Monday, December 22, 2014
Nutcracker Performance
Thank you all for coming to our Nutcracker Performance! The students were very proud to show you our Russian Peppermint dance! What a wonderful way to celebrate such an exciting time of the year!
Friday, December 19, 2014
December 19, 2014 Newsletter
December 19, 2014
Dear Parents,
It's hard to believe our holiday break begins on Wednesday next week! We have had a very exciting month of school and have learned so much. The children have done amazingly well with all the excitement and changes in our schedule.
One of the highlights for this week was our Nutcracker Field Trip! It is always fun watching the children get excited when they hear the familiar songs and see their Nutcracker characters on stage! We want to thank Mrs. Valente and Mrs. Broy for chaperoning our field trip. We had a wonderful time!
We are very excited for our own Nutcracker performance that will be on Monday and hope that you will all be able to make it at 9am to watch us! The students have been working very hard and are excited to be able to perform the Russian Peppermint dance for you! If possible, please have your child wear red tops and black bottoms on Monday for the performance. Thanks!
We have almost finished our first unit in Fundations and are looking forward to working with uppercase letters in January. We have been busy working with some Kindergarten sight words, writing in our journals, and illustrating our “Good Night” books that will start coming home after the students read them to the class.
We will be sending a bag full of art projects home on Tuesday with your child. We apologize in advance for all the glitter that you will be finding all over your house now! We hope the students will take great pride showing you all their special Nutcracker, Gingerbread, and Christmas projects. We are very proud of all they have accomplished so far this year!
I sent home a packet today in your child’s blue folder. It contains a letter about guided reading instruction that will start next month, a book at your child’s reading level, the list of Kindergarten high frequency words, some name writing practice sheets, some lined writing paper, a blank January writing journal, a 100s chart, a math game, and a reading log. Several parents asked me at our conference to send home some extra “homework” for their children. None of the activities in the packet need to be returned but I would be happy to look at whatever your child completes and sends back in. Feel free to copy any of the pages so you have extra sheets to use. Your child can write in their journals, record books they are reading, practice the high frequency words, practice counting to 100, and have fun playing the math game!
I also wanted to let you know that I've added some resources to my blog. Some parents had asked me about math and reading websites and apps that their children could access from home. These are listed under the Pages section on the right side of my blog. I hope you enjoy exploring some of them! Please let me know of any others that you might already use with your child. I will take a look at them and maybe add them to the list!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
Kerry Marsh
A Reminder: School will be back in session on Monday, January 5th.
We could also use some large brown paper bags with handles. Thanks!
Dear Parents,
It's hard to believe our holiday break begins on Wednesday next week! We have had a very exciting month of school and have learned so much. The children have done amazingly well with all the excitement and changes in our schedule.
One of the highlights for this week was our Nutcracker Field Trip! It is always fun watching the children get excited when they hear the familiar songs and see their Nutcracker characters on stage! We want to thank Mrs. Valente and Mrs. Broy for chaperoning our field trip. We had a wonderful time!
We are very excited for our own Nutcracker performance that will be on Monday and hope that you will all be able to make it at 9am to watch us! The students have been working very hard and are excited to be able to perform the Russian Peppermint dance for you! If possible, please have your child wear red tops and black bottoms on Monday for the performance. Thanks!
We have almost finished our first unit in Fundations and are looking forward to working with uppercase letters in January. We have been busy working with some Kindergarten sight words, writing in our journals, and illustrating our “Good Night” books that will start coming home after the students read them to the class.
We will be sending a bag full of art projects home on Tuesday with your child. We apologize in advance for all the glitter that you will be finding all over your house now! We hope the students will take great pride showing you all their special Nutcracker, Gingerbread, and Christmas projects. We are very proud of all they have accomplished so far this year!
I sent home a packet today in your child’s blue folder. It contains a letter about guided reading instruction that will start next month, a book at your child’s reading level, the list of Kindergarten high frequency words, some name writing practice sheets, some lined writing paper, a blank January writing journal, a 100s chart, a math game, and a reading log. Several parents asked me at our conference to send home some extra “homework” for their children. None of the activities in the packet need to be returned but I would be happy to look at whatever your child completes and sends back in. Feel free to copy any of the pages so you have extra sheets to use. Your child can write in their journals, record books they are reading, practice the high frequency words, practice counting to 100, and have fun playing the math game!
