Happy Halloween!

What a fun day today!  We visited our buddies and had a really fun time in PE and Music in the gym with Mrs. Snider's Kindergarten class!  Also, our Minute To Win It games were a huge success!  So much fun!

Here is what the students did as fast as they could in 1 minute:
1)  Mummy Wrap: Wrap a friend like a mummy and be mummy wrapped by a friend with Toilet Paper.
2) Spider Pick Up: Where students picked up glow in the dark critters with chop sticks or tweezers.
3) Cookie Face:  Where students start with a cookie on their forehead and without using their hands they had to try to get it into their mouth.
4) Spider Toss:  Students tossed as many critters into a bowl as they could.
5) S'more Vampire:  Using vampire teeth (or just their own teeth) students moved as many marshmallows from one plate to another.

We had such a fun time!  Thank you parents for all your help today and support!  It was a huge success because you were able to help run the stations!  Thank you!  Thank you!

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Reminders:
1) Monday is a book exchange day, so please send in your child's book with a note.  If you send it in on other days, I do not have a helper to exchange it, sorry!

2) The Veteran's Day Assembly is next Thursday at 9:45 (AM) and 2:00 (PM).  Please have your child wear Red, White, and Blue on Thursday for the Assembly!

3) Call the office to schedule your conference time with me at 465-7800.

Happy Trails!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

 

Happy Thursday!!

We started the day adding details to our ABC books. This was followed by calendar time and reporting our daily news. During reading groups the students worked on their sight words, letter sounds for /m/, /a/, /p/, /s/, reading, and listening.  Also during reading groups, students created the letter Pp with Play Dough, and made a sweet Halloween Page that we will get to take home tomorrow.  During math, the students worked on the number 8, as well as finding the hidden partners within the number 8 (eg. 5+3). Finally, we read the story The Lion and the Mouse and made it outside for a short recess. 

Information about Halloween tomorrow:

1. Please send your child in their costume tomorrow, as we do not have time to change into them.    
2. Don't forget tennis shoes for PE!
3. Please apply any makeup or face painting at home.
4. If you are a parent helper coming, please see the schedule below to be sure of the time.  Please arrive at least 5 minutes early to help with any set up (9:45 AM) (1:55 PM).  If you need to bring a sibling or younger child, that is great!  
5. Please no weapons, blood, guts or scary costumes (G rated)!  :)

Can't wait!  It's going to be awesome! 

AM Schedule:
9:25-9:45     4th Grade Buddies
9:50-10:50   Halloween Party in our classroom (parent helpers needed during this time)
10:55-11:45 PE and Music (No Library on this day) 

PM Schedule:
12:45-1:35 PE and Music (No Library on this day)
1:40-2:00   4th Grade Buddies
2:00-3:00   Halloween Party in our classroom (parent helpers needed during this time)

Happy Tuesday!

What a great day!  It was packed full of fun!  We practiced saying the sound and writing our letter of the week...Pp!  Our sight word of the week is A!  As in "A bug sat on a log."  We practiced writing our sight word of the week today in reading groups, as well as reading our leveled readers that had our sight word (and review sight words).  The listening center book was a cute Halloween story "A Ghost In The House," where all the scary things are scared of a boy.  We read several poems today, discussing rhyming words and how some poems rhyme and some do not.  For math we worked on the hidden partners of the number 7 and we wrote the number 7 in our number books.  Here is how we write a seven:

Fall Conferences are coming soon!  Over the next few days, I will be starting our Assessments for Fall Conferences.  Please call the office at 509-465-7800 to schedule your conference time with me.  If there isn't a day or time that works for you, please email me and we will find a time that works.  

*Remember for Halloween, students and anyone coming to school can (and encouraged) wear a costume.  We only ask that students and parents:

• not wear masks and have minimal face painting (so we can tell who they are)
• do not have a bloody or gory costumes
• follow school dress code policy
• not have any real or fake weapons

If you have a treat you would like to send in, please remember our school policy of store bought items only that do not have any traces of nuts in them.  We do not have any nut allergies in our room, but we have many students traveling around the school and come into our classroom for buddies, etc.  

