Week of March 21, 2012

Happy Memorial Day! 

Reminder: Before School Procedures  Every morning before the first bell rings (8:55), your child is welcome to be in the building eating breakfast next to the kitchen.  Otherwise, though, your child should be on the playground if s/he is early to arrive.  Supervision on the playground begins no later than 8:40 each morning, so you are not required to stay with them.  Of course, if “rainy day recess” is announced, your child is welcome to be in our classroom for supervised play or exploration.  The reason for this school-wide rule is to allow teachers time to prepare for the day as well as limit traffic in the building for security and safety reasons.  Thank you for your understanding!  I know the students are excited to begin the day in the room upon arrival, but your help to reinforce this rule is much appreciated.  It will soon become habit for them if we are consistent with expectations.

MAP Testing  Our final MAP testing window of the year began today and ends next Friday.  We are testing Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 1-2pm. 

Young Author’s Day On Wednesday, May 30, our school will participate in Young Author’s Day.  Our celebration stories are complete and we can’t wait to share them with members of our school.  We are especially excited to meet published author George Shannon! 

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of May 14, 2012

Young Author’s Day On Wednesday, May 30, our school will participate in Young Author’s Day.  Each child recently took home an order form for autographed books by George Shannon, our visiting author.  He will be giving an all-school presentation on Young Author’s Day and then our entire school will take part in a Writing Celebration where all students will celebrate in circles together.  The celebration circles will be comprised of students in varying grade levels, which is very unique to our normal writing celebrations!  If you can volunteer that day to help facilitate a celebration circle, please do!  You will likely not be placed in your child’s celebration circle, due to organization logistics being challenging.  However, it is our volunteers (around 40 of them!) who make this day possible and it is truly a day that your child will remember from year to year with enthusiastic pride!  If you would like to help us continue this tradition, let me know and I’ll get you in touch with Mrs. Funk-Somoza!

School BBQ  It is tradition at our school to have an annual spring bbq.  This year’s bbq is scheduled for Friday June 1.  It’s a great time and it is extra special because you can come to our school to eat with your child and bring the whole family if they are available!  You will need to buy tickets ahead of time.  A flyer went home on Friday with ticket prices and information. This year’s theme is Magic.  Your child (and you!) may dress up that day.  We do need volunteers to help with distributing food and plates, set up and clean up, so if you would like to help out in addition to eating lunch with your child, let Miss Mary Ann know when you drop off in the morning, or tell me and I’ll pass it on.

Sight Word lists 3 and 4  I sent home sight word lists on Friday.  We have not all mastered list 4, but I thought it would help some of you to have the words in advance despite that fact.

Time Capsule  In honor of the 100th anniversary of the planting of the trees lining Sunnyside, our school will be burying a time capsule to be opened in 10 years.  Students will be invited to return at that time to see what they contributed!  Every student will contribute a document they will prepare.  I will send home the document templates on Monday.  Please complete these documents with your child as homework, due Friday of this week.

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of May 7, 2012

Favorite Friday  (also dubbed “Awesomest Day Ever!!!”) How lucky we felt to experience such a full, fun Friday! ….

Mother’s Day First of all, a HUGE THANKS to all of our dads who made our Mother’s Day brunch such a success!  Students loved, loved, loved showing off their dads and moms and grandmas and sharing their space with them.  I received such nice feedback and really enjoyed having you all there.  Thank you for helping and thank you for attending!!  Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who do the job of being a mom.  It’s so important a job and you are well-loved and appreciated!!

Pigeon Study  We finished our character study on Mo Willems’ pigeon on Friday with a Pigeon video and a reading of the latest Pigeon book, The Duckling Gets a Cookie.  The students have been doing a lot of critical thinking about characters in the last few weeks–observing their emotions and actions and analyzing their reactions to things, even hypothesizing how Pigeon and Lilly might act if each was faced with certain situations and challenges.  It’s been a great opportunity to learn how writers show the reader information about a character rather than just tell it in a blunt statement.  We will be starting book clubs this week, to encourage more group discussion around non-fiction book topics and themes.

