Kindergarten – Los Feliz Arts

Kindergarten News

June 15th Newsletter

This newsletter brings to you many things you can do with your child over the summer. Have a safe and wonderful summer.

Love,

The Kindergarten Teachers

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
As readers, we’re learning to give the gift of reading. We’ve been learning how to read our books so our audience can savor every word. We’ve been letting the book tell us how it should be read by looking at the pictures and following the punctuation. We’ve been noticing the genre of our books to guide our reading style. This week we are working with our partners so we can eventually correct ourselves as we grow as storytellers.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
In math we have reviewed all of the skills we have learned over the course of the year. We practiced our one-to-one counting up to 30, identified and extended pattens, described the different plane and solid shapes, made graphs of objects we had sorted based on common attributes, and started our basic addition and subtraction facts.

Science: What do scientists have to know and be able to do?
In Science we read many books about the Earth’s different landforms. We had deep discussions about mountains, oceans, deserts, and valleys. We believe that most of the children were impressed with the volcanic mountains. Ask your children what they learned about the different landforms we discussed.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
As the year comes to an end, we are reflecting on what we learned in DWoK. We are now experts on how families show care. We came together as a class to discuss what we learned about shelters, food, clothing, and protection. All of our DWoK work this year is being pieced together to create an all about book/portfolio about Care. We are so excited to share what we’ve learned that we will be inviting you to an end of the year reflection celebration. Please keep an eye out for the invitation in your email!

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
Last week, we became published authors once again! This time, we published nonfiction books about a topic that we had researched for several weeks. We celebrated being authors by inviting the first grade classes to come listen to our stories! We taught them all so much about our nonfiction topics, that now they are on their way to being experts too. It was a great way to introduce the kindergarten students to the first grade teachers, and all students enjoyed working in pairs and getting to know each other. For the remainder of the year, we will focus on poetry and free writing, and students will publish their book of choice next week. We have grown so much this year as writers. Look out first grade…here we come!

Handwriting
We have worked on all 26 letters! Please continue to practice handwriting this summer.

Please help your child work on these words in preparation for first grade:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, to, like, love, are, mom, my, good, she, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, white, black, brown, pink, gray, look, of, see, we, up, do, go, run, at, by, because, all, play, yes, first, next, then, last, finally, friend, you, day, said, one, two, little, what, me, no, out, so, am, be, where, let, say, stop, while, away, big, come, down, find, for, funny, help, here, jump, make, me, not, three

IDEAS FOR HELPING YOU CHILD THIS SUMMER:
Reading and Writing
Continue to read to your children or have hem read to you for at least 20 minutes everyday.

Alphabet practice is important. During the summer break, have your child practice writing and identifying letters and sounds. Make it a point to spend 10 minutes writing and practicing letters every day. It will boost their confidence for first grade and make the transition much easier. 

ABC Collage Practice letter and sound recognition by making alphabet collages. Give your child an old magazine and challenge him/her to find all of the pictures and words that start with the letter. Make an alphabet book with all of the pages at the end of the summer. You can also challenge your child to find words or pictures with consonant blends (ch, sh, bl, tr). 

Play Hang Spider Similar to “Hangman,” think of a word, write that number of blank spaces and let the child guess letters. You may also let the child think of the word and you guess the letters! This is a fun game to play in the car—use a dry erase marker on the window.  

Clean Writing Time Use this recipe to make “bathtub paint” and have your kids write words in the bathtub on the tiles, in the water, with bubbles, or on the shower curtain.  

Bathtub Paint •1/3 cup baby shampoo per paint color •1 tablespoon cornstarch per paint color •Food coloring •Measuring cups, tablespoon, and stirring spoon •Plastic cups •Cotton swabs (optional, for use as paint “brushes”)

Sorting and Stacking

Teach classification skills with dinnerware. Ask your child to match and stack dishes of similar sizes and shapes. Also have your child sort flatware–forks with forks, spoons with spoons. This is like recognizing the shapes of letters and numbers.

Telephonitis

Give your child practice in reading numbers left to right by dialing a telephone. Make a list of telephone numbers your child can read–for relatives, friends, the weather bureau– and have your child make a call or two.

Let ‘Em Eat Shapes

This is not only a snack, but a game to match shapes. Cut bread into different shapes–rectangles, triangles, squares, and circles. Make at least two of each shape. Ask your youngster to choose a pair of similar shapes, then to put jam on the first piece, and to place the second piece on top to make a sandwich.

Dress Me

Increase your child’s vocabulary. Teach the name of each item of clothing your child wears–shirt, blouse, sweater, sock, and shoe–when your child is dressing or undressing. Also teach the body parts–head, arm, knee, and foot. Then print the words on paper and ask your child to attach these papers to the clothes in the closet or drawers.

Hidden Letters

Build reading observation skills with this activity. Ask your child to look for letters of the alphabet on boxes and cans of food and household supplies. For example, find five A’s or three C’s, or any number of letters or combinations on cereal boxes, soup cans, bars of soap. Start with easy-to-find letters and build up to harder-to-find ones. Then have your children write the letters on paper or point out the letters on the boxes and cans.

Disappearing Letters

Promote creativity and build muscle control with a pail of water and a brush. On a warm day, take your children outside to the driveway or sidewalk and encourage them to write anything they wish. Talk about what they’ve written. For example, Use comic strips to help with writing. Cut apart the segments of a comic strip and ask your child to arrange them in order. Then ask your child to fill in the words of the characters (orally or in writing).

And That’s The End of The Story

Improve listening skills and imagination. Read a story aloud to your child and stop before the end. Ask the child how the story will turn out. Then finish the story and discuss the ending with the child. Did it turn out the way you thought?

Clip, Paste and Write

A family vacation is a perfect opportunity to create a trip scrapbook that will be a lasting souvenir of family adventures. Collect postcards, brochures and menus from restaurants and tourist attractions. Encourage your child to write descriptions of the places you visited and tell stories about your family’s escapades. Or suggest a scrapbook on your child’s favorite sports team or a chronicle of his year in school. The scrapbook might contain photos with captions, newspaper clippings or school mementos.

Many photo-sharing Web sites, such as Shutterfly or KodakGallery, will help you (for a fee) create professional quality photo books, where you arrange the photos and write captions.

Math

Laundry Math

Sharpen skills by doing a necessary household job. Ask your youngster to sort laundry–before or after washing. How many socks? How many sheets? You may find a lost sock!

Napkin Fractions

Make fractions fun. Fold paper towels or napkins into large and small fractions. Start with halves and move to eighths and sixteenths. Use magic markers to label the fractions.

Weigh Me

Teach estimating skills. Ask your children to guess the weight of several household objects–a wastebasket, a coat, a full glass of water. Then show children how to use a scale to weigh the objects. Next, have them estimate their own weight, as well as that of other family members, and use the scale to check their guesses. Some brave parents get on the scale, too.

Practice addition and subtraction

Use dice and practice rolling numbers and adding or subtracting those numbers. You can also use playing cards to practice math facts.

Practice telling time

Make a paper plate to practice telling time (at least to the hour). Draw a clock on the back of a paper plate and cut hands out of part. Fasten the hands to the clock with a brass brad and practice telling the time. Also, during the day point out the time to your child–what time do you eat lunch, wake up, go to bed?

Introduce your child to money

What are the names of the coins? What are they worth? Money counting is also great for addition and subtraction practice.

Discuss vocabulary like more, less than, equal to, longer, shorter, taller, heavier.

DWoK

Practice care this summer by having your child take care of something for the family. Your child can help at home by taking out the trash, picking up toys, cleaning up his/her room, etc.

Science

Ice Is Nice

Improve observation and questioning skills by freezing and melting ice. Add water to an ice cube tray and set it in the freezer. Ask your child how long it will take to freeze. For variety, use different levels of water in different sections of the tray. Set ice cubes on a table. Ask your child how long they will take to melt. Why do they melt? Place the ice cubes in different areas of the room. Do they melt faster in some places than in others? Why?

Float and Sink

Encourage hypothesizing (guessing). Use several objects–soap, a dry sock, a bottle of shampoo, a wet sponge, an empty bottle. Ask your child which objects will float when dropped into water in a sink or bathtub. Then drop the objects in the water, one by one, to see what happens.

