tens frame. Lastly, we wrote the number of yellow and red tokens to make 5 or 10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Religion: This week we learned that God made us in His image. We learned that we as humans are very special because God made us like Him. Like Him, we can think, make choices, and love.

We also had Peacemakers this week with Mrs. Dahlgren (our monthly conversations about bullying) where the focus was tolerance. What it is (accepting differences in other people) and how to practice it. She then read The Crayon Box That Talked by Shane DeRoth. Ask your child why kindness is a Super Power!

Social Studies: We read a poem about Veteran’s Day and students came up to the board to circle sight words or other words they were able to recognize in the poem. We are thankful to be free to sing, go to school, play, and many more things!

Science: We looked through and made observations about another National Geographic magazine. We learned how crayons were made and packaged. We also read about where different animals live and the jobs humans have taking care of animals! Ask your child to tell you the story about the man’s camera and the polar bear who got ahold of it!

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can count and divide words into syllables.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.
• I can count up to 10 to tell how many things are in a group.
• I can understand that the last thing I count tells the number of things in a group.
• I can name the number for each thing in a group as I count them.

Important Dates:

• Monday, November 11^th – Veteran’s Day, No school
• Wednesday, November 20^th – Picture Retakes
• Thursday, November 21st – Dress Uniform, Grandparents and Special Friends Day (Grades 2-5)
• Monday, November 25^th – All school Thanksgiving Mass, Dress uniform
• Wednesday, November 27^th – Friday, November 29th, Thanksgiving Holiday, No school

 Important Information:

• The 6^thgraders are putting on a food drive to stock up the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The drive is from now through Monday, November 25^th. Thank you in advance for your help!
• John School and Parish are very excited to announce a partnership with Unbound-a charity that allows us to directly help children in need. Kindergarten will sponsor Bruno.  He is from Bolivia and speaks Spanish!  He is 5 years old and enjoys playing ball, putting together puzzles and watching television. Senora Blanca will incorporate lessons where she will create a class letter in Spanish to send to Bruno throughout the year. Every first Friday of the month your child is welcome to bring in a $1 donation and make cards or write letters to Bruno. If you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thank you! Your support will help Bruno get a wonderful education and new pen pals from Seattle.

Best,

Miss Williamson

November 1, 2019 Class News 

We had a fun week filled with Halloween and All Saints Day Mass! Take a look at all we did!

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: as and are. Next week we will learn with and his.

Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we reviewed the letters /c/ /h/ /f/and /d/.  We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with c, h, f and d. We love to come up with new words that begin with our letters of the week! Especially when “candy” and “Halloween” begin with those letters!

Literacy centers: This week we continued reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, and iPad center. At the phonics center, students “wrote the room.” They carried around clip boards and found Halloween words which they copied down on their recording sheet. We are busy working on finger spaces and writing in mostly lowercase letters! In reading groups, we continue to use our “Eagle Eye” to observe picture clues and word clues to make predictions about what the story will be about.

Writers Workshop: On Wednesday, we read the story “Room on the Broom” and wrote about what animal or person we would want to have ride on our broom! We continue to work on finger spaces, writing with lowercase letters, and using punctuation at the end of our sentence.

Math: Students were excited to practice estimating with candy corn! Each table group had a jar with candy corns and had to work as a group to make their best guess on how many candy corns were in the jar! We then counted the candy corns to see if their estimation matched up. We continue to focus on “one more” when counting numbers 1-10. We are also working hard on problem solving in our math journals. Students love to critically think about questions, solve them independently, and share with the class under the document camera!

Religion: The entire kindergarten and 7^th grade put on the All Saints Day mass on Thursday! The kindergarteners colored pictures of different Saints and processed with them into the mass with their buddies. Great job to those students who sang, read, were greeters, and bell ringers! Students loved participating in the liturgy. We are Christ-centered students! (SLE)

 Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can count and divide words into syllables.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.
• I can count up to 10 to tell how many things are in a group.
• I can understand that the last thing I count tells the number of things in a group.
• I can name the number for each thing in a group as I count them.

