Week 19: 12/16-12/18

Happy Friday! 

Can you believe there are just 3 schools days between us and Winter Break?! This year is flying! Next week is short and sweet. Monday is our only full day, Tuesday and Wednesday are both half-days. Don't forget to have your child bring their wrapped book for our class book exchange. 

Spalding: This week we will review words and phonograms. There will be no test.  Please continue to review phonogram cards each night.

 

We recently learned the "ers," in Spalding and they can be a little tricky. We use the sentence "her first nurse works early" to help students remember each "er".  We use the words as cues so the students know which "er" we want them to write or say. When you are practicing at home you should be saying these cues as well. 

 

er (as in her)  ir (as in first)

ur (as in nurse) wor (as in works)

ear (as in early) 

 

Sight Words: Review all lists.

 

Literature: This week we will explore the silly Story/Poem, “There was an Old Lady.” We will read different versions and compare/contrast them as well as sequence the events.  We will still be reading with students this week so please be sure to send your child with their book bag. This will give students an opportunity to get a new book to read before break.  Please be sure to keep reading while away from school. 

Math:We will complete the first semester by reviewing some topics from the year.  Students will work on both Monday and Tuesday to complete pages in their Math Book A.  Once completed, students will be bringing their books home with them to keep.

History: We will learn all about the real life of Saint Nicholas. Students will learn that he gave to those in need out of love and kindness. Students will get to make a craft to give to someone they love.

We loved having our stuffed animals at school just like the boy from the Velveteen Rabbit. 

Week 18: 12/09-12/13

Happy Friday!

Don't forget our Winter Festival is this Saturday on the field, I will see you there! Check your child's green folder for more information about our Annual Class Book Exchange! 

Congratulations to our November virtue award winner. Way to show Courage Ryan!

And here's a look at next week:

Spalding: This week we will learn two more phonograms ed and wh. We will have five spelling words again can, see, run, the, in ; We will continue to add two phonograms to the homework.  Please be sure that you are reviewing phonogram cards on a daily basis as our phonograms increase in difficulty. 

 

Sight Words: We will review list 6 this week.

 

Literature: We will continue reading the Velveteen Rabbit and finish our story this week.  To finish off our unit students will be allowed to bring in one small, non-pop culture, stuffed toy to school on Friday!  This can be an animal or doll that is special to your child, however, it may not be a character from a show or movie.  Please limit the size so that it is able to sit in their lap at their desk, and not interfere with the learning environment. Our Poem will be “Little Jack Horner.”

Math: After working on sets that have more, this week we will work on sets that have less.  We will then review more or less and have an assessment on Friday.

History and Science: We will continue to explore the continent of Antartica and the Arctic this week. Scholars will learn all about polar animals and how they survive in the cold. We will focus on polar bears, arctic foxes, penguins and snow owls. 

Working on our soccer skills!

And I forgot to take anymore pictures this week, we were having too much fun! 

Week 17: 12/02-12/06

Greetings Families, 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know we had a great time in Temecula visiting with family and eating way too much, we even got to see some snow!

Harper learning how to make homemade noodles with great grandpa. 

Our view on the way home, we didn't want to leave!

A couple quick things for this week. Thank you all who donated for our Thanksgiving party, we had so much fun. Please be sure you label all your child's belongings especially jackets! If you'd like your child to be able to wear a sweater in the classroom it does need to be an Arete school sweater you can purchase through Anton or our next uniform exchange. This coming Saturday is the Winter Festival! Come out for bounce houses, food and fun! A scholastic flyer will go out in your child's green folder later this week. This is a great time to stock up on books for the holidays. 

Here's a look at this week:

Spalding: Can you believe we have almost learned 50 phonograms? Kindergarten is flying! This week, we will learn two new phonograms: or and ck (cue: two letter). When reviewing phonograms daily, you only need to review about 20 at a time.  We pick 20 phonograms to review each day, and we switch the phonograms around, so that we are practicing all of our two letter phonograms each week.  You can do the same at home. 

Our spelling words this week will be: on,  a, it, is, she

Both a and she use rule 4.  The vowel may say its name at the end of a syllable.

 

Sight Words: This week we will introduce list 6 these words are: so, these, them, then, many, out, about, other, up, will. 

 

Literature: We begin our unit on The Velveteen Rabbit this week.  Please hold off on reading this story until after we have completed the book.  We love to see how the students explore and discover the story for the first time. Students will not be required to bring the book in.  We have learned in the past that it becomes more of a distraction.  This year, we want to students to just enjoy listening to the story, and then have it in their library at home for the future. Our Poem will be Pease Porridge Hot.

Math:Students will be comparing sets to determine which set has more.  We will use every day items such as cups and straws, cards, and cubes.  We will also be looking at numbers and writing numbers that are one more than the one shown.  For example, if they are shown 8, they will write 9 as one more than 8.

Science: It’s almost the winter season! We will learn about snowflakes, how they form and that each is unique. We will discuss what a habitat is and that many animals in a cold habitat have blubber to keep warm. At the end of the week we will begin learning about the Arctic and the continent of Antarctica. 

We earned free time with play-doh!

Party Fun!

 

Week 16:11/25-11/26

Hello KC Families, 

This week is short and sweet before we head off to celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. There will only be one page of homework due back on Tuesday. Tomorrow during our Thanksgiving Feast half-day students are invited to stay the full day, with dismissal at 2:45. 

Here's a look at our short week:

Spalding:  This week we will review all phonograms we have learned so far and take a look back at our spelling words from last week.  

