Griffin

Here's some more pictures.

Holiday Pictures

Yes, these are quite late!!   I hope they make you smile.  Thank you to Tristan's parents for taking the pictures.  They have made a few discs for anyone that asks.

                                                                                                          

                                  

If you don't see your grasshopper, don't worry.  I'll be posting some more pictures from the party.

Maps and Money

Money:  This week's activities will focus on identifying the penny, nickel, dime and quarter.  We'll also be trading pennies for nickels, dimes, and quarters, as well as using pennies to purchase items.

                       

   Maps:  We'll begin our mapping unit by comparing a map to a model.   

                     Sight Words this week are:  up, in, down

Thank you for working on these words with your child.  The majority of the class reads 30 or more words from our list.  Your child is quizzed periodically.  They will receive a reward when they read the entire list.  Congratulations to our first student to achieve this, Aaron.

During reading we will be sharpening our predicting skills.  We'll also be sequencing events.

Class Schedule:  I've been trying to rework our schedule to best fit the needs of our grasshoppers.  With our new schedule, centers are from 9:45 - 10:45.  Center Parents need not change their arrival time. 

Valentine's Day:  Please have your child decorate a shoebox for our card exchange.  This is a great time to let them be creative with tissue, stickers, doilies...  Please decorate the box and lid separately so that we can access the cards easily.  Having your child sign their Valentine's independently is a great way for them to practice writing their name.  Do not address the cards to classmates.  This will make delivering them much easier. Please send the box and Valentines to school on or before February 14th.

Picture Day:  We will be having our pictures taken February 27th.

Fun Run:  Sope Creek Fun Run is Saturday, March 15th, from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm.

Art Day:  We had a lot of fun on Friday.  Thank you to the mothers of Allie, Denver, Makenna and Alex for lending their time and hands to make this day a success.

Class Needs:  stickers, snacks, items for the treasure bag

Grasshopper News

Conferences:  It was wonderful to meet with all of you this week.  I was very excited to share with you how your grasshopper has been growing over this first half of the school year.  Please remember Cobb County doesn't have spring conferences scheduled this year.  If you would like to meet again, just drop me a line.  I'd be glad to set up a time.  Conferences continue on Monday.  Remember that Monday is an early release day.

Penny Wars:  We collected over 3000 pennies!!  That is awesome. 

100's Day:  What great 100's Day collections.  The students shared everything from candy hearts to rubber bands, Lego's to coins, and Q-tips to toothpicks plus much more.  Thank you for counting these out with your child.  It was terrific practice.  We also read stories about 100's Day, wrote stories about when we're 100 years old, transformed the number 100 into something new, went on a 100 number scavenger hunt and much more.

600 Minutes:  This is a terrific program and very easy to do.  Just mark the amount of time your child reads.  It can be on their own, with you or with a sibling.  If your minutes totals to 600 or more, your child will receive a free ticket to Six Flags.  Please return your reading record sheets by the date posted on the front.  I'll take care of the rest.

Art Day:  Friday, February 1st is Art Day here at Sope Creek.  The students will be rotating through many different activities involving all kind of art.  Kindergarten has been asked to wear white shirts.  Don't go out and buy something new, they can wear a family members shirt for the day.  We've been asked to collect the shirts by Wednesday.  Please help as this is a school wide activity and each grade level has been asked to wear a specific color.

Changes in Transportation:  Please remember that if you need to change how your child is going home, we need a signed and dated note, on a full sheet of paper.  We cannot accept changes in transportation over the phone or from other family members. 

Happy New Year

Welcome back: I hope everyone had a wonderful vacation.  Thank you so much for the wonderful presents and gift cards.  I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to work with such amazing families. Thank you for all the help during the class party.  Chris' mom deserves many kudos for all her hard work.  Tristan's mom has sent me several discs of photos she took.  I'll be going through them and posting them soon. 

New Student:  A big welcome to Trey.  He joined our classroom on Tuesday. 

Conferences:  Please return your conference confirmation sheets.  I'm looking forward to meeting with each of you and sharing information about your grasshopper's growth.

