Last week of school

Wow, this week is going way too fast. I am doing mornings and Mrs. Bartsch the afternoons. It's a fun way to do the last 4 days.
We are reading often, playing outside when we can and touring two of the first grade rooms.

The children have earned 400 compliments!!!!!! So tomorrow they will get an extended lunch recess. We will enjoy popsicles in the park to the south of the school as we share our favorite memories of Kindergarten. We will clean our chairs and tables and bring home our final Thursday folder for the year. The children do not need to bring them back and can enjoy the extra Reader Writer Notebook pages this summer.

Remember we will be dismissing at 11:45 on Friday. If we get ready early, we might be sitting under the tree in front of the school. I will make sure the bus students get on the bus!

Oh I am going to miss these boys and girls!
It's been an exciting, fun year! I am amazed at how much they have grown academically, socially, and physically!
Thank you for your support throughout the year!
Have a nice summer!
Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Friday afternoon

Hello, well, we only have one more short week. I can't believe it. I have to say that in the short time I have been here, I have come to love your children so much. We had so much fun today. In science we talked about Giant Clams and Queen Scallops. We also talked about how people do not live in the ocean, but that they only visit, and why they might visit. Our experiment today was about sinking and floating. They each got to choose an object in the class to test if it would sink or float. We talked about how in science we predict what it will do, and we are either right or not; but, it does not matter if you are wrong, but that, it is how you learn in science. We continue to learn addition and subtraction in math. They are really getting good at it!!!

Have a very wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!! Sincerely Mrs. Bartsch

Thursday

We had a great day today. We all felt very thankful for the sun. Today we practiced spelling short /e/ words such as set, bed and step. Other words we practiced spelling are hat, bit, got, sad and sod. We also read the story "A Big Dent" and looked for this weeks high frequency words look, that, is, a, what, the, and blue. The special word we focussed on was truck.

We also talked and read about sponges in the ocean. We did an experiment to find out how waves are formed. Ask your child. Have a great night. Sincerely, Mrs. Bartsch

Thursday

Tuesday May 24th

Today is Sophia's birthday but we had to postpone her celebration with the class until tomorrow because she was sick. We still made her birthday cards and many of the children made Get Well cards for her at center time! I am not sure if we'll have time for Second Step tomorrow as we want to do Sophia's poster and write sentences about her and have birthday treats!

We had a wonderful informational book about how beavers build their homes. We talked about their teeth, their tail and their webbed feet. It even had a glossary in the back with new word definitions and a search and find game that we hope we'll have time to play toward the end of the week. It's amazing to see how the game lends itself to good study skills later in their school years.

We are having fun making up Math stories, but the children are having trouble switching from adding to subtracting story problems. So challenge your child to tell you a story that turns into a subtraction problem like: At the store I saw 7 lollipops. Emma bought 3 of them so there were only 4 left! 7 take away 3 is 4 or 7 - 3 = 4

Tomorrow is library but we have all of our books turned in !!!!
Way to go boys and girls and parents!
Have a nice evening!
Sincerely,
Carol Clapper

SUN IS FUN!

We were so excited to be able to have Field day this afternoon. We did experience a little rain at the 3rd station, the sack races. But the students just kept on jumping and enjoying the many activities that Mrs. Edgmond set up!

We started our Building with Beavers unit and practiced our lower case "e"s with the proper handwriting technique o starting in the middle going across, up and then around. Many of the children were making a backwards c and then the line This will slow them down when they start writing longer stories! The week is a review of the vowels "a.e. and i". One of the things we were doing was rhyming things with the word 'it'. After quite a few one child started to put the sh sound at the beginning and quickly decided not to say it. Others realized that a 'bad word' could be made. One student said "only bad guys say that word" . We talked about how it is inappropriate to use that word and that something regular people say it when they are hurt or shocked. We even talked about the animal in last week's story that hit his hoof with a hammer and screamed 'OUCH" and how somebody else might have said the "sh" word. Just wanted you to know how it happened so you'd know what happened!

Tomorrow, I will be leaving a little before lunch to attend a funeral, and Mrs. Bartsch has offered to come in. On Friday I will return the favor when she gets to go to an honors program for one of her sons! This is another benefit of job sharing. I am so thankful for Mrs. Bartsch and her joyful attitude about coming in and helping us finish our year. Our hall is filled with bright colorful fish, she had the energy to do with the children. Many teachers could not believe we were doing a big painting project this close to the end of the year!

That's about all for tonight. I've been entering numbers and letters into the report card program. It is amazing how much we have learned since August and unbelievable how fast the year has flown by!

Have a nice evening!
Sincerely, Carol Clapper

Fish, Fish, Fish

Dear parents, I was not here yesterday because my mom had surgery. It was a minor surgery, but she had a small complication that my sister and I needed to help monitor. She is better now; but I missed being with the class. In the last two days the substitute and I have middle phonics sound a and i, and beginning sounds. We reviewed the story Old MacDonald had a Woodshop, and discussed plot and characters, and vocabulary from the story. In math we worked on regrouping and subtraction. In science we discussed whales and the fish they eat in the sea. Today we made awesome pillow fish. This was a big day of art. It was a fun thing we did because we missed the farm. The class had to cooperate A LOT!!! I was so proud of them. They had to cut out their fish, then stuff their fish, and then paint and glitter their fish. We did this in stages. This takes a lot of concentration. I was so proud of them for being good listeners, working kindly together, having self-control, and being so creative with their fish. Have a Great weekend. Sincerely Mrs. BArtsch

Tuesday Tool Day!

We had so much fun reading Old MacDonald Had a Toolshop that it helped the children take the disappointing news of a cancelled Farm Trip much better than I expected. Then as it started drying out today, I am questioning our decision to cancel but I always second guess things like that.

We talked about a variety of tools, both that a carpenter would use and the tools we use at school. The children enjoyed the online song called 'If I were a builder" to the tune of "If I had a hammer". We used Mrs. Hansen's computer and found all sorts of fun songs and activities to do related to our reading series. Later the children drew what they would make if they were building something. I saved them to assess how much they label and write about their pictures, but you will get them home by the end of the year.

I better close now, but please check backpacks tomorrow. As we are sending home Thursday folders on Wednesday so that everyone gets the news about not going on the field trip in three ways - email - Blog - and written as a reminder on the newletter that comes home in the folder. (4 if your child told you about it)

Have a good rest of the week!
Sincerely, Carol Clapper

Monday, May 16th

As the children left today, I asked them to remember something they liked about our learning day. Here were some of their answers:

"The Mystery of the Missing Meatballs" a wonderful math story that began our new unit called Understanding Subtraction! We will be working with terms like separating, taking away, comparing, and finding the difference.

Centers - always a favorite, especially the new ocean center Mrs Bartsch started last week!

Having our volunteer, Mrs. Jockers take children one at a time to the hall to count, talk about more and less, name shapes, 3-D shapes, and coins! She had been on a trip and it was fun to have her back for the last few weeks! As we came in from recess, Mr. Croff walked by her and Mrs. Jockers called him "Kevin" because she knew him when he was a little boy. One student said "That's not his name, it's Mr Croff! Mrs. Jockers felt like she had done something wrong calling him "Kevin" but he explained that she could because she was an adult. So the students learned that it shows respect to call adults by Mr. and Mrs. and when they get older to use first names.

We also had a fun song called "The Fix-It Shop" where we found three words that rhyme and got to clap when we heard them 5 times in the song!

:( :( :( :( :( :( - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - :( :( :( :( :( :(


The sad news is it is really looking like rain the rest of the week. We will either be postponing or cancelling the Farm Trip. I left a message with the Farmer to see if next Tuesday or Wednesday would work for them. Either way, the children who said they are bringing lunches need to bring them this Thursday because the order is already in and the school will be receiving less lunches that are on the menu and sack lunches for those who ordered them. We will probably make it a fun lunchtime in the room or some other place in school if it really is raining the whole day! Keep checking the blog and the backpacks for a notice of the final plans. Weather is always a factor in these kinds of field trips and children need to learn to deal with disappointments as well as enjoying different environments when we can!

