In this week's updates 12/16-12/20

Good evening parents and guardians,

This week is going to be busy but it will come and go quick.
I think many of the kiddos are ready for a break. :)

Here is a quick glance at our week.

Language Arts:

• Due to the winter performance and award assembly we will be previewing the next unit in our curriculum. We will cover it in whole when we get back from winter break.
• Here is some quick information on Unit 3-Week 3
• Story: George Washington Visits
• Content Knowledge: How People Lived Long Ago
• Phonemic Awareness: Initial /d/
• Phonemic Awareness: Initial /k/
• Phonics: /d/ Spelled Dd
• Phonics: /k/ Spelled Kk
• Comprehension Skill: Cause and Effect

Math:

• We will continue with our measuring unit
• Students will be able to compare the length of 2 objects with different lengths, and say which is short/long and which is shorter/longer
• Students will be able to compare the length of objects and say which is the shortest or longest

History/Social Studies

• We will be finishing up our Winter Holiday Unit
• Learn more about Christmas and New Years

Christmas Party:

• If you could please get any donated items to be by this Wednesday that would be great. This would give me time to organize the items and make any last minute purchases by Friday.

School Announcements:

• Winter Performance- Dec. 18 @ 9:30
• If your child could wear a RED TOP it would be great, if not it is OK :)
• Last day of school before winter break
• Award assembly (I sent home fliers to those students receiving awards this past Friday, please make sure you checked your child's backpack)
• Tk/K Assembly at 8:00 in Maines Hall
• Students are allowed to wear their PAJAMAS this day, uniform will not be required
• There will be NO AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAM on this day, please be sure to pick up your child at our new Friday dismal time 12:00

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me.

Have a great rest of the evening, 

Miss. Maciel

Tomorrow..

Good evening parents and guardians,

I wanted to notify everyone that I will not be in tomorrow. I will have a substitute teacher for the day. I have already met her (she is a REACH parent) and she has many years of experience subbing, including Kindergarten. I have to admit I am a bit nervous to leave my kiddos, but I know they will do great and are left in great caring hands. If you could please talk to them a little bit more about their behavior tomorrow I would greatly appreciate it.
I will be out for some observations, but will be back to work on Tuesday.

Also, a quick reminder about the donations for Friday's party if I could get them in by Wednesday that would be great.

Thank you everyone for all that you do and for being my partners in your child's education.
As always if there are any questions please feel free to email me.

Thank you and have a great rest of the day,
Miss. Maciel

Winter Performance

Next week's performance is scheduled for Dec. 18 from 9:30-11:00 am.
Dr. Rentie gave the OK for students to wear special Holiday Performance clothing, in other words uniforms will not be required this day.

If you have any further questions about next week's performance please feel free to email me or call the office.

Thank you,
Miss. Maciel

Week of 12/9-12/13

Good evening parents and guardians,

I hope you all had a great Monday to start this week off. Here is some information about this week's happenings as well as upcoming school events.

Language Arts:

• Unit 3-Week 2- "Little Quack" Day 2
• Objectives:
• Content Knowledge: How We Change as We Grow
• Phonemic Awareness: Initial /r/
• Phonics: /r/ Spelled Rr
• Comprehension Skill: Plot 
• FRIDAY ASSESSMENT: Sequencing (Order of events)
• Last week's assessment did not go too well. The students were read a story and then shown two pictures. The students were to color the objects that were the same and cross out the items that were different. Many students i noticed has a hard time following directions, hence did not do so well on the test (even thought we practiced quite a bit and always did great). I created my own exam today and gave it to the kids. I have not graded them yet, but I will be dropping the lower score.

Math:

• Students this week will be going over pattern (based on shapes, colors and orientations) and will be tested tomorrow. For the rest of this week and next, students will begin to learn about measuring. They will learn about measuring length and height of items using different objects (connecting cubes, paper clips, etc.)

Social Studies:

• We are continuing to work on on Winter Unit-December Celebrations. Last week we learned about Hanukkah, this week we will be learning about Kwanzaa.

Christmas Party-12/20 10:30 am-12:00 pm

• Please feel free to bring any donated items by next Wednesday (this way i have some time to organize the items and purchase any items that might still be needed). Any fresh items (milk, fruit, etc.) please bring the actual day of the party. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELP, I really appreciate it. I'm super excited, this will be my first Christmas Party as a full time teacher.

Important School Dates:

• 12/10 Tk/k Tech info meeting 530-630 pm
• 12/11 Coffee with director- Family Wednesday (Tk/K lunch from 11:00-11:45)- FIRST FULL FRIDAY
• 12/13 First minimum day Friday
• 12/18 Winter Performances
• 12/20 Award Assemblies (Tk/K 8:00)
• 12/21-1/5 Winter Break

As always, if there is anything I may help you with, please feel free to email me. I would be more than happy to help or answer any questions you may have.

Have a great rest of the day and week, 

Miss. Maciel

Scholastic books- warehouse sale

Good morning parents and guardians,

I just found out today is the last day for the sale at Patriot High School in Jurupa Valley. Today's sale hours are 9 am - 3 pm.  They will have lots of books for all the different reading levels. This would be a great time to stock up on books.

Have a great weekend everyone,
Miss. Maciel

Week of 12/2-12/6

Good evening parents and guardians, 

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with all your loved ones.

Here is my update on what is going on in my classroom as well as some other information for the month of December.

This week:

• Language Arts
• Story of the week- "Little Panda" Unit 3 Wk 1
• Content Knowledge: How a Baby Panda Changes
• Phonemic Awareness: Initial /n/
• Phonics: /n/ Spelled Nn
• Comprehension Skill: Compare and Contrast
• Phonemic awareness: initial /b/
• Phonics: /b/ spelled Bb
• Math
• 3D shapes (cubes, cones, rectangular solids and spheres)
• Student will be tested on these this Thursday
• Begin unit 6 on patterns
• Social Studies/Science
• As a kindergarten team we decided to do a winter unit which covers some of the holidays celebrated in the month of December
• This week we will be covering Hanukkah

More information:

• Today
• I sent home the form with my access code to let you make your profile to view our Language Arts and Science curriculum
• If you have any trouble setting up your account please let me know
• 12/6/13 Report cards sent home
• *Grades for writing numbers 1-20: Students grades for this first trimester were only based on numbers 1-10
• 12/11/13 Coffee with director 8-9 am
• 12/13/13 Early Release day
• Family Friday- Kindergarten Lunch from 10:00-10:30
• 12/18/13 Winter Performance Assembly 8:30-11:00 AM
• 12/20/13 Award Assembly
• Christmas Party (more information to go home soon!)

These next few weeks will go by fast, but I hope to fill them with lots of memories for your kiddos. This is the month I remember the most from my elementary years and I hope to do the same for my students.

As always if there is anything I may be able to help you with please let me know. 

Thank you, 

Miss. Maciel