Sight Words: We will review all sight words we have learned so far. We have taught up to list 5 so far. 

Literature: This week will learn two poems, Georige Pordgie and Little Jack Horner. We will also read "Turkey Trouble," and students will discuss the problem and solution of the story.

Math: We will discuss equal sets (for example: cups and straws).  Students will be asked to match things that go together.  There will be one page of homework on the back of the color 

by sight word page.

 History: We will wrap up our unit on exploring and moving to America by learning more about the First Thanksgiving. Students will participate in their classroom Thanksgiving celebration.

Thank you for everyone's support during our winter concert, it was a wonderful success!

To prep students for the concert and how to listen well while others are performing each student got to play a little bit on Ms. Weddle's keyboard, how fun!

And last but not least after reading the Gingerbread Man we went on a hunt around school following clues to find him!

Week 15: 11/18-11/22

Greetings Families, 

This weekend flew by, phew!

 Here's a quick concert reminder from Ms. Weddle:

"Our Winter Concert THIS WEDNESDAY, November 20th! It will be at Higley Center for the Performing Arts: 4132 E Pecos Rd, Gilbert, AZ 85295. Please have your kindergartners at Higley Center for the Performing Arts by 4:45pm and 1st and 2nd graders there at 5:00pm.

Students’ attire for our performances is NOT school uniform. Gentlemen are expected to wear a plain white dress shirt, black pants, black socks and black closed toed shoes. Solid dark colored vests and ties are optional for gentlemen. Ladies are expected to wear a white top, black skirt, black tights and black closed toed shoes."

Here's what we have coming up this week:

Spalding: This week we will learn 4 new phonograms ng, ea and the partner phonograms aw/au (cue: not used). 

We will also learn our first five spelling words: 

Me, do, go, and, at.  

Sight Words: This week we will review list 5.

Literature: This week we will read "The Gingerbread Man.”  We will explore different versions and in the afternoon we will even go on a hunt to catch the Gingerbread Man. The poem will be, "Three Blind Mice. Please continue to send your child’s book bag daily with their sight word lists inside. Students should be be reading their assigned book to you each night and reviewing their sight words. Thank you for your continued support!

Math:This week we will explore weight and capacity.  We will introduce students to how to use a balance.  Students will decide which object weighs more. Students will work with different size containers and decide which container can hold more.  There will be an assessment on weight and capacity on Friday.

History: We will continue learning all about Christopher Columbus and his voyages to the New Land. Students will be able to name his ships and where they landed. We will then continue to explore how more and more colonies from Europe settled in the new land as the years passed. They will learn about the voyage of the Mayflower and all about the Pilgrims who journeyed with it. Students will become familiar with the Wampanoag tribe and how they helped the Pilgrims and celebrated the First Thanksgiving in America.

This week was so busy I forgot to snap picutres, but here are the few I have. We have been studying measurement in math and we used marshmallows as our tools. 

Week 14: 11/11-11/15

Happy (almost) three day weekend to you! Harper has her first dance class this weekend so we have been prepping all week, wish us luck! 

Thank you for taking the time to fill out our latest homework survey. We value your opinions and appreciate all the feedback. We met as a team to discuss the results and although there will be no major changes at this time we will consider your feedback as we progress through the school year. 

Congratulations to our October virtue award winner, Jed. Way to be a model of honesty to your peers!

Here's a look at how we will spend our week when we come back on to school on Tuesday:

Spalding: Last week we learned the Er’s (er, ir, ur, wor, ear). In order to tell these phonograms apart we use our cues and this sentence “Her first nurse works early.” We will spend this week reviewing the er’s.

Sight Words: We will introduce list 5, that brings us to 50 sight words!  The words are: an, each, which, she, do, how, there, if, use, their

Literature: We will explore King Midas and the Golden Touch in Literature this week.  We will read the story and discuss the characters, setting, and plot.  It’s a good idea to ask these questions of your child while reading their books at home, too.  We will discuss the consequences of being greedy by comparing King Midas and the book “The Magic Fish.” Old King Cole will be our poem.

Math:We will continue our unit on size.  We will be measuring items, using vocabulary like “bigger, smaller, longer, shorter”.  On Friday, we will have an assessment on length and size.

History: This week we will introduce the kiddos to the Wright Brothers and how they contributed to history and science. Each child will get to make their own paper airplane and see how far it can fly. We will discuss the virtue of perseverance and how the two brothers practiced this virtue during their lifetimes. Later in the week, we will begin a unit that will lead up to the First Thanksgiving. Students will learn about Christopher Columbus and his travels. 

Thank you Wannlund family for coming in to celebrate Emma's birthday!

And here's a peak into our classroom from this week. 

We wrote our sight words, then built towers with the number of letters in the word.

Testing out what is magnetic around our classroom. 

Winter Concert Update

The PSO normally has a uniform exchange to help families with putting together concert attire, but they needed to move the date of the exchange for the Prep's awesome playoff game! Unfortunately the exchange is now after the concert, Nov. 20th. If you would like to use the uniform exchange, please email Deanna Carpenter at uniformexchangepso@gmail.com 

The dress attire for the concert will be as follows:

Boys: Black pants, white dress shirt, black dress shoes, and black socks.  Hair should be combed neatly.

Girls: Black skirt, white top, black tights, and black dress shoes. Hair should be pulled away from the face with no distracting adornment. Please follow the Archway Arete dress code for guidelines on jewelry.