Bee Field Trip I just can’t say enough how grateful I am to Whole Foods and Curator Public Relations (event organizer) for sponsoring and organizing this experience for us.  You probably heard of some of our activities, but here’s the rundown:  First, Christa, a local beekeeper, presented to us about bees and her job of caring for them and tending to their hive.  She allowed us the opportunity to touch honeycomb and showed us some really great up close photos of bees in their natural habitat.  We then broke into three groups where we each had the opportunity to view a section of Christa’s glass-enclosed bee hive and the activity within, to try on her beekeeper suit, and to taste some of her honey.  We also had the opportunity to plant herbs into pots with Mary from Whole Foods (which we then got to take home!), and to create seed bombs with Annie from Curator PR by mixing seeds with clay and soil and rolling them into balls or “bombs”.  Each student received a special bee shirt, which we wore to board the bus with our seed bombs.  We went to a section of Woodland Park, just across from Green Lake Park’s crew bleachers and threw our bombs into the grass in a variety of ways.  We hiked a short walk up a hill and threw more around trees.  It was so fun!  When we returned to class, we took some time to reflect on the experience and then to come up with some preliminary plans for showing our appreciation to the wonderful folks who made the experience possible.  While we were aware that there would be media present, we weren’t sure what kind.  I can now confirm that Curator PR took photos and video of the adventure while Sheri at Foodista.com took photographs for possible use in a blog story.  I have been assured that if and when the video and images surface in a digital or hardcopy space, we will be notified.  Until then, Annie from Curator has promised to share photographs when they are processed.  So, in other words, more info to come!

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

April 30, 2012

Tooth Fairies Perhaps you heard, the tooth fairies visited us on Monday!  Well, two of three fairies anyway.  The incisor and molar fairies taught us about the teeth they are responsible for collecting, then gave each child a tooth pillow and toothbrush and paste.  The canine fairy was ill and unable to attend.  We worked on creating an appreciation booklet for the two of them this week.  What fun!

Friday Fun May 11 will be full of good things!  Moms and female caregivers, please attend our breakfast in your honor at 9 am!  We are so excited to treat you!  On Friday afternoon, our pollination field trip will round out the day.  We can’t wait!

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of April 23, 2012

Writing Celebration What a great day! We had the chance to celebrate with the adult of our choosing on Wednesday and members of our class chose a total of 10 different teachers and staff members in the building with whom to celebrate their non-fiction writing.  It was a great experience for all involved, based on the feedback I’ve received.  Hopefully, you received a report about this experience from your child!

Field Trip  Our field trip on bees and pollination will take place on Friday, May 11. Permission slips went home on Friday, but I noticed one got left behind in the hallway.  If you didn’t receive one, let me know and I’ll send it home.  I will send second requests home this week from those who haven’t turned them in.  Even though the event is just under two weeks away, I need to know who will be participating and if there is any opposition to media involvement.  As mentioned on the slip, because Whole Foods is piloting this program with us, they would like the news media to cover the story.  Whole Foods is generously chartering us a bus and providing this experience at no cost to us, so it seems a fair exchange!

Mother’s Day Breakfast  May 11 will also be the date of our Mother’s Day breakfast.  I have received 3 responses from dads (Mark, Paul and James) willing to help make this event possible by volunteering their time that morning.  Mr. Hansen is hoping to get three more dads to help out from K1.  If you are available, beginning at 7:30 am and finished by 10:30, please let me know.

Wish List We’ve been running low on santizer for a while, but I’ve forgotten to say anything. If you would be able/willing to donate a few bottles of sanitizer (preferrably alcohol-free, but not a requirement), that would be grand!  Also, a box or bag of baby wipes would help us keep our fingers clean! Thanks!

