Looking Ahead to 2013

Looking Ahead to 2013……

Well, I can’t believe that 2013 is here already and we are so far along in the school year.  We have been busy Kinders in 2012 and I am sure it will continue into 2013. 

This week we will do lots of reviewing of the alphabet, letters, letter sounds, concept of word and spelling basic cvc words like cat, mop, etc.  We will be reviewing for PALS testing which will begin on Monday and last about 2 weeks.  After that, if needed I will be contacting you to schedule some conferences to report on progress being made.

This week we will talk about making a resolution and what that means.  We will talk about one thing we would like to learn how to do this year and put that into writing.  We will also write about what we did over winter vacation. 

We will then begin to learn about maps and globes, the difference between the two and what the colors mean on a map.  We might even get to go on a treasure hunt!

We will review comparing numbers in math and numbers to 20. 

As we begin this “new year”, let’s continue to be positive, learn much and have fun!

As always, I am excited to see my little ones on Wednesday!  I hope you all enjoyed your time off and please contact me if you need anything or have any questions.

With love,

Mrs. Beltz

Polar Express

Polar Express Fun!

 We had our tickets, PJ's and were ready to go!  We had the chance to read the book, listen to the animated version of the book online while eating cupcakes and drinking hot chocolate!  We also found our little silver bells.  Legend has it that only those who hear the bells believe in Christmas Magic and Santa.  What a fun way to celebrate the beginning of winter break!

Tree Decorating

O’ Christmas Trees……..full of candy and icing!

We used our decorating skills today to make our own Christmas trees.  They had fun and were very creative! 

Star Helper of the Week

This week’s star student helper is….

          Leah

Leah loves to play on the playground at school.  Leah loves broccoli and cheese and chicken nuggets, YUM!  Leah’s favorite color is violet.  What a great pick!  Leah has been doing a great job this week with helping me.  Keep it up!

Gingerbread Fun!

 

Friday was holiday hat day!  This coming Friday will be holiday hat again as well as Polar Express day.  Please have your child wear their PJ's!

This past week we read lots of books about the Gingerbread man and Gingerbread girl.  We played Gingerbread man out on the playground.  We tasted Gingerbread men, made graphs and even tested a Gingerbread man to see why he didn't swim across the river by himself.  We decorated our own Gingerbread man/girl.  Lots of gingertastic fun!

Weekly Preview- Dec 17

Looking Ahead- Dec. 17

This week we will be busy little worker elves.  We have lots of presents to make and things to decorate.  We will spend most of our science and social studies time completing gifts for our parents.  We will also take some time to decorate our own tasty little trees.  That will be a sweet treat!

We will continue with word study and work on the letters a and g this week.  We will also continue to work on retelling a story.  We are getting pretty good at this!  We will also learn how to make a list.  We are all hoping to be on the Nice list this year!  

We will review all math concepts this week including numbers to 20, patterns, and addition.  

On Friday, we will have Pajama day!!!  We will be reading the Polar Express and doing lots of fun activities to support the book.  We will have hot chocolate, cupcakes and we might get a surprise too!

Friday will be our last day before winter break.  School will be closed from Dec 24- Jan.1.  Back to school on January 2, 2013.

Enjoy the holidays with your families and thank you for all your support.  Our little wildcats are growing each day and making me proud! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Beltz

                                                   

Star Helper of the Week

This week's star helper is.......

                Grant!

Grant's favorite time of the school day is calendar time.  He is a great calendar leader!  His favorite game to play is Shutes & Ladders.  What a great game! Grant likes to eat carrots.  Great job Grant!  Keep it up!

Penny Store

This week we learned how to count groups of pennies.  We also earned pennies each day we came to school and extra pennies if we earned a purple for our behavior.  The students saved their pennies each day and were able to go to the penny store on Friday.  They had to count their pennies for me and "purchase" their item.  They had FUN!  Here are some pictures from the store.

