K-3 Newsletter

                            Mrs. MacIntyre

January 30, 2015

It was a short week here in K-3. I just have a few things to pass on. First of all, we had a wonderful time on our field trip to the Audubon Society. The children were on their absolute best behavior. I am so proud of them. We enjoyed a wonderful story called Stranger in the Woods, we went on a nature walk, we met a beautiful rescued Barred Owl and we were able to explore the very hands on museum. If you have time over February vacation, it is open and would make a fabulous day trip for children of all ages.

Please remember, if there is snow on the ground, your child should bring snow pants and snow boots to school. If they do not have them, I cannot let them play in the snow during recess. Thank you in advance. Also, please continue with the reading bags. Your children are doing great with their reading here at school and are ready to show you what they can do. Remember to keep the books for 2-3 nights and continue to read to your child as well. The books you read to them have rich vocabulary and strengthen their listening skills and imagination. It should be a relaxing time for you and your child.

Our 100^th day of school is fast approaching.

Please have your child collect 100 of something small and put them in a brown paper bag. On the outside of the bag list 3 clues about what is inside of the bag. Please send the bag in to school with your child’s name and the 3 clues on the outside of the bag.

Some examples of items that have been used in the past are goldfish, paperclips, marbles, feathers, pom- poms, q-tips, legos, pennies and even items from nature! Enjoy!

If you have any questions please let me know. You can send the bags in as soon as you have them Right now we are on the 91^st day of school. So, depending on the snow days the 100^th day will be there.

Thank you very much!

Have a nice weekend,

Mrs. MacIntyre

                                  K-3 Newsletter

                                       

                                                Mrs. MacIntyre

January16, 2015

Dear Families,

 I appreciate you all sending in warm coats, boots, hats and gloves. Please continue to do that. The children are great at dressing themselves. I am so pleased with that. I try to continue to go outside as much as possible, even if it is just for a few minutes, so the children can get some fresh air and exercise.

In Literacy, the children are continuing to grow. We are especially working on weaving our wall words into our writing. Your child should be familiar with these words. You can even practice at home. If you need a new sight word list, please let me know and I can send one home for you and your child. We are also learning more about punctuation. We are identifying periods, exclamation points, question marks, commas and even apostrophe’s!

Our letter of the week was “Zz”. Our tongue twister was “Zach zigzagged through the zoo with Zannie.”

We continue with our Jan Brett study. The children love the illustrations that go along with the stories. Our special focus on the book The Mitten, is going very well.  It is a great book, full of lots of animal characters, which the children love. We have read many Jan Brett books this week, the children love this unit and are looking forward to the voting at the end of the month which will reveal K-3’s favorite Jan Brett book.  In Math, the children practiced the concept of subtraction. This is a very abstract concept for many kindergarteners. Continue to use  a manipulative at home to show the concept. You can use goldfish, raisins, pretzels ….. Whatever works!

 This week, we read about Martin Luther King Jr. and celebrated his birthday. We described him as a peace maker who believed in his dreams for a fair life for everyone. We talked about what it would feel like to be treated”unfairly” and what we can do to make our school a “fair place.”

Thanks to all of you for the fieldtrip slips. If you have not returned the permission slip and the money could you please do so as soon as possible? Thank you in advance. We will be leaving around 9:15 am and should be returning around 1:30. Please make sure your child has a good breakfast as we will not be having morning snack and we probably won’t eat until around 12:00. We usually eat at 11:00 during school so the children will be very hungry. Please pack their lunch in a PAPERBAG so they do not have to worry about carrying a lunchbox.  PLEASE DO NOT SEND IN PEANUT PRODCTS. I would suggest your child wear boots for the fieldtrip please. We will be walking around outside, hopefully there will be snow on the ground so we can look for animal prints.

Thank you for all the Lysol wipes!! Your child knows how much I love them. I try to keep K-3 extra clean, especially at this time of the year. We have lots of colds and coughs in the classroom. 

There is no school on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Fondly,

Colleen MacIntyre

                                          K-3 Newsletter

                                          Mrs. MacIntyre     

January 9,2015

Dear Families,

Happy 2015! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday vacation!  It is often hard for the children to get back into the school schedule. It usually takes a week or so to get back into the routine of getting up early and following the schedule of a busy school day. The class has also welcomed a new student Jeremiah Santos to K-3.

 In January we will be going on a fieldtrip to the Bristol Audubon Center. It is a great fieldtrip. We will learn about winter animals, animal prints, and there is an indoor aquarium with a lot of special surprises. If you are interested in chaperoning please let me know. We will leave around 9:15am and return around 1:15 pm. Thank you in advance.

I know it was a while ago, but I just wanted to take the chance to say what an amazing job I thought the class did at the Holiday Concert. They looked so happy and proud and did a wonderful job singing. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Isn’t Mrs. Hostetler amazing??

Please continue with the reading bags, you are doing a great job with them.  Please let me know of any questions or concerns that you may have. It is important to keep the sheet in the bag so I don’t give you the same book over again, although sometime I do that by accident. I hope your child enjoys these books. They should be very proud of themselves. One of the most wonderful parts of my job is watching your children grow in all areas. Reading is just one of those areas; please remember that all children begin to read at different times. Please do not feel you have to push your child into reading and remember reading a loud to your child is the best thing you can do for them at this age to develop literacy skills and enjoyment that will last a lifetime.

Our Author of the Month is Jan Brett. We will be reading many of her wonderful books and at the end of the Author study we will graph our favorites. We will pay special attention to the story The Mitten. We will integrate many activities connected to the book during the month.

Speaking of mittens, as it gets colder and snow begins to fall, please remember a hat, gloves, snow pants and boots for your child to wear outside. When there is snow on the ground they are allowed to play in it as long as they have snow pants on. If your child wears boots to school, please send along sneakers for them to wear inside school. Especially on P.E. days!

 In Math, we will begin to learn about subtraction this month. We will also continue practice writing our numbers 0-20 with proper formation. During Morning Meeting the children add up the number of syllables in their first and last name when they are the leader. Ask them at home to do this for you; they are very proud of themselves. We have also been practicing with punctuation. Your child is learning to identify a period, exclamation point, comma quotation marks in a sentence.

If you think that is a lot for kindergarten, so do I! Remember, it all comes in time and I am still a firm believer that a kindergarten needs to have fun, learn how to share, listen, care and create!! We have a lot of fun here in K-3!

WISHLIST

SHOEBOXES if you have any please send in one for your child for a special craft I will be doing next month! Thank you!

I wish you all a Healthy and Happy New Year!

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns you may have.

Fondly,

Colleen MacIntyre