Citizenship  Our newest character trait, Citizenship, involves the following components: Do your share to make your school and community better • Cooperate • Get involved in your community • Be a good neighbor • Follow the rules • Respect others • Protect the environment • Volunteer

A group of intermediate students put on a wonderful skit to illustrate this trait to the school at Friday’s assembly.  In the skit, a weed was being a very bad citizen in the garden, taking sun and water from the flowers and generally being disrespectful. A superhero came and eliminated the weed and then taught us how to be super heroes by being great citizens, too.  It was funny and a great analogy that the kids understood.  We will be working to earn citizenship scales for the next few weeks!

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of April 9, 2012

Hope you’ve all had a great week!  I’ve been putting off writing the weekly note because it’s been so nice to focus on other things in my life this last week.  It’s time to think about what’s coming up, though.  We will be jumping right into things on Monday!

Writing Celebration On Wednesday, we’ll be celebrating our non-fiction writing, sharing our work with adults in the building. We will have completed two non-fiction writing units by that point, writing “All-About” books and “How-To” Books.  It’s been fun writing about things we feel we are experts in!

Character Reward We did not earn an all-school Caring privilege on our last day before break as a result of not filling up the designated space on the dragon with Caring scales. This is the first time in the year that we did not meet our goal, but in last Friday’s assembly, we discussed the importance of recognizing what we have done to show we care for others and our school and that there is always room for improvement.  Students can continue to work on earning scales before the week is out, as we will not learn about the next and final character trait until Friday.

Missing!! Can you help? Two weeks ago Thursday, Sylvia brought in her mother’s rock collection for Sharing.  Within the collection was a special, speckled, heart shaped rock that Sylvia’s grandmother recently gifted her mother.  It has gone missing.  Did it end up at your home or in a backpack by mistake?  Please check if you can. It has sentimental value and Patience is eager to see its return.  Thanks!

Field Trip  A special field trip opportunity is in the works!  Our class was selected to help Whole Foods pilot a program on educating students about the importance of bees to our environment.  I am in communication with the program coordinator at this time and it looks like we will be taking part in this adventure the first week in May..exact date TBD.  The trip will consist of a guest visiting to do an educational activity and then traveling around by bus to plant “bee bombs” (more information coming soon!) to help encourage pollination.  I am really excited that we have been selected to take part in this.  Stay tuned for more info and check for a permission slip to come home soon!

Mother’s Day Breakfast  It is tradition for Mr. Hansen to organize a Mother’s Day breakfast for all Kindergarten moms each year.  We will be holding this event on Friday, May 11 this year.  We require a number of Dads to help put on this breakfast, from donating breakfast items to manning the grills.  If you are a dad who is able to help, especially in the “manning a grill” category during the morning hours that Friday, please let me know!

Retell Rope  If your child has exchanged books in the take-home reading folder within the last week before break, you may have noticed a new sheet of paper in the folder titled “Retell Rope”.  We have practiced using this quite a bit so your child should be able to show you how it is used, but just in case, here is a clip of Sylvia retelling one of her “just-right” books using the “Retell Rope” in her book baggie:

This should help your child learn to retell all the essential parts of the story and sway her from retelling every single detail.  Please aim to have your child use this every time after reading a story or being read a story–whether it be a “just right” book or a storybook.

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of April 2, 2012

Spring Break    One more week of class before break!  We will be working hard this week on finishing writing our “How To” books, in which we teach our readers how to do or make something.  This will be the end of our non-fiction writing unit.  IN reading, we are doing character studies, currently focusing on Lilly, a character invented by Kevin Henkes. We have also just begun our fabric unit in Science and will continue to work on math, particularly in problem solving strategies.

Swimming We had a great first day of swimming on Thursday.  Thank you to Tammy for helping me assist the girls in the women’s locker room and thank you Alan and Tim for holding down the fort in the men’s locker room.  I think this was the perfect amount of extra hands.  Thank you to all families for ensuring your children came with all the appropriate supplies and wearing swimsuits under clothing.  We had fun and did an excellent job of minding Ms. Matthews’ pool and bus rules!!

