Tag Archives: fast Friday

News of the Week—May 10-14

POPCORN WORDS:  MY. BY. ONE

READING: At the beginning of the week we made connections to a character and their problem in the story.  We asked ourselves…”Has that happened to me?”  We talked about something special breaking or getting/wanting a pet and thought “Has that ever happened to me?” Later in the week, we learned more about characters in the books we read. We read more Froggy books and compared the adventures Froggy goes on in different books. Then we compared two different characters in an Elephant and Piggie book. We noticed what was the same about them and what was different. It is fun studying and learning about characters!

WRITING:  We were busy building our strength in writing Small Moment stories this week.  The kinders are working hard each day.  They chose a story that is true and about themselves.  Then they told the story across their fingers, focusing on the beginning, middle and end.  Drawing the pictures and writing the words came next and ending by sharing their stories with a friend. What hard work!  I am proud of their progress!

MATH:  We compared objects this week.  The kinders learned what longer than, shorter than and  taller than really mean by going on a hunt around the room for real objects they could measure against their pencil.  We also compared objects that are heavier or lighter.   We finished the week by starting to review various math skills we have studied in this unit.  We will be working as “office workers” next week by taking our last math test. 

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We were very busy working on these literacy skills…

  • sorting pictures having short e,o,i  sounds
  • making new words by changing the vowels and other letters
  • reading a short story and answering comprehension questions
  • studying our popcorn words—by, my, one
  • learning to read and write plurals in words 

KOOL KINDER AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week paper clips, Hot Wheels cars, pennies, popcorn and Skittles.

WE SHINE AS READERS:  Pictures using our flashlights to read 🙂

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please. 
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday.  We are collecting all  books for summer inventory.
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet and rainy, others will be warm and sunny.  Please continue to send a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it rains. Thanks! :).  

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, May 17—STEAM

*Tuesday, May 18—MUSIC

*Wednesday, May 19—GYM; Return TAKE HOME & LIBRARY BOOKS

*Thursday, May 20—ART If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 5/20

*Friday, May 21–ART  Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal. MY STATE IS GREAT–wear clothes which show a place in Michigan

***Have a WONDERFUL weekend. It sounds like it could be a nice weekend to be outside. Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—April 12-16

POPCORN WORDS:   HIM. JUMP

WRITING:  We began the week by listing facts we knew about goats.  There were a lot of good facts.  Then we read informational books about goats to gather more facts.  The kinders incorporated these facts into their writing as they created another book of All About Goats using the format of Goats have _____.  Goats can ____.  Goats are ____. The kinders are doing a fantastic job with their informational writing.  They have made incredible progress this year in their writing. I am so proud of their hard work.

FAIRY TALES….THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF:  Our fairy tale this week was about 3 brave goats who had courage to cross a bridge and deal with a bully, the troll. We read the original story and a few different versions of the fun fairy tale.  Again, we used the SHAPE GO map to help us retell the story, talk about the characters, setting and heart of the story. We discussed words that described the three goats and the troll.  This led into a good discussion about what we can do if we encounter a bully. We also had an awesome discussion about what makes a hero.  We thought the biggest billy goat was like a hero for saving his little brothers. We ended the week by having fun making our own trolls.

  

MATH:  We focused on number partners this week.  We completed pages inside of our math workbooks and played games. One game was called The Hiding Zero Game. This game focused on practicing teen numbers, each teen number is made by replacing the zero in the ten with a number that tells how many ones there are. For example, 14=10+4. Pigs in the Pen was another fun game.  Lay out 10 objects. One partner closes their eyes while the other partner removes some of the “pigs”. Open eyes and say “6 pigs in the pen.  How many more pigs to make ten?” (6+4=10) Lima Bean Shake was a third game we played.  We also reviewed sorting by completing a book called Bonkers for Buttons and actually sorting objects.

LITERACY/PHONICS: We worked on these skills….

  • letters that work together to make a single sound – we looked at the sound s makes, the sound h makes and then the sound they make when they are together (sh)
  • sorting pictures that start with s, h and sh
  • making words in the word family -UM
  • writing and reading CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant)
  • reading the story of The 3 Billy Goats Gruff and retelling it using the props we made

READING: We learned that non-fiction readers think of new words that they are learning and write them down. Readers sometimes need to be detectives and use clues on the whole page to figure out the meaning of words, reminding themselves to not read too fast so that you don’t miss important facts.

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week were seashells and a stuffed lion. We also started a new activity for being the Kool Kinder.  Be on the lookout for the GUESSING BAG.  You will need to fill the GUESSING BAG with a number of the same objects (1-50).  Then the kinders will try to guess the number.  A fun way to practice estimating, number identification and making groups of 10 and extra ones.  So far we have tried to guess the number of cotton balls, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:  We celebrated 3 birthdays this week.  Thank you so much for the birthday gift treats!