In PE today Mrs. Edgmond went over some of the games that will be at field trip and the behavior expectations as well as introducing the huge parachute that will be outside next Monday afternoon! Hopefully the weather next week will be wonderful, warm and summer-like!

That's about all for now, except to ask you to please remember to donate a snack if you can!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Clapper

Friday

Dear Parents,

First of all I would like to apologize for not blogging. I tried yesterday and it was not working. So I am sorry, but here we go...

*These last few days we have been working with short vowel words, reading a story called "Building with Dad", and practicing our High Frequency word which are: a, are, for, have, look, the, they, to, and you.
*In math we have been working on addition. We have transitioned from saying 2 and 3 is 5 to 2+3=5. The class is doing a great job!
*In science as you know we have started an Ocean unit. We have discussed different animals in the ocean, the top and bottom of the ocean, and how fish swim in a school to protect themselves from larger preditors. We read Swimmy today by Leo Leonni. The class made a mural of swimmy and the other fish swimming together in a school of fish to protect themselves from the large preditors of the ocean.
I hope you have a great weekend the class had a great day today. Thanks!! Mrs. Bartsch

Rain Rain Go Away, Come again another day!

We want recess! The children are ready for some outside exercise and sunshine. Yet, they are making the best of our 6 hour indoor days and we are learning and having fun together despite not being able to have recess. One of the ways we played and reinforced some reading skills was to play a modified version of Duck Duck Goose instead of afternoon recess. Have your child explain how we included the short vowels in the game!

Tomorrow is the LAST day to check out a Library book. PLEASE HELP YOUR CHILD REMEMBER TO BRING IT TO SCHOOL.
Mrs. Treglown will still meet with them, read stories to them and make a fun year-end project in the final three Library times we have left this school year.

One last plea to have everyone turn in their lunch slips for both the Spring BBQ and the Farm Field trip by this Friday!
Thanks,
Have a Wonderful Wednesday!
Mrs. Clapper

Rainy School Day

We enjoyed a fun rainy day at school. We had PE in the morning and went out for a little bit after lunch and for afternoon recess. We had so much fun starting our new unit in reading called "Putting IT Together" and did some short vowel review. We will make a graph of the short vowel show and tells this week.

We are working on all sorts of adding problems and tomorrow well vary it a little adding pennies rather than butterflies in today's lesson! We are going through the addition chapter pretty fast, but the children seem to understand putting together, joining groups, adding and even using the plus sign to say 2 plus 4 equals 6. Many of them even caught a mistake Mrs. Clapper made today. No one laughed at me, but they very courteously pointed out my error!

We enjoyed celebrating Emma's birthday with ice cream sandwiches for treats this afternoon!

We also got into our new purple Skills Buddy books this afternoon so that tomorrow morning, we can do a birthday cake card for Ella tomorrow morning. Ella's grandmother made treats for Ella to share with the class!

Thank you for the two response forms I already received regarding the Farm lunch either being ordered or brought from home. I only need 17 more to make sure everyone is accounted for! I sure hope we get all this rain out of the way before next week. It would be too difficult to take 100 students to a muddy, wet farmyard. We will keep you posted. If we get rained out, we will still do the sack lunches and home lunches and have a fun picnic in the room during lunch time! It won't be the same as going to the farm, but we'll make the best of plans that get changed.

A new notice was added to your child's mailbox today regarding the Spring BBQ, so if you are planning to attend please return the blue form also!

Have a nice evening. I love to read when it's raining and we have a fun story called Building with Dad tomorrow.
Sincerely, Carol Clapper

Tuesday May 3rd

Another good day of busy activities in Kindergarten. We read from our Skills buddies, worked on a Mother's Day gift, and read three and a half stories. We did 4 pages in our Reader Writer notebook, including a couple pages where we discussed a variety of sources that we can get information when we need it. We are working on capitalizing the first letter of every sentence and remembering to do our best everytime we write! We talked about how Mouse managed his anger and learned some of a volcano song.
Since this is a 4 day week, Mrs. Bartsch will do a full day on Wednesday and Thursday. We will all have Friday off!
I wish each student's mother a very happy Mother's Day. If you get something in the mail before Mother's Day please save it to open with your child. Look for a note in Thursday's folder that has a lunch order form for the Field trip. It is due earlier than was originally posted on the May calendar.
I really enjoyed watching some of our students encourage others today to be the best they can be! The power of positive peer influence is amazing! That's another reason I love teaching Kindergarten!
Sincerely, Carol Clapper

Monday Madness

Today went so fast, I felt like I rushed to get everything in and didn't even get to our little decodable reader "Run Tim" So I sent it home at the last minute unread. It would be a good thing for many of you to have your child read to you!

We did get to our first book of the Anger Management section of 2nd Step called "When I Feel Angry" And tomorrow we will try to fit in Mouse Was Mad! We hope the steps we learn to calm down and make good choices show up at home as the children use what they learn in school.

We will also have the story called "This is the Way We Go To School" My favorite way to teach is through reading wonderful stories to children of this age, so it will be a good day for sure!

We worked on Mother's Day gifts and moved to new places to sit for the month of May!

I expect lots of yellow for show and tells this week, and we will put yellow paint in the art center!
I love Kindergarten!

Have a great evening!
Mrs. Clapper

Friday

Today was a fun day with our visiting Button Quail. The class had time to sit and watch them at centers. The eggs they hatched from are as small as your thumb nail, and the birds are an inch to an inch and half small, as little baby birds. They peep all day long. It is amazing what we learn by observation. They got to see how they drink, the different colors and patterns of feathers they have, and many other things. Ask your child about them. They got to sit and observe as a center rotation.

We wrote; "I like learning about ___________ most because ___________. They chose from butterflies, frogs, chicks, or Button Quail. We discussed how chicks and Button Quail are different. Another Kindergarten class hatched chicks a week ago. They were able to compare them.

We continued to learn about Vv and Zz sounds today; and we practiced writing High Frequency words. Where and Come were the High Frequency words for this week.

Mothers Day is coming, and we were talking about how special moms are to us. We began making our gifts today; shh, don't let us tell you. Sincerely, Deena Bartsch

Thursday

Thursday- Today was a great day! The class is adjusting very well, and I am also adjusting well. I am enjoying you children so much! Today we read a big book called "On The Move". It is about different kinds of transportation. We talked a little about where some of the kids have gone and how they got there.
I am amazed at how well they are writing words by decoding the sounds they make. We wrote zig, zag, vest, jazz and fizz.
We are having visitors tomorrow. I am bringing in baby Button Quail that my husband and I hatched. They hatched on Easter. We have been talking about the life cycles of butterflies, frogs, and now birds. Sincerely, Deena Bartsch

Late Wednesday

We apologize for not getting on here yet this week. I did try once on Tuesday and got a strange message about malware so I shut it down quickly and wrote to Mrs. Hansen. She couldn't find anything wrong and it looks like it's working well tonight.
So I'll start a short description of the start of our week. I only get 1/2 of a day with them this week as I went on a short trip with my parents.
Tuesday morning we started the unit on transportation around the world and practiced everything we could about the letters V and Z. One of the things we are talking about is our zipcode. Please help your child learn his/her address and zipcode. Since it's "z: week we are trying to use the word 'zero' instead of the letter '0' when we talk about number 0. Our friend, Zero the Hero, holds the place when there aren't any straws in our days we have been at school calendar.
The Big Book "On the Move" was bright, colorful and informative. We also heard amazing things about our star student, Orion including that he was named after a constellation! In Math we are working on the concept of one fewer and two fewer. You probably saw a worksheet with more than on one side and fewer than on the other. Playing number game with your child will reinforce these two valuable concepts.
Tuesday afternoon there was also an assembly on an upcoming blood drive. We are hosting a United Services Blood Drive next Tuesday afternoon from 2-6pm. Our school attended a brief assembly about this, please ask your child to share what they learned and look for postcards to be coming home if you wish to donate blood. The school that gets the most donations earns $500.00 for the school!
Mrs. Bartsch and I are getting things ready for Mother's Day and our visit to the Farm in May. A new calendar and lunch menu will come home tomorrow, so check those Thursday folders! Mrs. Bartsch has an exciting surprise in Science for Friday, so be sure to ask your child what was new in school that day!
I haven't had time to teach Mrs. Bartsch about this blog, but hope to soon. Have a nice end of April, I hear we are going to get those April Showers that I hope bring lots of May flowers!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

WOW What a fast Early Out Day!