Dance Party, USA  Did you hear about our party?  What an event!  We danced to our own personal dance mix under streamers we made and dined on homebaked treats (thank you, donors!) at a handmade geometric print tablecloth covered refreshment table.  We also had the opportunity to tumble on the mats, push our buddies around in their chairs, spin and spin, and form conga lines.  It was wonderful!  We’re already working hard on earning our next privilege.  Stay tuned!

Canadian High School Band Assembly  A high school band on tour from Alberta, Canada visited us on Friday and performed with instruments and song and engaged us in a dance routine.  What a treat!  I told the students they, too, would have the opportunity to choose an instrument to learn beginning in 4th grade and they were already choosing them in preparation!

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of March 26, 2012

THURSDAY–3 major events:

Swimming Our class begins group swim lessons on Thursday morning at Evans Pool at the Green Lake Community Center.  We need to leave school at 9:05 sharp, so please plan to have your child arrive on time.  These are the items s/he needs to bring in a separate bag from his/her backpack: a towel, underwear, and a plastic bag (to hold the wet swimsuit).  Your child should come to school dressed with a swimsuit on under his/her clothes.  Your child should not be wearing underwear under the swimsuit (I state this because it has become necessary to do so).  When we arrive at the pool, we take off our shoes and socks in the entryway, then we walk to the locker room to take off our clothes, we put away our swim bag in a locker and we rinse off under the shower.  After our swim lesson, we rinse off with our suits on, take off our suits and put them into the extra plastic bag in our swim bags, dry off with our towels, and put on our underwear and clothing.  Then we walk to the entryway to put on our socks and shoes and we return to school in time for morning recess (approximately 10:30).  We are in need of at least one male adult to help boys rinse and change before and after swim class.  If you are available and interested, please let me know.  You can ride with us to and from the pool on the bus, but this week we will not be returning to school right away due to a field trip we are attending straight from the pool (see below).  Swimming will take place every Thursday for 10 weeks.  Ms. Matthews differentiates to all students so your child will be learning to swim whether s/he has never entered the pool before or s/he has already taken years of swimming lessons.  It is a fun time for the students, completely PTA-funded and the only program of its kind in a public elementary school in the city.  You may visit our swim lessons whenever you like.  It has worked out best when other children outside of our class do not come to visit with you.

Field Trip We will be attending a preview of the school play, The Wizard of Oz, at the Lincoln High School Auditorium in Wallingford on Thursday morning.  We will be taking the school bus straight from Evans Pool and returning in time for lunch.

Dance Party, USA  We (finally!) earned a privilege by filling up our fuzz ball jar!  I pulled a privilege from our container and we are going to have a Dance Party on Thursday of next week in the afternoon.  The best part is that we are going to enjoy this party with our buddies!  We will be making decorations for the party next week, creating pattern paper chain streamers and geometric print table cloths.  Here is what you need to know and help your child with, if interested: Students may wear dance outfits or rock band outfits if they wish.  Also, if your child would like to bring a small treat, it is allowed.  Additionally, if your child has a song that s/he loves to dance to, it should be turned in to me in CD format on Monday or Tuesday so I can make a playlist for the party by Thursday.  Some students would rather not dance at the party, but would instead like to be “part of the band”.  I have told students that if they would like to bring in an instrument to be “part of the band”, this would be fine but they need to ask permission first and the instrument should not be valuable or delicate.