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please.
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet, rainy and maybe snowy :(.  Please continue to send a hat and mittens, along with a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it snows or rains. Thanks! :)
  • Change of clothes check.  Be sure to check the extra clothes baggy in your kinder’s backpack that they are season and size appropriate.  With spring weather, recess can sometimes get messy.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, April 19—MUSIC

*Tuesday, April 20—GYM

*Wednesday, April 21—ART; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books! 

*Thursday, April 22—STEAM If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 4/22

*Friday, April 23–EXTRA RECESS Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal

***Have a wonderful weekend. Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Feb. 22-26

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Welcome to March and the anticipation of spring.  We learned this week that the weather during March can be like a lion (wintery, cold) or a lamb (spring-like,warm breeze). The kinders made a lion or lamb based on how they think March will begin.  Check out our results….

POPCORN WORDS:    AND. GET

MATH: Number bonds were introduced to the kinders this week. This is just another way to see number partners.  The kinders did an amazing job working with this new skill. They were also introduced to Tiny Tumblers who live on Math Mountains. The Tiny Tumblers practice their tumbling all day long.  Some Math Mountains have a lot of Tiny Tumblers on one side of the mountain and not so many on the other side, but when you count all of the Tiny Tumblers they equal the Math Mountain number. These math mountains help the kinders learn and practice number partners. For example, on math mountain 6 there are 4 tiny tumblers living on one side and 2 tiny tumblers living on the other side.  (4+2=6)  Here is a YouTube video that explains how we use the tiny tumbler concept in math that you might like to watch.  We also practiced identifying 3D shapes, positional words such as under, above, behind, between, in front of, etc, compared numbers using the terms GREATER THAN and LESS THAN and writing numbers.

READING: We started learning about reading playdates!  We learned that avid readers don’t only share books, they are always inventing fun things to do with books and friends.  We used the chart below to guide us with our reading play dates!  Students were able to pick if they wanted to play school, play games or play pretend! The students had fun working with their partners and taking part in the reading playdates!  We also learned that really good readers act out the story in their mind, every time they read.  We are learning that reading is a lot like going to the movies because of all the pretending we are doing!  The kinders practiced reading non-fiction texts and talking like an expert about the books we read. They read books as groups and found things they thought were WOW about the books or moments when we want to ask questions, to learn more!

WRITING:  We finished opinion writing by writing about the topics of: 1. Our favorite breakfast. 2. Our favorite color. 3. Our favorite snack. 4. What we like about Georgetown.  We finished our learning by taking an assessment to show what we know about writing an opinion paper all by ourselves! That is called an “on demand” writing. The kinders had to decide on their own opinion, give reasons why to support their opinion and remember to write sentences that start with an uppercase letter and end with punctuation. That’s a lot to do all by themselves.  I am so proud of them!  I am excited to share these writings with you at our conferences. 

LITERACY/PHONICS:  The kinders identified sight words, blended and segmented sounds in words, identified final sounds in words and created new words by adding different letter sounds at the beginning of sight words (and, get).

BLACK HISTORY MONTH:  GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER This week we learned that George W. Carver was a scientist and inventor. He invented many uses for his favorite snack…peanuts.  Thanks to him, we learned that we can be curious about many things.

We also learned about Mae Jamsion by reading a Scholastic newspaper.  She was the first black female astronaut.

KOOL KINDERS SPREADING KINDNESS AND A BEING BOOK LOVER

REMINDERS

WINTER GEAR: Hooray for a bit of warmer weather and the snow starting to melt.  Unfortunately, the melting snow is causing a LOT of water puddles on our playground. Please continue to send your kinder with snow pants, boots, a hat, gloves/mittens and coat every day!  We are planning to continue to wear it outside to help keep us warm and protect our clothes from the mud.

SNACK & WATER BOTTLE:  Please remember to send 2 healthy snacks AND a water bottle with your kinder each day. 

VACATION:  If you have a vacation coming up and your kinder will be missing school, please contact the office for a vacation request form. 

CALENDARS:  Here is the MARCH calendar  You can read about upcoming events, birthdays and more.  It is also posted under CALENDARS at the top of our blog.  Here is the March lunch menu

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, March 1—MUSIC

*Tuesday, March 2—GYM. Dr. Seuss’ Birthday…Dress in your Seuss-ish attire (black, white, red colors or your favorite Dr. Seuss character?)

*Wednesday, March 3—ART; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!   Homework packet due

*Thursday, March 4—STEAM; If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 3/4

*Friday, March 5—GYM;  Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal. HATS OFF FOR READING!  Wear a cowboy hat or bandana

*Monday, March 8 and Wednesday, March 10…Parent/Teacher Zoom style conferences

***Have a fabulous weekend!  Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—Jan 25-29

POPCORN WORDS:  with     big

WRITING: This week the kinders were encouraged to write their own HOW TO… stories.  It was exciting to see what they chose to teach others through  their writing on how to do something.  They did an amazing job stretching out unknown words, using sight words, including finger spaces and sentence stoppers!  They are  becoming awesome writers!