100th Day:  We will be celebrating the 100th Day of school on January 23rd.  The classes will be collecting 100 cans of food. We will then be donating the cans to a local food bank.  We will be collecting up until January 23rd.  Also I'd like the students to bring in a collection of 100 items to share.  Be creative.

Penny Wars:  Sope Creek is also collecting pennies for the American Cancer Society from January 14th-18th.  The class with the most pennies wins a ribbon.  Be warned that silver coins and dollars can be placed in other classrooms' jugs to sabotage their count.  A quarter would cause 25 points to be subtracted from the total.

Yearbooks:  These are still on sale through the end of January.  The price is $30.00.

Unit of Study:  We will begin studying our unit on our country.  We'll be looking at patriotic holidays, national symbols, leaders, community helpers, goods and services, and map skills.

Math:  We will be working with numbers from 0-30.  You can help by providing your child opportunities to count objects.  This could be socks in the laundry to peas on their plate.  Having them write these numbers would be helpful also.

Language Arts:  We started "tapping out" three letter words in our phonics program.  Ask your grasshopper to show you how this works.  Please continue working on the sight word list you were given.  If you need a new list, I'd be glad to send one in your child's folder. 

Classroom Helpers:

Monday..........Denver's mom

Tuesday.........Philip's mom

Wednesday.........Nicole's mom

Thursday..........Makenna's mom

Friday..........Aaron's mom

Guest Reader.........Allie's dad

Celebrate

We've been having fun exploring what and how people celebrate around the world.  We've spun the dreidel and sampled latkes in Israel, made gingerbread men in Germany, sampled cheeses from the Netherlands, made nesting dolls in Russia and Poinsettias in Mexico.  Today we learned about Sweden from Philip's mother.  She even shared Swedish meatballs and lingonberry sauce.  We've read stories from and about each country, located them on a world map, made their flags and kept a travel journal, and we still aren't finished.  We will be visiting France and returning to the U.S.A. to take a look at Kwanzaa.  It has been an eventful trip.

Buddies

Thank you for sending in all the goodies for our gingerbread houses.  We will be creating these with the help of our Fifth Grade Buddies. 

Winter Party

Many thanks to Chris' mom for organizing our party.  The festivities begin around 9:30 on Friday and will last for about an hour.  We'd love to have you, but be warned, you may be put to work. 

Keeping it Fresh

Please continue to read and study the sight words over the break.  A few minutes each day will help keep them from regressing.

The New Year

I'll be updating the blog before we return from break.  Please check back to read about new classroom procedures. 

Have a fantastic break.

Sleep/Stress/Skin

This week we are learning about the importance of sleep and handling stress properly.  We will also learn how sleep and stress affect our skin. 

I'll be sharing some great stories about these topics.

• The Quilt Story
• Ten in a Bed
• The Napping House
• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
• A Bad Case of the Stripes

In our literature study we'll continue working on sequencing events, retelling, and predicting. 

Word Study

In our word study we are identifying words that rhyme and making rhyming pairs.  We are also working on blending sounds to form words and breaking words into syllables.  We'll be adding the following words to our sight word list:  said, this, little

There are 40 sight words that our grasshoppers need to recognize by the end of the year.  We have studied 22.  I assess the students on their progress regularly.  Please continue to work with them on these words.  If you have misplaced your list from Open House, please let me know and I'll be glad to send another list home. 

We have completed introducing the letter sounds as well as recognizing and writing the lowercase letters.  We are currently working on writing our capital letters.  Please help your child remember that there aren't any letters that start at the grass (bottom) line.  That seems to be the biggest area of struggle.

Writing

Each day the class continues to surprise me with their story writing skills.  They are sounding out letters and writing wonderful stories.  We have been working on when to use capital letters and what to put at the end of a sentence.  I've been saving their stories for conference time.  I can't wait to show you their progress.

Math

In math we finished our unit on "time".  We sorted, sequenced, listed, and charted activities we do each day, weekly, and in the morning, afternoon and night.  Telling time on a clock is not a kindergarten standard, but if your child is interested in learning this, I encourage you to discuss it with him/her.