What Does It Take to Grow?

Teach cause-and-effect relationships. Use two similar, healthy plants. Ask your child to water one plant and ignore the other for a week or two, keeping both plants in the same place. At the end of that time, ask your child to water the drooping plant. Then talk about what happened and why. Plants usually perk up with water just as children perk up with good words and smiles from parents.

Maps

Introduce your child to maps. Point out the features of a map, like the streets, water and parks. Help your child make a map of your neighborhood.

Cooking

Cooking projects are great way to explore science! Talk about the different states of matter (solid, liquid and gas) when you are making popsicles. Show your child measurements when you are baking. Help your child make a prediction and hypothesize when you combine different foods together (oil and water, baking soda and vinegar, milk and lemon juice).

Drama

Get Theatrical

Young children can make their own puppet theater. Begin by cutting off the finger-ends of old gloves. Draw faces on these fingers with felt tip markers and glue on yarn for hair. Or glue on felt strips to create cat, dog or other animal faces. Then your child can create a story that the finger puppets can act out. For older children, find books containing play scripts for young people (see “Helpful Books” sidebar) and encourage your child and friends to create their own neighborhood theater. They can plan a performance, make a simple stage at the park or on the steps of some one’s home, create playbills and sell tickets.

Visual Arts

Barnsdall Arts Park in Los Feliz offers inexpensive arts classes for children and adults and on Sundays have a free art class. For a schedule of classes and Sunday art classes go to www.barnsdallarts .org.

P.E.

From Mr. Wenger…

In the California Health Framework, I found the following definition of Health: ”A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” Obviously there is no p.e. during the weeks of summer break. It is up to each one of you to go out and have fun running, biking, swimming, hiking, playing handball, etc…and while you are having lots of fun, you are also staying in good shape for when p.e. starts again in September! Have a wonder-full summer!

Mr. Wenger

Websites that help make learning fun:

http://www.onemorestory .com /

http://www.storylineonline .net /

http://www.starfall .com /

http://www.poetryarchive .org /childrensarchive/home.do

http://pbskids.org /

http://www.americaslibrary .gov /aa /index.php

http://www.funbrain .com /

http://www.brainpop .com /

http://www.iknowthat .com /com

http://kids.nationalgeographic .com /kids/

http://www.kidsnumbers .com /

http://www.scholastic .com /parents/play/

10 Fun Summer Learning Activities

Backyard gardens, puppet theaters, scrapbooks and crafts are some of the ways to keep your children active and their minds working all summer long.

By Lisa Rosenthal, GreatSchools.net Staff

Summer vacation can be either a learning wasteland or a learning paradise.

June 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
We are continuing to research our nonfiction topics. Now that we have learned a lot of strategies to read and navigate our research books, we are reading about our research topics to be able to teach others. We have been using different note taking techniques to help us remember the most interesting part of our books and also to help us mark pages that have information we want to include in the books we are writing.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
Shapes! Shapes! Shapes! We revisited plane shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle) and solid shapes or 3D shapes (sphere, pyramid, cube, cylinder, cone). When we reviewed these shapes. Children were asked to not only identify the shape but to describe each shape by explaining at least two of its attributes. How many sides, corners, and faces does each shape have? We then took our descriptions a step further by asking them to compare the shapes differences and similarities. Ask your children to describe some of the 2D and 3D shapes.

Our math minds have been hard at work making reasonable estimations. We learned that estimation is a guess. Our students estimated cubes, straws, and beans by taking a handful. We then made a “guess” about how much we had in our hand and then counted the items in our hand by 2s, 5s, or 10s. We then checked to see how close our estimation was to what we actually had. We then estimated measurement by “guessing” the length around our legs, arms, and heads. We used yarn to make our estimations. Then we got to estimate the colors in an M&M bag. At home you can fill a bowl or a jar (with beans, paper clips, or other objects) and ask your children to make reasonable estimations. This is a great way to reinforce our counting skills.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
During the past two weeks we have been reflecting on what we’ve learned this year in DWoK. We now feel as though we are amazing caregivers. We discussed what it means to really show care for your family and we brainstormed ways to help our families out. We made a “pledge book” pledging what we could do around the house to showcase what great caregivers we are. We feel as though we have a deep understanding about providing care through shelter, food, clothing, and protection.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
We continued to write like scientists last week. We are making headway in our nonfiction books, and have been learning how to add detail like the five senses. Mentor authors were a big part of our last unit, and we have continued to refer back to them this month. Last week we learned about how to make our books interactive, just like real authors do. Ask your child about how he/she is making their book interactive.

Handwriting
We have worked on all 26 letters!

Please help your child work on these words at home:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, to, like, love, are, mom, my, good, she, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, white, black, brown, pink, gray, look, of, see, we, up, do, go, run, at, by, because, all, play, yes, first, next, then, last, finally, friend, you, day, said, one, two, little, what, me, no, out, so, am, be, where

Announcements:
-This Friday, June 3 is class picture day!
-The next newsletter, June 15, will be our last newsletter. It will be full of many wonderful ways you can help your child this summer. Check it out! =)

Classroom Donations:
We need ink cartridges. We have Epson Stylus NX200 Printers and need Epson 69 ink in black and tri-color. We could also benefit from the larger size (Epson 88) or the high capacity in black (Epson 68). Please ask one of the K teachers if you need more information or are able to help. Thank you to all who have donated.

We also need white post-it pads. Many parents were gracious enough to donate these at the beginning of the year. These large tablets are perfecting for our shared reading poems and other charts. To get an idea of what we need, feel free to check the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/POST-SELF-STICK-EASEL-PADS-PK/dp/B002XJMARC

May 15 Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
In Reader’s workshop we’re starting a new unit where our readers are reading with a real purpose. They have each selected and are researching a nonfiction topic that interests them. As we move back into nonfiction books, we have reviewed the special nonfiction features (index, table of contents, captions, and labels). This week we will be learning more strategies to help us zoom in and find important information about our topics.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
In math we have been focusing on time. We had the opportunity to learn more about this topic by demonstrating our understanding of the concept of time. We did this by using a clock and a calendar. We can identify the time of everyday events. For example, we know what we do in the morning, afternoon, and evening. We also learned the song “Telling Time.” Ask your child to sing this song for you.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
Last week in DWoK we had two very special guests visit kindergarten. In the morning four fire fighters from Glassell Park Fire Station came and talked about fire safety. We even got to hop onto their spiffy fire truck!!! Later that afternoon a dentist came to share all about tooth care and protection. She even showed us how to floss! It was really interesting learning about different community helpers. Later in the week we sat down and talked about what we learned and what we found interesting. After the class discussion we created beautiful thank you cards for both the fire fighters and the dentist. We took care forming all of our letters and drawing our pictures. This week we are going to close our protection unit by learning about people and animals in the artic and how they show care through protection.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
Last week we started a brand new unit in Writer’s Workshop-All About Science. We have enjoyed integrating our research topic in Reader’s Workshop into our writing. Not only are we reading and investigating a topic we want to learn more about, we are even getting to write about it-just like real scientists!

Handwriting
We have learned L, I, T, E, F, H, N, M, V, W, A, Y, X, K, Z, P, R, B, D, J, U, C, Q, O

Announcements and Reminders:
Our Reader’s Theater performances will be the week of May 16-20th and the 24th for Miss Siegel’s class. Each class will perform during their Theater Arts time. Your teacher’s name, date, and time of the performance are listed below. For a.m. classes, please have your child bring in their costume the day of the performance. For p.m. classes, please have your child wear their costume on the day of the performance, with a change of clothes if needed.

Please join us if possible. We look forward to performing for you!

Mr. Dmytriw-Wednesday, May 18 at 10:30 a.m.
Mrs. King-Thursday, May 19 at 10:30 a.m.
Mrs. Fann-Friday, May 20 at 12:45 p.m.

NEW TIME Miss Siegel-Tuesday, May 24th at 10:30 a.m.

-Please label everything with your child’s name.

-Please check out Lost and Found for missing items. The small blue bin has been moved to the inside of the parking lot (on the left side after the car gate) and is now lost and found.