We fit so much into our short 3 1/2 hours together and ended the day with a fast 3 laps around the school as part of the week of fundraising for Juvenile Diabetes and March of Dimes. Today we started the day with a fun Easter story, and then learned about Interrupting Politely in a Second Step lesson. Then we had a long recess and let our butterflies go. It was cool enough that they hung around on our hands and each child that wanted to hold one got to. The students were very quiet and calm and enjoyed a close up look at our butterflies before we set them free.

When we came in from recess, we had treats for earning the 300 compliments, and had a surprise visit from Eli's guinea pig because his Mom had brought it to his older brother's class. We took a quick peek and then headed to Library. Mrs. Bartsch met with me during library, so she went to pick them up and bring them back to the room! She is such a cheerful teacher, we love having her! Then it was time to get our backpacks, coats and our plants to take home. Many of the bean seeds did not grow. I apologize if it was because we had two different bags of soil and the last ones planted seem to do better than the first ones.

The final things we did was to Drop everything to Walk around the school. It was a very fast pace because the whole school participated. We were very glad Mrs. Treglown our librarian was walking so that she could take the front of our class and I could try to corral them all together. I was glad each child said "Happy Easter" to Mrs. Clapper so I knew that they got to their ride home! Whew! Now I need to head to Teacher meetings and then to the airport to get my daughter and granddaughter!

Next week we will have both Vv and Zz for Show and Tells. Tuesday students told me they would try hard to remember their two things of come up with something to say about V and Z words!
Have a nice vacation!
Sincerely, Carol Clapper

300 Compliment Day

We did it! We got to 300 compliments today. So we got to watch the Butterfly Magic School Bus video AND have centers too!
Tomorrow I will bring cake and milk to finish the celebration!

We did a fun math sheet to practice our numbers and I see less and less reversals everytime we write the numbers. 21 and 12 still cause a little problem but we are improving!

Q show and tell was AWESOME! We sat around a quilt and had such creative ideas. I can't even just pick one or two to tell you about. Have your child tell you about some of his/her favorites.

Tomorrow is Library Day and Early out Day! We are also walking for our theme fundraising day at 11:40. Come join us if you want. We will have our backpacks loaded and after walking around at least once with your child you can take them whenever you want. I will make sure bus students and day care get to their appropriate places at the right time!

We read one of my favorite Little Golden Books called the Egg Book. See if your child knows how the bunny and the duckling became friends!

Have a nice evening!
Sincerely, Carol Clapper

1st of 2 Earth Day Celebrations

Today we wore green and did some of the Earth Day activities. I just got an email that the PTA has picked April 29th as a school wide day to CELEBRATE EARTH DAY. We will have planting, sprucing up our school grounds and collecting gently used, clean towels and blankets for the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter. So we will do recycle, reduce, reuse lessons both days as well as talk about how we can take care of this wonderful world we live in.

We received a letter from a Kindergarten class of 15 students in Newport, Washington. They wrote to 100 schools on their 100th day of school. They are hoping to receive 100 responses. As it turns out one of the pages we did not get to last week in our Reader/Writer notebook was a form to teach general letter composition. It had the children fill out a short letter to a family member or friend. So I had the student's write what they would put in a letter to Cherenne and then we combined our ideas into out long group letter that I typed out on the computer! We will mail it from school tomorrow!

Please help your child remember that Tuesday is Qq day and EVERYONE can bring a show and tell that starts with the letter 'q'. It helps if they bring it in a bag or envelope as many of them like to keep it a secret until it's their turn to share. We are going to gather around my huge college quilt and share our items one at a time. Also, tomorrow, we are also talking more about the quarter and how much it is worth and what other coins equal 25 cents! If we have time I hope to do some more spring reading especially one of my favorites called 'The Egg Book" It's a short week and I always try to plan too much!

All five butterflies are out and if it is warmer tomorrow we will let them go. We have earned 299 compliments. When we get one more I will bring a compliment cake and we will celebrate and watch the "Butterflies" movie of the Magic School Bus series.

Thanks for reading all this to keep up to date on what we are learning in Kindergarten at Meadowlark!
Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

WEAR GREEN on MONDAY

A quick note:

Tomorrow is Earth Day so please wear Green!

April 14th very early in the morning

I was so focused on the Thursday note home that I forgot to tell you about Wednesday's wonderful news!
The day started adding decorations and sentences to our duck's under the umbrella's so that they could decorate the halls.
It is exciting to see how some of them are labeling their picture and even adding full sentences to their artwork.

In Second Step, we tried to sing Row Row Row your boat as a round and discovered how hard it is to pay attention to one group and ignore the other group. This was a great introduction to a story about ignoring distractions and paying attention. After school, Mrs. Bartsch brought in a beautiful Big Book on Butterflies so in the next couple of days, the children will be reviewing the life cycle in many ways!

Yesterday afternoon, we had 2 very special visitors. Mrs. Hansen stopped into see us before they made one last trip to the storage shed. She came after the last recess, and for show and tell brought her daughter Zoe who is a lot of fun! The children had fun showing her the butterflies, too! As we said good-bye again some of us got teary eyed, but we are grateful for the time she could be with us.

Yesterday, one of our students realized she could read! It was such a special "ah-ha" moment for her anda treasured teacher moment for me! We work so hard to put together the skills it takes to read and we have students at many levels of awareness of print, that to actually watch her eyes light up and share her proud moment, made me so thankful to be a Kindergarten teacher!
Sincerely,
Carol Clapper

I am working to get Mrs. Bartsch's email set up to enter on the Blog, and learn how Mrs. Hansen added things like the newsletter. So bear with us as we make this change, and thanks for reading our Blog!

Unusual weather for our Umbrella Walk

Well, we were pretty excited for Umbrella Day and took our walk in the morning even though it wasn't raining and it wasn't sunny either. We made a giant "U" by sitting under our umbrellas the front entrance after we gathered under the flag pole. Many of the children wanted to tell about their umbrellas so we had our snack of left over carnival popcorn outside in a big circle and visited about the various umbrellas. It turned out to be sunny in the afternoon, so some of the children walked in the shade of their umbrella during the last recess. We also made ducks under umbrella's with a mom helper!

We had the fun story of "The Little Engine that Could" and transferred that good lesson to always giving it a go and doing our best even when we think something might be too hard. The duck and umbrella art took quite a bit of cutting. We used to do more art and worked on the cutting skills, so I knew some of the children might be frustrated with the cutting. So we talked about having a "I think I can" attitude! Tomorrow I have a different version of the same story that has a different illustrator. We will compare and contrast the stories as well as reemphasize this good lesson!

It's been fun to do Show and Tell with prewritten sentences! They are more interesting and we even got some that were verbs rather than something to show! We continue to work on the word 'said' and the quotation marks or 'talking lips'!

I look forward to being with the children all day Wednesday so Mrs. Bartsch can to go a special luncheon with her son that was planned before she took this teaching position.

Have a nice evening!
And please help your child remember his/her LIBRARY book.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Clapper

Great Start to our Week

We came in this morning and found a butterfly in the chrysallis jar. So we moved to a bigger cylinder net garden. The children an excited for the next 4 to come out! We could use a flower or two for our butterfly to get some nectar from. Hopefully the tulips will be coming out real soon!