SCATS Assembly  We saw area students from our school district who are part of the SCATS (Seattle Schools Cirque Arts TeamS) program perform flips, juggling, unicycle tricks, chinese yoyo tricks, double dutch, ball walking, and combinations of all of the above!  It was nothing short of amazing.  So many of the feedback statements at closing circle were “I want to be just like them!”  I agree!  Kindergartners through 5th grade are invited to participate in SCATS when attending schools with a high population of families who qualify for free lunch.  These same students then perform around the city at assemblies and events.  Not only is it a treat for us to see, but it creates a well-deserved sense of pride in individuals who don’t have as many opportunities as their peers in other parts of the city.  If your child is interested in Circus Arts, there are a few private organizations that offer classes in the city.  We also offer it at our school on Early release days for a fee.  Some need-based scholarships are available.  Please inquire with the office if interested in signing up!

Shapey Did you hear about Shapey this week?  If so, you may have learned that he is from planet Zoob. He sent us a letter asking us to do him a favor and create a portrait of him for his father’s birthday.  He did not tell us what he looked like, but he did tell us that he is made of 1 pentagon, 2 rhombuses, 4 squares, 2 triangles, 4 circles, and 5 rectangles and he has round eyes and a crescent shaped mouth.  The biggest challenge was that he is symmetrical.  It was great symmetry review for us and we all had different perceptions of how he looked.  The students are fairly convinced he is real and some are even sure they’ve seen him before and/or read all about Planet Zoob before.  It was a fun, yet challenging project that I wanted to “throw into the mix”.  Their portraits are completed in their math journals.

New Media    If you remember from the last update, we presented at last week’s Character Trait assembly.  Ms. Matthews took video of only part of our presentation–the part in which we shared kind words as suggestions to the school for how they could show their Caring nature.  The video has been added to the Media page of our website.  Also, here is a great picture and a short video of what we’ve been doing in P.E.: Cup Stacking.  

Cup Stacking from Angela B on Vimeo.

 

Mrs. Gallagher  Our librarian, Mrs. Gallagher, is new this year.  She has been an amazing addition to our school.  Each week, she takes us on a new adventure.  For the past month, we’ve been studying Non-Fiction books in class, so she has aligned her lessons to enhance that.  She led us on a class research project on tigers.  We utilized books, websites, videos and our own knowledge to learn as much as we could about tigers and about resources and reference materials. You may have seen your child’s Tigers research book come home this week.  We created those in Library.  She also helped us make a video presentation, but technology failed us and it deleted itself.  This past week, we had a party in Library to celebrate our unit and she presented students with their completed, bound books.  While she is only a half-time member of the staff, she works a full-time schedule tailoring each Library lesson to each class’s developmental level and needs and in a quest to meet information technology standards. As icing on the cake, she is also fun and kind and an overall amazing teacher.  I don’t know how we lucked out to this degree, but I had to include her in my note this week because I am so grateful for her.  Green Lake is so lucky!

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of March 19, 2012

Caring  Our newest character trait was presented in Friday’s assembly and, guess what?  We were the presenters!  It was a last minute request, so we talked about the trait on Thursday and came up with a plan.  We rehearsed it in front of our Buddies and then we presented on Friday.  I don’t know if it’s because we’re so darn cute or if we just work well under pressure, but we got RAVE reviews!  Ms. Matthews recorded the portion of the assembly in which we shared the kind and caring words we brainstormed as suggestions for others to use to exemplify the kindness and compassionate aspects of Caring.  I’ll post it here once she’s been able to upload it to Vimeo. We followed this up with going into the audience to give hugs and hearts that we made.  Here is the trait as defined by the Six Pillars of Character: Be kind • Be compassionate and show you care • Express gratitude • Forgive others • Help people in need

Auction   If you were able to attend the auction last night, thank you for participating.  Our own Dana Wikan and the auction committee did a wonderful job of creating and running a beautiful event and it was fun to see everyone having such a good time together. Our class alone was able to raise over $1000 from the auction of our cookie jar and the sale of our cookie cookbooks!  If you haven’t yet seen the book, you will need to stop in to see the proof.  It turned out awesome.  Thank you to the parents who helped coordinate the making of this item and especially to Tracy Tavis (K2 parent) for the countless hours she spent on creating, editing and publishing this fabulous book.  I can promise, once you see it, you’ll want to get one for you, one for your parents, one for your siblings, and one for your favorite family friends.  Each child is featured on 1-3 pages of the book, with a photograph and hand-drawn illustrations. You can still order copies through Tracy Tavis for $30 each.  I am very grateful to our parent community for contributing so much money, time and energy to help make our school the “hidden gem by the lake” that it is. Thank you to all of you who help provide a wonderful education for all children in our community!