I also wanted to let you know that I've added some resources to my blog. Some parents had asked me about math and reading websites and apps that their children could access from home. These are listed under the Pages section on the right side of my blog. I hope you enjoy exploring some of them! Please let me know of any others that you might already use with your child. I will take a look at them and maybe add them to the list!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
Kerry Marsh
A Reminder: School will be back in session on Monday, January 5th.
We could also use some large brown paper bags with handles. Thanks!
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Nutcracker Field Trip
We had a wonderful trip to the Strand Theater to see "The Nutcracker Ballet!" The students enjoyed hearing the music we have been dancing to and seeing their characters on stage. We want to give a special thank you to Mrs. Valente and Mrs. Broy for coming with us!
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Battle Dance
We have been practicing the different Nutcracker dances in preparation for our field trip tomorrow. Today we did our Battle dance in the gym with the other Kindergarten classes. The students pretended to be either soldiers or mice and enjoyed battling with each other until they were all "wounded" on the floor! They had a lot of fun and were super cute! They will be super excited to see the Battle scene in the real performance tomorrow!
Gingerbread People
We have been reading several different Gingerbread stories including the Gingerbread Man, Boy, Baby, Pirate, Cowboy, Girl, and Friends. We compared all the different characters and the different endings too. We made our own gingerbread people to decorate our hallway.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Scenes from the Nutcracker
Check out our Nutcracker characters! Students worked together in small groups to help decorate their life-size Nutcracker characters. The walls in the classroom and hallway now tell the story of the Nutcracker. There is glitter everywhere but they are so beautiful and are helping us to get more and more excited to go see the real performance!
Friday, December 12, 2014
December 12, 2014 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We have been busy getting ready for our Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd! We had our first practice on stage in the auditorium this week and will hopefully have a chance to practice more next week. The students did a great job and are very excited for the actual performance. We hope you can make it at 9:00am on the 22nd to enjoy all the hard work that has gone into it! If possible, please have your child wear black bottoms and red tops on the day of the performance.
We are also really looking forward to going to the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday. Please be sure to have your child eat a nice, big breakfast that morning because we will not be eating snack or lunch during normal school hours. If your child attends the After School Program, please send a lunch for him/her to eat there. More information about the trip will be going home on Monday. Chaperones should be at the school by 8:30am and will be riding on the bus with us.
The students have been busy writing in their journals, completing their “Good Night” books, making Nutcracker projects, and practicing the letters and sounds we've been learning in Fundations. We will be practicing our last two lowercase letters right after the holiday break and will then start working more with the uppercase letters.
We have also been reading and comparing several different versions of the Gingerbread Man story, including the Gingerbread Girl, Boy, Man, and Cowboy. We still have the Gingerbread Baby, Pirate, and Friends left to go!
This certainly is a busy and exciting time of the year. The children have been doing a wonderful job concentrating on their work and learning new things. We wish you all luck as you finish preparing for the upcoming holidays!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Wishlist items: Small and large paper plates
We have been busy getting ready for our Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd! We had our first practice on stage in the auditorium this week and will hopefully have a chance to practice more next week. The students did a great job and are very excited for the actual performance. We hope you can make it at 9:00am on the 22nd to enjoy all the hard work that has gone into it! If possible, please have your child wear black bottoms and red tops on the day of the performance.
We are also really looking forward to going to the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday. Please be sure to have your child eat a nice, big breakfast that morning because we will not be eating snack or lunch during normal school hours. If your child attends the After School Program, please send a lunch for him/her to eat there. More information about the trip will be going home on Monday. Chaperones should be at the school by 8:30am and will be riding on the bus with us.
The students have been busy writing in their journals, completing their “Good Night” books, making Nutcracker projects, and practicing the letters and sounds we've been learning in Fundations. We will be practicing our last two lowercase letters right after the holiday break and will then start working more with the uppercase letters.
We have also been reading and comparing several different versions of the Gingerbread Man story, including the Gingerbread Girl, Boy, Man, and Cowboy. We still have the Gingerbread Baby, Pirate, and Friends left to go!
This certainly is a busy and exciting time of the year. The children have been doing a wonderful job concentrating on their work and learning new things. We wish you all luck as you finish preparing for the upcoming holidays!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Wishlist items: Small and large paper plates
Happy Hanukkah!
Mrs. Sneider came in to our classroom today to teach us a little about Hanukkah, which will begin next week! She read a story and taught us how to play the dreidel game. We also made menorahs with our hands! Thank you Mrs. Sneider!
