News for the Week of November 12th

Wow!  What a great week at CCE before the Thanksgiving break!  The book fair was exciting for the school, the Thanksgiving lunch, and our kindergarten musical performances for the school and the parents!  We were also very proud to show off our artwork and clay monsters on Friday!

I want to thank my "Monkey" class for the great Thanksgiving card and gift card to Target!  I really appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity!  I am very thankful for my little Monkeys!  I hope all of you have a wonderful, safe and relaxing Thanksgiving break!

In math this week, we used number lines to help us better see numbers that come before and after a given number.  We used a spinner and wrote the number we landed on, and then wrote the numbers that come before and after.  The students continued to use the vocabulary "more" and "fewer."  We will finish up comparing numbers after the Thanksgiving break.

In language arts, we read the poem, I Can Be Anything, which focused on the sight word "be."  We wrote the word "be" several times, looked for rhyming words in our poem and then colored the illustrations.  We listened to a book on Bookflix called Thanksgiving to learn more about the upcoming holiday, why we celebrate it and how people celebrate it each year.  We made cute turkey hats for our Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday.  We also read a couple of books about being thankful.  We brainstormed things that we are thankful for and made our thankful turkeys.  We wrote what we are thankful for on the turkey's feathers.  We hope you will discuss these as a family and it will start a family conversation.  We watched the video, Holiday Facts and Fun:  Thanksgiving, to learn more about the holiday and read a book about the first Thanksgiving.  We made a cute Native American and pilgrim craft and wrote about the first Thanksgiving.  During our word study, we worked on identifying the ending sounds of words.  We continued our work in our handwriting book by forming the letters j, p, r and n and a few words.

In science, we began to learn about rocks.  We watched a video called Rocks:  The Solid Earth Material and read more information about rocks.  We made a chart titled, Properties of Rocks, where the students brainstormed words to describe rocks.  We then chose a rock to closely observe.  We recorded our observations by drawing and coloring our rock in our science notebooks and then we wrote property words to describe our rock.

The Monkeys enjoyed learning about our superstar student, Victoria!  We were able to learn all about her life and interests.

We will announce our next superstar student on Friday, November 30th.

Reminders

If you have not yet signed and returned the report card envelope, please do so and send it to school with your child.  You can keep the white report card inside of the envelope.  We only need the signed envelopes back.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Nov. 19-23  Thanksgiving Break, NO SCHOOL
Nov. 28th    Coffee Chat, 7:45 a.m.
Nov. 29th    Picture Retakes
Dec. 5th     Bush's Spirit Night
Dec. 7th     Field Trip-Zach Scott Theater
Dec. 7th     Deadline for TAG referrals, 4:00 p.m.
Dec. 19th   Winter Party, 2:00 p.m.
12/20-1/7  Winter Break-No School

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

None

Morris November Birthdays:

None

News for the Week of November 5th

I hope you are all staying warm this weekend!  I am enjoying the colder weather and hope it sticks around for a while.  Thank you all so much for taking the time to work  with your child on the feather for our class turkey.  It looks fantastic!  I will post a picture of it on next week's blog.  Come and see it in our hallway near the library.  

In math this week, we worked on comparing numbers and sets of objects.  We made sets of objects for a given number and then we made other sets that were one more or two more.  We then worked on making sets of objects that were one fewer or two fewer.  The students caught on and did pretty well when working with me during guided math.  Knowing what number comes before and after a given number can be a difficult concept for some students to grasp at their age.  We will work with number lines a lot next week to help us order numbers and more easily see what numbers are fewer than or more than a given number.

In language arts, we read the poem, I Go, which focused on the sight word "go."  We wrote the word "go" several times, looked for rhyming words in our poem and then colored the illustrations.  We read a fun turkey book called, A Plump and Perky Turkey, by Teresa Bateman, and we brainstormed what we could eat for Thanksgiving besides turkey.  We then completed the sentence stem, "Save a turkey!  Eat more _______."  We made cute turkeys out of construction paper and they are hanging in our hallway now.  We then began a unit on informational/expository text.  The students helped to create a class chart comparing fiction and nonfiction.  We read nonfiction text about turkeys and learned a lot of new information.  We watched videos about turkeys and watched a slideshow.  We then labeled a picture of a turkey, wrote facts about turkeys, made a "can, have, are" chart about turkeys and drew a picture of something we learned about turkeys and added a caption.  We will finish our nonfiction work on turkeys this week.  We will then learn about the culture and traditions surrounding Thanksgiving and learn about the first Thanksgiving.   During our word study, we worked more with identifying beginning sounds of words and producing words that begin with particular sounds.  We continued our work in our handwriting book by forming the letters k, y and a few words.

In science, we continued to focus on patterns of movement and will review and take an assessment next week.  We will then begin a new science unit on rocks, soil and water.

The Monkeys enjoyed learning about our superstar student, Ethan!  We were able to learn all about his life and interests.

We look forward to learning all about our next superstar student, Victoria!

It's Book Fair time! Our book fair brings kids the books they want to read and raises funds for library programs such as author visits. Students will be bringing home wish lists Fri, Nov. 9,  and we will be open for shopping all next week. 

