Leap Year!

Can you even believe it is seriously almost March?!?  THANK YOU to everyone who attended conferences last week.  I appreciate you coming to hear all of the wonderful things we are doing.  Please let me know if you ever have questions or concerns at any time! 

 

As you know we will be having spring break in just a week. That means we are at the end of 3^rd quarter already ( I know... I can not even believe how fast this year is flying by!!) This week will definitely be my last week as Baby Woita is due any day. Depending on when Baby comes will determine when I come back - but I am thinking it will be towards the end of April but of course will let you know! My long term substitute - Caitlin Bailey will be coming in a few times this week to get to know my friends and our routines! She is super excited to be in my kindergarten classroom and I know the kids will love her! 

This week we will be having some fun - we will be reading a LOT of Dr. Suess books and celebrating him this week with our annual Meadow Lane book parade on Wednesday, March 2nd at 9:20! I am SO excited to see what all of my friends favorite book character and books are! Remember to bring your book with you if you have it!! We will be reading in our classrooms right after the parade. The kids will need to have extra clothes if they wear an elaborate costume (because we want them to be ready to learn). We will also be spending some of this week celebrating Dr. Seuss so you may see some things coming home about this author!! I hope that you heard last week we had a special guest visitor come and read us a story - it was the Cat in the Hat and my friends could not believe it!!! I will attach a few pictures down below of this special activity. 

 

Since I wanted to make sure I had all of my assessments done before I left we got through a lot of things very quickly so this week we will be reviewing a lot!  In literacy we will be reviewing what good readers do and catching up on some fun word work activities! In math we will be graphing, adding, and telling story problems!

In unit studies we will be finishing up our body basics book!

 

I am hoping to finish up our t-shirts as well - we had fun tie-dyeing them on Friday and hopefully if I get everything finished up and ready to go we will also get a chance to paint them. We will be putting our individual names and our Meadow Lane Mission Statement on them!

 

Don’t forget to bring back your shamrocks so we can see why your kindergarten kid is so lucky!!! If you have questions about them please let me know!! Also, don’t forget we will be having spring break from March 7^th- March 11^th!!! It will be another fast and fun week in kindergarten! I am sure hoping to be here for all of it!

King Max

Max was the King of the Jungle last week and he had a wonderful week! Max loves the colors green and red! He also likes the movie "Honey I shrunk the Kids" which is a very funny movie! He likes playing soccer and his favorite food is meatloaf. Max also likes cats and the song "Everything is Awesome"! His favorite book is "The Little Blue Truck" which he got when he was two years old. His mom and little brother even came in to surprise him this week - his mom read his favorite book and they both stayed to have lunch with him - he was super excited about that! He is a special kid because he is a big brother and when he is at home he likes to play. When Max grows up he wants to be a dad! Max was a great King of the Jungle - please check out his video...
                

King Evan

Last week Evan was the King of the Jungle and had a great week! His favorite color is yellow, he likes, football, and penguins! He also likes the movie "Planes - Fire and Rescue" and also likes the book "Rescue Bots"! His favorite food is an M&M McFlurry and he likes the song "That's What Makes You Beautiful". He is a special kid because he is a good boy and a great helper and Jesus loves him. When he is at home he likes to play the wii and play with my puppy! When he grows up he wants to be a train driver! Evan does love trains! He had a great week and here is his video!

                   

Fast February!

This week is conferences and I am super excited for you all to come back to school with your kindergartener so we can talk about all of the amazing things we are learning and doing during the school day! If you can’t make it to your schedule time please let me know so we can figure out a time to meet! Also I am hoping that my long term substitute will be able to make it to some of the conferences this week so you will get a chance to meet her. She is planning on coming in to observe and get to know the students before Baby Woita comes!

In writing this week we will continue to work on our 3 part stories and make sure that our sentence flow together well and will be learning about the writing trait of fluency! I really am excited to show you your child’s writing! 

 

In math we will continue to learn more about number partners and math mountains (we will practice drawing those tiny tumblers – we have found out that they sure are tiny)! We will also be learning more about addition equations and how to solve them! We will focus a lot on teen numbers as well in preparation for our unit 4 test - it is my goal to get the test taken this week but we will see how it goes!

During unit studies we will start our health unit, body basics, and learn all about our body and what things we need to do to keep our bodies healthy and happy! I think that we will enjoy this unit very much!

In Literacy we will be talking about where animals live. Our vocabulary words are habitat, wild, complain, join, and stubborn. We are going to read a super fun book called “Bear Snores On” and also “Anansi, An African Tale” and “Animal Homes”. In our crabby book we will be reading “A Vet in a Van” and during guided reading your child will either read “We Want Water” or “A New Home”. We will continue to work on the strategy of making, confirming, and revising our predictions, but will also talk about the plot of the story and cause and effect. We will also be learning the words “said” and “want” and focusing on the letters X and V.