Happy Trails!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer    

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a great weekend! We had a marvelous Monday! Today our focus was the /Pp/ sound and the sight word "a". We read words, books, and several poems with the initial sound being /Pp/.  We discussed and practiced how writers use their writing tools and paper correctly, then we practiced what it looks like to free draw and free write.  We also read a beautiful story titled "Friends All Around".  We discussed how friends may be the same and different and even argue or disagree at times and how to handle it. (In the PM class we will read this book tomorrow!)  At the end of the day, we practiced our songs for the Veteran's Day Assembly with Mrs. Longmeier's class.  In the PM class, we had a wonderful finish to our afternoon with Art!  Thank you to all the volunteers that showed up and helped plan this event!  It was a complete success thanks to you!!   


For our Halloween party coming up this Friday, don't forget, all students come to school in their costumes!  If you are volunteering, please plan on joining the fun and dress up too!  We are still in need of:

8 bags of big marshmallows
4 sets of chop sticks

Everything else people have said they will bring!  Thank you parents!
Have a great evening!  Happy Trails!
~Love, 
Mrs. Wittwer

Happy Friday!

Today was a great day that rushed by!  We had a Royal Reader this morning for Max's birthday!  We traced and colored a leaf art project with our 4th grade buddies!  It was great fun because we got to go up the stairs and see their classrooms!  In the AM, we got to make our portfolio holders for all our art for the year!  We also wrote the number 6! Make a stick and a loop, a six makes a hoop!  We start at the top line, write a line down and make a loop! Make sure the loop connects and there are not any corners!  6! Then we had Music, PE and Library!  In Library we were able to preview the Book Fair, if you would like to come in with your child, here are the book fair hours for next week:

Monday 9 am - 7 pm 

Tuesday 9 am - 7 pm

Wednesday 9 am - 4 pm

Thursday is the last day!  Open from 9 am - 4 pm

Whoohoo!  I am so excited for our Halloween Party next week!  We are going to play some really fun "Minute To Win It" games!  Parents if you can come join us, I know your kiddos would love it and I can use your help running a table!  We have a special activity planned with our 4th grade buddies next week for Halloween too, so below I will post the times for AM and PM!  If you are able to come, email me (some of you already have!  Thank you!!)  For our games, I do have some items that would be helpful if you could send in:

Please email me if you can bring in or have any of the following you could send in:
40 Toilet Paper rolls
4 bags of Oreos or other store/bakery bought cookie (small cookies only please, size matters for this game)  :)
10 bags of big marshmallows
4 sets of chop sticks

I ordered or have everything else we need!

AM Schedule:
9:25-9:45     4th Grade Buddies
9:50-10:50   Halloween Party in our classroom (parent helpers needed during this time)
10:55-11:45 PE and Music (No Library on this day)

PM Schedule:
12:45-1:35 PE and Music (No Library on this day)
1:40-2:00   4th Grade Buddies
2:00-3:00   Halloween Party in our classroom (parent helpers needed during this time)

Have a fantastic weekend!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Today started in a great way!  Wow what an AMAZING turnout for Donuts with Dad!  I don't know if I've ever seen that many dads here before!  So cool!  The students were so excited to have you here and show you our classroom and also the writing they have been working super hard on!  

After Donuts with Dads, we worked on a writing piece "I can___."  We are working on writing sentences, sounding out the words we want to write, and writing the sounds we hear.  Our math lesson today was working with beans and putting them in different arrangements to count them (array, circle, square, etc).  This is working up to our subitizing standard, being able to look at a number of items and tell how many are there.  We also discussed our school rules, routines, and how to be a good friend.  In reading groups, we read the book "When Dinosaurs Came with Everything," as well as drew 6 pumpkins, seeds and the numbers that corresponded with the number of seeds and continued to work on Ss and our sight words.  We also listened to the Fable "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse."  We learned a fable is short story that teaches a lesson.  Today's lesson learned was to be happy with what you have, like the country mouse.  A question you could ask your child is "What are some things that you are happy or thankful you have?"  

