week of January 13, 2020

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of January 13, 2020)
Handwriting/Writing:  We are almost through our Handwriting Without Tears book for Letter and Number formations.  When we send this (orange) book home, it may stay at home for review and you can see the huge improvement in writing since the beginning of the year.  Our focus since we came back from break has been on different types of sentences (question, statement, exclamatory) and how a paragraph has several sentences about a single topic.  We will then continually review our letters (capital and lowercase) as well as number formations while we move into our Building Writer books.
Reading:  We have been working on our unit essential question of: Why do we like stories? We have been focusing on: discussing themes and author’s purpose, comparing/contrasting stories, making inferences and predictions, describing plot, and visualizing details as we hear different types of stories.  We also review characters, setting, plot, and problem/solution when we read any type of story to keep those skills fresh.  We have been working really hard in our small groups on many early literacy skills such as: first sounds in words, all sounds in a given word, writing first/last sounds in words, blending sounds together, reading words, and writing words. 
Math:  We have been working really hard on comparing numbers to 10.  We have been using our math vocabulary such as: more, fewer, and equal.  Our latest lessons have been making one more and one less of the object we are counting (like fish) and writing the new number.  We are also working on counting to 100 each day, next number in a sequence, and writing our numbers correctly (especially the teens).  We have completed our Spring Math Winter benchmarks and the skill that we are working on now is counting dots and circling the correct number (0-20).  Our strategy for that skill is to make a line through the dot as we count them in order.
Science/Social Studies:  We have had a mini-author study focused on Jan Brett.  We read The Mitten and completed a writing activity with what would fit in our mitten.  We also read The Hat and The Three Snow Bears.  We have discussed animals in winter along with characteristics of winter.  We have quite a few stories about ice and snow to read as well that will fit in with properties of water.





Reminders:
Ice cream: The ice cream day in the cafeteria has been moved to Wednesdays, just so you are aware.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
It can be a little chilly in our room at times, so if you would like to send in a dress code approved sweater/long sleeve to leave in their cubbies that would be appreciated.  It must be solid colored without a hood per the dress code.
Important Dates:
Monday, January 13-  Day 4
Thursday, January 16- Start of the 3rd Marking Period
Friday, January 17- Spartan Dress Down Day ($1 donation)

Congratulations!  We are so very proud of our Math DIBELS scores!!!  The growth everyone has shown since the beginning of the year is amazing!!! We will be sending the reports with the report cards for you to review.  Reading DIBELS will be next week, keep up the great work! 

week of December 16, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of December 16, 2019)

***This will be the last newsletter of 2019.  Weekly newsletters will resume when we return in 2020.  At this time, we would like to extend our warmest wishes for a very Happy Holiday season!  We appreciate your continued support and we are incredibly pleased with the amount of growth and progress over the first part of the school year.  We look forward to seeing what the New Year will bring and hope that everyone enjoys their break.

***Our Field Trip to Frozen 2 was magical!  We were so happy to be able to wear our PJs and travel to Bloomsburg to see the movie.  A fantastic time was had by all.  Thank you PTO!

Important Dates/Reminders:

Monday, December 16- Day 2

Tuesday, December 17- NSE will go to the High School to view their Holiday Chorus/Band Concert

Wednesday, December 18^th- Ugly Sweater Day with $1 donation to the SPCA

Thursday, December 19- Kindergarten PBIS Reward (The Polar Express) No Snack Needed

Friday, December 20- Early Dismissal 12 Noon, No Snack Needed.

School Closed- December 21-January 1

School Reopens- January 2, 2020

week of December 9, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of December 9, 2019)

Handwriting:  We are starting to write more words, phrases, and sentences in Handwriting.  We will be talking about labels, rhyming pairs, poems, greetings and more.  We will continue to work on our goal of staying within the boundaries while writing along with appropriate spacing and size.  Keep up the good work!

Math:  We just started our Unit 3, Comparing Numbers to 20.  We have started talking about how numbers 0-10 can be ordered and compared.  We will also be working on comparing sets of objects up to 20 in each set using comparative (more/less and greater/fewer) words. 

