Monday!

Today was a great day!  We started the day with introducing our new letter of the week "Ee" and our new sight words "this" and "do."  We read our Alpha Tales book, "The Enormous Elephant Show," and did our picture guess for all the things in our can that start with the /e/ sound.  Mrs. Pittz then joined our class for a social skills lesson. We learned that students can look at their friend's face to see how they are feeling about something. We then did calendar, Daily News, and the students were introduced to the letter Ee and the /e/ sound. After our letter work, we went out for recess. After recess, we made The Cat in the Hat and hung him in the hall in preparation for Dr. Seuss' birthday on Wednesday, March 3rd. 

Our AM class finished their art from Friday, while the PM class has their library checkout time.

Important Information:

1. Homework folders came home today (2-29-16)

2. Take Home Books were exchanged/checked in. Some kiddos did not have their books, so they did not receive a new book.  

3. Grandparents Day is March 18th from 8:15-9:00am for both AM and PM kinders!

4. Elementary BoundaryRecommendation Community Input Forums will be taking place on March 2nd at Mead High School and March 9th at Mt. Spokane High School.   

Wednesday!

We started our day with a math fluency activity, making five in different arrangements.  Students had to count very carefully and then add more to make five.  After our fluency activity we had our calendar and daily news routine, counting up to 103!  Recently, we added a new math portion to calendar, students roll two big dice and create the number bond for the numbers they rolled.  After that, we went outside and enjoyed a sunny recess!  After recess, we had reading groups, focusing on reading our leveled readers, sounding out and blending words that start with /r/ sounds, a "you" sight word page, reading and writing our decodable and listening to a story (AM) or using pattern blocks to make shapes.  After reading groups, we transferred our title and first sentence of our elephant writing.  Then we worked on a math number bond activity with numbers 6, 7, and 8.  

1. Take Home Book exchange is tomorrow!  Please make sure students are reading this book at least three times a week!  Sticky notes needed to change the book!  :)  

2. Grandparents Day is March 18th from 8:15-9:00am for both AM and PM kinders!

3. February 25th, the PV Drama club presents Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The play will be performed from 10-11am (AM K-3rd grade), 1:30-2:30pm (PM K and 4-6th grades), and an evening showing at 6:30pm. 

4. Due to the drama performances, we will not have reading groups on tomorrow!
5. Art-A-Baloo art lesson is this Friday at 9:50 (AM) and 1:50 (PM)!  

Have a great evening!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer

Tuesday!

Tuesday!

What a wonderful Tuesday we had today!  We started with reading two non-fiction books about baby elephants.  We used a graphic organizer today that will help us write an informational piece about calves (baby elephants) throughout the rest of the week.  Today we wrote three new facts that we learned about calf elephants.  This was a lot of writing and students did a great job sounding out words to create our sentences.  We reviewed what an opinion is and what a fact is.  Our goal was to only write facts that we learned today about a calf elephants from our readings.

After writing, we did Calendar and our Daily News routine and then we went outside for a wonderful sunny recess!  It feels like spring is here!  We then had reading groups focusing on decoding, blending and reading sight words, the ABC book, writing the letter R, and listening to a story.  After reading groups we worked on math number bonds, finding all the ways to make 7!    

Our letter of the week is Rr and we are reviewing the sight words: are, for and you!  

Homework Folders came home today if they did not come home yesterday!

Monday:   

We started the day with puzzles!  We read the book Rosie Rabbit's Radish and guessed what was in my question can (it was a rose). The kinders also guessed various pictures that start with the letter Rr. After our letter work, we went outside for a chilly, but fun recess. :) After recess, we continued our work on math and number bonds.  We reviewed number bonds in math and created a few numbers bonds where the parts together equaled six!  We also worked on a math fluency activity where students had to make six using different objects and counters.  At the end of the day, the AM class had Free Choice time and the PM class had Library checkout!

Reminders:

1. Homework folders came home today or yesterday.

2. Take Home Books were exchanged/checked in. Some kiddos did not have their books, so they did not receive a new book. 

3. Grandparents Day is March 18th from 8:15-9:00am for both AM and PM kinders!

4. February 25th, the PV Drama club presents Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The play will be performed from 10-11am (AM K-3rd grade), 1:30-2:30pm (PM K and 4-6th grades), and an evening showing at 6:30pm. 

5. Due to the drama performances, we will not have reading groups on Thursday, February 25th. 

Happy 100th Day!

We had such a wonderful 100th Day!