MATH: We spent the week looking at teen numbers (finding ten and extra ones), telling math stories, identifying shapes, adding and subtracting numbers from 0-5, writing numbers 0-30, and showing partners for numbers 2 through 7.  Next week, we will be reviewing math concepts we learned in this math unit before taking our Unit #3 test. 

READING: The kinders learned how important it is to check our reading!  We learned that if we see tricky words in our book and we are not sure how to read them we can stop and ask:

  1. Does it make sense?
  2. Does it sound right?
  3. Does it look right?

Also that when reading challenging books you need to use picture power that has “extra strength“.  That means you really need to spend time looking at the pictures, noticing more and more details while making sure the words match the pictures. The whole picture may give us clues about words we are unsure of and it also tells us quite a bit when it comes to retelling the book!  The kinders are developing this skill as their reading level grows. We learned that readers can move from reading a pattern book to reading a storybook.  We practiced this by starting to read Wake Up Dad!

We learned that readers can move from reading a pattern book to reading a storybook.  We practiced this by starting to read Wake Up Dad!

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We worked on our sight words, added another book to our blue book box with our popcorn words (with, big) in it, listened for syllables in words,  sounded out 3 letter words (CVC – consonant, vowel, consonant words) and listened for medial sounds in words.  We also learned that punctuation marks matter when reading sentences.

KOOL KINDERS SPREADING KINDNESS AND A BEING BOOK LOVER:  It is time to be the Kool Kinder again!  Your kinder will be doing two activities.  They will spread kindness by picking a kind act to do at home and drawing a picture, plus they will  choose a favorite storybook so that we can read it at school.   

P.E. News:  The Annual PE Apparel sale is happening now until February 1.  The store is online only.  For more information go to the PE Blog. http://mvankoev.edublogs.org

Kids Heart Challenge is starting next week!  Please see the PE Blog for more information. Below is the sign up link. http://www2.heart.org/goto/georgetown

REMINDERS:

WINTER GEAR: Please remember to send your kinder with snow pants, boots, a hat, gloves/mittens and coat every day!  

SNACK & WATER BOTTLE:  Please remember to send 2 healthy snacks AND a water bottle with your kinder each day.  Many of the kinders are very hungry in the morning and want to eat both snacks.  If possible, please take time to give your kinder a good breakfast.

HEADPHONES:  Please send in a pair of headphones for your kinder to use in STEAM If you have not already done so.  Thank you!

CALENDARS:  Here is the FEBRUARY calendar  You can read about upcoming events, birthdays and more.  It is also posted under CALENDARS at the top of our blog.  Here is the February lunch menu

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, February 1— ART

*Tuesday, February 2—STEAM Day 100 celebration. Bring in 100 collection! (see note that was sent home)

*Wednesday, February 3—MUSIC; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!  Homework packets due  Mail Valentines

*Thursday, February 4—GYM If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 2/4  Mail Valentines

*Friday, February 5—EXTRA RECESS  Fast Friday (Early Release) @ 12:15pm. Mail Valentines

*Mon. Feb 8—Winter Break–NO SCHOOL

*Tues. Feb 9—School again! 

*Fri. Feb. 12–Valentine Party 

Have a great weekend!   Mrs. Bohl

 

News of the Week—Jan 4-8

 

Oh, it is good to be back with my kinders.  I missed seeing them:)  We jumped right into learning this week by talking about setting goals for what we might want to learn or do this coming year.  We thought of goals that we can accomplish at school. For example: to add numbers, to be kind, to learn more popcorn words, to read books, to share. We made a fun Happy New Year craft. Our ‘party people’ will come home soon but for now they are decorating our room for the first part of January.  Welcome 2021

 

POPCORN WORDS: WAS    AT    THAT    We added three more words to our growing list of popcorn words that we are working on identifying in a snap. Many of the kinders noticed right away that “at” is hiding in “that” and that they rhyme. We also talked about how some letters make different sounds like in “was”. We read 2 books using these words and added the books to our blue book bins.  The kinders are doing an amazing job identifying “new” and “old” popcorn words.  We even noticed that -at words were inside our shared reading poem My Cat has a Hat.

MATH:  The kinders used common shapes to make new shapes. The kinders practiced sorting and classifying objects while giving reasons why they classified the items that way by using pictures of shapes and animals/people. We also practiced our teen numbers. We learned about how there is a “hidden” 10 behind teen numbers. For example, in the number 13 – there is a 10 and 3 extra ones. 

 

HANDWRITING:  We focused on learning the proper formation of the CLOCKWISE upper letters P,B,R,D,J in their booklets. The kinders are doing a super job writing letters in isolation but transferring the proper formation during ‘regular’ writing time is not consistent.  Extra encouragement as they write at home is always helpful. 🙂  The kinders were excited to see that I exchanged their names on their pencil boxes to include their last name. They will now begin adding their last name to their papers, working towards writing their full name by memory.  