Then before P.E. we got to go to to Mrs. Gibson's room and see eggs cracking in the incubator and 2 chicks in another container with food and water. One is yellow and the other multicolored. I will try to add a picture if I can!

In Math we worked on the different ways to make 8 and then 9. Later in the week we will have a fun graph to color in with the ways to make 10. Things are so busy this month, we haven't even filled in our blank April calendars, yet. We are also individually assessing the children with a new online tool. I am impressed with the results so far. Many children are counting by 5's to count the tally question, and some really understand adding numbers like 6 and4 and 2+1. Some are missing the subtraction or take away problems, but we haven't gotten to that part of the Math series, so I expect it to really improve by the end of the year!

Remember, tomorrow is Umbrella day and there is a 40% chance of rain!!! We will walk outside: rain or shine and enjoy some fun activities with our umbrellas.

Middle 'u' Show and Tell's need to write a sentence or two about what they are bringing. If you lost the purple paper, any paper will do!

Have a nice evening!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Clapper

Thursday

Surprise! Mrs. Clapper was the teacher in Room 7 today. Mrs. Bartsch's son was sick so I was the guest teacher for the day! It was a fun day full of lots of learning! We made the cover for our book of comments of when we said good bye to Mrs. Hansen. The children are at many varied reading levels. Each child should be able to read the first sentence in the book as well as the sentence they actually authored. Some students can read the whole book, and others need help on just a few of the tricky or extra long words! I used it as a learning tool to reinforce the word "said" and each child now gets to keep a highlighter in their school box as long as they only use it when the teacher says its OK!

We also planted some more seeds because only about 5 of our bean seeds actually sprouted. Hopefully we will see some results before our 5 day vacation at the end of the month.

Tomorrow is Music and Mrs. Bartsch will help us guess our new star student. Emma gets to take her poster and sentences that we wrote about her home!

Have fun at the Carnival and the next time I write on the BLOG it will be next Monday. I will have a computer with me and be connected most of the time. So email me if you have any questions.

One last thing, when I put together the Thursday newsletter and forgot to email the parents who like to be 'green' and just get it through email. So read those Thursday folders carefully this week and I will do try to do the electronic newletter to the parents that prefer it that way next week.

Have a great weekend! Mrs. Clapper

Wednesday

What a wonderful but hectic day! In the morning we started a math project that Mrs. Hansen had planned but didn't have time for. It was amazing, fun and took most of our morning! We started by making a pattern on a colored sheet of paper. The children could make their own design as long as it was a pattern that extended from top to bottom. Then we folded the paper and tore out a shape. This showed symmetry across the fold. So we titled our papers Patterns and Symmetry and glued our creation on another sheet and then wrote about it. The children transformed their shapes into caterpillars, worms, space ships, dinosaurs, stars and many other imaginative things. Instead of sending them home, we put them up in the hall. Mrs. Hansen hopes to be back next Wed. afternoon to bring her daughter Zoe to meet the children and she will enjoy seeing our math project in the hall.

Tomorrow right after school a PTA mom is going to wrap our Just4Mom basket for the carnival raffle. If you still have items to donate, Thursday is the last day to get it to school.

It has been brought to my attention that some of the girls are bringing toys to school and trading. The rule is only Show and Tells may come to school and even those are not shared at center time or used to distract from learning in any way. We will talk to the children about keeping their toys at home and especially NOT to sneak toys out of their house and give them away to friends at school.

Mrs. Bartsch had an great afternoon with the class and felt like it went well for their first time together! She is a cheerful, loving teacher and we are excited to have her. She did write a note that will come home in the Thursday folders to introduce herself to you. Her district email is in the process of getting set up, so send any correspondence you may have to my email and I will make sure she gets the information. As soon as we have one, we will continue to do as before and ask that you send emails to both of us and we will cc our reply to the other one too. It helps to be on the same page! Also in the folders are some carnival tickets for your child to use Friday night. I wish I could be there, but knowing they are having fun is the next best thing.

Have a great rest of the week! It's wonderful to be at Meadowlark!

Sincerely , Mrs. Clapper

Tuesday, April 5th

When we started the day, I was kicking myself for not making today "Umbrella Day"! Being the start of U week AND having it rain would have been a great learning experience, but I was afraid too many people would forget with the 3 day weekend. So we will hope for rain NEXT Tuesday on "UMBRELLA DAY as we continue to study 'u' sound in words. This week Show and Tell is with the 'u' sound in the beginning of the word. Next week it will be in the middle. I will be sending home a colorful blank paper in Thursday folders and I would like them to write a sentence about their Show and Tell, such as Macey has a little bus.

And the following week, even though I said NO show and tell with the short week, I think we are going to make Tuesday April 19th "Qq" day and everyone can bring something that starts with "Qq". Each time we talk about 'q' in class, we are going to say "Never write a q without a u! even though there are not too many times they will be writing words that start with "qu".

Mr. Croff is really wanting us all to focus on our respect and manners. It seems like there has been an outbreak of misbehavior and we want to nip it in the bud and focus on the positive. This week the manner is Expect the Best from Yourself. We will be talking about this one each time they are behaving and misbehaving to help them see that this is not just abot academic behavior but also being the best person you can be all around!

Tomorrow is Mrs. Bartsch's first afternoon with the children. She is working on a letter that introduces herself to you. It will be in the Thursday folders, unless she sends it home tomorrow. it's always a good thing to check your child's backpack every day. Today they brought home last week's Reader Writer Notebook pages as well as their March art. Have them read about when they feel lucky to you!

One last thing; I am not going to be in town for the carnival on Friday. To lend my support, I bought some tickets and will give each child 4 tickets in their Thursday Folders. I hope you can come enjoy this wonderful family fun night that benefits our school in many ways.

Have a nice evening,

Mrs. Clapper

My Last Day

What a precious day it was today to spend with my class. I have LOVED teaching them this year and am very sad that I will miss the last quarter. I am so excited though for Mrs. Bartsch, she is a wonderful person and a great teacher! Thank you so much for all the love and support you show your child! This has been a great year!!

~Mrs. Abigail Hansen

Wednesday

Today went fast, as all Early Out days, but we fit a lot in. Mr. Croff brought a guest in to our room to meet our class. Her name is Mrs. Bartsch and she will be teaching on Mrs. Hansen's days for the rest of the year. We were excited to meet her and see how nice she is. We are hoping to include a letter from her introducing herself to you in the Thursday folder. Also in the folder will be April's calendar.

Thanks for those of you who came to the conferences Wednesday. So far we have 100% attending and love our time to visit with each of you!

As we end the week, we will be saying good-bye to Mrs. Hansen and sending her off with some special handmade gifts to remember us and our time together.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Clapper

Terrific Tuesday

This will be the shortest post yet. We had a GREAT day, but I can't really tell you what we worked on because I am sure Mrs. Hansen reads this blog! So ask your kids what they did!

Conferences start tomorrow and the rest of this week is Early Out. We aim to get them out by 11:50 so the parents that need to go pick up other students can, but as you know we sometimes run a little late. Although it is getting easier now without all those winter clothes! We will be out by noon for sure so that the teachers can get a bite to eat before the first conferences at 12:30.

We still get Library tomorrow so remember those books, please!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Monday of X week

Today was an excellent day for learning! We enjoyed finding x at the beginning of X-ray and xylophone (although we laughed that it was copying a 'z'). We found it in the middle of Jaxton, and at the end of ox, box, and fox as well as ax and Max and six!!!

One of our caterpillars is already in it's chrysalis so we read the story by Deborah Heiligman called "From a Caterpillar to Butterfly". It was exciting to find out that the caterpillar in the book turned into a "Painted lady butterfly" just like ours will be!

We watered our plants and 3 of them have already popped out of the dirt! It was really exciting to come back after the weekend to changes in both plants and animals of our room!

