Last week of January 2014

Good evening parents and guardians, 

This month is coming to an end, February is right around the corner. Valentines Day and 100th day of school is two weeks away. I will be sending more information soon. 

Here is a glimpse at our week:

Language Arts:

• Unit 3-Week 6-"The Lion and the Mouse" 
• Content Knowledge: How Feelings Change
• Phonemic Awareness: Review Initial Sounds
• Phonics: /o/ Spelled Oo
• Comprehension Skill: Main Idea
• UNIT 3 assessment: Students will be taking this exam on Friday.
• Phonics (beginnings sounds)
• Sight words (me, with, she, see, look, they, you, of)
• Comprehension

Math:

• Continue with Unit 11
• One less than a given number
• One more than a given number
• Compare numbers that are the same
• Compare two numbers and say which is more and which is less

Science/Social Studies:

• Groundhogs Day
• What is it? 
• Making predictions
• Information about groundhogs and hibernation
• Gathering information and graphing it

Our classroom:

• Attendance: Students began to earn letters towards their reward. Every time there is perfect attendance (no absences or tardies) students earn a letter. When they spell out PERFECT they will get a treat. They got a treat once before and I know many of the students are looking forward to it again. We have 2 letters so far! 
• Progress reports: Will go out this Friday. I decided to send one home to every student. It's a great way to know where your child stands this second trimester.

Our school:

• 1/29 Prospective parents information meeting 5:30-6:30
• 1/30 Jog-A-Thon Kindergarten will participate at 12:50
• THANK YOU to all those parents that will be helping out this day or donating items.
• 1/31 Awards: Will be this Friday at 8 am.

If you would like any more information or have questions please feel free to email me. 

Have a great rest of the day, 

Miss. Maciel

Jog-A-Thon and DIBELS

Good evening parents and guardians,

Just wanted to send out two quick announcements.

Jog-A-Thon

• A PTO representative let me know that our class has yet to receive sign ups for healthy snacks. If there is anyone that could help me purchase healthy snacks for the day of please let me know. This way I know how much to purchase.
• A flyer went home today regarding the jog-a-thon and when donations are due (as well as some of the prizes for those students who collect certain amount of donations)

DIBELS

• I sent home a report today containing your child's beginning of the year and mid year scores. 
• I am happy to say that almost if not all of my class reached the benchmark goal and improved from the first test over all.
• If you have any further questions regarding the information please let me know.

If there is anything I may be able to help you with please feel free to email me.

Thank you, 

Miss. Maciel

This week 1/21-1/24

Good evening parents and guardians,

I hope you all had a nice long weekend.
Here is a look at our week.


Language Arts:

• Unit 3- Week 5
• Story : "Then and Now"
• Content Knowledge: How Things We Use Have Changed
• Phonemic Awareness: Initial /o/
• Phonics: /o/ Spelled Oo
• Comprehension Skill: Draw Conclusions (Will be tested on this skill this Friday)

Math:

• Finish Unit 10
• Student will take there test on Thursday 1/23/14
• Sets of items (same, more than, less than)
• Begin Unit 11
• Students will be able to name the number that is one more than a given number

Science/Social Studies

• Science: Finish Chapter 4- Plants and Animals
• Assessment on Wednesday 1/22/14
• Social Studies-Learn about Martin Luther King Jr

National School Choice Week (Jan 27-31, 2014)

• The purpose of school choice week is to promote our school and raise community awareness
• Spirit shirts can be worn all week
• REACH Gives Back, Monday through Wednesday we will be hosting a Clothing/Shoe Drive Fundraiser to support the Philippines Relief Campaign
•  Monday, January 27
• Students’ submission of:
• Essay Contest about "Why I love my school" (2^nd and 3^rd grade)
• Poster and Picture Contest about “Why I love my school” (kindergarten and 1^st grade)
• Thursday, January 30
• Jog-A-Thon
• Singapore Math Training for Parents 5:30-6:30
•  Friday, January 31
• Awards Assembly
• Winners announced from essay and poster contest during assembly

If you would like any information on any of the items above or have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Enjoy the rest of your day, 

Miss. Maciel

Upcoming school events-January

Good evening parents and guardian, 

Here is some news about upcoming events at REACH. If any changes are made, I will be sure to let you know right away.