One last piece of information, the students will be performing at our Prairie View Veteran's Day Assembly. 

The assembly will be at 9:45 (AM class) and 2:00 (PM class) on Thursday, Nov. 6th.  Please join us for the assembly and have your child wear red, white or blue colors (if possible). 

Important Information:

1. Homework folders are due tomorrow! Please be sure your child's homework is in the folder and ready to be turned in. 

2. We have P.E. tomorrow. Please be sure your child wears appropriate shoes.

3. We have library tomorrow. All library books need to be checked in tomorrow.

4. October 24-30 there will be a Book Fair in the library.

5. Just a heads up: on November 7, 2014 1st-6th grades have a half day; HOWEVER, PM kindergarten class will still be held from 12:45-3:15pm.

Links to Websites

Hi Parents,

I spent a few hours tonight researching some good websites that help promote academic learning for our little kindergarteners, so if your child has some free time after homework or on the weekends, they can look or play on some of these websites.  All of them are free except for the two IXL websites, however IXL does give you 20 free questions per day, you could also buy a year membership if you are so inclined.  The website Adapted Mind looks like a really good free math website (it looks a little similar to IXL) that works on a lot of our skills, it says first grade, but most of those skills are our Kindergarten Common Core standards that we will be working on this year.  I hope this serves a great resource for you and your family!  As I find more I will add them to the list.

Happy Trails!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Happy Wednesday!

What a rainy day!  I hope you are cozy and enjoying the rain from inside this evening!  Just a little reminder to make sure you help your child to dress in appropriate gear for the weather so when we go outside they are warm and snug.  We had an exciting day of working with our math cubes to continue to find the hidden partners, and to arrange our manipulatives in an array, and to find how many more we need to have a complete set.  In writing, we continued our practice of writing our sight words and finished the last of our writing for our dads for tomorrow!  We also continued to write our letter of the week, Ss, words that begin with Ss and sentences that include S.  In reading, we read our decodable books.

Dads, see you tomorrow morning from 8:15 to 9:00!

Next Friday is Halloween!  We have a very fun tradition here at Prairie View that the students come to school dressed up in their costume!  We also do a Kindergarten version of the school parade and we get to parade into our 4th grade buddies room and sing a song with our buddies.  We will then have a class party that will be about 50 minutes long.  Parents if you can help with this party that would be amazing, please email me if you can come and stay for those 50 minutes in our classroom to help run rotations!  We do not participate in the whole school activity since that is something they will get to do when they are first graders.  We will still have our specialists that day, so please be sure to help your child wear their PE shoes.  It is going to be awesome!  Parents if you would like to send in a non-edible surprise for the class to give out as prizes that would be great.

Happy Trails,
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Terrific Tuesday!

Happy Tuesday!  We had a great and busy day today!  We started with counting the sides and points of triangles and squares, putting beans on the corners and creating number sentences with them.  A number sentence is 3 + 1 = 4, it shows that 3 + 1 is the same as 4.  Then in the morning class we finished our special surprise for our dads.  We had reading groups, where we worked on writing our sight words, Like, I, am, The, and can!  We also worked on our word of the week Like!  Then we worked on the Ss and the sounds that the letter S make, Ss (sit) and Sh (shoe).  In addition, we read a non-fiction story about how "Friends Follow Rules."  Including why rules are important at school and at home.  Tomorrow we will continue to talk about rules, why they are important, and how to be a good friend!  We also had our vision and hearing screening today in the Library!