Classroom Donations:

We need ink cartridges. We have Epson Stylus NX200 Printers and need Epson 69 ink in black and tri-color. We could also benefit from the larger size (Epson 88) or the high capacity in black (Epson 68). Please ask one of the K teachers if you need more information or are able to help. Thank you to all who have donated.

May 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?

This week we had the opportunity to become the characters we have gotten to know so well. In class we thought and acted just like the characters we read about in our “just right” books. Ask your child to show you what characters they have really gotten to know in their books. Ask them to show you how they act and how they think. Students have had many opportunities to “become” someone or something else. We will continue to practice what we have learned about our characters so we have a deeper understanding of what we are reading as well as building upon our fluency skills.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able

to do?

Our mathematicians continue to learn more about combining numbers as they learn about adding and subtracting. This week our students applied what they have been learning as they created math stories that they presented during our Open House. We will continue to learn more about subtraction this next week, and we’re excited to focus again on the concept of time in the coming weeks.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each

other?

This week was all about safety and the people who protect us. We read I Read Symbols by Tana Hoban, and learned about all the different signs that are in our community. Then, we took a safety walk in the school, noting

features and safety hazards. We followed up by making our own safety signs. Hope you were able to check those out at Open House! Later in the week we moved into a discussion of the people in our community that help us. We will continue to learn about these community helpers next week, as we prepare questions for the real community helpers who will visit our school.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?

This week in writer’s workshop we re-read our mentor authors’ stories and looked for ways that they added detail. We learned what adjectives are and how to add them to our stories and make them rich and full of descriptive language. We are still focusing on small moments in our lives and non-fiction writing. We love that now we can add so much detail to hook in our readers!

Science: How do scientists investigate?

As scientists, we have been investigating natural resources. This week we are even going to make our own paper! We continue to study the effects of pollution and how we can work together to help conserve our natural resources.

Handwriting

We have learned L, I, T, E, F, H, N, M, V, W, A, Y, X, K, Z, P, R, B, D, J, U, C

Please help your child work on these words at home:

a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, to, like, love, are, mom, my, good, she, red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, white, black, brown, pink, gray, look, of, see, we, up, do, go, run, at, by, because, all, play, yes, first, next, then, last, finally, friend, you, day, said, one, two, little, what

Announcements and Reminders:

-Thank you for attending Open House! We hope you enjoyed your “tour” with

your child. All of the kindergarten students have worked so hard this year!

Thank you for being a part of our special night. =)

-Our Reader’s Theater performances will be the week of May 16-20. Each

class will perform during their Theater Arts time. Your teacher’s name,

date, and time of the performance are listed below. For a.m. classes, please

have your child bring in their costume the day of the performance. For

p.m. classes, please have your child wear their costume on the day of the

performance, with a change of clothes if needed.

Please join us if possible. Thank you again for helping your child learn their

lines at home and for helping them make a costume. We look forward to

performing for you!

Miss Siegel-Tuesday, May 17 at 10:00 a.m.

Mr. Dmytriw-Wednesday, May 18 at 10:30 a.m.

Mrs. King-Thursday, May 19 at 10:30 a.m.

Mrs. Fann-Friday, May 20 at 12:45 p.m.

-Please label everything with your child’s name.

-Please check out Lost and Found for missing items. The small blue bin has

been moved to the inside of the parking lot (on the left side after the car

gate) and is now lost and found.

Classroom Donations:

We need ink cartridges. We have Epson Stylus NX200 Printers and need

Epson 69 ink in black and tri-color. We could also benefit from the larger

size (Epson 88) or the high capacity in black (Epson 68). Please ask one of

the K teachers if you need more information or are able to help. Thank you

to all who have donated.

We also need white post-it pads. Many parents were gracious enough

to donate these at the beginning of the year. These large tablets are

perfecting for our shared reading poems and other charts. To get an idea of

what we need, feel free to check the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/POST-SELF-STICK-EASEL-PADS-PK/dp/

B002XJMARC

April 15th Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
This month in Reader’s Workshop we are focusing our attention on getting to know the characters in our books. The students are trying to use different strategies to learn about how to get to know the characters in their books. For example, they are learning how to use the character’s name when retelling the story, how to use expression, gesture and character voice when retelling, and how to look at a character’s facial expression or body language to learn more about the characters’ feelings and actions. Along with getting to know our characters, the children continue to develop their reading partnerships to share what they have learned about their characters. This encourages children to not only talk about what they are reading but it builds in critical thinking skills as well as developing good reading habits.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
In Math, we have been focusing on getting a deep understanding of addition and subtraction. We have focused breaking down larger numbers into smaller parts. As an example, we learned that we can make the number 7 by adding 4 and 3 together and that we can also use 6 and 1, 5 and 2 and 7 and 0. Using our manipulatives to tell addition and subtraction stories is helping us get ready to understand number families.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
We are learning about Protection. Right now, our focus is on safety. Thank you for helping fill up our Safety Headquarters. The students brought in so many safety items, like smoke detectors, safety blankets, first aid kits, and band-aids galore! This week we discussed home safety, and after the break we will move on to safety in the school and community. Just a heads up, we’ll be looking for a community helper or two in early May (parents who can be guest speakers for the students, discussing how they help protect and keep others safe).

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
We started a new unit in our Writer’s Workshop. We are learning about Authors as Mentors. Every class has their own author from whom they are learning. In the last few weeks, we have been getting to know our new authors. We’ve read many of their books to understand how they write. We learned that writers don’t only write during writing time, they write all day long! We are learning to think like a writer and remember small moments to write about later. We are figuring out the difference between a “watermelon story” and a “seed story.” A “watermelon story” is a BIG story with lots of parts. A “seed story” is a tiny, small moment that we zoom into and add detail. We are working very hard on creating “seed stories” with detail. We can’t wait to share them!

Science: How do scientists investigate?
As scientists, we have been investigating natural resources. This week, looking ahead to Earth Day, we are learning about the effects of pollution and how we can work together to help conserve our natural resources.

Handwriting
We have learned L, I, T, E, F, H, N, M, V, W, A, Y, X, K, Z, P, R, B, D, J, U, C

Announcements and Reminders:
-Open House is just around the corner! Please put April 28^th on your calendar. From 6:30-8:00 that evening, you will be able to visit our classroom. Your child has worked so hard this year, and we want to celebrate that. Just a heads up…save the date!
-Please label everything with your child’s name.
-Please check out Lost and Found for missing items. The small blue bin has been moved to the inside of the parking lot (on the left side after the car gate) and is now lost and found.

Classroom Donations:

April 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
We have grown so much as readers. We are closing up our unit on using all our tools to figure out tricky parts in our books. We now know that readers re-read their books with purpose. Sometimes the purpose is to figure out what a word means and other times it’s to practice making our reading voices smooth and full of emotion. We are also starting to go over digraphs. We learned how to read “ch” and “sh” this week! To end the amazing month of March, we gathered around a “camp fire” and read one page of our books that we really wanted to share with our friends. We also had a yummy treat!

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
In math, students are working hard to sharpen their problem-solving skills! Last week we introduced the process for setting up story problems. We learned how to draw different animals using a few geometric shapes so that we were able to write story problems with pictures. We even tried our hand at writing number sentences to accompany our stories. We really enjoyed sharing our math farm stories with our friends, and trying to solve other friends’ story problems. This week we are working in stations that continue to emphasize the process of setting up a problem. Ask your child about their favorite math station this week!

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
In DWoK we have been continually coming back to our guiding question, “How do families show care for each other?” Our hope is that children will understand that different families demonstrate the concept of care in multiple ways as they experience units of study that focus on showing care through Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Protection, and that they will be able to articulate that all families show care in some form. The children get to practice having a caring relationship by providing care for their puppet pals.