Jog-A-Thon (Jan 30, 2014)

• Volunteers and supplies needed
• You can sign up in the gym
• Sign up lists are located near the new White Board that was recently mounted

National School Choice Week (Jan 27-31, 2014)

• The purpose of school choice week is to promote our school and raise community awareness
• Spirit shirts can be worn all week
• REACH Gives Back, Monday through Wednesday we will be hosting a Clothing/Shoe Drive Fundraiser to support the Philippines Relief Campaign
•  Monday, January 27
• Students’ submission of:
• Essay Contest about "Why I love my school" (2^nd and 3^rd grade)
• Poster and Picture Contest about “Why I love my school” (kindergarten and 1^st grade)
• Thursday, January 30
• Jog-A-Thon
• Singapore Math Training for Parents 5:30-6:30
•  Friday, January 31
• Awards Assembly
• Winners announced from essay and poster contest during assembly

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

Thank you, 

Miss. Maciel

This week 1/13-1/17..

Good evening parents and guardian, 

Here is a recap of our week, as well as some other school related information.

Language Arts:

     Unit 3-Week 4-"Farfallina and Marcel"

     Objectives:

• Content Knowledge: How Animals Change
• Phonemic Awareness: Initial /f/
• Phonics: /f/ Spelled Ff
• Comprehension Skill: Plot
• 3 week assessments taken last week but sent home today
• Student were given a list of 10 CVC words and 5 sight words (High frequency words-HFW)
• CVC words were out of 5 (1 point per sound), Sight words (HFW) out of 1
• Scoring for CVC words
• Read word with no hesitation-5
• Read word but  sound out each letter sound individually then blend-4
• Read sounds in word but do not blend word or say wrong word-3
• Say only sound of letters in word-1 point per sound

Math:

• Finish up Unit 8- Weight
• Comparing weight of items (Exp: Which is lighter? Which is heavier?)
• Comparing items, equal to the same weight (Exp: The spoon is as heavy as ___ cubes")
• TEST this Wednesday
• Begin Unit 10- Comparing sets of objects
• Students will be able to say that two sets of things, shown in pictorial form, are equal in size
• Students will be able to compare two sets of things, given in concrete and pictorial forms, and say which set has more things

Science:

• Continue with Chapter 4- Plants and animals
• This week we will be covering
• How plants change (Today)
• How do people change (Tomorrow)
• What are some plants and animals that live on land?

DIBELS/MID YEAR TESTING

• This Thursday and Friday, students will be taking their benchmark exam (It will be one day or the other, not both days).
• Here is some information that may be helpful, but feel free to look up anything else or email me if you have any questions.

Android Tablet Apps:

• Preschool and Kindergarten
• Kindergarten kids math lite
• Kindergarten kids words lite
• Kindergarten games
• Kindergarten sight words free
• Kids reading (preschool) free
• Kids ABC letters lite
• Kids numbers and math lite

As always if you have any questions or would like more information on anything please feel free to contact me. I would be more than happy to help and If I don't have the information to your question I will try my best to point you in the right direction.

Thank you for all that you do and always working with your kids at home

Have a great rest of the day, 

Miss. Maciel

Jog-a-Thon and iPad use in class...

Good evening parents and guardians,

Jog-A-Thon
As you may have noticed, PTO sent home information regarding the Jog-A-Thon REACH will be host on Thursday January 30, 2014.