READING: We began a new unit called Bigger Books, Bigger Reading Muscles. The kinders learned that some books are considered challenging because they have more words and more lines, longer words, new words and surprise endings.  That is when persistent power needs to be activated!  Books that contain patterns makes reading fun so PATTERN POWER is needed! We learned that when readers figure out the pattern it makes reading easier. We also found out that sometimes the pattern changes at the end giving us a surprise! The kinders were encouraged to use a new tool…a reading mat to organize their books as they read.  They begin by stacking their books from easier to hardest and then placing their books on the side with the green arrow because it tells them where to start reading. The kinders move their books to the other side when they are finished reading them. Once all of the books have been moved to the finished side, the kinders can move the books back to the green arrow which will allow them to go back and re-read their books again. I am so proud of how hard the kinders are working during reading.

LITERACY:  The kinders worked on identifying ending sounds in words, putting words in correct sentence order, reading CVC words and identifying and writing popcorn words. The kinders practiced making more words by taking away “th” from “that” and adding different beginning letters to “at”. (cat, fat, sat, mat, etc).  Have fun at home using your Cat slider to practice this skill. 

WRITING:  I am so proud of the kinders and their writing. This week we began writing HOW TO…. stories.  We shared what we thought we could teach others to do with our partners.  Some examples were: how to ride a bike, how to read a book, how to play football and more. We learned that writers write about what they know, use mentor books to help them write, ask themselves “Does this make sense?” when putting pictures in order and have partners ask questions while deciding the steps. Our writing topics were How to Get Ready for School, How to Make Cookies, How to Build a Snowman and How to make a Root Beer Float. We did some cutting and pasting (instead of drawing) to put the pictures in order of First, Next, Then, Last and then wrote words to tell the steps. The kinders did a marvelous job! We will write more HOW TO… stories next week.

PHONICS:  We will be looking closely at how parts of words work together for awhile.  We used our pointer power to remind ourselves that each word in a sentence gets one tap as we read. The kinders practiced this by writing sentences for Mabel on their whiteboards, using snap words, before re-reading the sentence and tapping each word. (Ex: I can write sentences. I can do it.) We had fun pretending to be a sentence by having some kinders stand in a line and then saying each word by pointing to each kinder.  They were reminded that it is easier to read a sentence when there are spaces between words instead of having words squeezed together.

*TAKE HOME BOOK PROGRAM:  I am so excited for this program to begin. Books and a detailed informational note came home this week. The kinders will keep and read the books at home before returning them each Wednesday.  We will exchange books and the kinders will take home new books each Thursday.  It is so exciting to see and help our kinders become readers. 

REMINDERS:

*WINTER GEAR: Please send appropriate winter gear with your kinder each day.  It keeps them warm when playing outside. An extra pair of socks, mittens or gloves might be a good idea to keep inside their backpacks if their original pair gets wet.  Please take time to label your ALL of your kinder’s winter attire if you have not done so. Often these winter clothes are easier to be transported in an extra bag (If you go this route PLEASE be sure to label the bag with your kinder’s name).  If you are in need of winter clothes, PLEASE reach out. We have many helpful resources at Georgetown.

*BACKPACK SNACKS & WATER BOTTLE:  Don’t forget we take a snack break 2 times each day…morning & afternoon.  Please include your kinder in choosing their snacks.  Some kinders are commenting that they don’t like the snacks that are packed.  Thank you!

*EXTRA CLOTHES:  Please check to see that these clothes, stored in their backpacks, are weather appropriate now that our season has changed.  

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, January 11—MUSIC

*Tuesday, January 12—GYM

*Wednesday, January 13—ART;  LIBRARY and TAKE HOME books due!  Don’t forget your books! Homework packet due! 

*Thursday, January 14—STEAM; If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 1/14

*Friday, January 15—MUSIC; Fast Friday (Early Release) @ 12:15pm

*Winter Break: February 6-8

Have a wonderful weekend!  Mrs. Bohl

NEWS—Feb 24-28

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Welcome to March and the anticipation of spring.  We learned this week that the weather during March can be like a lion (wintery, cold) or a lamb (spring-like,warm breeze). The kinders made a lion or lamb based on how they think March will begin.  Check out our results….I think that there might be quite a few disappointed kinders if we don’t have spring like weather. 🙂

MATH: Number bonds were introduced to the kinders this week. This is just another way to see number partners.  The kinders did an amazing job working with this new skill. Tiny Tumblers who live on Math Mountains were practiced again. The Tiny Tumblers practice their tumbling all day long.  Some Math Mountains have a lot of Tiny Tumblers on one side of the mountain and not so many on the other side, but when you count all of the Tiny Tumblers they equal the Math Mountain number. These math mountains help the kinders learn and practice number partners. For example, on math mountain 6 there are 4 tiny tumblers living on one side and 2 tiny tumblers living on the other side.  (4+2=6)   We also practiced identifying 3D shapes and positional words such as under, above, behind, between, in front of, etc.