During our study of Clothing, we shared what we wanted people to know about us, and celebrated who we are by wearing our own special clothing. It was interesting to learn what each child felt when they got to wear their special clothing. Then the children experienced feeling how cold the Arctic weather can be and how clothing helps insulate the skin against this frigid temperature. Students became “researchers” by looking through a series of books to compare and contrast the Eskimos clothing with the clothing we wear in Los Angeles. This week, we wrapped up our Clothing unit by creating a wardrobe for our puppet pals. This experience gave the students an opportunity to reflect upon what they have learned these past few months. The children engaged in conversations sharing how clothing shows care for their puppet pal and in their family.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
In writer’s workshop we have been continually refining our “All About” books. As nonfiction writers, we have been learning that the best way to present our information to our audience is by organizing our ideas. We have used headings so our readers can easily refer to our table of contents. As writers we have learned that the table of contents is used to give our readers a taste of what our books are about. We also learned to use different kinds of writing paper, depending on how we want to present the information to our readers. This week we are finishing up our “All About” books, so we can publish them and add them to our class library.

Science
Right now, we are learning all about how scientists investigate, and how we have already investigated (when we were reading detectives)! We learned about what it means to investigate, and drew upon our prior knowledge of the five senses to help us. We learned about how all of the objects in our classroom have a position and location. It was exciting to use position and location words to describe where objects were situated in our room, using some special words (between, beside, under, etc.). This week we are shifting our learning towards Earth Day. In anticipation of that special day, we are learning about what our natural resources are and how we can investigate them.

Handwriting
We have learned L, I, T, E, F, H, N, M, V, W, A, Y, X, K, Z, P, R, B, D, J

Announcements and Reminders:
-Please label everything with your child’s name.
-Please check out Lost and Found ‘s new location! The small blue bin has been moved to the inside of the parking lot (on the left side after the car gate) and is now our new lost and found.

We also need large white post-it pads (chart paper). Many parents were gracious enough to donate these at the beginning of the year. These large tablets are perfecting for our shared reading poems and other charts. To get an idea of what we need, feel free to check the following link:

http://www.amazon.com/POST-SELF-STICK-EASEL-PADS-PK/dp/B002XJMARC

March 15th Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
In the past few weeks of reader’s workshop, we have discussed the reading strategies we’ve learned thus far. We talked about how we have a reader’s toolbox to pull helpful reading tools from. When we come across a tricky word, do we just give up? No! We reach into our box and look for a strategy that can help us. When reading at home with your child ask them what tools they could use when they come across a tough word.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
We have been working in math stations for the past few weeks. The first week of stations focused on measurement, like time, capacity, and length. Last week we rotated through addition, problem-solving, and graphing stations. Now we are reviewing all of those content areas and checking for understanding. We will be preparing for our Q3 math assessment, which will be given next week.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
We have been “sewing machines!” We first looked at how clothing is made by deconstructing different kinds of clothes. We discovered that all clothes have a seam and they need thread to help keep them together. We read the story by Harriet Zeifert called A New Coat for Anna. We learned the different steps involved in making Anna’s winter coat from scratch. The children were then able to examine the components of real clothing as they took apart a button down shirt, a party dress, a sweater, a pair of pants, and a jean skirt. Then we moved on to simulate various garment making techniques by “sewing” together a paper T-shirt and designing it. They simulated the weaving process with strips of construction paper. Then we simulated sewing with a needle thread and some even tried sewing on buttons. We discussed how easy and difficult using these techniques were. The next couple of weeks we will focus on, “what makes clothing special?” We will begin to discuss how some families have traditional garments that they wear.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
Our writers just finished teaching their third and fourth grade buddies with their “How To” books. Now they are sharing the expertise as they write all about one topic in their “All About” books. To help us write our “All About” books, we’ve been learning about the different features of nonfiction books, including the table of contents, labels and captions. Our writers are focused on making their books really clear for their audience, so they are using different types of paper to make sure they can include those nonfiction features.

Science
Last week we started an experiment on evaporation. We are observing two containers filled with water, one with the lid on and the other with the lid off. So far, the container with the lid off is in the lead for evaporation. As scientists, we know that water can evaporate and actually disappear into the air. This week we reviewed the parts of a plant and the features of animals. Ask your child about the animal puzzles we put together on Friday!

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned L, I, T, E, F, H, N, M, V, W, A, Y, X, K, Z, P, R.

Put on your calendar:
We are looking for a few “visiting artists” in our visual arts class for the first week of April. These “visiting artists” would give a 10-15 minute presentation on their art-related careers, be it in animation, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, film-making, video-art, performance art, cover art, architecture, community art, game design, art therapy, mural making, ceramics, quilting, etc. The idea behind this is to expose the students to different career paths for the visual artist, and to expand their understanding of the many functions and contexts in which art thrives. Parents, please let your child’s teacher know if you are interested!

LFCSA ANNUAL JOG-A-THON
Our favorite PTA sponsored fundraiser is Friday, March 18th! Everyone participates, so please join us to cheer on our children and teachers as they run, walk, or jog to raise much-needed funds for LFCSA. For more info see http://losfelizarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jog-Fact-Sheet.pdf. For a sample solicitation letter see http://losfelizarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jog-Letter.pdf. Questions? Contact thebierys@mac.com. Interested in volunteering? Contact amy@hablablahblah.com. Also, start collecting used athletic shoes for our ReUse-A-Shoe Drive that will take place the week of March 14. Please return your permission slip/release form if you haven’t already. Thanks!

March 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
Thank you for attending our Reading Celebration! We had so much fun sharing our books and poems with you. Being a reading detective is hard work. As detectives, we learned how to use magnifying glasses to look for clues (patterns) in our books, make predictions, add our own words when telling what a story is about, put all of the pages together to figure out what the story is about, study the picture, use magic pointer fingers, read with a smooth voice, and use the beginning sound out to figure out tricky words and pattern changes. Wow! We want to continue to grow as reading detectives. Please help your child try out these strategies when you are reading at home.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
In math we have been learning how to tell time to the nearest hour. We also made a book all about time. We know that the small hand is the hour hand and the big hand is the minute hand.

We also talked about weight. We looked around our classroom for different objects and weighed them to see what was heavier and what was lighter.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
In DWoK we’ve continued our investigation into clothing. We explored the kind of “clothing” that animals wear, focusing on how their “clothing” protects them from other animals and helps them adapt to their environments. We have also been focusing on the way humans have used animals to make clothes in the past and in the present. This week we are focusing on how clothing is made through studying wear clothing materials come from and deconstructing clothing to see how it is made.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
As we dig deeper into writing our own non-fiction “How To” books we discovered that we can teach with our writing. Therefore, we payed extra close attention to what we were writing meaning we made sure we had appropriate space between each word, that ALL of our snap words were spelled correctly, that our writing looks neat and nice. The children learned that other words such as “step one, step two, step three” can also be used to sequence their steps. They also learned to look at their drawings to see if they went with the procedure. They added speech bubbles to their drawings and made sure the “who and the what” were present in their drawings. To wrap up the lesson students practice making sure their stories made sense by reading them to their writing partners. To celebrate we had Ms. Parkhurst, Ms. Chan, Ms. Mellinger, and Ms.Heneise’s classes join our classes while the kindergartners read aloud their stories and the 3/4 grade pantomimed what they said. It was an excellent way for the kinders to “teach” the upper grades something. At home, you can really help the children pay attention to their spacing between words when they write. Make sure all those snap words are spelled correctly and that they are making their writing neat and nice for the reader.

Science
The past 2 weeks in science we learned all about solid, liquids, and gas. We learned that when scientists sort they sort everything in those three categories. We talked about how certain things can be all three like water and Jell-o! We made Jell-o (thanks to all those ice trays) and watched how it turned from solid, to liquid, to gas, and back to solid. Then we ate it. Yum!!!

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned L, I, T, E, F, H, N, M, V, W, A, Y, X, K, Z, P, R.

Please help your child work on these words at home:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, to, like, love, are, mom, my, good, she,

red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, white, black, brown, pink, gray, look, of, see, we, up

Put on your calendar:
The kindergarten picnic was rescheduled for this Sunday, March 6^th from 11-2 at Garfield Park in Pasadena. Hope to see you there!

We are looking for a few “visiting artists” in our visual arts class for the first week of April. These “visiting artists” would give a 10-15 minute presentation on their art-related careers, be it in animation, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, film-making, video-art, performance art, cover art, architecture, community art, game design, art therapy, mural making, ceramics, quilting, etc. The idea behind this is to expose the students to different career paths for the visual artist, and to expand their understanding of the many functions and contexts in which art thrives.