1. Hopefully I will see you tonight at the Twigs fundraiser, don't forget your paper coupon!
2. Dads, I look forward to seeing you on Thursday morning at 8:15-9:00 for Donuts with Dad!
3. Don't forget, Thursday is the next day that Take Home Books and envelopes are due!  Remember that sticky note!  :) 
4. If you can help tomorrow morning with reading groups from 10:20-11:10, please email me, our usual helper isn't available tomorrow (this is only for tomorrow).
5. Also, PM parents, if you can help out Monday afternoon from 2:30-3:00 please email me, I am still looking for 1-2 more parents to help out for our art project.
6. If you can volunteer to come on our Field Trip on Wednesday, December 17th, please email me and let me know!  

Thank you so much parents for all your help!!!  It is such a joy to work with you and your child!

Happy Trails!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Yeah!  I am so happy to be back and feeling better!  This week we have a very exciting week!  Remember, Thursday, October 23 from 8:15 to 9:00 is Donuts with Dad!  Please come, get a donut with your peanut/s, and visit your child's classroom.  We have been preparing something very special for you dads!

Today, we had a great day starting with writing our new letter of the week, Ss!  We wrote Ss with old fashioned chalkboards and then took turns with Play Dough making an Ss!  Then in the morning class we made our Camilla Cream pictures, PM did this on Friday.  We have continued our David Shannon author study.  He wrote the book "A Bad Case of Stripes," which is a great book, about how Camilla Cream needed to be true to herself.  When you come to school you will see them in the hallway!

We continued working on our special project for our dads, worked on writing our letter Ss in capital letters and lowercase letters.  Our sight word for the week is the work "Like."  Please practice reading, spelling and writing these at home.  Then practiced writing our numbers 4 and 5 as well!  We read the book "Seal eats a Sandwich," which as you can probably guess has a lot of "s" words in it!  It's very silly what the seal has for supper!

Help needed:

1. PM Help!  Next Monday in the PM class, I need as many volunteers as I can get from 2:30-3:00 as we can for our art.  Lets just say it involves a lot of paint and when we did it in the morning class last week we had a lot of parent help, which was very helpful for this particular project.  So if you can come Monday the 27th from 2:30-3:00 please email me and let me know you can make it!
2. Hip Hip Hooray, we have our Field Trip Day planned!  It is going to be Wednesday, December 17th all day!  If you can volunteer to be a parent helper that day, I would SO appreciate it!  We need as many parent helpers as we can that day!  Our goal is to have a 1 to 2 ratio if possible.  So please put it on your calendars and email me to let me know you can make it! 
3. Tomorrow is Twigs night!  Our school gets a percentage of what ever you spend if you give them the paper copy of the twigs coupon that went home in the homework folder.  You can also print a new copy at our PTO website if you misplaced that.  They ONLY accept the paper copy, no just showing it on your smart phone.  

Thank you so much for all your support parents!  I love partnering with you to help your sweet little peanuts successful!  Prairie View is a great place to work because of your kiddos and parents like you!!

Happy Trails!

~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Magnificent Monday!

Happy Monday!

Now that everyone has had a chance to be the "Happy Camper"; today we started our "Camp Ranger" routine. Ella (am) and Emily (pm) were our "Camp Rangers" in class today. They were the special helper with calendar, morning/afternoon message, and Kindergarten Daily News. The "Camp Rangers" will also be bringing home their class' bear and Happy Camper binder. In the binder you will find our classroom rules and a note to read together, along with all of the students' interviews from when they were the "Happy Camper". Please take a moment to read through the binder with your child when your child is the Camp Ranger!

Today, we had a wonderful day! We began working on a special project for Doughnuts for Dads (Thursday, October 23 from 8:15-9:00 am), read and discussed a wonderful book titled, "Peter's Chair", reviewed sounds and words that began /m/ and /a/ and "the" and "we" sight words, learned that the math word for none is zero, wrote zero and learned the chant while writing we say: 

"Curve from the top, be a hero, 
Close the loop and make a zero!"