Boy oh boy it will be another fast fun week in kindergarten! Remember Tuesday is a PLC day so it is early dismissal! Also next Wednesday is the Book Parade and children are encouraged to come to school dressed up as their favorite book character - this is always a fun event and parents are encouraged to come and line the hallways to watch the children of Meadow Lane parade around school. Parents are then invited to come into our classroom and read with us until 10 if your schedule allows you to come. Please make sue your child has appropriate clothes to wear the rest of the day. Please let me know if you have any questions! Here are a few pictures of me the last couple years during the book parade...

 

Happy Half Birthday Tatum!!!

Yesterday at school we celebrated Tatum's half birthday and oh boy was she excited to celebrate! Confetti was back and all the kids were happy to see him! We enjoyed making Tatum's present and loved singing to her! We hope she had a wonderful Half Birthday and here are a few pictures from her day...

 Singing Happy Half Birthday to Tatum!

 Tatum and her friends!

 Half Birthday girl, Tatum, with her gift from all of us!

 Birthday girl and birthday elf!

The note Confetti left for Tatum!

Happy Birthday Chance!

Today Confetti, the birthday elf, was back to celebrate another birthday. Chance turned 6 years old yesterday on our day off. But luckily today we were able to celebrate with him. He had a good day and we enjoyed making his gift for him. He was also so very nice and brought each of his friends a pencil. We hope he had a wonderful birthday and here are a few pictures from his day...

 Birthday boy - Chance!

 Singing Happy Birthday to Chance!

 Chance and all of his friends and the gift we made for him!

 Birthday boy and the birthday elf!

Birthday boy at his desk!

Middle of February

This week is going to be another busy one! We are going to be working on adding details to make our stories better and also will be getting some new writing paper to help us with our three page stories! I am excited for conferences to share with you some of their great writing!

In Math we will be comparing numbers, exploring with shapes, drawing tiny tumblers on our math mountains, and telling and solving story problems.

In reading we will be talking about how we take care of different kinds of pets. Our vocabulary words are responsibility, train, depend, compared, and social. We will be reading “The Birthday Pet”, “The Family Pet”, and “The Perfect Pet” and in our crabby books we will read “I Hug Gus”. During guided reading your child will either read “My Cats” or “Their Pets”. We will also be focusing on the letters G and W and learning the words “of” and “they”. This week we will focus on the plot of the story which is usually how the characters figure out or solve a big problem. We will also talk about predictions and how good readers make predictions to figure out what they think will happen next in the story and sometimes readers have to revise their predictions.

In Unit Studies we will continue to learn more about different kinds of transportation! We will be working on our books this week and finishing up 

Last week you should have received a note about your child’s conference. Please send this back as soon as you can or let me know if you need to switch days or times! Also please plan on bringing your kindergartener to the conference with you – I think it is so important that your child knows that we talk about how they are doing at school and your child has a few fun things to show you! If you have any questions or need to talk to me about something privately please let me know and we can figure out a time to talk without your child! Thank you so much for your help and support! I can’t wait to talk to you all next week!

Also this week I will be trying to get some assessments done since the end of the third quarter is rapidly approaching along with conferences and this baby will be here before I know it - so I am trying to get everything done that I can before spring break! It is sure to be another fun and busy week! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Please know that your kindergartener loves you so very much! 

I also hope you like your gift we made just for you! 

Here is a little poem...

I love you so much

What more can I say

You are my whole life 

Each and every day!

You are my Valentine 

Today and for always!

You are the one

I will love you forever!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Please check out our video of our fun day at school celebrating our friendships!

                          

Queen Eden

This week Eden was the Queen of the Jungle and what a fun week she had! Eden was a wonderful Queen and showed us her super cool toy! It was a dog that read books! We were all super amazed! It was soo awesome and I actually couldn't even believe it! Now for a little information about our Queen... her favorite color is purple and her favorite sport is baseball! She loves the book and movie Frozen and of course the song "Let It Go". She also likes mac and cheese and penguins! She is a special girl because her family loves her and when she is at home she likes to play with her baby sister! When Eden grows up she wants to be a teacher and I know Eden will be a fabulous teacher because she is constantly helping her friends! Please check out the video of Eden's week as Queen of the Jungle!
                               

Happy Half Birthday Eden!

Today we celebrated Eden's half birthday! We were all super excited again to see Confetti - he actually left us a note today saying he tries to celebrate everyone's birthdays and half birthdays on the actual day but it has been a little crazy in Woita's World with the birthdays and half birthdays this month and we aren't even done yet! But anyways Eden had a great half birthday celebration today - not only is she the Queen of the Jungle this week but we also celebrated Valentine's Day and all of our friendships - it was just a super fun day all the way around! Everyone loves Eden and had no trouble at all helping make her gift from all of us! Eden is now officially 5 1/2 years old and we hope she had a wonderful day! Here are a few pictures of her day here at school...