Parents, please let your child’s teacher know if you are interested!

We also need electric pencil sharpeners. Thanks!

Febraury 15th Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
The students are really making progress as readers! We continue to read like detectives and look for clues in our reading. We are figuring out the patterns in our books and learning how to read the last page when the pattern breaks. Reading comprehension is an area we are focusing on as well. When reading with your child, ask questions about the story. Who is in the story? What happens at the beginning, middle, and end? What clues help you figure out what the story is about? Ask your child to not just tell you the words they read, but make inferences about the story as a whole.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
Graphing is our focus right now in math. We have graphed our names, pets we like, and how we get to school. Graphs help us gather and interpret information. We are recognizing and counting numbers 11-18. The 100^th day of school is next Wednesday, Feb. 23^rd, so start practicing counting to 100 with your child. We will explore the number 100 in so many ways!

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
In DWoK we are continuing to study Clothing. This week we are creating clothes based on our designs we created last week. As we move through our unit on clothing we are going to explore the kind of “clothes” animals wear and why they don’t wear clothes the way people do. We will also investigate how some people use animals to make their clothing and how clothing is some times inspired by animals.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
Students have enjoyed learning how to write their own non-fiction “How To” books. At the beginning of the unit, the students experienced making butter and wrote about how to make butter as a whole class. This allowed them to see how to break down a process into steps and write the directions to teach others. They learned how to use sequencing words such as “first, next, then and last” when writing to show the steps in order. They have been writing many “How To” books on a wide variety of topics with accompanying illustrations. At home, continue to explore instructional text with your child, pointing out the instructions in manuals and cookbooks. Also, encourage your child to continue writing “How To” books in order to teach others through their writing.

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned Ll, Tt, Ii, Ff, Ee, Hh, Nn, Mm, Vv, Ww, Aa, Yy, Xx, Zz, Kk

Put on your calendar:
We are looking for a few “visiting artists” in our visual arts class for the first week of April. These “visiting artists” would give a 10-15 minute presentation on their art-related careers, be it in animation, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, film-making, video-art, performance art, cover art, architecture, community art, game design, art therapy, mural making, ceramics, quilting, etc. The idea behind this is to expose the students to different career paths for the visual artist, and to expand their understanding of the many functions and contexts in which art thrives.
Parents, please let your child’s teacher know if you are interested!

LFCSA ANNUAL JOG-A-THON
Our favorite PTA sponsored fundraiser is Friday, March 18th! Everyone participates, so please join us to cheer on our children and teachers as they run, walk, or jog to raise much-needed funds for LFCSA. For more info see http://losfelizarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jog-Fact-Sheet.pdf. For a sample solicitation letter see http://losfelizarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Jog-Letter.pdf. Questions? Contact thebierys@mac.com. Interested in volunteering? Contact amy@hablablahblah.com. Interested in making posters to help publicize the event? Come to the Visual Arts room, Friday, February 25th at 3:30 pm for our Poster Party or contact papadeas@mindspring.com. Also, start collecting used athletic shoes for our ReUse-A-Shoe Drive that will take place the week of March 14. Thanks!

Announcements and Reminders:
-Please label everything with your child’s name.
-Please check Lost and Found (located outside near the front gate) for any “lost” belongings.
-We will celebrate the 100th day of Kindergarten on Wednesday, February 23rd. For this special day, we will have many opportunities for the children to explore the number 100.

One of the fun things we do is have the children create a design, collage, or show a collection of 100 items. There are many wonderful ideas! Try to help your child find something unique and creative to match his/her interests. Please discuss with your child what interests them, then allow your child to create their own project (with minimal help ☺).

Projects are to be brought into class on the 100th day, February 23rd.
Some ideas might be:
* a design made out of 100 pieces
(like beans, candies, etc.)
* a Lego creation made from 100 Legos
* a 100 piece toothpick or Popsicle structure
*a picture made from 100 stickers
* a 100 piece puzzle

HAVE FUN and bring your projects in on Wednesday the 23rd.

We also need pencil sharpeners and poster board paper. Thank you!!!

February 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
Our readers have been working on learning how to keep reading to build their reading stamina. Readers have been using strategies, such as rereading to look for new details in the characters and setting. They have followed a character through out the book and been able to dive into their books by making personal connections.

Our readers have also been learning how to talk about books though “book talks.” Our readers have been learning how to hold their books when sharing them with other students. The children have been presenting their favorite parts of their favorite books in their book bags to get each other excited about reading. Readers have moved toward discussing their personal connections to their books and finding patterns with each other. As we move into our next unit our readers will become pattern detectives!

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
The students also took their Quarter 2 Math Assessment. The kids loved taking this test and showing off their knowledge; one child exclaimed “I wish we could take math tests every day!” Please continue to count with your child at home and identify quantities. Also, practice showing numbers quickly on their fingers. You are probably thinking, “Of course my child can count out numbers on their fingers,” but help them get to the point where they can automatically show you a number on their fingers without having to count them out. Helping children understand quantity and trust that “five fingers” is always going to represent five (they don’t have to keep recounting) will help them when we begin to do addition and subtraction and will help with multiplication and division later.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
The past two weeks in DWoK have been adventurous. We learned all about the food pyramid and know that there are five food groups. Ask us – we know them by heart! We even created a fictitious balanced meal with our friends.

We celebrated our new found knowledge by venturing down the sidewalk to Super King. We were split up into the food groups and were in charge of documenting the food we saw. Our tour guide, who was most knowledgeable, showed us around the grocery store. He introduced us to new foods and let us try almost every food group. We had a great time!

We ended the week and our food unit by creating a scrumptious meal for our puppet pals. They were hungry!

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
We have been working hard in Writer’s Workshop. We learned how writing partners work together to become published authors! We learned how to be editors and make our writing “fancy.” As writing partners, we focused on how to listen to someone tell their story, and how to share our own story (the actual words we are writing down). Did you know there is an “inside” part of the story and an “outside” part of the story? Ask you child to tell you the difference. We really enjoyed publishing our small moment stories! It was an extra special treat to read our stories to each other in our pajamas.

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned Ll, Tt, Ii, Ff, Ee, Hh, Nn, Mm, Vv, Ww, Aa, Yy, Xx

Please help your child work on these words at home:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, to, like, love, are, mom, my, good, she, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, brown, pink, gray

Put on your calendar:

We are looking for a few “visiting artists” in our visual arts class for the first week of April. These “visiting artists” would give a 10-15 minute presentation on their art-related careers, be it in animation, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, film-making, video-art, performance art, cover art, architecture, community art, game design, art therapy, muralism, ceramics, quilting, etc. The idea behind this is to expose the students to different career paths for the visual artist, and to expand their understanding of the many functions and contexts in which art thrives.

Parents, please let your child’s teacher know if you are interested!

Announcements and Reminders:
-Please label everything with your child’s name.
-Please check Lost and Found (located outside near the front gate) for any “lost” belongings.
-Whenever magazines are requested, please double check to make sure they are kid friendly and kindergarten appropriate.
-If your child has any food allergies or dietary restrictions, please let your child’s teacher know. It is very important to make sure we have this information as we proceed through our Food unit. Thank you!
-Please let us know if you did not receive your child’s school portraits. Individual pictures were sent home in manila envelopes on Friday.

-Thank you to the parents who donated the file folder storage boxes.

-Thank you to Mr. Martinez and the Sammons family for the special presentation about life on a blueberry farm. We even got to sample fresh blueberries…yum!

-Thank you Super King for providing us with an extraordinary field trip! You added so much to our DWoK food unit. Thank you for all of the food you sent home with us. Parents, thank you for your help on this trip. We couldn’t have pulled it off without you!

January 15th Newsletter

Today, please look for your child’s work in his/her manila envelope. Since it’s newsletter day, you should see the manila envelope coming home. Please take out all work, discuss it with your child, and return the envelope Tuesday.