Our new unit in math is measurement.  We will be comparing and ordering items by their weight, length, height and capacity.  I have been sending home the math workbooks after we complete each unit.  You will find several pages incomplete.  These are pages that are not part of the Georgia Standards or we may have completed this lesson as a class with our big book or by completing a hands-on activity.  You are welcome to complete these pages with your child at home if you like.

Field trip!!!

We will be going to see a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts this Thursday.  No chaperons are required.  We will return in time for a later lunch, so no special plans are need for lunch either. 

Holidays

Next week we will begin our study of Holidays around the World.  The students will be rotating to a different kindergarten classroom each day.   At each classroom they will read books, play games, make crafts... that  are a part of a country's celebration of the winter holiday.  They will be visiting the countries of Germany, Israel, the Netherlands and  Russia.  If you are interested in sharing a special holiday tradition from your country of origin, please let me know. 

Other News

Yearbooks are on currently on sale.  The price is $25.00 before winter break and $30.00 after the break.  Please make your check out to Sope Creek Elementary School.

We have some students that are accumulating quite a few tardies or absences.  Please send a note if it is an excused absence.  It is policy to send a letter when absences and tardies have accumulated to a certain number.  Please understand that this is policy and not a personal attack.  (I just want to make sure that feelings are not hurt.)

Thank you's:

Center Helpers:

• Olivia's mom
• Aaron's mom
• Philip's mom
• Makenna's mom

Story Parent:  Natalie's dad

This week's helpers are:

• Monday.....Parker's mom
• Tuesday.....Allie's mom
• Wednesday.....Kyle's mom
• Thursday.....Field trip
• Friday.....Sebastian's mom

Story Parent is:  Natalie's mom

Class needs:   

• cheap, white paper plates
• plastic utensils
• goodies for the reward bag

Happy Thanksgiving

This week we'll be studying about Thanksgiving.  We'll be reading books, making costumes, contrasting life now and life as a pilgrim child...  We will focus on the pilgrims, native Americans, Plymouth Rock, Mayflower and the First Thanksgiving.  Ask your child what they've learned each day as we will be uncovering the truths and myths about this national holiday.

This Friday (16th) morning is our kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast.  We need two parents from 8:30-9:45 to help set up, pass out food and clean up.   We also need volunteers to donate food for our class.  Could we have :

• 4 volunteers to send in a dozen mini muffins (Try for blueberry but any kind is ok.)
• 2 volunteers to send in 2   6-packs of Motts 8oz apple juice boxes
• 2 volunteers to send in 2  6-packs of Motts applesauce cups
• 1 volunteer to send in plain white napkins

The classes will be dining together so it is important to have everything the same.  If you can help, please email me or send a note.  I'll call you back to confirm.  We'll need the items by Thursday. 

We are also beginning  to count change.  We will be working on the penny and the nickel this week.  Kindergarteners will identify each coin, the value and trade 5 pennies for a nickel.

The letters of the week are: q, x, y, and z.  We will have studied all of our lowercase letters by Thanksgiving.  They should be able to identify, name the sound and write all of their lowercase letters.

The sight words for this week are:  and, blue, he, here, in, red, to, we, yellow and you.  These words will be starring in our stories and poems this week.  **A suggestion is to make flashcards with these and our previous words.  Go over them once or twice with your child each day.  When reading to your child, stop and point to the word when it appears in the text.  Have your child read it.  We have 40 sight words to learn before the end of the year.

We are so close to earning our pizza party!  16 of our grasshoppers have recited their address.  Please continue to work on this important skill.

Check out our new tv star.  Take a look at the video about the bus radio station on Cobb County's webpage.  You'll see our own Sebastian many times in the video.  Way to go Sebastian. 

Center Parents this week are:

• Monday----------Parker's mom
• Tuesday----------Allie's mom
• Wednesday----------Kyle's mom
• Thursday----------Chris' mom
• Friday----------Sebastian's mom

Story Parent is Melis' mom.