Friday math games focused on math skills like number partners, identifying teen numbers by showing the ten and extra ones in ten frames, identifying numbers 1-20 and solving addition problems.

POPCORN WORDS:  AND    GET  The popcorn words are becoming a bit harder to recognize so I can not stress it enough that practice at home is so crucial to your child’s growth.  We practice identifying our words many times and in many different ways throughout the day but your child needs to practice them at home too.  Thanks for taking on this important role. Your February flash cards are inside your kinder’s folder.

WRITING WORKSHOP:  We started to learn about PERSUASIVE WRITING.  First we thought of a problem like “not all kids are walking in the halls”.  Next we thought of how we could convince others why you need to walk in the halls.  Our reasons were “Kids can get hurt.  It is a school rule.” Then we figured out a solution such as “Kids need to walk looking forward.”  Finally we learned that we can tell others by making a sign or poster.  Celebrate with your kinder as they show you their writing & sign this weekend.  This was hard work but everyone persevered.

SOCIAL STUDIES: We finished up our learning of Me on the Map.  This week we learned that our town is called Hudsonville.  We used symbols to locate various buildings on a map. Each of the kinders were able to write their own street and house number inside of the booklets.  It was fun to hear that some of the kinders live on the same street. The kinders’ bedroom map was included inside of your kinder’s booklet if they brought it back.  We are SO lucky to live in the fabulous state of Michigan and this amazing town of Hudsonville.

READING: We started learning about reading playdates!  We learned that avid readers don’t only share books, they are always inventing fun things to do with books and friends.  We used the chart below to guide us with our reading play dates!  Students were able to pick if they wanted to play school, play games or play pretend! The students had fun working with their partners and taking part in the reading playdates!  We also learned that really good readers act out the story in their mind, every time they read.  We are learning that reading is a lot like going to the movies because of all the pretending we are doing!  

MYSTERY READER: Landon was happy to see his grandma come to school.  She read Pancakes! Pancakes! by Eric Carle because she likes to bake and make pancakes with Landon.  Thank you so much for stopping by.

KOOL KINDERS ARE BOOK LOVERS:

Ariya likes Frozen so A Sister Like Me is a favorite book.

Sutton enjoys reading Be my Valentine, Peter Rabbit.

Sabrina likes to follow the steps at Christmas for How to Catch Santa.

Landon likes bugs and There was an Old Lady who swallowed a Fly!

Major brought in a cool book filled with fun facts about Undercover Animals.

REMINDERS

*WINTER GEAR:  The cold weather is still here.  THANK YOU for sending your kinder with all that they need to stay warm outside.  Just a reminder, we will be outside for recess if the temperature is above O degrees.  Keep watching the weather forecast each day.  The playground is dirty, please continue to send your kinder with boots and snow pants! Thank you!

*BACKPACK SNACK: Please, please remember to send 2 quick, healthy snacks for your kinder, as we take a moment to refuel each day. Thank you.

*TAKE HOME books: Your kinder is doing an awesome job reading books.  You may have noticed that many of the kinders have moved up a level and there are different colored stickers on their books. Continue to assist and encourage them as needed.  Please help your kinder to remember to return their book baggie EACH Monday and Thursday so that they are consistent with their read aloud practice and are able to check out a new book each time to build their reading experiences.  Don’t forget to sign the parent sheet and include comments or observations you feel may be helpful.  The kinders are doing a fabulous job…thanks to your work at home and the reading volunteers.

MONTHLY CALENDARS: Three March calendars are available for you to view.  Hot lunch calendarMarch calendarPlease take note of the REVISED copy that was sent home today.  It has the correct weekly popcorn words listed .  March is Reading calendar . Watch for a sign up for opportunities to donate special snacks for celebrating March is Reading month!

  UPCOMING DATES:

*MONDAY, MARCH 2––ART; reading TAKE HOME books; Dr. Seuss celebration–wear red, black & white

*TUESDAY, MARCH 3–STEAM

*WEDNESDAY. MARCH 4––MUSICLIBRARY  Please remember to return your kinder’s book.

*THURSDAY, MARCH 5–—GYM; reading TAKE HOME BOOKS;  EMAIL ME OR SEND A NOTE BY THURSDAY (3/5) IF YOUR KINDER WOULD LIKE A SACK LUNCH.

*FRIDAY, MARCH 6ART;  FAST FRIDAY Dismissal at 12:15pm  SHINE A LIGHT ON READING—Bring a Flashlight!

*MARCH 8: Daylight Savings…spring forward! 