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
Since we’ve come back from winter vacation, we’ve gone headlong into Reader’s Workshop. We got our minds ready to read by using different strategies such as reading the cover of our books, going on picture walks, and looking for words that we already know. This week we’re building up our reading brains as we look for patterns in our books, and use pictures to help us find new words. We are looking for patterns in the text of our books as we read (ie. I see a dog, I see a cat, etc.) and rereading our books to find details that we didn’t see the first time.

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
Our students continued their study in time and thinking about when events take place in the day, the week and the year. At home, you can continue helping your child become aware of time and different ways that we measure time. Have your child identify all the clocks in the house, point out special events that happen on certain days in the week and certain times of the day. The more a child can connect time with something personal in their life (i.e. my bed time is 8:00, I have soccer on Saturday), the more time makes sense to them. You can also practice reading digital clocks and telling time to the hour.

In the area of geometry, students learned about solid shapes (spheres, cubes, cylinders and cones) by using clay and play dough to form the different shapes. They learned about the different attributes of each shape and how three-dimensional shapes are different from plane shapes. Ways to help your student in geometry include looking for three-dimensional shapes in the environment and having your child name and describe the shapes.

Finally, we began the discussion of showing sets of items that are different in size but are the same number. We learned that no matter the size or shape of the objects the number three is still the number three.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show care for each other?
For the past two weeks in DWoK we’ve been learning about how our food gets from the farm to our table. We learned that food goes through many steps before it becomes our dinner. We also learned about how families a long time ago had their own farms. We made butter from scratch. Now we know why farmers go to bed early. It’s tiring! We also learned about how plants grow. We even planted lima beans and are watching them grow…slowly. We also talked about recipes and how food is made. Each of us sent in a family recipe and now we each have our very own kindergarten cookbook. YUM!

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
In Writer’s Workshop, we are revisiting Small Moments. We introduced Small Moments earlier in the year, and spent time writing about true events from our lives. This time we are zooming in even more as we write about “the moment that matters the most.” We are working with writing partners and learning strategies that good writers use. Writers sketch instead of draw, so they have more time for writing. Writers add words they know to their stories (like snap words or words of the day). Writers keep on writing and include what happened first, next, then, and finally. Details are something writers add to their stories. We are making so much progress as writers.

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned Ll, Tt, Ii, Ff, Ee, Hh, Nn, Mm, Vv, Ww

Please help your child work on these words at home:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, to, like, love, are, mom, my, good, she, red

Put on your calendar:
-The PTA is proud to sponsor a LFCSA Day of Service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of National Service. We will be joining the Glassell Park Community Clean Up on Saturday, January 15th, 8 am – 12 noon. Flyers will be sent home at pick-up. Meet at the Glassell Park Community Center, 3750 N. Verdugo Road, Glassell Park, CA 90065. Bring gloves and wear your LFCSA T-shirt. You can come for 1 hour or all 4. It’s casual, it’s trash clean-up. All other supplies will be provided by the city. Let’s make a difference that you can see once we return from the 3-day weekend! If you have any questions, please please Amy Conroy at 310.748.5771.

-Student pictures that were taken in the fall should be distributed on January 28^th.

-There will be a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, January 20^th at 6:30 p.m. with Michael Bishop, Sr., President of the LFCSA Board of Directors. You will have a chance to meet other LFCSA parents, learn what it takes to operate a Charter, discuss Future Plans and Next Steps, and understand our Finances. Please make plans to attend this important event. We hope to see you there!

We are looking for a few “visiting artists” in our visual arts class for the first week of April. These “visiting artists” would give a 10-15 minute presentation on their art-related careers, be it in animation, graphic design, painting, photography, sculpture, film-making, video-art, performance art, cover art, architecture, community art, game design, art therapy, muralism, ceramics, quilting, etc. The idea behind this is to expose the students to different career paths for the visual artist, and to expand their understanding of the many functions and contexts in which art thrives.

Parents, please let your child’s teacher know if you are interested!

Reminders:
-There is no school Monday, January 17^th.
-Please label everything with your child’s name.
-Please check Lost and Found (located outside near the front gate) for any “lost” belongings.
-Whenever magazines are requested, please double check to make sure they are kid friendly and kindergarten appropriate.-please have your child wear “paint friendly” clothes on Mondays for the month of January (visual arts class is messy this month!)
-If your child has any food allergies or dietary restrictions, please let your child’s teacher know. It is very important to make sure we have this information as we proceed through our Food unit. Thank you!

Classroom Donations:
Storage containers for letter size file folders
here’s an example of what we need
-http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/656328/Office-Depot-Brand-Stackable-File-Tote/?cm_cat=2000000351

Thank you parents for all of the donations so we could make butter. It was so yummy and we are

December 15th Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
For the past two weeks, we have been learning to read with emotion. We learned about storytellers and how they use their voices to draw in their audiences. The kindergartners picked a book or poem out of their book bags, practiced reading it with emotion, and performed it in front of the class. We had so much fun watching others read and act out their stories. This week we looked closely into our books to find sight words (words of the day), noticing that words are different on every page, and that pictures usually match the words. We are becoming such strong readers!

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
During this past month we reviewed the concept of more or less and began to graph. This month in math we’ve also been learning about sequencing. We started by focusing on looking at small moments, like what we need to do in order to get ready for school. We’ve continued to expand by looking at a whole school day. We have also been learning about the concept of time and why we use clocks and calendars. We’re also applying what we’ve learned about sequencing into patterns, as students create ABC, AAB, and ABB patterns.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show they care for each other?
Our food unit is well underway. We began by thinking of yummy and yucky foods. We made a chart of yummy and yucky foods, and played a game where we named these foods. We each made a “plan,” where we drew our yucky and yummy foods and labeled them. Then, thanks to many wonderful parents, we were able to make our yummy and yucky food out of Model Magic! We enjoyed reading Bread and Jam for Frances, and this week we will explore all of the other healthy and nutritious foods we can eat besides bread and jam. Thank you to the many parents who donated to our “Super Kinder Market.” We look forward to opening that area up for free exploration and dramatic play later this week. Lastly, please look for a Special Family Recipe paper to come home with your child on Thursday. Over the holidays, we ask that you write down a recipe of some significance to your family, and then return it after the break. We look forward to compiling all recipes for a Kindergarten cookbook that can be distributed to all students and their families.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
For the past two weeks in writer’s workshop, we have been making connections to reader’s workshop. This month’s focus was on making pattern books, just like the ones we have been reading in our book bags and in class. To begin the unit we discussed what “brainstorming” is and how to gather all of our ideas onto one paper. We learned that this is part of the writing process. We focused on reinforcing and expanding our sight word or “snap word” knowledge. We learned how to be more independent by using a checklist. We made sure the stories have our name and date, spaces in between words, and that pictures match our words. Then we had our reading partner read our story to see if our writing was readable. We will celebrate our writing by publishing another book, and putting it in our leveled library for all of kindergarten to read.

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned Ll, Tt, Ii, Ff, Ee, Hh, Nn, Mm, and Vv.

Please practice these over the holidays!
Please help your child work on these words at home:

a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, like, love, are, mom, my, good

If your child has any food allergies or dietary restrictions, please let your child’s teacher know. It is very important to make sure we have this information as we proceed through our Food unit. Thank you!

Reminders:
-Please label everything with your child’s name
-Please check Kindergarten Lost and Found (located outside the front office) for any “lost” belongings
-Whenever magazines are requested, please double check to make sure they are kid friendly and kindergarten appropriate

December 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop: What do readers have to know and be able to do?
It was an exciting week leading up to Thanksgiving. We are almost ready to close out our unit in Readers Workshop. In fact, this Tuesday our fantastic readers will be celebrating all that they’ve learned in November. During the week leading up to Thanksgiving we continued to learn about different resources and strategies we have as readers. We learned how to use our Alphabet chart to help us read unfamiliar words. We learned to read our classroom as we found the labeled objects that were mentioned in our classroom song. Finally, we looked for patterns in our books and examined the characters and setting. What amazing readers!

Mathematics: What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
The week before Thanksgiving was a busy one. We read and interpreted graphs, including making predictions about how our graphs would turn out. We also continued to review the concept of more and less, and played two different games to demonstrate our learning. Way to go mathematicians!