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Readers' Theatre
We read Eric Carle's Polar Bear, Polar Bear and then made our own version! The students chose animals, made animal masks, helped write the script, and then practiced, practiced, practiced to come up with the final product! We hope you enjoy our version of Polar Bear, Polar Bear! Click on one of the links below to view. We have two videos. Each has half of the class in it.
Friday, December 5, 2014
December 5, 2014 Newsletter
December 5, 2014
Dear Parents,
It was a pleasure meeting with all of you for conferences. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to contact me. We don’t have to wait for progress reports to go home or for scheduled parent conferences to have a conference. We can talk any time! You should all be very proud of your children. We have certainly enjoyed the beginning of the year with each of them!
Don’t forget to join us for our very own version of the Nutcracker Ballet on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. You won’t want to miss it! We have been practicing the dances for the Nutcracker and will be focusing on our Russian Peppermint dance for the performance a lot next week. If possible, we would like the children to wear red tops and black bottoms on the day of the performance but any combination of red and black would be fine.
We have been making our life-size Nutcracker characters that will soon be beautifully displayed on our classroom walls and in the hallway. I trace each student as a Nutcracker character and then students work together with other students in their group to decorate them. We have been very impressed with the students’ cooperation and hard work. We also kept busy this week working on our innovations, writing in our journals, learning poetry, decorating our gingerbread boys and girls, and reading stories. The students have been doing a great job working hard and focusing, even during this busy and exciting time of the year!
A few other reminders: It is definitely feeling more like winter outside and it is necessary for students to wear warm coats, hats, mittens/gloves, scarves, and boots (when there is snow). It would also be very helpful if they could practice putting these items on and taking them off at home to make preparing for recess and dismissal a little less time-consuming. You can probably imagine how difficult it is to get 18 students all bundled up to go outside!
Also… There seems to be a little confusion with book fairs, library books, and the Used Bookstore. Our school has a Used Bookstore periodically throughout the year where students can either buy a used book for a quarter or bring in a used book to trade. There is typically one per month and it is completely optional. We will have one on Wednesday, December 17th. If you would like your child to participate in it, please send in either a quarter or a used book on or before that day.
Our class went to the school’s Book Fair on Wednesday. The students looked at all the books on display and made wish lists. We tried to explain that just because the books are on their wish lists doesn’t mean that they will get them! If you would like to purchase any of the books on the wish lists, please send in money with the list of books you would like and our librarian will fulfill the order. I believe the book fair will be here until Tuesday.
Our class goes to the school’s library every other Wednesday morning. Students are given the opportunity to borrow one book from the library and bring it home to read. These books do need to be returned within the two weeks. We have a blue box in the classroom where we keep them until we go to the library again.
The only other books circulating around are our class books that the students worked together to create. These books have a class list on the back and need to be returned to school the following day so other students may also borrow them.
Hopefully this will clarify all the book confusion! Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Dear Parents,
It was a pleasure meeting with all of you for conferences. If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please don’t hesitate to contact me. We don’t have to wait for progress reports to go home or for scheduled parent conferences to have a conference. We can talk any time! You should all be very proud of your children. We have certainly enjoyed the beginning of the year with each of them!
Don’t forget to join us for our very own version of the Nutcracker Ballet on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. You won’t want to miss it! We have been practicing the dances for the Nutcracker and will be focusing on our Russian Peppermint dance for the performance a lot next week. If possible, we would like the children to wear red tops and black bottoms on the day of the performance but any combination of red and black would be fine.
We have been making our life-size Nutcracker characters that will soon be beautifully displayed on our classroom walls and in the hallway. I trace each student as a Nutcracker character and then students work together with other students in their group to decorate them. We have been very impressed with the students’ cooperation and hard work. We also kept busy this week working on our innovations, writing in our journals, learning poetry, decorating our gingerbread boys and girls, and reading stories. The students have been doing a great job working hard and focusing, even during this busy and exciting time of the year!
A few other reminders: It is definitely feeling more like winter outside and it is necessary for students to wear warm coats, hats, mittens/gloves, scarves, and boots (when there is snow). It would also be very helpful if they could practice putting these items on and taking them off at home to make preparing for recess and dismissal a little less time-consuming. You can probably imagine how difficult it is to get 18 students all bundled up to go outside!