I loved the unique 100th day shirts I saw today!  When students arrived at school, many of them thought they had a substitute teacher until they got closer and saw that it was me dressed up in a gray wig.   :)  Today was all about 100!  The kinders made 100th day hats, made pictures of what they will look like at 100 years old, and we did our 100th day of calendar. If you can, stop by and see our 100 year old selves hanging in the hall. They are so cute! :) We also sang out 100th Day of School song to the office staff. 

Important Information:

1. Homework folders will come home on Monday (2-29-16).

2. Take Home Books are due on Monday (2-29-16).

3. Grandparents Day is March 18th from 8:15-9:00am for both AM and PM kinders!

4. P.M. kinders have library on Monday (2-29-16).

5. February 25th, the PV Drama club presents Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The play will be performed from 10-11am (AM Kinder-3rd grade), 1:30-2:30pm (PM Kinder and 4-6th grades), and an evening showing at 6:30pm. 

6. Due to the drama performances, we will not have reading groups on Thursday, February 25th. 

Thursday

Today is the 99th day of school and boy were students excited!  Today we started our day with painting 100 gum balls in 10 different gum ball machines, and counted by 10's.  We did our Calendar and Daily News routine.  Our sight words this week are "for" and "you."  We worked on number bonds, rolling a die and putting our two parts together to make the whole with our counters.  In reading groups, we read our leveled readers, and wrote words with the /d/ sound, we also created our 100's chain (that we can see in the rotunda tomorrow as we come inside), the "you" page, writing the letter Dd and listened to the story Carla Caterpillar.  After reading groups, we read Fancy Nancy and the 100th Day of School.  We also reviewed and sang along with the Eight Never Never Rules song and the Three Ways to Stay Safe song.  Then we finished with the Chu Chu Hua Hua dance and song!

Reminder:

1. Tomorrow is the 100th day of school!  Students are allowed to wear a special 100 something shirt as long as it is ok with mom and dad!  :) 
2. Friday: Homework Folders and Library Books are due.  PE and Music, please wear PE shoes!
3. Monday: Leap Day 2016!!  Take Home Book Exchange Due!
4. Grandparents day is March 18th from 8:15-9:00 for AM and PM Kinders

Have a great evening!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer

    

Wednesday

Today was our last day of Personal Safety finishing up the final lesson!  The Touching Rule is: A bigger person should never touch your private body parts except to keep you healthy.  Today we learned the last rule: Never Keep Secrets Rule, which is to never keep secrets about touching.  We talked about reporting it to trusted adults, mom, dad, teacher.  We also discussed what students should do if the first adult they report to doesn't believe them.  They need to keep reporting to adults until someone helps them.  It is the job of adults to help take care of students and to keep them safe!

We also did our 100th day of school coloring page to celebrate our 100th day on Friday!  The counting of the five things was tricky tricky!  We had a longer recess and Free Choice due to the length of Personal Safety!

Tomorrow Take Home Books are due!
Friday is the 100th day of school and Friday Folders are due!

Have a great evening!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Tuesday

We started our day with a math (ten frame) activity. We then transitioned right to reading our AlphaTales book for our new letter of the week (Dd), Detective Dog and the Disappearing Donuts.  Our new sight words of the week are: "for" and "you."  We also guessed what was in our Alphabet can and our ABC can.  Then we painted our handprints making really big tens frames for the 100th day of school.  After that we went outside for recess, so thank you for sending warm clothes still, the wind is pretty chilly.  After recess, we had our reading groups, where the kiddos worked reading our decodable book, blending sounds, ABC books (Dd), the sight word "for" page, and listening to a story. After groups, we went outside for recess. We ended our time together with a picture of each kiddo standing next to Abe Lincoln and a few minutes of Free Choice time.

Important Information:

1. Homework folders came home today (2-16-16).

2. The 100th Day of School is this Friday, February 19th! I did tell the kiddos they could make a 100 Day Shirt if they wanted to (someone brought up a shirt they'd seen on Pinterest.). No pressure, though! 

3. If they haven't already, students need to fill their plastic 100 bag with 100 things and bring it back to school. Items that work well are buttons, legos, small marshmallows, stickers, beads, etc. Please help your child as they count and fill their bags with their chosen item.

4. Grandparents Day is March 18th from 8:15-9:00am for both AM and PM kinders!

Have a great evening!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer

Happy Thursday!