DWoK/Project-Based Learning: How do family members show they care for each other?
DWoK was in full swing the week before Thanksgiving. As we prepared for the culmination of our shelter unit, we had a guest speaker visit our classroom. Mrs. Ragle talked to us about what it’s like to be an architect. Next, we planned out what our puppet pal shelters would look like. Lastly, we built our puppet pal shelters. Thank you, parents, for all of your donations of materials and time. You helped make this project a big success.

Writer’s Workshop: What do writers have to know and be able to do?
The week before Thanksgiving was full of five senses. We completed the rest of our senses books, and prepared to publish our work. Publishing is such an integral part of our learning. Choosing our best piece, adding detail, making sure we have words and pictures, adding a cover and title page…it’s all part of becoming the best writers we can be!

Handwriting/Word Study
We have learned Ll, Tt, Ii, Ff, Ee, and Hh.

Please help your child work on these words at home:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is, the, like

Please look for your child’s work in his/her manila envelope. Since it’s newsletter day, you should see the manila envelope coming home. Please take out all work, discuss it with your child, and return the envelope tomorrow.

Conferences:
We will have parent/teacher conferences the week of December 13^th. We will be sending home more information next week, with a date and time for our conference. Please look for that information on Monday, December 6^th. We look forward to meeting with you!

Kindergarten Wish List:
We are beginning our Food Unit in DWoK. Our DWoK resource center in the classroom will be transformed into a Family Food Market. We need your help. Please send in any of the following that you have at home:
-food coupons
-grocery bags/sacks/totes
-restaurant menus
-grocery store sale ads/flyers
-food labels-washed/dried empty food containers
-We need two Epson black ink cartridges refilled.
-We do not need new cartridges; these should be able to be refilled. Walgreens and other retailers participate in refilling ink cartridges. Please let your child’s teacher know if you are able to help.

Also, if your child has any food allergies or dietary restrictions, please let your child’s teacher know. It is very important to make sure we have this information as we proceed through our Food unit. Thank you!

Reminders:-please label everything with your child’s name-please check Kindergarten Lost and Found (located in the front office) for any “lost” belongings

November 15th Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop:
What do readers have to know and be able to do?
These past two weeks students have started to hone their super reading powers. We’ve learned a lot of different strategies and tools to help us grow as readers. Readers have learned to use their magic pointer fingers so they can read each and every word. Readers are using the first and last letters of their names to help them read unfamiliar words. They are even using their friend’s names to help them sound out new words. Because super reading powers become even more powerful when used with other super reading strategies, students also use the pictures in their books to give them clues as to what the words might be. Students have been learning words that they now know in a snap! We’ve been looking for these words in our shared reading poems in class and looking for them independently in our books. Finally, students have been learning how to carefully shop for books. They are becoming so responsible that they are now taking 3 or 4 books back to their reading spots in book bags. They are building stamina as they stay in their reading spots for a longer time with the same books. Soon they will be making connections across their books! What an exciting time in Reader’s Workshop.

Mathematics:
What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
Last week we enjoyed working in math stations for the first time. As we drew to a close our first unit of math, we reviewed some of the major concepts we had learned in the first few weeks of school. We made paper plate patterns, pattern head bands, spaghetti shape collages, and sorted about everything we could think of using muffin pans. Try using a muffin pan with your child. When you are sorting at home, think about the “attributes” of the objects you are sorting. This week we started our second unit of math. When we built towers this week, it was different than it had been in the past. Once our towers were built, we added more cubes to our towers, instead of breaking apart our tower and beginning again. We even played dot and number card concentration! In this memory matching game, students had to match dice cards with number cards. Our second math unit is off to a great start.

DWoK/Project-Based Learning:
How do family members show they care for each other?
As we continue our unit of shelter kids have begun to establish expectations for using the resource center. The resource center has books that we have read, our puppet pals, and materials we could use to build shelters. We have also gone on a field trip around the school making observations of the school building and have recorded the similarities the school building has to our own homes. Students answered the essential question, “How is the school like a shelter?” Then we read two books, Building a House by Gail Gibbons and How a House is Built by Byron Barton. The students looked as the steps in building a house. They used their pantomiming skills to replicate how a house is built. We had discussions about the materials and specific people involved in building a house. After creating our shelters we began to look at shelters from around the world. We created our own shelter using one of the materials we discovered-wood, bricks, stone, straw, mud, clay and ice.

Writer’s Workshop:
What do writers have to know and be able to do?
For the past two weeks we have been learning all about slowing down and looking closely. We started a new unit on how good writers observe the world around them and then turned those observations into stories. We used our five senses to help write these past two weeks. We wrote “I spy” books, “I feel” books, “I taste” books, and “I hear” books. Next week we will write “I smell” books (don’t worry, we didn’t forget that sense). We are working on slowing down and making our work readable by spacing out our words, taking time to form our letters, and using our word wall to help us spell. We are working very hard and can’t wait to share our five senses books with you!

Handwriting/Word Study:
Kindergarten has officially started handwriting. We have learned Ll, Tt, and Ii. Three down, twenty three to go.

Please help your child work on these words at home:
a, an, and, can, dad, he, I, in, it, is

Kindergarten Wish List:
-egg cartons
-milk cartons
-small cardboard boxes
-cereal boxes
-shoe boxes
-golf pencils

Reminders:
- Today, please look for your child’s work in his/her manila envelope. Since it’s newsletter day, you should see the manila envelope coming home. Please take out all work, discuss it with your child, and return the envelope tomorrow.

-please label everything with your child’s name
-please check Kindergarten Lost and Found (located in the front office) for any “lost” belongings

November 1st Newsletter

Reader’s Workshop:
What do readers have to know and be able to do?
Last week in Reader’s Workshop, students made some amazing connections across stories. We noticed that in The Snowy Day, Jack Ezra Keats starts and ends the story the same, with the little boy playing in the snow. We continued to grow as readers by looking for concepts of print in the books we read. You can help your child find the author, illustrator, title, and front and back cover of a book. These are some of the concepts of print we searched for in our stories. We then became word detectives, searching for a special “word of the day” during reader’s workshop. Words we have learned are: a, an, and, he, I, can, dad. Please help your child find these words in books you read together, and anywhere else you see words. We want students to see that these words are all around them. This week we are also learning how to predict what comes next in a story, as well as how to really be great storytellers. On Friday, we used our puppet pals to help us act out stories. We used our voices, facial expressions and body gestures to help us dramatize stories we read.

Mathematics:
What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
In Kindergarten, repetition is our best friend. Last week in math we went over how to create patterns and what happens if a piece goes missing. We learned to look closely at the pattern to find its missing piece. We also practiced sorting. We learned a very big word this week-attribute. We sorted shapes, bears, buttons, and cubes by their various attributes. We are now pattern and sorting “pros” and we know it!

DWoK/Project-Based Learning:
How do family members show they care for each other?
Our Shelter unit in DWoK is in full swing. Our students, with your very generous help, built shelters together, asking the question, “How can we collaborate to build a shelter?” As they were building their shelters a “storm” came through. It prompted our next lesson when we collaborated to answer the question, “How do shelters protect us?” As we discovered that we already knew a lot about how shelters protect us, we realized that we didn’t know everything we wanted to know about shelters. Next we talked about what we still want to find out about shelters and thought about where we can find our answers. We thought of all sorts of resources we had to find out more about shelters, including watching videos. We then watched a video to learn more about how beavers construct their shelters and how those shelters protect them. We noticed that beavers do a lot of the same things we do and we pantomimed what we do at home in our shelters. We wrote and drew our favorite rooms in our shelters. Our next step is to make models of our favorite rooms in preparation for creating maps of those rooms, and finally we will open up the DWoK resource center. It’s been a busy two weeks of learning.

Writer’s Workshop:
What do writers have to know and be able to do?
We continue to learn about how we can tell small moments about our lives by zooming in on the important part of the event. We learned how to add details to our drawings, use labels and “s-t-r-e-t-c-h” out a word like a rubber band to hear each of the sounds in a word. Students all became publishers this month by choosing one piece of writing that they wanted to publish. This entailed adding color and additional details to the story as well as making a cover with a title. They are real authors now. At home, encourage your writer to write about stories that happen to them. Have them first tell you the story orally, say the story on their fingers, and then begin to sketch a picture on paper. Once they have a sketch have them label their picture or write sentences. You can also help your writers at home (or in the car) by practicing s-t-r-e-t-c-hing words out and asking them what sounds and letters they hear.