Tomorrow we have a story about a rescue at sea called "Mayday, Mayday". Kaleigh's Mom is coming in to help us make a going away gift for Mrs. Hansen. Friday is coming all too soon!

I am working on the April calendar and was surprised to see that the children do not have school on Monday, April 4th. The teachers have meetings but school is not in session. We will still go ahead with the full Reading and writing for that week since most of the boys and girls are really completing their worksheets independently. I am so proud of their progress.

Report cards come home tomorrow and then we look forward to conferences Wednesday - Friday afternoon. The time and day is listed on the left side of their report cards.

That's all for now!

Have a nice evening!

Mrs. Clapper

Busy Thursday

Hello! What a busy day we had! Hopefully you got the school carnival sheet that went home yesterday. Today there was a PTA sheet that went home along with the schedule for next week. Here are some of the things we did today:

Class picture! :-) 

Math- discussed symmetry and how to know if a shape is symmetric. 

Reading- Reread Max takes the Train and we went over quick spelling our high frequency words, phonics with a review of /e/. 

Science- planted our bean sprouts! Thank you Mrs. Bergum for popping in and helping! 

Writer's workshop- The students wrote today about the luckiest day they ever had. They did well. :-) When they finished they were able to get on to the computer and do some reading practice. 

Of course the class got centers today and while they were there I worked with the students one on one . They enjoy that little time to read/ show me what they know. 

Have a great evening! Remember that book orders are due tomorrow! :-) 

Great Wednesday

Here is a quick update on the day:

Reading- Mrs. Clapper continued to focus on the "J" and "W" words today in Reading Street. Mrs. Hansen did some testing today on where the students are with rhyming, segmenting words and reading.

Math- We are working on symmetry, big word, we will be doing even more with it tomorrow as it can be a hard one to remember.

Science- we are getting ready to plant our beans tomorrow, we reviewed what a living thing was and took a look at some plants below and above ground and compared and contrasted them.

Library! Don't forget to have your child bring their Library book back every Wednesday!

It was a great day! :-)

Wet and snowy but a Tremendous Tuesday!

These students are terrific! Today, even with the really odd weather, they stayed focused on our school work. They only got to enjoy one outside recess at lunchtime but had fun with the Gingerbread Man song and a math game. I missed them so much on Monday and got such a great report from our guest teacher. Mrs. Hanel said they did such a good job for her and waited a long time for a special concert on Monday. The Castlerock choir came to Meadowlark and were a little rowdy during their set up when our class was already in the Commons. But once they got singing, the children loved their Rock-n-roll songs that lasted right up to dismissal time!

Today we talked about all sorts of TRANSPORTATION and read a fun book about Max traveling to get a double chocolate ice cream Whamburger with coconut curls and red sprinkles. It was fun to follow the signs as he took a bus, a train, a ferryboat, an airplane and a subway to get there and his sister came to pick him up on a bicycle with a sidecar!

In math we are sliding, flipping and turning shapes for the geometry part of this unit. By the end of the week we will be learning about symmetry!

We are finishing up on report cards, so look for them a week from today. I am so glad that Mrs. Hansen can be here for our Parent Teacher conferences. We are certainly going to miss her joyful ways of teaching the children but we know it's best for her family that she move to Great Falls!

Tomorrow is Library day and Thursday is picture day. I plan to come in so that I can be in the group picture. It's such a nice group of children!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

p.s. Show and Tell can be TWO items this week, one with J and one with W. One boy brought Woody and didn't remember a 'j' show and tell, but we figured out that Woody wears jeans!!!

Quick Recap!~

What a day! The students came in SO excited for the day, they could hardly keep it together. I had to remind the class many times that they needed to be on task, even when SUPER excited. Hopefully tomorrow will go even better. :-) (I think the excitement from St. Patrick's Day was just too much. ) :-)

Math- worked on shapes. we talked about rectangles and squares and how a square can be a rectangle, but a rectangle cannot be a square.

Reading- we reread Abuela and went over and reviewed "e" in the middle of words, the "g" sound as well as some blends.

We did a lot of fun things for St. Patrick's Day. The kids colored and read a book, which they brought home, completed a rainbow with a review of sight words on the back and had a special treat of lucky charms. :-)

Have a great evening! Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Two hundred Fifty compliment Tuesday!

We had such a perfect Kindergarten day today. Even when we ran out of time for centers at the end of the day, no one complained! We love the spring weather getting to go outside EVERY recess and even taking our coats off this afternoon!

We really enjoyed 'Abuela" even though Mrs. Clapper stumbled over quite a few of the Spanish words. They do have a glossary in the back and the boys and girls were very patient while I flipped back and forth to at least get the syllable right! I am hoping Mrs. Hansen can get more of the words pronounced correctly in the 2nd visit to the story. We learned that many of our words are Spanish words, like patio, rodeo, banana, and mango.

We reread our thank you notes to Kanalu's father and are going to make patriotic pictures to go in our thank you book!

We got to see our seeds sprout by taking them out of the paper towel and repositioning them on the outside of the towel, but still inside the bags so we can watch them without opening them.

I am going to work on conference slips tonight and you will get a bright green half sheet that tells when we get to meet with you at the end of this month! The children have all grown in their reading and math skills so we look forward to sharing their progress with you!

Monday I am traveling back from St. Paul, MN so Mrs. Hanel will be our guest teacher. Kindergarten is her favorite grade level and I am sure the children will love her! I will let Mrs. Hansen do the Thursday letter this week, but want to introduce the reading part:

We are starting a new Reading Unit called GOING PLACES.

We'll be discussing different ways people & things get from here to there.

The letters of the week will be Jj and W.

Show and tell gets to be two items; one starting with J and one with W!

I hope everyone who reads this, tells their child that they love hearing how well we worked together to learn today! We read, we wrote, we played with solid shapes and learned to call them spheres, cylinders, cubes and cones in Math, and enjoyed our friends at centers and recess. Life is good at Meadowlark, in Room 7!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Monday March 14th

Hi Everyone,

As I typed March 14th I realized this has to be a quick note, as it's my husband's birthday and I want to wrap a present before dinner. So here's our day:

We started our new unit and are going to adventure into a BIG city tomorrow.

We had fun in P.E. and everyone had their tennis shoes!! YEAH!

Our bean seeds started to sprout! We looked closely at one and will get a better look tomorrow at more of them.

The best thing we did today was to write a thank you note to Capt. Wong, Kanalu's Dad. Each child wrote a page and I will put them together in a book. I put a little school picture by each of their names. I realized we did not have a class picture when Kanalu was here, so I thought both he and his parents would like to see his MT school friends! We will not send this as a traveling book because it needs to get to Texas soon. He is about to come back to our country!

Have a nice evening. I will get the conference slips ready to go home this Thursday that reminds you of the time and day of your conference!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Blustery Friday!

Here is a quick look at what we did today:

It was SPIRIT DAY! The kids could sport their black and gold. :-)

Math- We finished up chapter 7 with the chapter 7 test.

Science- Living things, we planted our beans today and recorded our observations in our journals.

Reading- We did some of our reader/writer notebook, retold our story for the week and reviewed our question of the week as well.

Music :-) The students always enjoy this time with Mrs. Blakeslee.

Have a GREAT weekend! :-)

Thursday

Hello! Here is a bit of what we did today!

Science- living things, we got our caterpillars today that we will watch transform into butterflies! The students started their first journal page of what they look and how many there are.

Reading- We reread our story of the week and talked about Antarctica. We reviewed our spelling and phonics and even had a chance to read the book Ferdinand the Bull.

Reading groups went well today. I only got through two, but I was VERY proud of how hard they worked.

Thursday folders went home today here are the most important points:

1. Daylight savings is THIS weekend!

2. If you have not turned in a conference time for the end of March be sure to let us know what time you can meet.

3. Tomorrow is SPIRIT DAY!

Have a great evening!