Also… There seems to be a little confusion with book fairs, library books, and the Used Bookstore. Our school has a Used Bookstore periodically throughout the year where students can either buy a used book for a quarter or bring in a used book to trade. There is typically one per month and it is completely optional. We will have one on Wednesday, December 17th. If you would like your child to participate in it, please send in either a quarter or a used book on or before that day.
Our class went to the school’s Book Fair on Wednesday. The students looked at all the books on display and made wish lists. We tried to explain that just because the books are on their wish lists doesn’t mean that they will get them! If you would like to purchase any of the books on the wish lists, please send in money with the list of books you would like and our librarian will fulfill the order. I believe the book fair will be here until Tuesday.
Our class goes to the school’s library every other Wednesday morning. Students are given the opportunity to borrow one book from the library and bring it home to read. These books do need to be returned within the two weeks. We have a blue box in the classroom where we keep them until we go to the library again.
The only other books circulating around are our class books that the students worked together to create. These books have a class list on the back and need to be returned to school the following day so other students may also borrow them.
Hopefully this will clarify all the book confusion! Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Thanksgiving Feast
We celebrated our Thanksgiving Feast today with the other Kindergarten classrooms! It was a lot of fun! Happy Thanksgiving!
Friday, November 21, 2014
November 21, 2014 Newsletter
November 21, 2014
Dear Parents,
It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is just next week! We’ve completed almost all of our Native American and Pilgrim projects and are looking forward to our “Feast” on Wednesday. Students will be dressing up in the costumes they have made and will eat their snacks in the cafeteria with the other Kindergarten classes. Please be sure to send a snack with your child on Wednesday. Lunch will not be served that day. Dismissal will be around 11:15am. Children will be riding home on their morning buses unless you have specified that you will be picking them up. If you are planning to pick up your child, please walk across the paved hard top area to the cafeteria door to meet your child instead of the area in front of the main office. Please be sure to send back the half day dismissal form if you haven’t already. I’m sure it’ll be an exciting day for the students.
We will start practicing Nutcracker dances next week in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and field trip to the Nutcracker Ballet. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday, December 17th. We are planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An official invitation will go home on Monday but I wanted to make sure you marked your calendars ahead of time! Also, please make sure to send in the $10 to cover the cost of the field trip as soon as possible. It will cost $10 for the chaperones as well. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten.
We started writing research reports on animals this week as part of our unit on informational writing. The students drew and labeled pictures of their animals, wrote and drew about the animals’ habitats, what they eat, and how they protect themselves, and they will be sharing these with the rest of the class after Thanksgiving. There is an additional piece of the report that needs to be completed at home. I sent the paper home today and am asking parents to help their child find three interesting facts about the animal being researched. I talked with the students about where to find facts... books at home or at the library or online. I would encourage parents to read the texts with their child and help them to record the facts on their papers. It is best to have the students do as much of it as possible, but parents are welcome to help where it is needed. Students can use words and pictures to record their interesting facts. It would be helpful if these facts could be returned BEFORE the conference day on December 4th. Feel free to send them back whenever they are complete.
We have also been practicing our Readers’ Theatre a lot this week. Students picked an animal, made a mask, and helped write the script and have been practicing it for a couple of weeks. It is based on Bill Martin Jr.’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear story. We videoed one group today and will do the other group next week. I will try posting the videos to my blog when they are both done so you can enjoy them and see all the hard work that has gone into them!
We have been practicing teen numbers this week. I sent home a Spin and Write game in your child’s blue folder today. I showed students how to use a pencil and paper clip to make a spinner and I gave them two recording sheets. Practicing the numbers at home will be very helpful!
A Book Fair flyer will be going home on Monday. Feel free to look through it. Our class will be going to the Book Fair on Wednesday, December 3rd to look at books and make wish lists. We will send the wish lists home afterwards. You can look at the wishlists and decide if you would like to purchase any of the books.
We have been talking a lot about things we are thankful for. I just wanted to say that we are both very thankful to have such a wonderful class of students and also for wonderful parents who are so supportive. Thanks for all you do! Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Dear Parents,
It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is just next week! We’ve completed almost all of our Native American and Pilgrim projects and are looking forward to our “Feast” on Wednesday. Students will be dressing up in the costumes they have made and will eat their snacks in the cafeteria with the other Kindergarten classes. Please be sure to send a snack with your child on Wednesday. Lunch will not be served that day. Dismissal will be around 11:15am. Children will be riding home on their morning buses unless you have specified that you will be picking them up. If you are planning to pick up your child, please walk across the paved hard top area to the cafeteria door to meet your child instead of the area in front of the main office. Please be sure to send back the half day dismissal form if you haven’t already. I’m sure it’ll be an exciting day for the students.
