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