Halloween Celebration

Our eventful Halloween day: Halloween Parade, Ghost Tag, Halloween Celebration and costumes!

Congratulations Lennox

Lennox received our Lifelong Learning award today at our Blue Day Assembly. He was recognized for his outstanding teamwork.

We're so proud!

Newsletter: Week 9

Friday, October 23, 2009
Miss Wagenaar

Reminders/Notices:
• Laurelwood Literacy Night: Tuesday November 3rd 6:30-7:45pm – Check out this amazing event for FREE activities for all ages, story time, and a book exchange!
• Dining for Dollars at Armadillo Willy’s: Wednesday October 28th from 5-9pm – 20% of purchases help our school (take out is included)
• Halloween Parade: Children are invited to wear their Halloween costumes to school for our parade, which begins on the upper grade playground at 8:30. We will change out of our costumes directly following, so if your child is not independent with removing their costume, please plan on staying to assist them. (Parents are welcome to join and take pictures of this fun activity)
• Halloween Celebration: Room 4 will be celebrating after lunch time, with games, crafts and snacks. If you have not had a chance to sign up on Jooners, please do so or fill out the form sent home in Thursday folders. Thank you!
• Pajama Day: Monday November 2nd – students are invited to wear their PJs to school as we enjoy a day of resting, writing about Halloween, and learning about day and night

This Week:
• We learned about pumpkins: we labeled the parts of a pumpkin, cut it open, carved the pumpkin, and roasted the pumpkin seeds. We also began talking about the stages of pumpkin growth (seed, vine, flower, etc)
• We learned the sight word “the” and practiced the letter Tt.
• In Readers Workshop we learned that good readers connect the pages of the story by saying “and then” as they turn the page. We also discussed characters and identified them within our Look Books.
• In Writers Workshop we worked on labeling our pictures and rereading our stories and sharing our work with a partner.
• We did an introduction to patterns, and students explored linking cubes to create their own patterns.
• We baked Pumpkin Cranberry muffins and they were delicious.


Next Week:
 We will be discussing fire safety all week long and Laurelwood will be visited by a Fire Engine and firefighters who can answer questions and share more information.
 We will continue our study of patterns, and work on creating our own unique patterns.
 We will discuss spiders, from a scientific standpoint as well as determining the difference between fiction and non-fiction by comparing a variety of books on the topic of spiders.
Students will make puppets and use them to recite the short rhyme “Five Little Pumpk ins.”

Questions to ask your child
1.Make a pattern using household objects (ex. fork spoon fork spoon)
2.Ask your child if they liked the Pumpkin Cranberry muffins that we baked and tasted.
3.Give your child the opportunity to create a drawing at home and add labels to their illustration to help tell the story.

WatchDOG: Mr. Hackleman

Today Mr. Hackleman, Jesse's dad, participated in Laurelwood's WatchD.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) program. Along with visiting a handful of other classes, he spent over an hour in our room, reading with kids and joining them for an afternoon of choice. What a delight!!


(Any interested father can email the WatchDOGS coordinator - Dion LoRusso - dionolivia@comcast.net for more information)

Red Ribbon Week: Cap/Hat Day

Today, to celebrate Red Ribbon Week kids wore hats. "Put a Cap on Drugs"

Don't forget tomorrow is Inside Out Day.

Cooperative Musical Chairs

Today, with the rain, we decided not to do P.E.. So to get our bodies moving and get a little exercise we learned a new Healthy Play game: Cooperative Musical Chairs. This is very similar to the regular musical chairs, the difference is that if there is no chair to sit in, students may find a lap. By the end of the game, we were down to 6 chairs and 16 kids.. This image couldn't go without being captured.

Worms, heaven sakes!

Today we completed our final assessment for our Sorting Unit. Studnets were very successful, we will be moving onto numbers 1-5 and beginning patterns. In Writer's Workshop we learned how writers say words slowly, hearing the sounds and putting letters on the page. Finally, we met and observed our new science animal - Red Worms!

Happy Birthday Arnav!

We celebrated Christopher Columbus day by talking about explorers and the Earth. We looked at a map and the globe and talked about how water is represented by the color blue and the land is either brown or green. We made a craft project that the kids are very anxious to bring home. Arnav's mom came in to share The Jungle Book with our class.

Newsletter: Week 7

Friday, October 9, 2009
Miss Wagenaar
Reminders/Notices:
•Thank you to all parents who attended Goal Setting Conferences. I look forward to working with you and your students this year to reach the goals we have set. (copies of your conference forms will be sent home next week)
•Scholastic Book Orders are due by Friday, October 16, 2009.