Today was a great day!  We started with Valentine's day ten frames.  Working on counting the number filled and the number of spaces left to make ten.  We then did our Calendar and Daily News routine.  We worked on number bonds up to seven starting with our total and finding the parts and also the reverse, having the number bond and having to find the parts.  During reading groups, we worked on sounding out words starting with "h," Valentine's number bonds, listened to a Valentine's story and wrote the number 8 in different ways.  We then read the folktale "The Black Cat."

Reminders:
1) Valentines and Valentine boxes are due tomorrow for our Parties at 9:50 and 2:00!2) 100 things are also due tomorrow!
3) Homework folders are due tomorrow!
4) No school Monday, February 15th for Presidents Day!   

Have a great evening!
~Love, 
Mrs. Wittwer 

Wednesday!

What a wonderful day we had today!  We started out with a math fluency page working on making five.  We also worked on different ways to make six using number bonds.  We found all the combinations that make 6 together.  In reading groups, we read our leveled readers, worked on our sight word "Are" page, reading our decodable, writing the sentences, and listened to "Monsters Love Underpants,"

In Personal Safety today, we learned the touching rule, which is: A bigger person should never touch your private body parts except to keep you healthy.  We used the example of a mom or dad changing a baby's diaper, to keep them clean and healthy.  The students also learned what they should do if someone does break "The Touching Rule."  The student should refuse and report the incident to a trusted adult (eg. parent, teacher, grandparent, etc.).  The students learned they should refuse by saying "Stop, Don't touch me, " and report to a trusted adult, "Mom, my friend broke the touching rule."  Refusing and reporting when someone has broken the Touching Rule can help make sure the touching stops.  And remember, it is never your fault if someone breaks the touching rule.  

Reminders:
1) Take Home books due tomorrow.
2) Valentines and Valentine boxes are due Friday for our Parties at 9:50 and 2:00!
3) 100 things are due Friday!4) No school Monday, February 15th for Presidents Day!  

Have a great evening!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer    

Tuesday!

Today, we started with our Calendar and Daily News routine.  Our letter of the week is Hh and our sight word is "are."  In math, we worked on filling in the number bond to match the picture and then writing our sentence to match our number bond.  We had reading groups where we read our decodable book, did our ABC H page, practiced writing Hh and listened to a Shark's Valentine story.
In Personal Safety today we focused on safe and unsafe touching.  Safe touches make you feel cared for and loved, such as hugs, holding hands, and pats on the back.  Unsafe touches hurt your body, you can refuse unsafe touches.  Unsafe touches include kicking, hitting, pushing, and pinching.  We taught students to say, "Stop, that hurts me." or "Please stop, I don't like that."  

Students can even refuse touches they don't want, even if they are safe.  Students can refuse unwanted touches by saying in a strong, respectful voice: "Please don't touch me."  or "No, thank you."  Sometimes you can't stop the unsafe or unwanted touches by yourself.  It is important to tell an adult you trust.  Adults should take care of you and keep you safe.

Reminders:
1) Take Home books due Thursday.
2) Valentines and Valentine boxes are due Friday for our Parties at 9:50 and 2:00!
3) 100 things are due Friday!
4) No school Monday, February 15th for Presidents Day!

Have a great evening!
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer

Hello Sunshine!

Today was such a beautiful sunny day!  We started our day with reading the AlphaTales book "Hide and Seek Hippo"for our new letter H!  Our new sight word of the week is "are."  I taught students the digraph "ar" makes the "Arrr" sound that pirates make and the "e" in the word "are" is silent.  We guessed what pictures I have in my Question can that begin with the letter H.  After that we did Calendar, counting up to 92 the ones, five and tens ways and our Daily News.  We went outside and enjoyed the sunshine during recess.  We had a math story today where we had to draw the number bond to go with the story.  We also had our second lesson of Personal Safety today.  

The focus of today's lesson is: Always Ask First Rule!  We learned that following the Always Ask First Rule helps you stay safe.  

Why this lesson matters: Asking permission from the parent or person in charge protects students from dangerous situations and helps parents and caregivers know what students are doing.  Most young students know they should not go anywhere with strangers, but it is important for them to ask for permission to go with someone they know, too, because most sexual abusers are someone the student knows. 

During the lesson, we practiced that even if something seems safe, we need to ask the adult in charge first.  For example, if a family friend asks the child to come play at the park, the student should reply, "I need to ask my mom if I can play at the park."

Reminders:

1) Homework Folders came home today.

2) PM students had Library today.

3) Take Home Books were exchanged today.

4) Valentine's Boxes and Valentines for all students are due on Friday!  :)

5) 100 Things are due this Friday as well!

6) The next Take Home Book Exchange is Thursday.  