*MARCH 9 & 11–—Parent-Teacher Conferences: Parent slips stating your specific date and time were sent home.  I am looking forward to sharing your kinder’s awesome progress with you.

*MARCH 9-12–SPRING BOOK FAIR:  We are scheduled to purchase books on Wednesday, March 11. If you would like to have your kinder purchase books, please send the money inside an envelope labeled with their name.  Parent volunteers will be available to help your kinder shop.  The Book Fair will be open during the conference evenings.

*APRIL 2-—Kindergarten PJ Day!  Wear jamies (or comfy) clothes.

*APRIL 3-10––SPRING BREAK:  NO SCHOOL

~~Have a great weekend.  Mrs. Bohl

NEWS–Feb. 10-14

POPCORN WORDS:   NOT   WHO

READING:  The kinders practiced using their retelling skills all week long.  After listening to a valentine story, the kinders retold the story by recalling the characters, setting (where did it take place) and the order of events.  While they were reading with their partners, the kinders were able to put their retelling skills to work using the books inside of the blue book boxes.  Enjoy hearing your kinder retell you The Day it Rained Hearts using the picture cards at home.

MATH:  It was all about showing teen numbers using tens and extra ones, comparing numbers using the terms GREATER THAN and LESS THAN and solving addition and subtraction math stories.  The kinders completed pages in their math workbooks, used 11-20 mats and manipulatives.  We read another Love Monster story called Love Monster and the Last Chocolate before creating our own math story.

After reading and talking about this week’s newspaper, we decided to combine math and our opinion.  First we tasted candy hugs and candy kisses. Next we colored our paper kiss to reflect our choice.  Then we created a graph of Hugs or Kisses on the board. Last we gave a reason why we liked a candy hug or a candy kiss.

SPLIT LIT: The kinders worked on skills such as syllables, writing and reading CVC words, reading popcorn words, identifying ending sounds and identifying “h brothers” (th & sh sounds).

WRITING WORKSHOP: The kinders began learning how to write a new style  of writing…..Opinion writing.  We started with learning the difference between fact and opinion.  Then we sorted statements into an opinion or fact column.  After hearing a story that relates to the day’s writing, the kinders give their opinion, write two reasons to support why they feel that way and write a closing sentence such as “_____ is my favorite.” or “I really like _______.”  WOW!  WOW!  The kinders are writing like almost first graders! Do I dare say that?  🙂 They are including popcorn words, spaces between words, sentence stoppers as well as giving awesome reasons. Our topics this week were: 1. What animal would you take home from the zoo? 2. Liking winter or summer.  3. Choosing hot lunch or home lunch.  Have I said lately, how proud I am of them! 🙂 . This is difficult writing but they are off to a GREAT start!

HANDWRITING:  We learned the proper formation of the SLANT TO STRAIGHT upper case letters, A, Y, V, W, X.  We will continue to work on writing our letters (upper and lower case) for the remaining school year.  Any extra practice at home would be helpful.  Some fun practice might consist of shaving cream, salt trays, watercolors, markers, bath crayons, etc.  

WHERE IS MRS. BOHL?: I want to let you know that I will be out of the classroom Monday morning. I will be screening next year possible kinders.  Mrs. Voss is coming back and will be the teacher. Hooray!  🙂 Mrs. Bynum will still be in the classroom. I will be back in the afternoon. Please take a few minutes this weekend to talk with your kinder about showing Mrs. Voss kindness and respectfulness by following our class rules and making green choices.

KOOL KINDERS ARE BOOK LOVERS:

Ellery likes to read Unicorn Day because she likes unicorns.

Katelyn thinks this little bear is cute in Make a Wish Bear.

Adrian likes the repeating pattern in Sneezy the Snowman.

Jude likes bugs in the book Bugs in my Hair.

Evelyn thinks Press Here is a funny book.

MYSTERY READER:  Sabrina was so happy to see her dad come into the room.  He read The Day the Crayons Quit.  A fun story about using ALL of the crayons when drawing pictures.

REMINDERS

*WINTER GEAR:  Please send your kinder with all that they need to stay warm on the bus ride and while playing outside….snow pants, hats, mittens, boots. Just a reminder,  we will be outside for recess if the temperature is above 0 degrees. We play out in the fields, and our playground does not get plowed, thank you for your help. 

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, FEB 17—GYM; TAKE HOME books;  Mrs. Bohl out of the classroom in the morning. Mrs. Voss is here.