This Week:
In Reader’s Workshop time, we looked at the cover of the book and used it to guess what the story may be about.
In Writer’s Workshop continued using our Sourcebook folder. Students worked on the routine of beginning a new writing when they feel they have completed one. We also wrote a story about a time we were sad, and shared those stories with a partner.
 We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom several times. We read a related pocket chart, added it to our Readers Notebook, watched the Scholastic DVD interpretation, and created an art project.
Students drew and labeled a snail and it’s part (foot, shell, eyes, antennae)
In Math, we practiced using logical thinking to solve questions related to sorting and which doesn’t belong.
In Penmanship, we focused on the letter Bb. The students rainbow traced the letter several times, practiced making the sound, and highlighted the letter Bb in their Bb Book.
In Computer Lab, students learned another game in Jumpstart Kindergarten and continue to practice the games that we’ve been previously introduced to.
Students checked out Library books for their very first time, these books will remain at school in their cubbies for several weeks before we begin bringing them home in Library Book Bags.

Next Week:
We will begin talking about pumpkins, focusing on their parts (in comparison to those that an apple contains).
In Reader’s Workshop, students will learn what good readers notice in a story, beginning with characters and setting.
In Writer’s Workshop, students will continue to focus on oral language and story telling. I will be asking students to tell a story about a time that they were mad.
In Math, we will be moving onto number sense activities, focusing on the numbers 1-5.
In Social Studies, we will talk about characters in stories and talking about the lessons that we can learn from them. One example we will be discussing is Goldilocks as we have been reading several versions of The Three Bears.

Questions to ask your child
1.Tell me about your field trip to full circle farm.
2.Ask you child to tell a story about a time that they were mad.
3.Ask your child to make the Bb sound for you (ask them to place their hand in front of their mouth, the should feel a puff of air)

Full Circle Farms Field Trip

Today we went on our first field trip to Full Circle Farms. What a day! Students saw beehives, a greenhouse, and walked through a large garden. They planted beet seeds and tasted tomatoes, beets, dinosaur kale and broccoli. Many students chose to feed and pet the chickens and learn about their eggs.


Thank you to all the parents who joined us on our field trip!! To read more about Full Circle Farm, visit their website http://www.fullcirclesunnyvale.org/

Happy Birthday Miyu!

Today we celebrated Miyu's birthday. She brought in delicious fruit cups for snack and brought in the book Amelia Bedelia that we read together.

Newsletter: Week 6

Friday, October 2, 2009
Miss Wagenaar
Reminders/Notices:
•Reminder: This upcoming week is Goal Setting Conferences. Please note that each day is early dismissal (1:20). Also, please be punctual for your conference time as most conferences are booked back-to-back and I want to respect everyone’s assigned time.
•Friday will be our first classroom field trip, a walking trip to Full Circle Farms. We need four parent chaperones to join us, and thus far I have only heard from two. I will send a follow-up email this week to ensure we have sufficient help. Also, please remember that the cost for the field trip is $7 per student.
•Picture day is on Tuesday. Please send your photo order envelope (which will be sent home on Monday) with your child on Tuesday if you chose to order a picture package.

This Week:
Our Blue Day award winner was Annette Kim. She has demonstrated our Lifeskill of “Respect” this month. During the assembly, we were recognized for being the Kindergarten class who walked the most laps at the Walk-A-Thon.
In Reader’s Workshop time, we continued practicing taking turns and holding the book with our partner.
In Writer’s Workshop we began using our Sourcebook folder, including our cover and two pockets (one for “All Done” work and another for work with which you are “Still Working”)
We read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Several times and completed an ordering activity as well as a page for our class book “Room 4, Room 4, What Do You See?”
We sorted, tasted, graphed, and labeled the parts of an apple. We also baked and tasted Apple Muffins – they were delicious.
We were introduced to our newest FOSS science animal, snails. Students had an opportunity to handle the snails and then we held a couple of snail races that the children drew afterwards.
In Math, we are concluded our unit focusing on sorting by sorting the same objects in different ways. Students have learned to sort by color, shape, size, and other noticeable attributes.

Next Week:
We will be having Hearing Screening on Tuesday, this routine screening happens in Kindergarten, 2nd and 5th grade
We will be talking about emotions and writing a story about a time that we were sad, in sunsequent weeks we will write about happy and scared stories as well.
We will conclude our unit of study about Snails, by comparing our land snails with aquatic snails.
We will be reading and completing literacy and art activities surrounding Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.


Questions to ask your child
1.Tell me the parts of an apple (stem, leaf, meat, skin, seeds)
2.Ask you child to tell a story about a time that they were sad.
3.Ask your child to sort household items.
4.What are the characters/animals in Brown Bear? (brown bear, red bird, yellow duck, blue horse, green frog, purple cat, black sheep, white dog)