Here is some more information:

Pledge Envelopes Due                1/27/14

Jog-A-Thon                              1/30/14

Pledge Envelopes Returned        2/3/14

Pledge Envelopes Collected        2/10/14

Pizza and Movie Party               2/26/14

Students have the option of asking for two types of sponsorships from friends and family, per lap or set amount.  Envelopes will only be returned on 2/3/14 to those students who have per lap sponsorships. If you have any more questions or need information you can get in contact with the PTO.

iPad use

Many students have started to bring their technology to class. They are only allowed to use it for now from time to time (if they are done with their MUST DO work first) and IF THE PARENTS SIGN THE TECHNOLOGY USE FORM. If you need a copy please go to the office. Also, if your child stays for the after-school program I send their iPads to the office (since backpacks are left in the hall ways I would hate for something to happen to them), they can be picked up there.

If you need any more information or have questions please feel free to email me.

Thank you, 

Miss. Maciel

First week of the New Year 1/6-1/10

Good evening parents and guardians,

I hope you all had a great time with your families and loved ones these past two week celebrating the holidays.  My kiddos had so many things to tell me and I was ready to listen (I was looking forward to it during the break). I was a little nervous about going back to school after a two week break, but overall my students did great. We will still be reviewing class rules and procedures on a daily basis, especially this first week back.

Here is a glimpse into what we will be going over in class this week:

Language Arts: As I mentioned last month, we will be reviewing this week in the unit for a second time. The first time it was covered we really didn't get a chance to go over all the material. This will be the first time the students listen to the story, but not the first time the students go over the letters Dd and Kk.

• 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 (this skill will be tested on Friday)
• 3week exam: Students will also be taking the 3 week exam. This will cover the skills of reading CVC words and sight words for the past 3 weeks.

Math: 

• Finish up Unit 7 on length and size
• Student will continue to explore measuring different items, but this week we will mainly be focusing on comparing sizes.
• Which is the tallest/shortest?
• Which is the smallest/biggest?
• The students will be taking the UNIT 7 test on Thursday.

Science:

• Unit B- Life Science- Plants and Animals (News letter with more information will be going home tomorrow).
• Objective: Students will know that plants and animals grow and change during their lives. Students will see how people grow and change too.
• Lima Beans
• Today was the first day we began observing how seeds change into plants. We observed Lima Beans and put them in water for 24 hrs. Tomorrow we will be taking them out and placing them into zip lock bags to watch them germinate. The students are super excited to do this little experiment.
• Butterflies
• I haven't told the students yet….BUT we will also be observing the changes in butterflies. I am hopping I get the eggs tomorrow so we can begin to take care of them and watch them blossom into beautiful butterflies. 

Technology:

• A few student began to bring their iPad or tablets to class. As a REMINDER, before your child can bring their technology into the class, you must first sign the technology user agreement. You can get more information about this from the office. 
• Any technology your child brings will stay in my class. Dr. Rentie has provided us with some bins to store them in. I will also be locking my classroom every time I step out.  To get things started, students are allowed to use the device they bring (May-do) after they are done with their required work (Must-do).
• REQUEST: It is highly recommended students bring headphones to use with their device and do not share with anyone else in class.
• Here are some iPad apps I found to be educational, fun and free (some of these might be available for Android devices).
• ABC magic
• Phonics Genius
• Pre-School and Kindergarten learning games
• Grade K math
• Ice Land!
• Letter Quiz
• Spelling Bug
• Sight Words
• Cimo Spelling-Sight (light)
• Concentration
• Bubble pop- Math 1-2

One last things…THANK YOU all for the wonderful Christmas presents, especially to those parent that contributed towards the whole class gift (target card). Also, a big THANK YOU to those parents that stopped by the last day of school before winter break to help out at our party. I hope your kids had a great time!

As always, if there is anything I may be able to do for you please let me know. Feel free to send me an email me or catch me at school. I will try my best to come up with a list of Android apps soon.

Thank you for all that you do with your kiddos and for me, 

Miss. Maciel