Weekly Preview- Dec. 10

Looking Ahead at this Week:

This week in reading we will focus on retelling a story and including the beginning, middle and end.  We will learn about the letter c and continue to review all letters.  We will also continue to do reading groups and learn a new concept of word poem.  This is the poem for this week and next:

Dear Santa,

Here's some milk and cookies
that I have left for you.
There are enough for Rudolph.
I hope he likes them too.

Love, Me

This poem works perfect for us since we are continuing to learn how to write friendly letters.  We wrote letters this week to Mrs. Cox, Mrs. Lewter and Mrs. Wingert.  The most important ladies in the office. (also a mom and nana to a few of our students!)

We will learn AABB, and ABC patterns in math.  We will also review an AB pattern.

We will read lots of books about the Gingerbread man and do some fun activities with Gingerbread men!  

Reminders for this week:
PE on Monday and Friday
Please send in a snack daily
Please return your child's interim signed if you haven't yet
If you are sending in an item to help with an upcoming project, please do that as soon as you can!

Many Thanks,
Mrs. Beltz

They've done it again!

30 more gold coins means……

Cupcake surprise party!!!!!  This class makes PURRING with pride look easy.  They are an awesome group of students.  KEEP UP THE GREAT BEHAVIOR!

Star Helper of the Week

This week’s star helper of the week is:

         Danella

Danella's favorite color is pink.  She loves to write words when at school.  Danella's favorite food is pizza.  Danella has been doing a great job helping me this with all her special jobs.  Keep up the great work!

Weekly Preview- Dec. 3 ALREADY?!?!?

Looking Ahead- Weekly Preview

This week we will be introduced to the letter v.  We will continue to review all letters learned so far.  We will continue to work on characters and setting of a story.  We will also learn how to write friendly letters.  Please continue to review all of our sight words to date:

a      am  and  can   go    in      it       is       I         see     my     the    

We will learn about needs and choices.  We need food, water, clothing and shelter to survive.  We don’t need toys, ipads, and video games.  Although, I’m sure we have all heard I’ll die without them, LOL!  We will make a book incorporating this SOL. 

We will learn about the dime in math.  We will also learn how to count groups of pennies.  We will also talk about saving those pennies and dimes!

A few reminders:

On Monday I will be sending home a sheet of items we will need for the next few weeks, Please be looking for that.---This did not happen, look for it tomorrow!

December 11 is the scheduled conference night.  Kindergarten will be holding conferences for those needed on January 17 & 18, after PALS testing is completed again.  Please be aware of this and be on the lookout for conference slips if needed.    

There is NO field trip this week.  It will be in the spring.

Please continue to send in a snack and coat with your child each day.

Many Thanks,

Mrs. Beltz

Star Helper of the Week

Star Helper of the Week!

This week's star helper of the week is Ava.  Ava's favorite food is pizza.  Her favorite thing to do at school is play outside.  Ava's favorite color is pink.  

Great Job Ava!  Keep up the good work!

Weekly Preview- Nov. 26

Weekly Preview- Nov. 26

This week will focus on the poem Jack and Jill.  We will use this for Concept of Word.  We will also begin to learn how to break down words into sounds.  We will use sound boxes and do lots of activities with this concept.  We will learn the letter n.  We will use the story starter, Over Thanksgiving break…  This will help the students begin to develop ideas about what to write and be able to put them down on paper.  We will continue to do reading groups.

Math will focus on addition.  We will be introduced to the concept on Monday and use a variety of techniques to learn this SOL.  We will use ten frames, different types of manipulatives and some worksheets.

We will learn about Human Growth in Social Studies.  We will talk about there are different stages in life, baby, toddler, teen and adult.  We will look at characteristics that help us to classify each stage of life.  We will even look at our own baby picture and see how we have changed already.

Reminders:

We will be going outside until it’s too cold.  Please send your child with a coat.

We are running low on extra snacks, if you can send some in that would be appreciated.

Please send in a baby picture of your child by Wednesday.  You will not get this picture back.

Many Thanks,

Mrs. Beltz

Thanksgiving Feast

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that you all have enjoyed some quality family time this holiday.  I know I have!  Before we left school for break, we celebrated our Thanksgiving feast.  We had some Pilgrims and lots of Native Americans.  We feasted on popcorn, oranges, trail mix and juice boxes.  We talked about the first Thanksgiving and how Pilgrim children had very different lives than we do today.  I hope they learned a lot.  Enjoy the pictures. 