Pictures of our gift from Afghanistan

This is the framed flag and certificate. Kanalu's aunt explained that it is given to us because Kanalu's father appreciated how we supported his son during his time at Meadowlark while he was flying missions in Afghanistan supporting our country's Operation Enduring Freedom.

This is a close up of the certificate. The smaller blue words say:

This American Flag flew over the skies of Afghanistan in an MC-12W, Tail #09-0624, in support of OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM on the 6th of February 2011 on behalf of:

Carol Clapper & Abigail Hansen

Along with their Kindergarten class from Meadowlark Elementary School

It is signed by Kanalu's Dad

Capt. Ryan Wong,

Mission Commander, 4 ERS

Kanalu was such a nice addition to our class and adapted so easily into our room that it was a gift to have him as a student and a friend. We miss him, but know he is glad to be back in Texas with his Mom. I have asked his aunt Kristi for an address to write to him and also for Capt. Wong so that we can thank him for this one of a kind gift to a Kindergarten class!

Wonderful Wednesday!

What a fantastic Wednesday! We had a very special surprise for our class today. Kanalu's family sent us a special gift from Afghanistan. Kanalu's father flew an American flag on his jet over the country of Afghanistan, folded up the flag and sent it to our class in a beautiful shadow box. The flag is folded very neat and there is an awesome picture of picture of his jet as well. What an honor!! :-) The kids were very excited to get the gift.

The weather today was fine and there were smiles on the faces of kids as they played in the sun. We were ALL thankful to be able to enjoy going outside.

Math- we reviewed the whole of chapter 7. We will begin our chapter test tomorrow.

Library- The students had a chance to check out a book for this week.

Reading- "e" week! The students have done well bringing in something that begins with the letter e. The students have also been reading the story, "If I could go to Antarctica." They have enjoyed predicting.

This is just a quick overview. Have a great day!

Terrific Tuesday

We had so much fun thinking about what it would be like to go to Antarctica! And the children saw a beautiful picture of a southern hemisphere sunset! We talked about how the scientists get food and build the science station. Most of the children thought it would be fun to visit, but would want to take their family along since it takes so long to get there!

We also has a song/poem called "I'm a Little Shamrock" and Kaleigh's Mom is helping us with some beautiful chalk art. Tomorrow we will write about when we feel lucky and add the writing to the art project.

Tomorrow is Library Day and also the day we would like all your slips in for Spring Conferences. We have quite a few that want as late a possible on Friday. So we may be doing some morning conferences before the work day starts to alleviate having parents take off too early from their jobs. As soon as we get everyone scheduled we will send home your time and day. It will also be on the report cards that come home the day before conferences start.

Have a wonderful evening and I hope these notes help you start discussions with your child about their school day! We do have fun in Kindergarten and love learning new things every day!

Sincerely,

Carol Clapper

ps There is a PTA meeting tonight if you get this before 7:00! Come learn how parents help make our school a great place to be!

Adventuring to Antarctica!

We started our week of Antarctica adventures. We are talking about the amazing words of:

ice berg, penguins, seals, whales, and continent.

We got in a geographical discussion of the city we live in, the state, the country and the continent. So you might want to visit about our location and the differences between a state and a country. It's a hard concept for this age level. In our Reading Street background tape, they explained that Antarctica is bigger than 20 states of Texas. I think that confused some of them more than helped them. And of course then everyone wanted to tell a Texas story, or who they knew in Texas and we got way off the subject! But the children were definitely paying attention and interested in learning!

Mrs. Anderson, a district literacy specialist, came back to our room and did a Penguine book with one of our Reading groups and worked on the good reader skills of predicting and discussing main points in a small group without raising their hand. Taking turns and using eye contact to visit about the book was challenging but fun!

We also worked on being REALLY quiet in the halls because the older students are taking some important tests and need to concentrate! We were really polite by the 6th grade classrooms as we waited in line for lunch!

This week we are focusing on the initial sound of /E e/ for Show and Tell. It'll be fun with 6 children who's name starts with "E"! They can bring themselves and talk about what they like and even how they got their name if they want!

Please send back the conference slips as soon as possible. Especially if your child has a sibling in 1 -3 grade so we can coordinate with the other teacher so you only need to come to school once for all your conferences. Mrs. Hansen and I look forward to sharing the progress each child has made!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Friday!

Here we go! another week has passed by and it is getting closer and closer to spring! :-)

Here is some of what we did today:

Reading- retold the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We also did a lot with what a sentence is and why it is important to write a complete sentence. We did a lot with predicting today and we predicted before reading the book : The Sweetest Fig. We then wrote about what our biggest dream would be. The students even got to share what they wrote about their dreams with the whole class. We once again reviewed rhyming words.

Math- MONEY, MONEY, MONEY! That is what we are working with. We worked on matching the correct coins with their name and amount.

Music! The students ALWAYS have a blast in Music. I enjoying sneaking down the hall and listening to what they are working on.

So sorry that I forgot THursday folders yesterday. Check your child's backpack with Friday folder. :-)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday!

What a great day! The weather was finally cooperating today and it was nice to take the class outside for a recess!! They LOVED being able to run around outside. I am hoping tomorrow will not be too cold. Here is what we did today:

Reading- We reread Goldilocks and the three bears. We also discussed what prediction is and how we use it in not only Reading but in other subjects as well. We worked on Rhyming again today and used a Cat in the Hat sheet to color and write. It should be in their backpack today.

Science- We started our newest unit over Living Things. We talked a lot about what made something a "living" thing as opposed to a "non"- living thing. It was an interesting discussion. :-) 

 

Math- We worked with MONEY! The class sorted and counted out money today and we actually had a very fun time pretending to buy things from a store and count out the exact amount of change. 

We did get to most of the reading groups today. They have been doing very well at sounding out words and READING!! :-) 

Have a great evening! 

P.S. So sorry! I just realized that I did not send a Thursday letter home today! I will get something to you tomorrow. I did however send home the form you can fill out for your conference time at the end of March. Thanks! 

Wacky Wednesday!

I thought I would use a title from a Dr. Seuss book, as today is his birthday! We celebrated in many different ways. We read many books of his, dropped everything and read in the hall (as an entire school!) and we even had a chance to watch a video of a few of his books. Needles to say today was a bit "wacky!" The students earned compliments as a class and were able to wear PJ's today as well as bring a stuffed animal friend for the day. :-) The kids really enjoyed the day. 

We really focused on rhyme today. This would be a great evening to read a book with your child that has rhyme. The students also had Library today. Phew! We are ready for Thursday! Have a wonderful evening! 

BRRR Its getting cold again!

If the temperature keeps dropping we probably won't go out for recess, but you need to make sure your children enough outer wear to keep them warm even in their Pajamas! One student asked today if they HAVE to wear pajamas and I explained that it was an earned treat and no one had to if they didn't want to. He was concerned about not wearing his Pajamas to an after school activity, so I suggested he could either skip Pajamas or bring a change of clothes and change in the bathroom before dismissal. We do not want children spending half the day in the bathroom changing for each recess and for lunch but we will allow one change if they are worried about being comfortable in their pajamas. Please help them select something that is easy for them to put on and off themselves. Thanks!

We had so much fun with Math today, both in the calendar change over and in money math! We've been talking about pennies and nickels and today dimes! I promised the children I'd find out what plants were on the back of the dime as well as the torch in the middle. There is an olive branch to the left and an oak branch to the right.The back reads, "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," "E PLURIBUS UNUM"; which means, "Out of many, one".

Those of you who ordered book order in Feb. I apologize for forgetting about them this Friday. The paper order will go out tomorrow and hopefully we will get them by next week. I will get the March ones ready to come home in Thursday folders. I went ahead and sent the lunch menu's home today. Probably could have sent the PTA notice, but forgot about them stored up by the returned folders.

Well, I better get to bed so that I am rested and ready to enjoy

Dr. Seuss' birthday with the children tomorrow in my pajamas, too!