*TUESDAY, FEB 18—ART 

*WEDNESDAY. FEB. 19STEAM;  LIBRARY Return library book!  Homework due 

*THURSDAY. FEB. 20MUSIC;  If your kinder would like a sack lunch on Friday, please email me or put a note in their folder by 2/20

*FRIDAY. FEB. 21—-GYM;  Fast Friday…dismissal at 12:15pm

~~~~Have a fantastic weekend.  Stay safe and warm . Mrs. Bohl

NEWS OF THE WEEK—May 28-31

COUNTDOWN TO SUMMER:  We hardly start our day before the kinders ask “When can we open the envelope?” We had fun learning and practicing our literacy and math skills through these theme related days.  This week’s envelopes held:

Day 9—-WATERMELON FUN DAY   We read stories about watermelons, we sang “Down by the Bay” completed a rhyming book, painted paper plates to look like watermelons, practiced solving addition and subtraction problems using watermelon “seeds” and ate watermelon.

Day 8—BUBBLE DAY    Excitement was heard when the kinders found out that they were allowed to chew BUBBLE GUM in school!  Oh, my!  I think that our neighboring friends could hear us. (gum is not allowed, so what a treat!!)  We chewed & chewed & chewed before some actual bubbles were made by some kinders. We talked about how you can blow a bubble before we wrote out the steps. That writing just needed a fun picture so we made these cutie pie kiddos. We also created a graph that shows if we like or do not like to blow bubbles. We even watched a video of how bubble gum is made in the factory.  Of course we had to relate it to math….it is school!!! The kinders popped up when they heard that math time was going to be playing a math addition game using gum balls. Practicing adding numbers this way is fun!  Listening to a story and taking home our own bubbles filled out this fun day.

Day 7—-POPCORN AND MOVIE DAY  You should have heard the cheers that filled our classroom.  Oh my!! 🙂  We enjoyed tasting 3 different flavors of popcorn….plain, caramel and cheese after sorting the various flavors.   The class results showed plain is yummy but caramel and cheese were the favorites.  We also incorporated learning into playing popcorn related literacy and math games such as; POPCORN ANYONE?; POPCORN MATH; POPCORN MATCH UP.

Day 6—GAME DAY   We enjoyed playing games outside in the morning during our Kindergarten Olympics.  We also played games in the afternoon inside our classroom.  The kinders chose from Uno, Top It, CandyLand, Chutes and Ladders, Fiddlesticks, Play Ball, Bingo to name a few.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP:  The kinders learned what a bucket list is and have been excited to create their own summer bucket lists.  They have written a list about PLACES TO GO, THINGS TO DO  and FOODS TO EAT.  They will be writing  about another topic next week.  Get ready to read what they have on their “bucket list” next week.  Some of the lists are quite long.  I think that you will stay busy this summer. 🙂

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:  Thank you so much for the birthday treats!

 Happy birthday to Jase!

 Happy birthday to Colton!

FOUND….IS IT YOURS?  This cold pack needs to go home with the right kinder.  If you are missing a cold pack from your kinder’s lunch box, please email me and I will be happy to send it your way.

UPCOMING DATES

*MONDAY, JUNE 3:   MUSIC;  Countdown to Summer Day 5

*TUESDAY, JUNE 4:  GYM;  Countdown to Summer Day 4

*WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5:  ART; Countdown to Summer Day 3

*THURSDAY, JUNE 6:  STEAM; Countdown to Summer Day 2;   EMAIL ME OR SEND A NOTE BY THURSDAY (6/6) IF YOUR KINDER WOULD LIKE A SACK LUNCH.

*FRIDAY, JUNE 7: STEAM;  Countdown to Summer Day 1; Last Day of School.  Fast Friday (Early Release Dismiss at 12:15)

~~~Have a great weekend.  Mrs. Bohl

 

NEWS OF THE WEEK—Dec 3-7

Thank you for supporting Georgetown and allowing your kinder to think of family members as they chose gifts at the Holiday Shop.  They had a lot of fun picking ‘just the right’ gift for their loved ones.  

 

GINGERBREAD MAN: We continued to read many different versions…The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Girl goes Crackers. We are having fun comparing the endings of each of these stories.  More to come next week.

MATH:  We started unit #3 by meeting TEN BUG…a bug that has ten dots on it and helps us look for groups of ten. The Kinders had fun when ten bug flew around and talked to each of us. Looking for partners of numbers 2-6 (ex: 1+3=4,2+2=4,3+1=4 are partners of number 4) were also part of this week’s lessons.  The kinders used the “break apart stick” and math tiles to help them visually see this concept. Telling addition and subtraction math stories are becoming part of our daily math practice. Ask your kinder about how we like to act out our stories. 

Math games played were GINGERBREAD MEN PATTERNS (making patterns) and WHERE IS THE ELF? (identifying numbers 1-20)  Math is so much fun!! 🙂

WRITING: We continued to write pattern books have repeating words on each page, but one word changes. Sometimes the word that changes is at the beginning of the sentence, at the end of the sentence and in the middle of the sentence. This week we wrote four pattern books! All of the kinders are doing an excellent job!  I am so proud of them.  

WEEKLY NEWSPAPER:  The topic was HIBERNATION.  We read a fiction book that helped us identify animals that sleep during the winter.  Then we read our newspaper that gave us true facts about how bears get ready for the winter.  