Reading:  We will start a new unit, Unit 3, Tell Me a Story.  We will be talking about why we like stories, what stories are like, and what we can learn from them.  We will be looking at traditional stories and learning about the qualities of stories they have read.  We will continue to practice our early reading skills such as: first sounds, all sounds in words, syllables, rhyming words, blending sounds together, and reading words.

Science/Social Studies:  We will be talking about holiday traditions and winter characteristics.  We are super excited to count down for the holiday break!  We are also counting down for the Field Trip and the fun experience!

Important Dates:

Monday, December 9- Day 5

Wednesday, December 11- Dress Down with a Canned Food or Monetary Donation

Friday, December 13- Kindergarten Field Trip!  On Friday, December 13^th, Kindergarten will travel to the Allentown Auburn Railroad to ride the Santa Train.  We will also make a craft with Mrs. Claus and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies (no snack is needed).  We will leave school promptly at 9:00 and return around 2:00 pm.  Students and chaperones are invited to wear their pajamas like on the Polar Express.  Don’t forget a packed lunch in something disposable, if you did not already order a lunch from the school.  Students do not need money,

Saturday, December 14- Chorus/Band Concert (Kindergarten time- 10 am)

week of November 25, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of November 25, 2019)

Handwriting:  We will be finishing up the last few tricky lowercase letters and will briefly revisit any capital letters that we have missed.  We will also be diving into Unit 6, Writing Activities.  That way we can start our Building Writers book after the start of the New Year.  We will work in review and practice of lowercase letters as much as possible due to the fact that most of our writing is done with lowercase letters.

Math:  We will be finishing up our Numbers 11-20.  Our words to review are: numeral (a word or symbol that stand for a number), count (to say numbers in order), and ten frame (a graphic organizer with an array of squares that allows one to visually see a number).  We have been really practicing what the teen numbers look like, counting orally, and counting objects.  We will continue our Missing Number skill in Spring Math and we are inching closer to our class goal of 16!

Reading:  Our latest story was about why exercise is important.  We talked about different types of exercise and demonstrated some of them as well.  We also have been working on stretching sounds in words and saying the sounds on our fingers.  We have been working on rhyming words and changing the beginning sounds of words to get a new word in the same rhyming family. 

Science/Social Studies:  We have been talking about Thanksgiving and watched clips from our “Let’s    g Find Out” site that compared a day with early American settlers along with members of the Wampanoag tribe.  We saw how hard it was to prepare food and take care of household duties without all of the modern luxuries.  We also identified words that reminded us of Thanksgiving.

Important Dates:

Monday, November 25- Day 7

Tuesday, November 26- Day 8

Wednesday, November 27- Non-rotation day, Early Dismissal at 12pm

Thursday, November 28-Monday, December 2- Happy Thanksgiving Break

Tuesday, December 3- School Back in Session, Day 1

*Have a wonderful Thanksgiving break with your families.  Book logs will be collected when we return from break.  Enjoy J

week of November 18, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of November 18, 2019)

Handwriting:  We will continue with the diver letters that follow the same pattern.  These lowercase letters dive down, come up, and swim over.  After we finish the diver letters we will move into tricky letters like f that has a tricky start or x and z that are infrequently used.  Handwriting is looking good! We are working hard staying within the given lines and taking our time with the strokes so that are handwriting is easy to read.

Math:  We will continue our numbers to 20.  Our essential question is “how do we read, write, and count numbers to 20?”  We will be counting objects and demonstrating that the last number said tells the number of objects in that set.  We will also be counting forward and backward using objects and a number line. 

Reading:  We will continue to discuss what living things need, our needs versus wants, and what keeps you healthy.  We will talk about print concepts such as: front cover, back cover, spine, title page.  We also will be identifying if the text is fiction or nonfiction and naming characters and setting of the story.  Please continue to read at home for the monthly book log and practice sight words. 