We will start practicing Nutcracker dances next week in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and field trip to the Nutcracker Ballet. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday, December 17th. We are planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An official invitation will go home on Monday but I wanted to make sure you marked your calendars ahead of time! Also, please make sure to send in the $10 to cover the cost of the field trip as soon as possible. It will cost $10 for the chaperones as well. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten.
We started writing research reports on animals this week as part of our unit on informational writing. The students drew and labeled pictures of their animals, wrote and drew about the animals’ habitats, what they eat, and how they protect themselves, and they will be sharing these with the rest of the class after Thanksgiving. There is an additional piece of the report that needs to be completed at home. I sent the paper home today and am asking parents to help their child find three interesting facts about the animal being researched. I talked with the students about where to find facts... books at home or at the library or online. I would encourage parents to read the texts with their child and help them to record the facts on their papers. It is best to have the students do as much of it as possible, but parents are welcome to help where it is needed. Students can use words and pictures to record their interesting facts. It would be helpful if these facts could be returned BEFORE the conference day on December 4th. Feel free to send them back whenever they are complete.
We have also been practicing our Readers’ Theatre a lot this week. Students picked an animal, made a mask, and helped write the script and have been practicing it for a couple of weeks. It is based on Bill Martin Jr.’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear story. We videoed one group today and will do the other group next week. I will try posting the videos to my blog when they are both done so you can enjoy them and see all the hard work that has gone into them!
We have been practicing teen numbers this week. I sent home a Spin and Write game in your child’s blue folder today. I showed students how to use a pencil and paper clip to make a spinner and I gave them two recording sheets. Practicing the numbers at home will be very helpful!
A Book Fair flyer will be going home on Monday. Feel free to look through it. Our class will be going to the Book Fair on Wednesday, December 3rd to look at books and make wish lists. We will send the wish lists home afterwards. You can look at the wishlists and decide if you would like to purchase any of the books.
We have been talking a lot about things we are thankful for. I just wanted to say that we are both very thankful to have such a wonderful class of students and also for wonderful parents who are so supportive. Thanks for all you do! Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Friday, November 14, 2014
November 14, 2014 Newsletter
November 14, 2014
Dear Parents,
We've had another busy week in Room 115! The students have been completing an impressive amount of work as we continue preparing for our “Thanksgiving Feast”. We have completed most of our Native American costumes and have started learning about Pilgrims. We read a story called “Samuel Eaton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy and we will be reading a similar one called “Sarah Morton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl. We talked a lot about the chores Pilgrim boys and girls had to do and I tried to encourage them to be helpful at home too!
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be a half day of school. Dismissal will be around 11:15am. A form will go home on Monday for you to complete and return that will let us know if children will be riding home on the bus or getting picked up by parents. Please return the form as soon as possible. We will be having a “Thanksgiving Feast” on that day, which will consist of the students wearing their costumes and eating their snacks in the cafeteria with the other Kindergarten classrooms. All costumes will be made ahead of time at school. Lunch will not be served on that day. We will also sing a few songs all together with the other Kindergarten classes.
It's hard to believe that it's already time to start thinking about all our December activities! We will start practicing Nutcracker dances in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and to help our trip to the ballet be more meaningful. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday, December 17th. Please be sure to send in the $10 for the field trip. We are tentatively planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An invitation will go home once the date and time have been confirmed.
We will be starting a new writing project next week. We will be researching animals and writing reports! There will be a homework component to this, where students will need help finding facts about their animals. Information will go home later about that.
We have been doing a lot with rhyming but I would encourage you to practice it at home with your child too. You can ask them to sing “Willowby-Wallaby Woo” or listen for rhyming words in books or even just try to list as many words as possible that rhyme. It would also be wonderful if you could help your child practice with counting, ordering, and writing numbers to 10 and even into the teen numbers. We finished our unit on numbers 1-10 and will be moving on to the teen numbers next week. Even simple things like counting stairs as they walk up them or counting how many bites of food they eat would be helpful!
