K-3 Newsletter

                           Mrs. MacIntyre

Dear Families,

January 29,2016

Here we are at the end of January! The student’s have enjoyed our Jan Brett author study this month. I hope that are sharing some of their favorite books that we have read with you. Remember to visit your local library to check out any Jan Brett books that your child may mention that they enjoyed. Also, please remember to return all your school library books on Fridays. If you forget, you can always send them in with your child on Monday and I will be sure to get them up to the library for you. Thank you in advance.

In February, we will be focusing on Chinese New Year. We will study about China, it’s location and its customs and traditions concerning Chinese New Year. We will be planning a Chinese New Year dinner here at school. The date is yet to be determined but it will be sometime towards the end of the month. Each family will be asked to bring something and it is sure to be a wonderful evening. I will keep you informed of the details as soon as they are decided.

Our letter of the week was, “Cc”. We practiced the soft c. Our tongue twister was “Cindy celebrates with cider and celery.” We worked on naming hard c and soft c words throughout the week. In Writer’s Workshop, we are reading poetry and visualizing and acting out poems. The student’s are enjoying this very much. We are also expanding our writing and adding detail to our sentences and pictures. It has been a great month for growth. I will be sending home your child’s January writing folders next month and I think you will be very proud of your child!

In math, we are learning about the concept of subtraction. We are learning this abstract concept through concrete applications such as visuals and manipulatives. This is a hard concept for kindergarteners, especially since we have spent the past couple of months securing addition. However, I am very proud of how hard everyone is working and I am confident we will secure this as well! We like to talk about subtraction when we are eating snack. I am beginning to see students doing this on their own when they are eating pretzels, goldfish and grapes, it is great to see them learning on their own like that.

The student’s also really enjoyed their trip to the Bristol Audubon Society and wrote about their favorite part of the trip yesterday.I hope you all have a nice weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

                                                                I Have A Dream........

                         K-3 Newsletter

                         Mrs. MacIntyre

January 22,2016

Dear Families,

I hope you all are doing well and staying warm! Looks like we may be in for a little snow this weekend. Hopefully it will be just enough for some sledding and snowman making! Thank you all for sending in snow pants and snow boots with your child. We will be going outside as much as possible. If the temperature is too low we are not permitted to go outside. Usually by the end of the day the temperature is fine for some much needed fresh air and fun!

Our field trip to the Bristol Audubon Society is coming up this Wednesday, January 27th. I have parent volunteers already to go.. thank you in advance for coming. Please be sure to dress your child appropriately. We will be taking a nature walk and looking for animal prints in the snow. Please send your child with snow pants, snow boots and hat and mittens.

For the field trip also please send your child with a PAPER BAG LUNCH no lunchboxes please. This way you do not have to worry about it getting left behind in Bristol.  

Please do not send peanut butter in your child’s lunch bag for the field trip as we will all be eating together picnic style.

Some ideas for lunches are cheese and crackers, wraps, bagel with cream cheese, pretzels with hummus dip. We will not be having snack before we leave in the morning so PLEASE make sure your child has a big breakfast as we may not be eating lunch as early as we do here at school which is 11:00 a.m.

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

In Writer’s Workshop, we wrote about things we learned from our informational texts. We wrote about vegetables and also compared grapes and raisins.

We began understanding the idea of subtraction. We used animal crackers and raisins to count and write subtraction equations. The students wrote beautiful equations and really enjoyed eating their subtraction problems!!

If you have cheerios at home or raisins, give your child 5 and have them write an equation to show how many they eat.. you tell them how many to eat and while they are chewing they write the answer! SO much fun!

Please continue with the homework books and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

***CHECK OUT THIS WEEK”S JAMESTOWN PRESS!! K-3 IS IN THE NEWS SPREADING DREAMS OF PEACE!!!  THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!

I hope you all have a fun and warm weekend. Enjoy the snow!

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

K-3 Newsletter

                        Mrs. MacIntyre

January 15, 2016

Dear Families,

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The students have learned about the  importance of Martin Luther King Jr. and the effect he has had upon history. We describe him as a peacemaker. I have not identified it as a black and white issue only but as a person who wanted all people to be treated equal and be a peaceful problem solver. We wove him into a Writer’s Workshop prompt. After talking about King’s “I have a dream” speech, the students had to write what they would dream for if they were to make a speech. I am very fortunate to have such a caring and empathetic group of young students. They are so much fun to work with.

In Literacy, we have been reading many Jan Brett books. We are paying special attention to The Mitten. We will be acting it out in class and doing many sequencing activities to practice with retelling and sequencing.

We are looking for items to put on our winter table…. If you see any signs of winter send them in .. no snow please!! Speaking of snow, if we have snow on the ground, I will still take the class outside for recess. They must have snow pants and snow boots. If they get their pants and shoes wet it is very uncomfortable all day. If you have a spare set of snow pants, you are welcome to leave them here at school. If they are coming back and forth to school that is fine also, whatever is best for you.

In math, we continue to practice counting to 100 and writing our numerals 0-20. This is something you can practice at home. The numerals should be going in the right direction at this point. I will begin introducing subtraction next week. The class is doing an excellent job at adding within 5 and writing the equation. Good work!

Wednesday in Maker’s Space, the students had to create something the could move in the snow.. They were so creative and did a super job!

Thank you all for doing such a great job with the homework books. I am working with reading strategies here at school. Please encourage your child to use their pointer finger and place it under each word as the read. This encourages word matching and word correspondence. They are beginning to see some words have more than one syllable and this is something we practice at morning meeting. Thank you in advance.

Our field trip is planned  for the Bristol Audubon Society. We will be going on Wednesday, January 27th.

We will leave around 9:00 am and should return around 1:00. If you would like to take the bus or meet us there please let me know. The cost for chaperones is $10.00. We will be taking a nature walk and looking for animals prints.We will listen to a nature book and explore the indoor museum.

It is a really fantastic field trip,

Remember to check my blog on the Jamestown School website for periodic photos.

Please remember there is no school Monday, January 18th.

Have a nice long weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre

K-3 Newsletter

                     Mrs. MacIntyre

Happy 2016!!

January 8,2016

Dear Families,

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday vacation with your families. It was certainly a warm one. I was so excited to come back yesterday to see the class! Unfortunately, I broke a rib on Christmas day and was still healing when school started back up. I am feeling much better now!!! I also took my son, who is in college, to New York, where he boarded a plane to Australia where he will be studying for the next 4 months!!  I showed the class where he is on our class globe. Believe me when I tell you it seems like he was just in kindergarten.

The students were so kind to me when I came back, they really made me feel great! I am so lucky to have such an amazing group of students.

Our letter of the week was “Xx”. Our tongue twister was, “Xavier puts x’s on the x-ray.” We are beginning our author study of Jan Brett this month. Today we read The Three Snow Bears. It has many similarities to a famous children’s story which your child should be able to tell you.

In math, we continue to work on addition and number correspondence for numbers up to 20.

In Writer’s Workshop, the students are listening to informational text and writing about what they learned from specific books. We are really focusing on using upper and lowercase letters, spaces and punctuation. I am also asking the class to write their first and last names on their papers now that we are in a new year.

I will be sending home a permission slip for an upcoming field trip to the Bristol Audubon Society. We will be going at the end of January.

I am in need of Lysol wipes and shoe boxes for the classroom. If you have a nice sturdy shoebox (any size) would you please send one in?

Now that the weather is getting colder, please remember to label your child's’ hat and mittens if possible.

Thank you in advance.

I wish you all a healthy and happy 2016!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Mrs. MacIntyre