Have a great evening!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer  

Tuesday and Wednesday!

We have had a packed Tuesday and Wednesday!

Tuesday was Groundhog's Day, so we celebrated by watching to see if "Phil" saw his shadow or not. We found out that he didn't see his shadow, so that means spring will come early!  In reading groups, we focused on reviewing our letters "o" and "f" and our sight words "play" and "is."  We also made cute little groundhog hats, practiced writing and counting up to the letter 7 many different ways, listened to "Goatilocks and the Three Bears," and we worked on blending, sounding out and writing CVC and CCVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant).  After reading groups, we took a class picture in our groundhog hats that will go in our Memory Books.  We then had our first Personal Safety lesson.  We learned the eight Never-Never Rules!
1) Never touch guns
2) Never play with fire
3) Never ride on wheels without a helmet
4) Never go in water without an adult watching
5) Never use a sharp tool without an adult
6) Never ride in a car without wearing a seatbelt
7) Never touch a dog without asking the person in charge
8) Never cross the street without checking all ways for traffic

We practiced what to do if someone asks us to do one of these things:

1) We use our self talk and ask ourselves "Is it safe?"
2) If it isn't safe or we don't know, we refuse by saying in a strong voice "No, that's not safe."
3) Then, we go tell the adult in charge.

We also learned about number bonds today in math!  A number bond shows how two numbers make another number.  For example 2 and 3 make 5.  The total goes in the circle with the two lines going to it.  The other two circles are the parts that make up the whole.  Number bonds can be pointed towards any direction, we just look for where the lines point to see what circles are our parts and what circle is the whole.    

Wednesday was a great day!  We worked on more math fluency counting up and down and filling in the blank number.  As part of our Kindergarten standards, students are still working on writing numbers without reversals.  We played a really fun "Big Number Bond" game with Hula Hoops.  Students were the parts and the whole in the Hula Hoops!  We did our Calendar and Daily News routine.  We also had reading groups focusing on reading our sight words, sounding out words and blending words we don't know.  We played a dice game with our neighbor telling which number rolled is greater or less, worked on writing sight word sentences and reading our decodable and leveled readers.   Students are doing a great job when reading to me one-on-one!  I am super impressed by the blending and sounding out I am seeing!  Way to go superstars!  

Reminders:

1) Thursday is the Take Home Book Exchange

2) Homework Folders are due on Friday

3) Library Books are due on Friday

4) 100 Things Bags are due by Friday, February 12th

5) Students will need to make their own Valentines Day box for next Friday.  Please bring it to school on Friday the 12th!  

6) Our Valentine's Day parties are from 9:50-10:40 (AM) and 2:00-2:50 (PM)

A lot of news in the Kindergarten world, please let me know if you have any questions.  Thank you!

Happy Trails!

~Love, 

Mrs. Wittwer

Monday!

Today was a great start to our week!  We are reviewing our letters O and F and our sight words "is" and "play."  We started our day with following directions and drawing our Self Portraits!  After that, we learned all about Groundhogs and Groundhog Day tomorrow.  We made our own predictions on whether Phil "will" or "will not" see his shadow tomorrow.  We made our predictions and graphed what each member in our class thought.  We also wrote three facts that we learned about groundhogs.  We learned that they eat dandelions (they are vegetarians), are hibernating animals, that they do not make good pets, they burrow homes underground and live with other groundhogs.  We also did Calendar and our Daily News routine!  Only 13 more school days until the 100th day of school on February 19th!  In math, we worked on capacity, what is empty, not full or full.  The morning class had Free Choice and the PM class had Library!

We had recess outdoors, so please be sure that your little ones have gloves, hats and water repellant shoes (the playground is a little wet).

Reminders:
1) Homework Folders went home today!
2) Take Home Books were exchanged today too!
3) 100th day bags are in homework folder!  In this gallon bag, your child is to count out 100 things of their choice and put them in the bag.  Have your child bring the bag back to school when they are finished, this will go up in the hallway.
4) Valentines lists went home today as well!  Please be sure that your child has a valentine for every member of our class.
5) Homework sentences are looking pretty good, the only thing I would say is to please encourage your child to write interesting sentences for Mrs. Wittwer on their Homework, not the same thing on each line.  For example: If they say they always "play," have them elaborate a little more, tell me what they played, or who they played with, etc.  
Instead of "At school I play," it could be "At school I played with Jenny."
6) Valentine's Day party is February 12th from 9:50-10:40 (AM) and 2:00-2:50 (PM)


Have a great evening,
~Love,
Mrs. Wittwer