Students were able to get some free choice time today, so be sure you ask your child what they chose to do.  :)    

Homework folders came home today, please make sure you are taking the time to help your child sound out the words they want to write.  They should be writing the sounds they hear while stretching out the word.  Right now it's ok and expected that they are not spelling words exactly correct, we want them to be listening for the sounds they hear and writing those sounds.  For the sentence " I like biking" they might write  "I lik bikeng" or a different variation.  Please keep practicing the sounds different letters make every night at home, in the car, any time you can because this helps the reading and writing process SO very much!  Thank you for all your support!

Have a great night!
~Love, 
Mrs. Wittwer

Rockin Thursday!

We had a great day today finishing our David pictures (they turned out super cute), working more on the hidden partners (break apart numbers) within a number and how they add up to the whole number (up to 5).  We created our /a/ apple puppets during reading groups and played a game called "Starts With" listening for the sounds in a picture or object I am holding and sorting them according to the sound.  It was great fun!  Today we had a Royal Reader in the PM class for Bo's birthday and we finished up our Happy Camper interviews!

1. Book envelopes due back on Monday!
2. Homework and Homework Folders come home on Monday!

Upcoming events:
October 10th- No School!
October 13th- Mr. Hoglund's Hot Topics at 9:45 in the cafeteria
October 13th- PTO Meeting in Mrs. Drouin's Room at 6:30 PM
October 14th- Cookie Dough Distribution Day from 2-6 PM
October 17th- Spirit Apparel Order Forms Due!
October 21st- Tuesday at Twigs
October 23rd- Donuts with Dad!  8-9 AM

Happy Trails!  Have a great three day weekend with your family!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Wednesday!

Today, we had a great day working during our writers workshop again!  Students have learned that they are writers and that when "You think you're done, you've just begun."  To elaborate they add details to their picture, color to their picture, they add letters or words to help describe what something is, or what they are doing, then we also showed how we start a new piece of writing.  It was great seeing students add details to the writing they started on Monday.

We worked really hard on writing the letter Aa today!  When writing the lowercase a, please start with the magic "c" and then keep going up, bring it back down and give it a little tail, to make the a.

 When making the capital A, start with diagonal stick like / then add another one going the other way, it should like like tent, then give it a zipper going from one stick to the other and make a window, A!  We also wrote our sight words that we have worked on like: We, can, I and the!

We are almost all done with our Happy Camper interviews, next week, our Happy Camper Binder and our class bear will come home one night to the student who is drawn randomly that day.  When you get the binder, please read the binder with your child and return the next day!  Thank you!

Don't Forget:

• Tomorrow Homework and Homework Folders are Due!
• Take Home Books are Due! If you need a new book, write a note!  :)
• No School this Friday, October 10th!

Have a great evening!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Terrific Tuesday!

We had a great day today!  Our main focus today was reading and math!  We read a non-fiction photo essay called "Night Animals" learning what nocturnal animals are, how they are awake when we are asleep, also that a mammal is warm blooded animal that has hair or fur.  Our sight word of the week is "The" and our letter of the week is Aa, so please practice spelling and writing these at home  as much as you can would be great.  In math, we worked on the "hidden numbers" or two numbers that make up the whole.  Essentially working on breaking apart the number 5 into as many ways as we could using number cubes ( 4 + 1 = 5, 3 + 2 = 5, etc).  In reading groups, we worked on learning to blend our two sounds we have learned and how to blend them with other sounds we know /a/ /m/ = am.   Then we read a decodable book and I have to say I am very impressed with how students are working hard at sounding each letter and learning to string them together!  Wowza!

Notes:

1. Turn in Take Home Books in envelopes and the Homework page in the Homework Folder on Thursday!  If your child needs a new book, please do not forget that note.  :)
2. October 10th- No School
3. Monday- New Homework will come home!

If you ordered a Scholastic Book Order it should be here within the next week, it usually takes 1-2 weeks to get here.  I will send them home in your child's backpack and I will also post on here when they come home!  :)

Happy Trails,
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Marvelous Monday!

