THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!

The countdown is certainly on, but here are some dates of interest.

Friday, April 30- Dia de los Ninos- This is a full day celebration in the kindergarten hall. If you would like to volunteer, please see the sign up sheet by Mrs. Martinez's door.

Tuesday, May 4th- Early Dismissal

Friday, May 7th- Moody Gardens field trip

Wednesday, May 12th- Field Day

Friday, May 21st- Kindergarten Awards Ceremony, 8:30 a.m.

Friday, May 21st- Last day of Extended Day

Wednesday, May 26th- Kindergarten End of Year Party at Karl Young Park

Thursday, May 27th- Last day of School!!!! Early Dismissal!

What Goes Around Comes Around

This week we began our fifth planner---What Goes Around Comes Around. This planner's central idea is that all living things have life cycles.

The first cycle we are talking about is the life cycle of a butterfly. We will be reading many factual books about butterflies, labeling the parts of a butterfly, creating a butterfly life cycle, ordering events of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and writing about butterflies.
In math we are focusing on symmetry and measurement.
This week's sight words are would, could, take and live.

Next week we will continue the planner with a focus on ants. We will read fiction and nonfiction books about ants (icluding Two Bad Ants and Ant Cities), label an ant's body parts, discuss the life cycle of an ant, make our own room for Two Bad Ants and make our own Ant City.
In math we will focus on patterns and graphing.
Next week's sight words are about, little, and their.

REMINDERS:
Monday is group picture day. Kindergarten usually take their pictures first, so please be here on time.
Thursday, April 1st is an early dismissal day.
Friday, April 2nd---NO SCHOOL!!!

Go Texan!

This week we will be continuing our Where In the World Are We From? planner with a focus on the state of Texas.
We will be reading several books about cowboys and Texas and doing the following activities.
*Alamo bean collage
*writing/illustrating favorite Texas thing
*creating a cactus hotel based on the book by the same name
*putting together a horse
*making our own Texan, Texan book
This week's sight words are more, eat and said.
In math we will be doing activities involving measuring and time.
REMINDERS!
*Book Orders are due on Wednesday. You may submit them online or send in the order form.
*Friday is GO TEXAN Day! Please wear Texan attire and bring a SACK LUNCH! We will watch the trail ride go by and eating a special snack---Frito pie and S'mores (Teddy Grahams, marshmallows, and chocolate chips!)
*If you would like to contribute to Mrs. Diaz's baby shower, please send in the money by Wednesday. This is totally optional.

Thank you to everyone who sent in the items for this week's activities! We couldn't do it without you!

Where In the World...

This week's activities include...

*Read Me on the Map- Students will create their own book about their place on the map. This will begin our study of our place in the world.

*Students will learn and sing Continents and Oceans songs and become familiar with the placement of oceans and continents on the globe/map.

*Read Mapping Penny's World- Students will learn the shape of the continents and make a small book.

*Read We Dream of a World- Students will create their own page of our class book describing/illustrating the world that they dream of.

*Math- activities involving tally marks, probability, patterns, and addition.

Other info:

*This Thursday is Kindergarten Round-Up. We will have up-coming kindergarteners visiting the classroom.

*Thursday we will be having our Valentine's Day party. Please send cards for each child by Wednesday.

*There will be a substitute in the classroom this Friday. I will be at a training.

*No school on Monday, February 15th.

*We will be doing a few Mardi Gras activities on February 16th, and Chinese New Year activities on February 17th.

*We will go to LDC again for 2 weeks starting the 16th.

*February 26th is Go Texan Day! Students are encouraged to wear western clothing. We will walk to Stella Link to see the trail ride pass by. Please send a sack lunch on this day.

Teeth and Tooth Fairy Traditions

This week we will begin our 4th planner---WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE YOU FROM?

-We will be talking about dental health. If you have any family or cultural traditions having to do with the loss of a tooth, please share them with your child.

- After listening to many American Tooth Fairy stories, students will write and draw about what they think the Tooth Fairy looks like and what she does with their teeth.

- Read Aloud---Throw Your Tooth on the Roof. Writing---"If I lived in ______, I would ____________ my tooth.

- This week's sight words are this, that, they, two, from

- Math- activities involving graphing and teen numerals

- No story dictation this week due to kindergarten having to switch ancillary times with 4th grade to allow for uninterrupted testing. We will begin again next week. Volunteers, please remember that if you are unable to make it one morning, you do not need to find a sub. No worries.

- Upcoming Projects---100th day and Fairy Tale Village (Look for info in Tuesday's folder about the Fairy Tale Village.)

- Field Trip is February 2nd. Students will need a sack lunch. Don't forget to send in the permission slip and fees.

- A note with your child's updated Guided Reading level will be in Tuesday's folder. The number (or letter) in the top corner is the level your child was on at the beginning of Kindergarten. I've seen so much progress this year!

- Kindergarten teachers will have a PYP planning day on Wednesday, January 27th. It was initially planned as a half day, but has been switched to a full day. I will be on campus, but not in the classroom.

- Look for a sign up sheet outside of the classroom for items we need for our 100th day snack. Students will make a snack with 100 items---10 pieces of 10 different snacks.

- Thank you to everyone who sent in pasta last week for our pasta math activities and pasta collages. We appreciate you!

Strega Nona Week

This week we are finishing up our Tell Me a Story planner with a focus on various Strega Nona books by author Tomie DePaolo. Will will read/have read the following stories...

-Strega Nona---writing- "If I had a magic pot it would make..."

-Strega Nona's Magic Lessons---writing- "To cast my magic spell I say..."

-Strega Nona Takes a Vacation---writing- "I would take a vacation to..."

-Big Anthony

-Strega Nona: Her Story

Our math lessons this week will involve pasta---graphing, collage, and patterns.

How fitting that a make-up artist came from Houston Grand Opera today and turned me into Strega Nona!

Dates to Remember

We've only been back to school for a week and our schedule is already getting packed. Here are some dates you should know about.

January 11-15 Stanford Test---Please make sure that your child arrives at school on time this week. We will be administering the test just after announcements.

January 18 NO SCHOOL---MLK Day

January 20 A make-up artist from Houston Grand Opera will transform Mrs. Eddlemon into a storybook character.

January 27 Kindergarten PYP planning---There will be a substitute in the classroom in the afternoon.

February 2 Field Trip to Mainstreet Theater to see Junie B. Jones. We will need chaperones, so check your schedule to see if you're available.

February 3 100th Day of School

February 4 Early Dismissal---Please view our Fairy Tale Village when you pick up your child. You will be receiving more info on this project soon.

February 12 Valentine's Day celebration

February 15 NO SCHOOL! Presidents' Day

Get Exited! With all of this activity, Spring Break will be here before we know it!