West K Is Grateful!

One of our focus feeling words with Mrs. Riley was grateful.  She then helped us create a video so you can see and hear all of the wonderful things that West K is grateful for!  Please click the link below to take you to the video.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

West K Is Grateful!

Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving??

I am grateful this Thanksgiving season for feeling so welcomed and supported by each of my Kindergartners and their families.  Moving to Denver was a big change for me and I am so thankful for all of the smiles you have each brought to my face.  Thank you!  Check back next week for a special video of all of the things we are grateful for created by the wonderful Mrs. Riley.

Notes and Reminders:
-Book orders due on Monday!
-Please take a look at the Dreambox letter and set up.  Let me know if you have any questions!  Dreambox is not homework but just a way for your children to continue practicing their math skills at home.

Enjoy the pictures below from some of our family presentations and our second writing celebration!

November 13, 2014

"It's not happy people who are thankful.

It's thankful people that are happy!"

Each week we are lucky enough to have Mrs. Riley come into West K to talk to us about different feeling words.  One of the best so far has been the feeling of gratitude or thankfulness.  Why?  Well, Mrs. Riley showed us that if we feel grateful for something, it usually comes with another feeling....being happy!  Your children talked about what they were thankful for and you would be proud.  The "things" in their life were not what they said they were thankful for.  Their responses were more about the wonderful people in their lives that they do things with.  

Important Dates:

-11/14 - Noon dismissal for students

-11/17 - 11/21 Book Fair at Bookies

-11/21 - GO GREEN WITH GRALAND and Spirit Day

-11/24 - Scholastic Orders Due

-11/25 - Noon dismissal for Thanksgiving

-11/26-11/28 Thanksgiving Break

-12/1 - Back to school

-12/3 - CAP Parent Workshop 6:00 - 8:00 (more info to follow)

Content and Curriculum:

Next week during Writing Workshop we will begin a short writing unit.  We will learn all about writing letters.  We will even get to write our first letter to our pen pals!  We will do a shared introductory letter to our pen pals.  We will be pen pals with one of the Kindergarten classes at Lancaster Country Day School (my old school).  Throughout the rest of the year we will correspond with our pen pals.  Each day we will also check the temperature there (like we do here) but now we can compare the two temperatures side by side each day!

During reading lessons we continue to talk about reading tools and strategies to use when we come to a word that we don't know.  We need to be brave readers!  We can't just give up!  We will make a Brave Readers Shield and add our strategies.  We will also focus on carefully noticing the details in the stories that we read.  We will practice doing this by visualizing what is going on in the story.

We will begin Chapter 7 of Math In Focus looking more closely at 2-D and 3-D shapes and their attributes.  Look for a letter about Chapter 7 to come home either in their backpacks or Take Home Folders next week.  These letters are not meant to be homework, merely suggestions if you would like to reinforce some of the activities or topics that we are focusing on at home.

Below are pictures of our first few family presentations, math activities, a buddy choice time and a roller derby presentation.  This morning, Mrs. Brennan, the Head Librarian, and her roller derby team demoed and taught the lower school students about the roller derby.  Mrs. Brennan shared how hard she had to train to make the internationally ranked Rocky Mountain Roller Girls.  Ask your child what they learned!

Please read the post below about snow gear protocol!  Have a great weekend!

Winter Weather

Well, the weather is here.  Hopefully the temperature is not here to stay, but I can certainly appreciate the fluffy white snow!  With the change in weather, it brings more gear coming and going to school.

A few things to know:
-Please put names or initials inside every coat, hat, pair of gloves as some will inevitably be lost.
-Boots are a must!  Boots that have shoelaces are very difficult in Kindergarten.
-Days when it is 20 degrees or below we will not be allowed to go out to recess.
-Snowy days with 20+ degrees we will be at recess and snow pants will also be a must.  In the past some families have had more than one set of snow pants.  The extra set is more than welcome to stay here so they don't have to go to and from each day.
-Please encourage your child to zip their own coat and reinforce storing their gloves and hats in their coat sleeve at home.
-Sending gear in an extra bag like a reusable grocery bag helps the kids stay organized and minimizes lost items.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Waiting Is Not Easy!

"Gerald is careful.  Piggie is not.  Piggie cannot help smiling.

Gerald can.  Gerald worries so that Piggies does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends."

Today was an INCREDIBLY exciting day!  Not only was it our Release Party for the new Mo Willems Elephant and Piggie book - it was also a day where the Play-Ground Theatre put on a special play for us and the day that we finally got to eat lunch in Anschutz Commons!  Ask your child to retell you the story of Waiting Is Not Easy.

Off to lunch we go!  There was a perfect Piggie and Gerald book to describe this moment titled I Am Going!

Making sure we have clean hands before we eat.

So many options!

A perfect tray hold.

Fettucine Alfredo was the hot lunch option today.

Table #1

Table #2

Table #3

After finishing everything on their plate, students may go through the lunch line again to get seconds (or firsts of something they have not yet tried).

Yum!

Here is where we line up after we eat our lunch and wipe off our tables.

What are these toys that came home today?

Break and Snap toys!

Piggie got one of these toys in the book I Love My New Toy!

Carefully decorating

Which Piggie and Gerald book is your favorite (of the ones we have read so far).  Ask your child why Waiting Is Not Easy  had zero on our graph.

So many wonderful Break And Snap toys!