Stay warm everyone!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Monday the Last Day of February 2011

Today was a marvelous Monday. We had a guest teacher for P.E. and found lots of "Gg" words. We did rush through the little book "How Many?" that came home today. So it might be good for you to have your child read it to you. As I looked in the mailboxes I realized that quite a few students did not empty their boxes before going home. So they won't have it until tomorrow. We also cut up the sentences I had written to tell what they brought for 100's day Have them put it together for you and enjoy it one last time.

We are excited for the new month to start and find out where we sit tomorrow with March starting on a Tuesday! This is a really good learning month with all full weeks of school until the Early out days at the end for Parent Teacher conferences. Please help your child get lots of sleep so we can learn at our maximum level all month long! Then Mrs. Hansen and I will have wonderful progress to report at the end of March.

The PTA notice will come home in Thursday envelopes this week. We have such a wonderful supportive parent group. I hope you consider getting involved.

Last but foremost in the children's mind is pajama day. Some were asking if they could bring their pillow pets. I said it would be OK as long as they can still learn and not distract the other children from learning by horsing around too much. It will be a fun day celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday in our pajamas!

Have a nice evening, Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Friday

Today was an odd day as there was a lot going on around Meadowlark. The upper grades had a talent sow today. We as a class were able to go and watch the talent show this morning. It took up most of our morning. Once again, there were no recesses today as it was below zero outside. The students had an extra long center time. We did get to finish out the week of blends by singing our song for the week, reviewing the question of the week and doing a couple more pages in our reader/writer notebooks. We finished out the Science unit about the sky. The students completed their Art projects by writing about what they drew. :-) We have them hanging up in the hall. We finished out the day by watching a fun Magic School Bus all about space. It was a fun way to end the unit. In Math we compared and contrasted telling time digitally and by analog. Phew! What a day! Have a great weekend!

Thursday :-)

 

Dear Parents,                                                      Thursday, February 24, 2011

 

            We are really moving through the year quickly. We have had a fun, busy month of February and March looks like much of the same. Since the children have earned 200 compliments, we will celebrate on March 2^nd which Dr. Seuss’s birthday.  The children suggested we have a Pajama Day! Yes, they can wear their pajamas as long as they have hard soles on their feet in case we have a fire drill. We usually still go out to recess if weather permits, so include appropriate outerwear for the day . Some choose to wear sandals and have tennis shoes in their backpacks for recess.

 

         All month long we will be assessing their skills in preparation for the Parent-Teacher conferences we will have at the end of this month.  You will be getting a letter home soon to sign up for a convenient time for your conference.  We look forward to that time to visit individually with each of you.  

        

         Feb. Book orders can still come in tomorrow, Feb 25^th. March book orders will be due back on March 25^th since there is not a book fair during Spring conferences.  The children love getting new books and reading is so good for all of us! As always Wednesday is Library Day and Mrs. Treglown squeezes us in even on Early Out Days!

 

          We are ready for more snacks! Ask your child for their favorite treats if you need ideas!  This seems like a short monthly parent letter, but we are in such a good routine, things are going smoothly and I don’t have much to explain to you! As always, if you have any questions, email us or call the school and leave a message for us to return.

                                             Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper and Mrs. Hansen

 

Here’s the list of show and tell days.  As always if they forget they can bring it the rest of the week.  Some of our students bring something every week, others hardly at all.   Please make an extra effort to help your child remember if they haven’t brought something for awhile. This week it’s “G g” and next week in the beginning sound of “Ee” and then the following is ‘e’ in the middle!

Tuesday * Students	Wednesday *	Thursday *	Friday *
Maddy Treyden Eli Austin	Elias Erica Ethyn Emma Ella	Gabrielle Jaxton Kaleigh Kendal Orion	Morgan Reece Remington Rikki Sophia

 

Wednasday

Hello! It is Wednesday already and the day went well. Here are a few of the things we fit in this afternoon:

We did two reading groups, we are working on blends: bl, gr, sl, fr, sp, sn, sw, just to name a few. I will continue with the other groups tomorrow. :-)

Show-n-tell this week has everything to do with bringing in something that has a blend. The students started off very well with this.

Math- We worked on telling time with an analog clock. This is DEFINITELY something you can review at home.

The students had Library today and center time this afternoon. The weather has been so bad that we ended up not going to recess today. Hopefully the weather will improve so that we can go outside. Have a great evening!

George Washington's Birthday

We had a great day for our first day back after the long break! The children were excited, yet focused and we got quite a bit of both Monday and Tuesday work done. Plus we got to learn about George Washington. We talked about how he would have been 279 years old today! We read a story about how he returned the British General's dog to him when the colonists found the dog after a long battle. At the end of this children's story, the author had a picture of George Washington's actual letter to General Howe that was written by Alexander Hamilton. At the end of the day we read another story about a boy named George W. Allen who was also born on Feb. 22nd and loved to learn everything about George Washington including what he had for breakfast. Tomorrow I will finish the story and we will have Indian Hoecakes (a kind of cornmeal pancake cooked on a griddle rather than a hoe).

This week is also I LOVE TO READ week, so we read the Reading series story One Little Mouse to make it 3 books in one day!!! I really do love to read to the children, it's one of my FAVORITE things to do. Sometime this week Mrs. Leffler a 3rd grade teacher will come read a favorite book of hers to our class, and I will go read one of my favorites to her class.

LIBRARY IS TOMORROW!

We had most of our Tuesday show and tell people absent today, so tomorrow we will do Tues. and Wed show and tells. Remember it needs to start with a blend. gr,cr,br, bl, cl, sl, sw, sp, etc.

In Math we had a fun DINO-TIME book and mainly focused on positions of the hands on the hour and half hour.

____ o'clock (longer hand on the 12/ the smaller hand is on the ___) or

___thirty (when the longer hand is on the 6/the small hand is between that number and the number that is one higher than it)

That's all for now folks!

Mrs. Clapper

Early Out Wednesday

We had just 12 students today and really missed our friends who are sick. I didn't start the TIME part of our math unit because we were missing so many children. Instead we drew pictures and wrote about our favorite parts of the play and put them in our writing folders.

We did start the first 2 steps of problem solving because Impulsive Puppy was so excited to get out of his red box and meet the children. They quickly realized that he does the 1st thing that pops into his head and he became a little annoying when he pulled hair and untied shoes as he met our students. His friend, Slow Down Snail came out had to help to him calm down. Slow Down's favorite saying is "Slow Down, Stop, and Think".

We had fun doing calendar and looking ahead to George Washington's birthday on the day we come back from vacation. Your homework over the long weekend is to show your child a dollar bill and talk about why George Washington is on it! I hope everyone is healthy and ready to return to school next week!

Have a great vacation!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Giggle, Giggle Quack

The Alberta Bair trip to see the play was a great experience for the children. It turned out to be a musical! It was fun to see the parts that were the same as and what was different from the book. The children were very patient as Meadowlark was one of the last schools to be called to board the buses. We barely got back in time for a quick drink (as it was very warm in the balcony of the theatre) before dismissal time. So we did not get a chance to visit about the play. Hopefully, we will have some time today, although two of our children were sick and missed it. So if they are back, I may not spend too much time as it would make them feel sad.

We have had a few incidences of touching that are inappropriate. Then yesterday there was talk of someone wanting to kiss a classmate. We talked about keeping our hands to ourselves and especially not patting bottoms or touching anyone private parts. We talked about Valentine's day and how we did hug our friends sometimes to thank them for their Valentine, but that we only kiss family members and there is no kissing at school. It was only a couple incidences, but I want everyone to be aware so if their child brings it up, you know why.

I am so happy Mrs. Treglown could fit us in early for library today since we get out EARLY!

Have a nice 5 day vacation everyone, and we'll see you on Tuesday, George Washington's real birthday!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Happy Valentine's Day!