I showed the students a website that has some great activities to support rhyming, early reading skills, and even math practice. It is www.starfall.com. I told them I would pass the address on to you. Also, the password for the Scholastic Let’s Find Out papers is Duncan2014.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Thank you for all the paper bags you have been sending in. We have all we need for right now. We are now looking for paper towel tubes, as we are looking forward to start our Nutcracker unit. Thanks so much!
Also… Please make sure your child brings warm clothes to wear outside for recess now that the weather is getting colder and please help them practice putting all their stuff on too!
Dear Parents,
We've had another busy week in Room 115! The students have been completing an impressive amount of work as we continue preparing for our “Thanksgiving Feast”. We have completed most of our Native American costumes and have started learning about Pilgrims. We read a story called “Samuel Eaton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy and we will be reading a similar one called “Sarah Morton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl. We talked a lot about the chores Pilgrim boys and girls had to do and I tried to encourage them to be helpful at home too!
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be a half day of school. Dismissal will be around 11:15am. A form will go home on Monday for you to complete and return that will let us know if children will be riding home on the bus or getting picked up by parents. Please return the form as soon as possible. We will be having a “Thanksgiving Feast” on that day, which will consist of the students wearing their costumes and eating their snacks in the cafeteria with the other Kindergarten classrooms. All costumes will be made ahead of time at school. Lunch will not be served on that day. We will also sing a few songs all together with the other Kindergarten classes.
It's hard to believe that it's already time to start thinking about all our December activities! We will start practicing Nutcracker dances in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and to help our trip to the ballet be more meaningful. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday, December 17th. Please be sure to send in the $10 for the field trip. We are tentatively planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An invitation will go home once the date and time have been confirmed.
We will be starting a new writing project next week. We will be researching animals and writing reports! There will be a homework component to this, where students will need help finding facts about their animals. Information will go home later about that.
We have been doing a lot with rhyming but I would encourage you to practice it at home with your child too. You can ask them to sing “Willowby-Wallaby Woo” or listen for rhyming words in books or even just try to list as many words as possible that rhyme. It would also be wonderful if you could help your child practice with counting, ordering, and writing numbers to 10 and even into the teen numbers. We finished our unit on numbers 1-10 and will be moving on to the teen numbers next week. Even simple things like counting stairs as they walk up them or counting how many bites of food they eat would be helpful!
I showed the students a website that has some great activities to support rhyming, early reading skills, and even math practice. It is www.starfall.com. I told them I would pass the address on to you. Also, the password for the Scholastic Let’s Find Out papers is Duncan2014.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
Thank you for all the paper bags you have been sending in. We have all we need for right now. We are now looking for paper towel tubes, as we are looking forward to start our Nutcracker unit. Thanks so much!
Also… Please make sure your child brings warm clothes to wear outside for recess now that the weather is getting colder and please help them practice putting all their stuff on too!
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Family Collages
We have been talking a lot about families and things we are thankful for. The students made big family collages that are now displayed at the back of our room. They came out so great that I just had to share them!
Francis Wyman Library Web Page
Steve Levin, our school librarian, shared a link with our class this morning from the Francis Wyman School Library web page. We wanted to make the web page more accessible to the students. The link listed below will bring you and your child to many resources. Today, the students used the Unite for Literacy link listed under eBook resources. Enjoy and have fun exploring!
https://bpsk12.follettdestiny.com/
https://bpsk12.follettdestiny.com/
Friday, November 7, 2014
November 7, 2014 Newsletter
November 7, 2014
Dear Parents,
We were excited to have Mrs. Marsh back with us this week! We all missed her very much!
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away! The children have started their Native American costumes and will be working on their Pilgrim attire in a couple of more weeks. They have painted their vests and ponchos/mantels, and will make and paint clay pinch pots. They will be coming up with their own Native American names and will weave place mats. They will also pattern their wampum necklaces and headdresses.
We will join together for a “Thanksgiving Feast” with the other Kindergarten classes on the half day of school before Thanksgiving. Students will dress up as either Native Americans or Pilgrims and will eat their snacks for the day on their place mats in the cafeteria. We will also sing a few songs.
We have begun a unit on families and have been talking about how families are different. Students have been making large family collages and have been writing about what they like to do with their families. We have also been discussing how thankful we are to have our families!
Don’t forget… no school on Monday or Tuesday! Happy Veteran’s Day!
Have a great long weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
PS…We will be going to the Library on Wednesday (first day back after the long weekend). Please make sure your child has returned his/her Library book by then. Thanks!
Dear Parents,
We were excited to have Mrs. Marsh back with us this week! We all missed her very much!