READING:  The kinders learned that readers have SUPER POWERS!

This week it was all about POINTER POWER.  By pointing under each word, making sure that what they say matches what is written and remembering that even longer words get one tap, help to strengthen their super powers. We practiced using our pointer power by reading a Gingerbread Man book filled with popcorn words and by using some very cool googly eyes. Pointer Power….activate!!  You can practice using pointer power at home too!

HANDWRITING:  We worked on writing CLOCKWISE family letters,     Encouragement to write neatly and slowly is stressed as we work on these letters. Thank you for your continual practice at home. 🙂 

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS THE GINGERBREAD MAN?:  Gingy (our mini gingerbread man) sent us a big envelope filled with post cards from his latest destination…..FRANCE.  We learned about the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, Palace of Versailles, etc.  We agreed that we would like to eat a chocolate souffle, baguette, crepes but escargots would not be tasty.  Mrs. Rossback has had them and she said “they are a bit slimy”.  🙁 . It was fun to see that their flag had the same colors as ours….red, white and blue.  (Sorry….no pictures….we were so busy learning that I forgot! 🙁 )

MYSTERY READERS: Lila jumped up with glee and a small shout when she saw her grandma walk into the room on Wednesday.  She read a Piggy and Elephant book…There is a bird on your head!  What a silly, fun story.

Thursday Aria ran to greet her mom.  She read The Giving Tree.

Elliot was so surprised to see her mom and baby sister come into the room.  We heard Elliot’s favorite story, An Awesome Book.  A sweet story about dreams.

It is always fun to have grandparents & parents come and read to us.  Thank you!!

POPCORN WORDS:     LOOK      RUN       FROM                                    Like always, we used them in the our writing and found them in books!

REMINDERS 

*WINTER GEAR:  Please continue to send winter gear each day (when necessary) with your child.   It has become cold and snowy outside and we want our kinders warm.  They may wear their gym shoes every day or you can send a pair of shoes.  Wearing snow boots in our room is not a good option.  :)  Refer to earlier posting for more information.  PLEASE LABEL YOUR KINDER’S CLOTHING!

*BACKPACK SNACK:  Thank you for packing 2 quick, healthy backpack snacks each day!

*PARTY DONATIONS:  Thank you so much for your donations.  Please send in ALL non-editable donations to school by Monday, Dec 17. Food items can be dropped off in the morning.  Party volunteers can arrive at 1:30pm to set up.  Please be respectful of Mrs. Reagan’s request……Due to the large number of parent volunteers attending class parties with in the school, Mrs. Reagan has limited the parent attendees to ONLY those volunteering. You MUST have completed a background check if you wish to volunteer. Thank you for understanding.  Click on this link to see who is scheduled to volunteer.  

*5th Grade Candy Canes:  Mon. Dec 3 thru Fri Dec 14. The cost for each candy cane is $1.00 and they will be delivered the same day they are ordered.  Please enclose the money inside a labeled envelope, listing the number of candy canes needed.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, Dec 10—MUSIC  

*Tuesday, Dec 11—GYM  

*Wednesday, Dec 12—ART;  LIBRARYDon’t forget to return your child’s book!  

*Thursday, Dec 13–-STEAM; HOLIDAY MUSIC PROGRAM  Georgetown Holiday Music Program  6:30pm at Fair Haven Church, 2900 Baldwin Street, Hudsonville.  Kinders arrive by 6:15pm;    Sack lunch orders (by note in kinder’s folder or email) due for tomorrow’s Fast Friday

*Friday, Dec. 14— GYM;  Fast Friday Dismissal at 12:15pm

*Monday, Dec. 17–ALL non-food party donations are due at school

*Wednesday, December 19–Grinch Day—-wear Green or dress like Grinch characters. We will learn how to make our heart grow!

*Thursday, Dec 20–-Holiday Party  It will be held from 2:00-3:00pm. Parent volunteers can arrive at 1:30 for set up.  All donations should be brought to school by Monday, Dec. 18.  Food donations should arrive on party day in the morning.  If you would like your kinder to participate in the class book gift exchange, please send a  wrapped book (suited for either a boy or girl) with tag on the outside. (TO A FRIEND   FROM (YOUR KINDER’S NAME)  ALL BOOKS ARE DUE BY FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14 but can come into school anytime.   

*Friday, December 21-Polar Express Day…wear pj’s!  Come to school wearing your cozy pajamas.  Wear boots and snow pants for outside play but slipper shoes are welcome inside of school.  NO STOCKING FEET ARE ALLOWED. NO STUFFED ANIMALS OR BLANKETS.  Thank you! Be prepared for a fun day of learning.  

*Monday, December 23 – Friday, January 5:  NO SCHOOL, Holiday Break.  School resumes on Monday, January 7! 

~~Have a great weekend!   Mrs. Bohl