Field Trip It is tradition for us to go see a preview of the school play as a class prior to it being available for all to see.  In past years, it has been held at the Seattle Bathhouse Theater at the lake and we have taken a walking field trip to see it.  This year, however, it will be held at the Lincoln High School Auditorium in Wallingford (current site for McDonald School and Lowell APP program), so we will need to take the school bus.  Please return your child’s field trip form ASAP so we can ensure his/her ability to attend the show with us.  Our own Sylvia Bates is in the production and we can’t wait to see her as well as other friends in the show!  (Please note: performers have a different form to turn in that hasn’t yet been given to them to have signed.)

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!

Week of March 12, 2012

Tuesday Ms. Blemker is out of the building. I’m going to visit another Kindergarten model in our school district because it’s always good to see what’s happening in other classrooms! I have announced my absence to the students and they will be in the care of their favorite, most capable guest teacher, Ms. Jeong. Now you know, too!

Wednesday Another literacy lab day, teachers from around the district will be coming to observe Literacy learning in action. We always get lots of compliments. I’m optimistic there will be more of the same on this day, too!

Wish List 1. I want to build a reading tent as a privileged reading area for our classroom. I need to borrow a staple gun. Also, if you have an old set of cute curtains or twin flat sheet(s) you never use, I might be able to use them for this project! 2. If you have a dishwasher and buy the large size of Cascade all-in-one action pacs, please shoot me an email before you recycle that container! I have a literacy project in mind.

Early Morning Check-in Some of you have noticed that I’m getting to school just before the bell rings these days. Another teacher in our school and I are doing a morning fitness boot camp this month at the lake and I’m not able to arrive much earlier than the students do these days. Please accept my apology for not being present if you’ve been hoping to check in with me before the bell rings. I am still available after school or via email and I hope you’ll take advantage of those times/modes to connect with me!

Meeting with B-2 Our favorite primary class, B-2, invited us to attend their morning meeting last Tuesday. What fun! They taught us a game called Cosiki or Big Chief. We also learned to greet one another with a butterfly wave. We have already begun planning our letter of thanks and an invitation for them to join us for our morning meeting one day soon. We’ve been exchanging letters with them for a few weeks now and it’s been the most exciting thing for us to receive “mail” from them! We analyze their letters to identify word parts, sight words, and punctuation. When we write them back, we focus on following appropriate letter writing format, determining the best way to communicate how they should read our letters (using expression, voice volume, etc.), and sounding out the words that are more difficult to spell. We are learning so much and having a blast!

Music Concert Wow! Our class had the best attendance in the school! Thank you for your commitment to bringing your children to perform! They were so happy to share their learning with you and I truly believe they are gaining a sense of responsibility by attending scheduled school functions. Thanks again!

Field Trips Our school has traditionally attended the Giant Magnet Festival (a multicultural arts experience) in the spring, however, as of this year, the festival is no longer! If you have an idea for a field trip you think we should go on, please let me know! I will look into your suggestions for what might work best for us financially and logistically.

Report Cards I’ve just completed second trimester formal assessments and have been busy this weekend writing report cards. You should be seeing these come home in a couple of weeks. While formal conference time only occurs in the fall in our school district, you may definitely schedule time to talk with me if you have any questions or concerns after receiving your child’s report card.

Read on to find out what we did last week and important dates to mark on the calendar!