It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away! The children have started their Native American costumes and will be working on their Pilgrim attire in a couple of more weeks. They have painted their vests and ponchos/mantels, and will make and paint clay pinch pots. They will be coming up with their own Native American names and will weave place mats. They will also pattern their wampum necklaces and headdresses.
We will join together for a “Thanksgiving Feast” with the other Kindergarten classes on the half day of school before Thanksgiving. Students will dress up as either Native Americans or Pilgrims and will eat their snacks for the day on their place mats in the cafeteria. We will also sing a few songs.
We have begun a unit on families and have been talking about how families are different. Students have been making large family collages and have been writing about what they like to do with their families. We have also been discussing how thankful we are to have our families!
Don’t forget… no school on Monday or Tuesday! Happy Veteran’s Day!
Have a great long weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
PS…We will be going to the Library on Wednesday (first day back after the long weekend). Please make sure your child has returned his/her Library book by then. Thanks!
Friday, October 31, 2014
October 31, 2014 Newsletter
October 31, 2014
Dear Parents,
This has been a very fun week here in room 115! We had a wonderful day at the Zoo on Tuesday and want to thank Mrs. MacDonald, Mrs. Fragoso, and Mrs. Suhail for coming with us! We also enjoyed our Halloween Parade today. It was fun to watch everyone get dressed up.
We will start learning about the Wampanoags and Pilgrims next week. I hope the students will be able to comprehend a little about how different it was to live 400 years ago. The students will be making their Wampanoag costumes and will start to weave placemats soon. We will be focusing on families and homes during the next couple of weeks. They will make family collages, which will include everyone who lives in their homes and they will create a class book with their houses and addresses. It would be great if you could work with your child on memorizing his/her street address.
The students have been working hard in math. We are still working on writing our numbers, one to one correspondence and different math language (i.e. which is more or fewer, etc.).
We are looking forward to Miss Lyons’ return this coming week...or Mrs. Marsh actually! I’m sure the students will help her get caught up on all that she missed! We want to say a really BIG thank you to Miss Laquidara for her help during the past couple of weeks!
Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!
Melanie Duncan
We still need brown grocery bags for our Thanksgiving projects. If you could ask for some at the grocery store the next time you go, that would be helpful. Thank you!
Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings this weekend!
Dear Parents,
This has been a very fun week here in room 115! We had a wonderful day at the Zoo on Tuesday and want to thank Mrs. MacDonald, Mrs. Fragoso, and Mrs. Suhail for coming with us! We also enjoyed our Halloween Parade today. It was fun to watch everyone get dressed up.
We will start learning about the Wampanoags and Pilgrims next week. I hope the students will be able to comprehend a little about how different it was to live 400 years ago. The students will be making their Wampanoag costumes and will start to weave placemats soon. We will be focusing on families and homes during the next couple of weeks. They will make family collages, which will include everyone who lives in their homes and they will create a class book with their houses and addresses. It would be great if you could work with your child on memorizing his/her street address.
The students have been working hard in math. We are still working on writing our numbers, one to one correspondence and different math language (i.e. which is more or fewer, etc.).
We are looking forward to Miss Lyons’ return this coming week...or Mrs. Marsh actually! I’m sure the students will help her get caught up on all that she missed! We want to say a really BIG thank you to Miss Laquidara for her help during the past couple of weeks!
Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween!
Melanie Duncan
We still need brown grocery bags for our Thanksgiving projects. If you could ask for some at the grocery store the next time you go, that would be helpful. Thank you!
Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour for Daylight Savings this weekend!
Happy Halloween!
It certainly was an exciting day! The children enjoyed dressing up in their Halloween costumes and parading around the school. We enjoyed some Halloween songs and stories and even did some Halloween patterning in math. We also talked about being safe while trick-or-treating. I'm glad Halloween was on a Friday this year!
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Franklin Park Zoo
We had a beautiful day at the Zoo! Due to a lot of traffic and navigating a new route to the Zoo, we arrived later than we had hoped. After a whole lot of "Are we there yets?" we finally arrived and saw some really cool animals, including a leopard, a red panda, prairie dogs, zebras, wildebeests, ostriches, two tigers (even a white one), a roaring lion, a camel, an anteater, tapirs, and so much more. We even got to see some gorillas up close! There was so much we didn't get to see. Don't be surprised if your child asks you to bring him/her back to the Zoo!
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