December 4, 2015

Dear Parents,

We began the week talking about nutrition and the food groups.  We then began talking about Christmas.  We will discuss one Christmas tradition for every letter of the alphabet.  This week we did A for angels, B for baked goods, C for candy canes, E – we made some paper elves, F – we tasted fruitcake, and G – we made gingerbread houses. We also have an elf watching our room from the North Pole.  The students may have told you about Diamond.  The elf will be able to report to Santa about how the kids are doing and about their Christmas list we put up.  Thanks for sending in everything for the gingerbread houses and for those who came in to help, they turned out great.  We have them displayed around the room to decorate for Christmas.  We will send them home before they get out on break.  In math we have worked on the shape trapezoid, adding, and patterns.

Next Week

Theme: Christmas                                                       Word Families: -it, -in, -id

Handwriting Letters: b, h, f, q                                 Story: The Gingerbread Man                

Shape: hexagon                                                           Nursery Rhyme: Little Jack Horner

Reminders/Dates

• We will send home Book-In-A-Bag next week on Monday and Wednesday, but no books will be sent the following week.  I need to get all books collected by Monday.  Please send in books by that day. 

·         Our core value for the month of November was positive school climate.  Our award went to Brooklyn.

·         For my math and literacy volunteers: We will have literacy centers only next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning and no centers the following week.  We will have math centers next week, but no math centers the following week.

 

 

• Please keep sending in the plastic gallon jugs.  Please be sure they are cleaned out and all the stickers are off of them.  So far we have no jugs, please if each person could send in 1 we would have enough.  Also, don’t forget about the book exchange.  Each student needs to get an ornament for another student.  The price limit is $5.  It needs to be wrapped and have a tag with the name of who it is from.  Girls will exchange with girls and boys will exchange with boys.  I would like the presents sent in by Tuesday December 15^th.

·         Tuesday December 15^th: Wear Pajamas & watch The Polar Express (Please note the other kindergarten classes are doing this on Wednesday.  Since we have our party on Wednesday, I decided to do our Polar Express day on Tuesday.)

·         I also wanted to let you know that on the December homework calendar it says to return notebooks on Wednesday the 16^th.  I would really like to get notebooks back on Tuesday the 15^th.  When I did the calendar I didn’t know I would be leaving for the break on Wednesday, so I would like to get them all that Tuesday.  I will remind you next weekJ

·         Wednesday December 16^th: Christmas celebration – Students will not need a snack or a lunch. We will have a big day full of fun activities and food.  Please feel free to join us at anytime on that day, but if you can help with the centers please sign up on the signup genius.  We also have a couple more items to get on the signup genius, please check that out if you have not sent anything in.  All items (except the grapes) are due on Monday.   This way we can get everything ready for that day. For lunch we will be having pizza.  The cost will be $1.50 per slice.  Please fill out the slip and indicate how many pieces of pizza and what kind of pizza you want.  If you plan to be here for lunch, please feel free to order pizza for yourself.  Pizza money is due Friday December 11^th.

We will have a regular scheduled day after lunch.  The students will go to their specials – library and PE.  Then we will finish the day with a Christmas movie.  So actually the students will be finished after lunch with all of our Christmas celebration.  Students may leave for the day or can stay and go to specials.  Please be sure to let the room mom know if you plan to come and help out.  It would be great for her to know who to expect to help and when you can come.  Also don’t forget about the ornament exchange and to send in your ornament by this day.

·         Friday December 18^th: Early Release at 11:45

·         Don’t forget to send in your intent forms.  They are not due until January 8^th but if you already know your intent please go ahead and fill it out and send it back as soon as possible.

Mrs. Hodges & Mrs. McLamb 

October 5-9

October 2, 2015

Dear Parents,

                        This week we talked about seasons and fall.  We talked about many things that go along with fall – the weather, how things look outside, how leaves change colors, and how animals begin to prepare for winter.  We discussed how the leaves don’t change color in the fall they actually turn back to their original color because the leaf stops making chlorophyll.  Then we talked about properties of leaves and looked at some real leaves.  We learned some new words like chlorophyll, pigment, migration and hibernation with animals.  In math, we worked on sorting leaves, learned the words wide and narrow, and worked with patterns.  We have had a busy week. 