THANK YOU:
Parents, thank you for all of the donations that continue to pour in! We are very appreciative of you and all you do to support our classroom.

Starting next week, we will try to send home student work on the days the newsletter is uploaded. This will be the 1^st and 15^th of every month. Look for your child’s work to come home on Monday. We are asking for donations of manila clasp envelopes (see below), so that each child has a way to transport their work. Once the envelope comes home, take the work out and send the envelope back. Again, this will be around the 1^st and 15^th of every month. Please look for the envelope on those days.

Kindergarten Wish List:
-100 (9” by 12” size) manila clasp envelopes
-egg cartons
-milk cartons
-IKEA book baskets
-golf pencils
-2 IKEA Klippan loveseat covers in Alme Natural-$19.00 each
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30180603

Reminders:
-please label everything with your child’s name
-please check Kindergarten Lost and Found (located in the front office) for any “lost” belongings

-Picture Day is next Thursday, November 4^th

October 15th Newsletter

Ms. Serrano, our Visual Arts teacher, asked us to read Eric Carle’s The Mixed-Up Chamaeleon. We read the story in class, and when students went to Visual Arts, each student created a part of the body. As students combined the body parts, a new animal was born. Many connections were made during this lesson. Students saw that a read aloud used in the classroom can carry over into an Arts class, and the sharing and caring students did in Visual Arts is part of our overarching theme in DWOK this year (Different Ways of Knowing).

Reader’s Workshop:
What do readers have to know and be able to do?
Last week in Reader’s Workshop we learned how to take care of our library. We learned that strong readers are able to keep their books organized to show care for the library, but also to show care for other readers. Students learned how to work with partners this week and focused on looking at details in order to build stamina for independent reading during Readers Workshop. Students continued to practice compromising as they chose a book together. Students used viewfinders together to be able to zoom in and really read the pictures as text. Next students practiced using words (i.e. next, then, later) to read individual pictures as narratives to their partners. Finally, students read the pictures of an entire book to their partner. This week we continued working with partners, finding things that interest us in books, and exploring feelings that come up as we read. We are searching books for characters showing emotion. We are marking those places with post-it notes. We are learning to read with feeling and expression. Please read with your child each night.

Mathematics:
What do effective mathematicians need to know and be able to do?
Last week kindergartners learned the names of the geometric shapes (circle, half-circle, square, rectangle, and triangle) and about qualities that make them unique. They learned that a shape with straight sides always has the same number of sides and corners (vertices) by using hands-on manipulatives such as yarn, straws and teddy bear counters. Now, we’re moving on to exploring numbers, why they are important and the context in which we use them. We’ll start by accessing what students already know about numbers. We have begun to understand the relationship between numbers and quantities and the concepts of “more” and “less.” Students will practice counting and learn strategies for counting small quantities (1 – 10) as well as practice writing numbers. Some math tips to help your child: Have them practice drawing shapes and color them in. Use geometric shapes to draw animals, people and other objects. Practice making simple patterns with household objects, such as coins, buttons or beans. Look for patterns or shapes in nature and in your home. Practice counting objects (1 – 10) and have your child practice writing numbers.

DWOK/Project-Based Learning:
How do family members show they care for each other?
This past week we brought new friends into the classroom…our Puppet Pals! We are learning how to show care to our new friends and we will be doing this throughout the year. We made puppets out of socks, gloves, buttons, feathers, yarn, sparkles, scraps, goggle eyes, and love. To celebrate our new friends we made a “circle map” to describe who our puppets are. We wrote the puppet’s name in the center of the map then drew pictures to describe things about our pal. Some of us described where they like to vacation, what they like to snack on, and what some of their favorite movies are. This week we made a collage all about showing care as a group. We cut out pictures of people and animals showing care. These collages are up in the classroom if you’d like to come in and take a peak. We also got introduced to shelter. We learned what shelter is and how every living thing lives in some sort of shelter. We drew pictures of our own homes and rooms in our homes. We ended the week by creating a collaborative shelter collage. We are looking forward to building our own shelters next week in class.

Writer’s Workshop:
What do writers have to know and be able to do?
Last week in Writer’s Workshop we began “Approximating Small Moments.” Small Moments are those moments from our lives that we can pinpoint and write an entire story about. Students studied A Chair for My Mother and learned how Vera B. Williams told her story with small moments. This week, students are writing their own small moments in booklets. Again, we are drawing on children’s literature to find examples of small moments. We looked at Audrey Penn’s The Kissing Hand. We are also using partners during Writer’s Workshop. Partners help support us in our writing, and can ask us questions, like “What did you write about today?” and “How will you continue that story tomorrow?” We finished up our week by stretching out words we don’t know, and writing down all of the sounds we hear. This is something we will practice in great detail, and you can help at home. Please try this the next time you are writing at home with your child.

THANK YOU:
Thank you parents for attending Back to School Night. It was such a success. We really enjoyed meeting all of you. Thank you for willingness to donate your time and resources to our classroom. Thank you for all of the supplies you’ve already sent in.

Kindergarten Wish List:
-small potted plants for classroom display
-sticky tack for mounting student work-IKEA book baskets
-10 gallon size Ziploc bags

Reminders:
-please have all of your child’s belongings labeled with their first and last name
-please send in a change of clothes if you haven’t already done so

October 1st Newsletter

WRITER’S WORKSHOP
What do writers have to know and be able to do?
These have been an exciting first two weeks in Kindergarten. We have developed so much as writers. We have been focusing on care and how it relates to being writers and the process of writing. We’ve launched writer’s workshop and students are already taking ownership of their learning. Writers have learned how to care for their materials and continue to work independently. All the writers now have writing folders to take responsibility for their own writing. Students are working independently and have begun sharing their writing with each other.

READER’S WORKSHOP
What do readers have to know and be able to do?
These past few weeks have been exciting for Kindergartners as we have worked diligently on creating reading identities and building good reading habits. Lessons have focused on procedures such as how to care for and choose books, how to choose a reading spot, and how to be respectful of others by reading quietly. Students learned how to sit next to and read with a partner and how to talk about their book with a partner. All students are becoming very successful in learning to really identify that we are ALL READERS!!!

COOL TOOLS
How do Cool Tools help me stay safe at school?
Our yearlong theme in Kindergarten is “Caring.” What better way to start than with Cool Tools? We spent two weeks learning all of the Cool Tools for conflict resolution. We focused on the importance of giving and receiving put ups. Our “blue voice” is the choice of voice for us each day. Ask your child to tell you about the Bubble of Space or Exit Shoes. We now have all the tools in our toolbox to solve any problem that comes our way!

MATH
What do effective mathematicians have to know and be able to do?
We have been freely exploring the math manipulatives and learning how to treat our manipulatives with care. The first week of school we played and freely explored unifix cubes, pattern blocks, counters, and buttons. Although there are many reasons that we spend the first few weeks freely exploring the math manipulatives, here are a few important reasons that come to mind. It is fun, it is a playful “everybody can be successful at this!” kind of activity, it allows the teachers to learn by observing how the children become engaged, and how they choose to use the materials. Then we started sorting and patterning. We sorted the class by clothing and gender. We transitioned from sorting to patterning by forming simple AB patterns. The students constructed patterned buildings, long winding patterned snakes, and they even placed themselves in patterns.

Calling All Parents!!!
Back to School Night is next Tuesday, Oct. 5th at 6:30 p.m. We are excited to meet with all of you and share a little about ourselves, our schedule, and curriculum. Note-childcare is not provided. Kindergarten Wish List:
-gloves and socks
-magazines
-Post It brand white Easel Pads
-book baskets from IKEA
-hot glue guns and sticks of hot glue
-10 gallon size ziploc bags
-potted plants
-sticky tack for mounting student work
-baskets from Big Lots (we have a picture of the kind we need-please see us)

Los Feliz Arts

Kindergarten News

June 15th Newsletter

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