Science/Social Studies:  We have been doing an exploration of the “Click, Clack, Moo” characters with several books over the past few weeks.  We started with the original and had a Halloween story and recently read “Giggle, Giggle, Quack” about the duck who was responsible for some trouble on the farm while the farmer was on vacation and just finished up “Duck for President” which introduced us to some vocabulary such as: election, ballot, vote, governor, and president.  Duck finds out that he is much better suited for life on the farm!

Reminders:

Please dress appropriately for the colder weather.  A warmer coat and hat/gloves is important especially if we can make it outside for recess.  Also, it would be very much appreciated to label these items because it is easier to find the owner if they are left on the bus or dropped in the hallway. 

Important Dates:

Monday, November 18- Day 2, if your child has the dress down for good attendance paper in their folder, it is going to be Monday for our class.  Anyone who missed 2 or less school days in the first marking period is able to dress with any blue shirt along with jeans or sweatpants.

week of November 11, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of November 11, 2019)

Handwriting:  We are starting our “diver letters” (p, r, n, m, h, b).  These letters all start with the same pattern: they dive down, swim up, and swim over!  We avoid b and d confusion by separating the letters and teaching them in different groups based on formation habits.  We are almost through the lowercase letters and we will then move back to the capital letters to finish them up and any remaining numbers before working on words and sentences.

Math:  We have been working on reading, writing, and representing whole numbers up to 20 with and without objects and pictures.  We are working with numbers 11-20 to gain a foundation for place value.  We are continuing to work on Missing Numbers in Spring Math and each week our score is increasing towards our goal of 16.  We are also working on counting to 100 and number identification.

Reading:  We have been working on characters and setting in our stories along with details that make a text fiction or nonfiction.  We have been working on beginning and ending sounds in our daily Phonemic Awareness activities.  We have been changing words by either adding a part of a word or taking a part of a word off (say “dirty” without “e” and the answer would be “dirt”).  We have been working on all letters and their sounds as well as long vowel sounds.

Science/Social Studies:  We have been working on a story called “The Size of the Problem” that identified what is a small problem, a medium sized problem, or a big problem.  When something comes up in our classroom we have been trying to identify what size problem it is along with how to solve it best to work on our teamwork and our problem solving.  We have been reading several Thanksgiving stories and most of them are about turkeys trying to get out of being the main dish!

Important Dates:

Monday, November 11- No school for students, Veterans’ Day

Tuesday, November 12- Day 6 (please return signed report card envelopes as soon as possible)

Friday, November 15- Spartan Dress Down Day ($1 donation) and the end of the Penny Wars

week of November 4, 2019

Mrs. Borden and Mrs. Jones’ Newsletter (week of November 4, 2019)

Handwriting:  We will be working on letters: u, i, and e.  We will be writing words and sentences correctly.  We have been talking about 2- finger spaces in sentences and using a period at the end of the sentence to stop our thought.  Our numbers have been looking fantastic and we are impressed with everyone’s writing improvement.

Math:  Our introduction to Numbers to 20 has been a big hit!  So far we have been working up to 15 and filling one ten frame completely and another ten frame with extra ones.  For example, 14 would be one filled up ten frame and 4 extra ones.  We have been counting objects, filling in ten frames, and writing the numbers.  We will continue to work on Missing Numbers in our Spring Math.

Reading:  We have been talking about living things and their needs.  Our activity to identify main idea and details was about why animals migrate.  We were able to identify 4 reasons why animals migrate and worked in small groups for this project.  We will continue to work on: all letters (capital and lowercase), their sounds, first sounds in words, all sounds in words, blending sounds together to read words, and reading sentences in our various groups. 

Science/Social Studies:  We will be working on some topics such as: migration and hibernation now that the weather is getting cooler.  We will also be discussing the holidays such as: Veteran’s Day and Thanksgiving.

Reminders:

There is a red Spartan folder with your child’s assessments for the first marking period in their book bag today.  Please take the folder out, review the assessments, and sign and return it as soon as possible please!

Important Dates:

November 3- Daylight Savings Time Ends, No shorts allowed until Daylight Savings Time begins again.

November 4-  Day 1, PTO Meeting 6:30

November 8- Report Cards sent home, please sign and return the envelope only