• To SHOP ONLINE, click here! Books will be sent to school and delivered to student (or if they are gifts, we can hold them in the library - contact the library to let us know:).
• To VOLUNTEER, click here!  We need you!

IN-LIBRARY shopping hours:

Monday, November 12 7:20 am – 3:30 pm
Tuesday, November 13 7:20 am – 5:45 pm (LATER HOURS)
Wednesday, November 14, 7:20 am – 3:30 pm
Thursday, November 15, 7:20 am – 4: 40 pm (LATER HOURS)
Friday, November 16, 7”20 – NOON (CLOSING EARLY)

Reminders

If you have not yet signed and returned the report card envelope, please do so and send it to school with your child.  You can keep the white report card inside of the envelope.  We only need the signed envelopes back.

Our Thanksgiving lunch is on Wednesday, November 14th at 11:00-11:30 in the cafeteria.  Please join your child for this special lunch if possible.  If you did not reserve a lunch for yourself on the rsvp forms that were sent home a while back, please feel free to bring a lunch for yourself.

Please join us for the Kindergarten Thanksgiving musical performance at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, November 16th in the cafeteria.  Make sure to arrive a bit early to sign in with a valid ID or driver's license and get a badge.  The kindergarten students and Mrs. Martin have been working very hard to prepare for their performance.  You may also view your child's artwork in the hallway near the cafeteria that they worked hard on in Mrs. Weir's art class.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Nov. 12-16  Book Fair
Nov. 13       PTA Meeting, 5:45 p.m.
Nov. 14       Thanksgiving Lunch, 11 a.m. (for our class)
Nov. 16       Kindergarten Music Performance, 8 a.m.
Nov. 16       Kona Ice, after school
Nov. 19-23  Thanksgiving Break, NO SCHOOL
Nov. 28th    Coffee Chat, 7:45 a.m.
Nov. 29th    Picture Retakes
Dec. 5th     Bush's Spirit Night
Dec. 7th     Field Trip-Zach Scott Theater

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

Victoria!

Morris November Birthdays:

None

News for the Week of October 29th

Wow!  What a fun-filled week we had this past week!  We started off with the 50th day of school and dressed up in 1950s attire.  Here the Monkeys are playing the math game, "Roll a Record."

We also had pumpkin math on Halloween, which was a blast!  Thank you SO much to all of the parents who donated items and thank you to all of the parents that donated their time!  We could not do it without you!

In math this week, we worked on looking at different set of objects with different amounts.  We then compared the sets and determined which had more or fewer.  The students counted, compared and stated which groups had more or fewer.  We also began to discuss "how many more" one set had compared to another set.  We will continue to look at "how many more" next week in math.

In language arts, we read the poem, Five Little Pumpkins, looked for rhyming words in our poem and then we illustrated the poem.  We worked on a fun craft on the 50th day of school and wrote about what we have learned to do in the first 50 days of kindergarten (or what we are better at now).  We hung these up in the hallway, so be sure to come and see them!  We read Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson, and discussed the characters, their actions and the reasons for their actions.  We also sequenced the events that happened in the story.  The Monkeys really enjoyed reading Creepy Carrots, by Aaron Reynolds.  We discussed the character Jasper, his actions and the reasons for his actions.  We made our own creepy carrots and wrote about the character's actions.  These are hanging in our hallway, so come and see them, too!  Next week, we will begin to learn about informational/expository text.  We will read nonfiction text about turkeys.  In social studies, we will learn about Veterans Day, its meaning and how we celebrate the holiday.  We will also begin to study culture and will learn about how families celebrate Thanksgiving.  During our word study, we focused on more work with syllables and sorted pictures based on their syllables.  We also worked more on identifying beginning sounds of words. We continued our work in our handwriting book by forming the letters u, i and a few words.

In science, we finished our unit on magnets and took an assessment.  We then worked on a couple of activities dealing with locations/positions.  For instance, the students placed pictures of bugs "above" a jar, "below" a jar, "inside" the jar, "beside" the jar and "on" the lid of the jar.  We continue this work next week and we will begin to learn about patterns of movement.

The Monkeys enjoyed learning about our superstar student, Mozelle!  We were able to learn all about her life and interests.

We look forward to learning all about our next superstar student, Ethan!

Reminders

If you have not yet signed and returned the report card envelope, please do so and send it to school with your child.  You can keep the white report card inside of the envelope.  We only need the signed envelopes back.

Please send your child's decorated feather with them to school on Monday, November 5th.  I will add these feathers to our big turkey in the hallway.  It is so much fun for everyone at school to see the wonderful variety of feathers created by our students and their families.

Please be sure to check out the "Dates to Remember" below. 

Upcoming Dates to Remember: 

Nov. 6        TAG Parent Referral Meeting, 6 p.m.~Library
Nov. 9        Veterans Day Program, 8 a.m.
Nov. 12-16  Book Fair
Nov. 13       PTA Meeting, 5:45 p.m.
Nov. 14       Thanksgiving Lunch, 11 a.m. (for our class)
Nov. 16       Kindergarten Music Performance, 8 a.m.
Nov. 16       Kona Ice, after school
Nov. 19-23  Thanksgiving Break, NO SCHOOL

Superstars & Birthdays:

Morris Superstar:

Ethan!

Morris November Birthdays:

None

Happy Birthday Siddhant!