Today we had a wonderful day!  We were so busy I heard one student comment how they thought today went really fast!  :)  We had a great time working on writing today!  We had a "Writing Workshop."  We each sketched something we did this weekend, then we labeled our picture, sounded out the words we wanted to write/label as best as we could, then we colored the rest of the picture.  I am teaching them that they are All authors and what that looks like, and I loved watching them today as they wrote one thing they did over the weekend.  Our students did a very good job of labeling themselves and whom ever was with them in their picture, what they were doing and what was in the setting.

Our letter of the week is Aa and our sight word of the week is The.  We are still reviewing the sight words I, We and Can.  The more you can work on these words with your child at home (making sure they recognize it, spell and can write it) the more it will help us in class.  We read a fun story about several families going on a picnic and what fun they would have there in "The Picnic at Apple Park."  The students did a great job predicting what would come next in this fictional book!  We read the book "David Gets Into Trouble" and we started making our very own David, which we will finish later this week!    

Happy Trails!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Fun Friday!!

Today was FUNtastic!  We had our Music, PE and Library, in addition we also started our author study of the local author David Shannon, starting with the book No David!  David Shannon is an American author and illustrator of children's books.  He grew up in Spokane and even came to visit Prairie View a few years ago!  He won the Caldecott Honor for the book we read today!  We will be making David soon! :)  Finishing the week we reviewed our sight words I, can, and we!  

Students did a great job turning in their homework today!  I am loving the sentences that I am seeing!  Way to go!  I LOVE how I can tell what sounds the students are hearing when they are sounding out the words they want to write in their sentences!  This is such a great start!  I also LOVE how many students are choosing to do the math challenge on the front page!  The students who are choosing to doing it, are doing a great job!

Happy Trails!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Happy Thursday!

What a beautiful day!  Students showed up today ready to learn and boy we did a lot!  We worked on counting objects and finding the correct number that represents how many!  Students did a fantastic job at this!  We also worked on listening and recognizing when the sound /m/ is at the beginning or end of a word, then we practiced writing m, read a book with our sight words with Ms. Dody and listened to the story "Class Two at the Zoo."  Yesterday, we learned a new days of the week song to the tune of "The Adams Family," see if you can sing it with your child, it is great fun!

Reminders:
1) Tomorrow Homework is due!  Please help your child to get their homework in their folder and into their backpack!  Remember, our kindergarten homework not only helps your child practice a math skill we have been working on, but also practice writing their name, sound out and spell words, and it also teaches them how to be a student.  Your child is doing an amazing job!  Please keep encouraging them because they are doing awesome!      
2) PE is tomorrow, so please make sure your child puts on those tennis shoes! :)
3) No School next Friday on October 10th!

Happy Trails!
Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Wonderful Wednesday!

Today, we had a great day!  In math, we worked on sorting things according to how many are in a group, what belongs in a group and what doesn't belong.  Our letter of the week is Mm, so today in reading groups we worked on phonemic awareness with words that have the /m/ sound, as well as how to write the M.  We also started making our ABC book today and listened to a fun story!   We are also focusing on words that rhyme together! It is so much fun learning about our Happy Campers of the day, who were Stella and Corvin!  So much fun jam packed into our days!

 Important Notes:

1. Tomorrow is our book exchange. If your child needs a new book/level, please send a note in their plastic folder. 

2. No school on October 10, 2014.

3. October 13, 2014 there is a PTO meeting at 6:30pm in the library.

4. The week of October 20, 2014 is cookie dough distribution.

5. Just a heads up: on November 7, 2014 1st-6th grades have a half day; HOWEVER, pm kindergarten class will still be held from 12:45-3:15pm.

6. We have specialist on Friday. Please be sure your child wears appropriate shoes for P.E.   

Happy Trails!

Love, 

~Mrs. Wittwer