Thanks to Philip's mom for her wonderful reading of The Emperor's New Clothes.

Happy Halloween

Everyone had fun on the trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  We went on a tractor ride, picked out our own pumpkin, learned about colonial days and made a wooden yo-yo.  Thank you to Makenna's mom and Tristan's dad for chaperoning the trip.  Unfornutately the battery died on my camera, but I did get a few pictures.

                                                                                

This week our Center Parents are:

• Monday..........Parker's Mom
• Tuesday..........Philip's Mom
• Wednesday..........Kyle's Mom
• Thursday..........Olivia's Mom
• Friday..........Aaron's Mom

Our Guest Reader is Philip's Mom.

Please have your grasshopper bring a push toy or a pull toy to share on Thursday.  We will sort the toys by the way they move. 

Please help us by making sure your child isn't bringing candy to class.  If you want to pack a couple of pieces in their lunchbox that is fine.  We just don't want them sneaking Halloween candy during class time.

Library time is Thursday morning.  If you have any Library books that need to be returned, go ahead and send them.

There is no school on Nov. 5 and 6.  The teachers will be attending inservices.

This week we will be working on:

• writing and making the sound of the letters "v" and "w"
• using small shapes to build large shapes (and objects)
• breaking large shapes up into smaller ones
• estimating measurements of our pumpkins
• discussing how we are growing
• exploring how objects can be pushed or pulled
• using location words to describe where something is
• comparing our Principal to the President

We have something special scheduled everyday this week. 

• Monday..........Story Teller
• Tuesday..........Guidance with Ms. Murphy
• Wednesday..........5th Grade Buddies
• Thursday..........Library Check Out and Story
• Friday..........Guest Reader and a visit by Mrs. Whalen

Shape Up and Get Moving

The Week in Review

Our grasshoppers:

• Read fiction and nonfiction stories about apples.
• Discussed fall
• Identified pairs of rhyming words.
• Created a graph showing the amount of each colored apple that was brought into class.
• Graphed our favorite apple product (apple pie won).
• Created a puppet to retell the story of Johnny Appleseed.
• Estimated by comparing to five.
• Counted sets from 0-10.
• Wrote stories about our favorite season.
• Learned about the letters "l", "h", and "k".

Looking Ahead

Our grasshoppers will:

• Read and respond to stories about fall, pumpkins and scarecrows.
• Practice the KWL reading strategy.
• Write creative stories.
• Learn about the letters "p" and "j".
• Conduct experiments to discover how objects move.
• Practice following directions.
• Explore 2 dimensional shapes.
• Problem solve ways to record data.
• Experience a storyteller.
• Go to the Pumpkin Patch

Thank you to all that volunteered to chaperone the fieldtrip.  Unfortunately, we can only take two.  Tristan's dad and Makenna's mom will be chaperoning this trip.  If you plan on packing your grasshopper's lunch, remember to pack it in a bag.  We have to be able to throw everything away.  If anyone has a cooler we can borrow to pack our lunches in, please let me know.  Have your grasshopper wear long pants and walking shoes.  Hopefully we'll have our class shirts for the trip.  The company has been working hard to get the shirts to other grades that have had fieldtrips before us.  Three grade levels have trips this week so keep your fingers crossed.

Please remember:

• To send back your child's poetry notebook.  We will be adding more poems this week.
• To send in a bath sized towel for rest time. 
• When sending in changes in transportation notes to use full size paper and sign and date them.
•   To return the white signature card and report card envelope.  If you have any questions about the report card, I'd be glad to schedule a conference (in person or by phone).  I know it can be confusing.

Thank you to the many parents sending in trinkets for our good behavior rewards. 

Thank you to Parker's mom for being our story parent.   

Center Parents for this week are:

Monday..........Melis' mom

Tuesday.........Philip's mom

Wednesday......Kyle's mom

Thursday........Fieldtrip

Friday...........Sebastian's mom

Story Parent is A.J.'s mom

Our Grand Grasshopper this week is Natalie!