            Also remember each month we will celebrate a different character award.  These follow our school values.  At each 9 weeks awards assembly for the traits we have been over, the students will get an award from the school.  September’s value was Communication. Congratulations to Wesley for winning this award.

 

Next Week

Theme: Apples                                                            Color: Red

Handwriting Letters: X, Y, Z, C                                Nursery Rhyme: Little Bo Peep

Letters: P, Q, R, S                                                       Shape: Review 4 Shapes

Number: 8, 9                                                               Story: Little Red Riding Hood

 

Reminders

• Keep sending in those box tops and pop top tabs off of cans. 
• Items for the Operation Christmas Child can be sent in now until October 30^th.  Kindergarten is to send in hygiene items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, toothbrush holders, brushes, hair bows, bar soap, bar soap holders, wash clothes, baby wipes, any non-liquid items.
• If you did not send in your homework notebook today, please send it on Monday so the calendar can be changed.
• Don’t forget to send in your 3 different kinds of apples on Monday.  There is a sheet that was sent home about it this week.
• I would like each student to send in a bag of Halloween candy.  It can be any kind just be sure it’s items that are individually wrapped you can send it in anytime next week or the week of Halloween. 
• You may have noticed that the Handwriting letters for homework do not match the ones that are mentioned on the newsletter for the next week.  This is because I teach them in class that week about those letters, so then the next week they should know how to properly write them.  So the letters they ae doing on Monday’s for homework they have been taught in class how to write.  I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t any confusion about that.
• Students do go to library 2x a week, however they will only check out books 1x a week on Monday’s.  For this reason we will only collect library books on Friday & Monday.  So if we see a library book in the book bag, if it’s Friday or Monday we will take it out and assume you are done with it.
• We were going to have community helpers visit us today, but due to the weather we rescheduled them to come on Wednesday.

 

 

 

Help/Needed

• On October 16^th we will be carving pumpkins, I need 3-4 volunteers that would like to come in and help.  We will be carving from 9:45-11:00.  Please let me know if you would like to come in and carve.  If this time does not work for volunteers to come in, I may change it.  I will also need pumpkins to carve, so if you can come and bring a pumpkin to carve let me know.
• I am also in need of ink for the printer.  I do print a lot of things and don’t use the copier for printing to save my copies.  Anyone who is ever willing to purchase any ink, it is Canon 240 Black and 241 Color.

 

Dates:

Monday October 13^th: Return books for Book-In-A-Bag & Library books due

                                    Scholastic Orders due – Check out the October flyers there are great deals. 

                                   

Mrs. Hodges & Mrs. McLamb

Welcome

2015-2016 School Year

Mrs. Hodges' Kindergarten Class

It is almost time for a new year school year.  I will be posting more information soon.  For now, here are some upcoming dates.

Monday August 17th: Elementary Open House
   You can come from 3:00-5:00 or 6:30-8:00
   Please come out and meet your child's teacher.  You can also
   bring school supplies at this time.

Wednesday August 19: First day of School
  But for kindergartners this will be the first day of testing.  Testing
  will be from August 19-24.  Please be sure you check your 
  letter for your time to come for your appointment.  Appointments 
  will last from 45 minutes - 1 hour.  If you do not bring your
  school supplies to orientation, then you need to bring them to
  this appointment.

Tuesday August 25 & Wednesday August 26:  Your child will 
  only come on one of these days.  We will have 9 students on 
  Tuesday and another 9 students on Wednesday.  We begin with a small
  group of kids, so we can give them more attention and get them 
  more acclimated to their first day of school.  It is a regular school
  day from 7:55-3:15, so students will need a snack and a lunch.  If
  your child's scheduled day to come is Tuesday, then they will come
  all day Tuesday and not come at all on Wednesday.  If your child's
  scheduled day to come is Wednesday, then they will come all day on
  Wednesday and not come at all on Tuesday.

Thursday August 27:  All kindergartners will begin this day

I look forward to meeting everyone at Open House!