Weekly Preview- Nov. 19

This week we will work on listening skills and story retelling.  We will listen to books about Thanksgiving and practice retelling the stories to our friends.  We will also continue to work on Fantasy vs. Realism.  We will create a list of things that make a book fantasy and a book realism.  We will NOT have word study this week.  We will practice putting our own words together to form sentences in our writing journals.

We will make our pattern necklaces in math with the focus on AB patterns.  Look for these at our Thanksgiving Feast!  We will also continue to work on writing numbers from 11-20.  

We will finish our Thanksgiving book.  This book is focused on the SOLs for Holidays and Past and Present.  

Our feast will be on Monday afternoon at 2:30.  If you want your child to dress as a Pilgrim, they can wear black or white.  If you want them to dress as a Native American, they can wear brown.  Nothing else special needed.  

Have a great week!
Mrs. Beltz

Star Student Helper of the Week

Star Student Helper of the Week:

Jack!!

Jack likes to play red light green light.  His favorite food is french fries .  He loves to play outside at school.  Keep working hard Jack!



Tibits from this week.....

This week we had “P day”.  We got to write with pens all day long on paper.

We also got to build with legos in math.  We used our Legos to help us put numbers in order from 1-20 and then identify numbers out of order from 1-20.  What fun!



Perferct Attendance!!!!

Wow!  Check out who had perfect attendance for the first 9 weeks! 

Way to go Lindsey, Camden, Jack, Hernan and Makiya!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUTIFUL GIRLS,

  ZIMAE AND AVA!!

WE HOPE YOU HAD AMAZING BIRTHDAYS!!  THANKS FOR SHARING CUPCAKES WITH US!



Weekly Preview- Nov. 12

Weekly Preview- Nov. 12

This week we will continue to practice our Turkey poem and focus on Concept of Word.  We will work on the letters n and p while reviewing all letters and their sounds.  We will also keep reading groups moving along.  In writing this week, we will focus on writing about things we are thankful.  We will also learn 3 new sight words.  Please practice these words at home.

go                in                it

We will learn about magnets this week and learn the words that are associated with magnets, like north and south pole, and not where Santa lives!  We will also learn about the first Thanksgiving.

In math, we will continue to work with numbers to 20.  We will also work on comparing numbers and distinguishing between more and less.  We will play games and make learning math fun this week!

We will have a guidance lesson this week with Mrs. Kopley.  If you haven’t returned your child’s report card signed, please do so as soon as possible. 

I’m looking forward to another great week in Kindergarten! 

Learning Lots,

Mrs. Beltz

Weekly Preview- Nov. 7

This week we will be learning a new poem called Turkey, Turkey!  We will use this poem to continue our focus of Concept of word and rhyming.  Due to the short week last week, we will continue with the same word study and the same letter, H.

We will finish learning about seasonal change and complete our book about Fall.  We will then begin to explore and learn about magnets.

We will finish learning about ordinal numbers and begin to learn our numbers to 20.  We will identify and write them this nine weeks.

A few reminders:

No school again tomorrow!
Report cards will be sent home this Thursday---if you have any questions about them please contact me.
If you signed up to send in an item for our feast and haven't sent it in yet, please try to send it in as soon as possible.
It gets very COLD in our classroom.  Please send your child with a light jacket they can wear in class and a coat to wear outside.  We will still be going outside for recess until it gets below 40 degrees.


If you are in need of ANYTHING this holiday season, PLEASE email me directly so I can help provide you and your family with what you need to make this a blessed one!

jbeltz@es.spotsylvania.k12.va.us

Loving Kindergarten,
Mrs. Beltz

Reading groups and Literacy Stations

Reading groups...yes I am wearing my Cinderella crown.  When I am wearing it the students know NO ASKING ME QUESTIONS!  They do an awesome job at reminding me to put it on!

A few Literacy stations....children @ work!

Making reading fun!