 Eden and all the confetti that Confetti left for the 1/2 birthday girl!

 Singing Happy Half Birthday to Eden!

 Eden and all her friends and the gift they made for her!

 Eden and Confetti!

 Birthday girl~Eden!

Happy Birthday Daria!

Today was Daria's 6th birthday and oh what a fun day she had! We were all so excited to see Confetti back in our room today and again him and Twinkle must have had some fun together - because there were a few things out of place in our classroom! Daria's mom came and had lunch with her and her dad even showed up at recess and surprised her and her sister, Sophia! We all had an easy time coming up with adjectives to describe our friend, Daria, to make her gift! We hope that Daria and Sophia have a very Happy Birthday today! Here are a few pictures of her day here at school...

Birthday girl, Daria, and the confetti our birthday elf left!

 Daria and her mom at lunch!

The birthday twins, Daria and Sophia, with their mom!

 Singing Happy Birthday to Daria!

 Daria and her friends and the gift they made for her!

Birthday girl, Daria, and the Birthday elf, Confetti!

Happy Half Birthday Nolan!

Today we celebrated Nolan's Half Birthday! He was very excited to see Confetti, the birthday elf, today even though it wasn't his actual half birthday! He had a wonderful day and his twin sister and him are super excited to be 6 1/2 years old. Confetti's friend, Twinkle, came and helped Caroline celebrate in Mrs. Schroeders room too. Those silly elves must have flown to Meadow Lane together! Nolan had a super great day and enjoyed the gift that his friends made for him! Here are a few pictures from his day...

 Half Birthday Boy - Nolan!

 Birthday boy and the Birthday Elf!

 Everyone singing Happy Half Birthday to Nolan!

 Nolan and all of his friends!

Nolan with his present along with Confetti!

Queen Alyssa

Alyssa was the Queen of the Jungle last week and we continued to celebrate Alyssa a little into this week as well because those snow days last week totally threw us all off. Alyssa loved being the Queen of the Jungle and her is a little information about her. She likes the colors pink and purple. Her favorite book is "Small Pig" which we all enjoyed listening to. She also likes the movie The Lion King and basketball. Her favorite food is macaroni and cheese and she loves cats and zebras. Like most other young girls her age she loves the song "Let It Go". She is special because her family loves her and when she is at home she likes to play with her dolls and doll house. When Alyssa grows up she wants to be a teacher. Alyssa really did love being the Queen and her is a short video of her week!

                      

Moving Right Along...

In reading we will be starting Unit 7 and this week we will be talking about how some animals are alike and how some are different. We will be learning more about the letter U and the words “for” and “have”. We will be reading “ZooBorns”, “Baby Farm Animals”, and some poetry about animals. Your child will be reading either “Two Cubs” or “Animal Bodies” during guided reading and in our crabby books we will be reading “A Pup and a Cub”.  Our vocabulary words are appearance, behavior, exercise, wander, and plenty.  When we are reading Zooborns we will be focusing on rereading as well as listening for evidence in the text that tells us how the baby animals are alike and different and then we will fill out a venn diagram together.

In writing we are working hard on making our stories better by adding more details. We know that adding adjectives are a great way to make more detailed sentences. We know that we can add what color something is, what size it is, what it feels like or sounds like to help make our stories more detailed. I am so impressed with my friends and am looking forward to seeing the three page stories they will be writing very soon!

In Math this week we will telling and solving story problems. We will be comparing two numbers and talking about the different between them.  We will again get to explore more with shapes – my friends loved last week when we got to do this – we explored with triangles, parallelograms (diamonds), trapezoids, and hexagons to fill in the pattern grids! This week we will also be learning about math mountains and the tiny tumblers that live on the math mountains – I will admit I do love the tiny tumblers and am excited to teach my friends about them because we will be learning a lot more about number partners!

During Unit Studies we will be talking about Transportation - last week we didn't quite get to it with our snow days but I promise we will this week :) We will be talking about how you can get from one place to another either by land, air, or water!

Also this week we will be celebrating friendships and Valentine’s Day – please remember non-edible Valentines would be amazing and that you can send them anytime this week as long as there is one for everyone in our class.

The Meadow Lane Science Fair is this Thursday, Feb. 11^th at 6:30 please come check out the cool projects if you are able to! Henry, Lily and I will be there with our skittles and m&m's! As a class we will go and check out the 3^rd – 5^th grade projects in the afternoon! I had high hopes of having a classroom science fair project this year but last week threw me off a bit and I will be gone all day on Tuesday working in the district office on some health curriculum - so it might not get done - but I am sure you will hear about it if we do get to it!

Information about conferences will be coming home this week so please be on the lookout! It is going to be another super fun week in kindergarten!