 Important Dates:

• Friday, November 8^th – Parent-Teacher Conferences (Students do not attend)
• Monday, November 11^th – Veteran’s Day, No school
• Thursday, November 21st – Dress Uniform, Grandparents and Special Friends Day (Grades 2-5)
• Monday, November 25^th – All school Thanksgiving Mass, Dress Uniform
• Wednesday, November 27^th – Friday, November 29th, Thanksgiving Holiday, No school

 Important Information:

• The 6^thgraders are putting on a food drive to stock up the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The drive is from now through Monday, November 25^th. Thank you in advance for your help!
• John School and Parish are very excited to announce a partnership with Unbound-a charity that allows us to directly help children in need. Kindergarten will sponsor Bruno.  He is from Bolivia and speaks Spanish!  He is 5 years old and enjoys playing ball, putting together puzzles and watching television. Senora Blanca will incorporate lessons where she will create a class letter in Spanish to send to Bruno throughout the year. Every first Friday of the month your child is welcome to bring in a $1 donation and make cards or write letters to Bruno. If you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thank you! Your support will help Bruno get a wonderful education and new pen pals from Seattle.

Best,

Miss Williamson

October 25, 2019 Class News 

We had a terrific week learning together in kindergarten! Your children are working hard and having fun! Take a peek at all we did this week:

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: on and for. Next week we will learn as and are.

Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we learned the letters /d/ and /f/.  We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with d and f. We are working on our “best guess” spelling, meaning they write whatever letters they hear!

Literacy centers: This week we continued reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, and iPad center. At the phonics center, students use foam pieces to fill in missing letters in words. For example, a card may say “l__g”, students would have the find the “O” foam piece to complete the word. In our sight word group, students continued to work on their sight word rings and are even practicing writing them during their quiet choice time! In reading groups, we continue to use our “Eagle Eye” to observe picture clues and word clues to make predictions about what the story will be about.

Writers Workshop/Science: We used our five senses to observe our class pumpkins. The class came up with terrific describing words using our five senses to guide our thinking. As scientists do, we had a fun pumpkin investigation lab, where we got to measure the parts of a pumpkin with unifix cubes, count the lines, and we even investigated whether our pumpkins float or sink in water! We are working on using capital letters to start a sentence, finger spaces between words, writing mostly lowercase letters, and punctuation at the end of a sentence!

Math: We dove into work with ten frames this week, filling in the correct number of boxes to model a certain number. The students also began creating their own ten frames and modeling whichever number they choose. We continue to work on problem solving prompts and have moved into prompts that require students to do subtraction! Students are coming up with at least four different ways to model their answer, and a handful each day will come up to the document camera to share their thinking!

Religion: This week we attended class mass with our 7^th grade buddies! We also completed the required Virtus Lesson about safety and what a “safe touch” is. High fives, hugs with family, and holding hands with mom and dad are all safe touches! The entire kindergarten grade and 7^th grade is putting on the All Saints Day mass on Nov 1^st. We invite you to join us!

Common Core Standards we’re working on:

• I can read common sight words.
• I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
• With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
• I can spell simple words phonetically.
• I can read CVC words.
• I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
• I can read the words in a book in the right order.
• I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
• I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
• I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
• I can write numbers from 0-20.
• I can understand that the last thing I count tells the number of things in a group.
• I can name the number for each thing in a group as I count them.

Important Dates:

• Monday, October 28^th – Parent-Teacher Conferences (Students do not attend)

• Thursday, October 31^st – Halloween Carnival led by middle school 1-3pm
  • Students may wear a Halloween costume that day
• Friday, November 1^st – All Saint’s Day Liturgy, Dress Uniform

• Friday, November 8^th – Parent-Teacher Conferences (Students do not attend)

 Important Information:

• The 6^thgraders are putting on a food drive to stock up the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry. The drive is from now through Monday, November 25^th. Thank you in advance for your help!
• John School and Parish are very excited to announce a partnership with Unbound-a charity that allows us to directly help children in need. Kindergarten will sponsor Bruno.  He is from Bolivia and speaks Spanish!  He is 5 years old and enjoys playing ball, putting together puzzles and watching television. Senora Blanca will incorporate lessons where she will create a class letter in Spanish to send to Bruno throughout the year. Every first Friday of the month your child is welcome to bring in a $1 donation and make cards or write letters to Bruno. If you have any additional questions, please let me know. Thank you! Your support will help Bruno get a wonderful education and new pen pals from Seattle.

Best,

Miss Williamson