We really had a nice day celebrating kindness and friendship. The day went so quickly that as we got ready to go home, one student thought we were going to lunch! They also earned 5 compliments and started discussing what we should do to celebrate 200 compliments. A pajama party was suggested, so I said I would talk to Mrs. Hansen and if it's OK with her we might do it on the first Wednesday after we earn our 200th compliment.

With Valentine's Day, the Alberta Bair Field Trip and a short day on Wednesday, it does not look like we will get to Reading Street as much as I would like to really help them learn the blends and enjoy the Little Mouse's Adventure. So I am skipping this week and moving blends to next week and G week the following 5 day week that goes into March. I feel it's better to cover the skills well than try to hurry through too much material. We will still engage in many, varied reading and language activities and spend a good portion of Wednesday on the 5 problem solving steps of Second Step. This will help each child get along better with his or her peers.

Thanks for helping your child prepare their Valentines. One of my favorite parts of the day was when 3 or 4 students wanted to make sure I opened my Valentines so they could enjoy watching me discover what their valentine was. In the morning, Mr. Croff came in to talk to me, and one student tried hard not to interupt, but wanted to make sure we gave him his bag of Valentines. They enjoyed his enthusiasm at getting so many Valentine's all at once! A true sign that they are getting joy from giving as much as receiving the little notes of love and care!

I am sure these loving skills are being modeled in your homes, and I am thankful to see it carried over to school friends, teachers and the principal!

Again, have a Happy Valentine's Day! And thanks to Allison (Kaleigh's Mom) Mrs. Hansen, Kevin (my son) and Carly (Kevin's Valentine) for helping us read our Valentines. It was great having four adults reading with the children and enjoying our Valentine Reading party. A big thanks to the Hunter's and Curtiss' for the cupcakes and juice. Plus all of the others that added sweet treats to our Valentine bags!

Sincerely, Mrs. Clapper

Fun!

Here is what we did today! 

Math- putting things in order. 

Reading- we continued reading groups today. The kids did very well yesterday and today working with me and with our guest teacher for the district Mrs. Anderson. We worked with words, spelling them, rhyming and rearranging them to spell other words. We also reread the book My Lucky Day!

We had a penny poem that we did for Abraham Lincoln's birthday. They each brought home the poem. 

Science- we drew our night sky on our painted paper. We will write about it in 2 weeks. 

We wrapped up the day watching a video on brushing our teeth daily! 

Have a great weekend! 

Wednesday!

Hopefully you have checked your child's backpack and found that Thursday folder actually went home today. The students had toothbrushes given to them for dental health month. There is also directions on the letter home about having your child keep track of brushing their teeth. The students had Library today and so should have a new book to bring home if they brought their previous book back. 

Math- discussed seasons and the calendar for a year. 

Reading- The students continue working on the letter /L/ and today we started writing folders for them to keep pieces that they are writing in class. 

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching! You and your child may come in and deliver their Valentine's to the other students in the class before or after school. Remember that Wednesday of next week is a half day and there is no school Thursday and Friday. 

Have a great evening! 

Feb 7th

It was a Lovely day of Learning!

We started the day getting to say the PLEDGE over the intercom for the WHOLE school! We all filed in by Mrs. Noland's desk and said the pledge with very proud voices! Mrs. Misner from the PTA even took our picture we did such a nice job!

Then we read from some individual readers, and started L week, before dashing off to P.E. We had a mix of snacks in a cup with the left overs from 100's day and started our Time and Money chapter with a fund story about seven Dalmation puppies. Ask your child to name all 7 of them and see if they remember!

We went outside for lunch recess, but not for morning or afternoon recess. We tried to get everyone dressed warmly for going home but some children did NOT want to put on their snowpants. I did not insist, so if you want them to be in them, tell them so. I give them time, but some are not wanting to get redressed for the short trip home.

Tomorrow we get a fun story about a pig who tricks a fox! I may not have time to write after school tomorrow as I have a computer class. Wednesday we will be doing Dental Health and hopefully get large paper toothbrushes home with a chart on it. We want the children to mark a smiley face of start for every morning and every evening that they brush and floss their teeth. When they fill in 2 weeks (28 times) they can pick out a small reward! They just need to bring the chart on the big toothbrush back and show us. We will put their name on a laminated paper tooth and see how many strong teeth we can get lined up on our class pocket chart!

We have helpers coming to work on the Valentine bags on Tuesday and Thursday, so we hope your child is working on their valentines for their classmates. Please have them do Kanalu's by Friday and bring it to school since that will be his last day with our class!

Stay warm and remember to help your child bring something that starts with "Ll" for show and tell. Learn, Laugh, & Love throughout this week and always!
Mrs. Clapper

Friday!!

Here is a quick peek at what we did today:

Music! Ask your child about making soup :-) 

Math- We finished our chapter 6 test on measurement 

Science- We finished out Science with constellations. The students wrote about 4 things they see in the sky. It could be day or night. 

Reading- We worked on rhyming, quick spelling some of our high frequency words and reviewing our amazing words. 

The time went fast today! Thank you Kara for volunteering to come in and help make the Valentine's Day bags with the students! 

Thursday!! :-)

Upcoming events in Clapper/Hansen class for the week of 2/7/11

Math- we will begin chapter 7 over Time and Money

Reading- we will be focusing on the letter /L/ this week. Show-n-tell will be bringing something in that begins with the letter /L/. We will be reading the story: My Lucky Day and will have the amazing words of piglet, fox, lucky, filthy, cook, scrubber. The high frequency words will be: are, that, do.

Science- we will continue to work on sky and space.

We will be working on getting Valentine’s Day bags up and around the room. Please do not have your child bring any valentine’s in until Thursday (2/10). If you would like to bring a treat for Valentine’s Day, or would like to help out please let Mrs. Clapper know ASAP.

Please do not forget to have your child bring their shoes for P.E. on Monday and their book for Library on Wednesday. There also is a LOT of things in the Lost and Found. Please stop by and see if there is anything there that may be your child’s.

Lots going on! Have a great weekend, stay warm!

Great Chilly Wednesday

So, here are a few of the things we learned today:

7-up, 7-down, this was a fun game the kids learned when we could not go out to recess because of the wind chill. The students really did well, despite not being able to go outside today.

Math- What appropriate timing to learn about a thermometer and when it reads hot and cold. :-) Seriously, that is what was on tap for Math today! :-)

Reading- Once again we are focusing on /H/ this week. I forgot to have the show and tells go today, so they will give theirs tomorrow. We also did a lot with Groundhog's Day and we now have a 100's Day book going through the class. Be sure that when you get the book you take the time to read through it with your child. :-)

The students had Library today and so, they will have a new book they are bringing home. Be sure to remind them to bring the books back, we had a few who did not get to check out a book today because they did not return their previous book.

I am having students check lost and found, there is still quite a few things there. So, if you have a chance pop by and see if anything may belong to your family.

Phew! I think that is all I will write for today. Stay WARM!

100's Day

We had fun celebrating 100 days of learning, 100 days of school and even changed our indoor math game to 111,112,113,115 and 120 to push our brains as we exercised. We did do 100 exercises when we couldn't go out to recess and made our own snack of 10 groups of 10 goodies: like marshmellows, mini-teddy grahams, choc. chips, cherry choc. chips, cheerios, rice chex, cranberry raisins, mini M & M's, fruit loops, and goldfish. As you can see there were 12 choices so the children had to choose 10 out of 12.

We read 2 more 100's Day books, and wrote about what we had as our 100's day homework. When we read about our 100's day bag we told how we counted out our 100 items. 10 people counted by 1's, 8 put them in groups of 10, and 2 grouped them into 5 groups of 20! The children were very honest about how and who counted their items. So if you think you might have "helped" too much, make a fun activity out of them showing YOU that THEY can do it themselves!! I did get a 100's day book put together and it's a really fun "reversible book" (It reads two ways) I will try to remember to send it home with Kanalu first. He is heading back to Texas next week.

Tomorrow we have Mr. Besel talking about being a Bully Buster and we will talk about shadows and the fun tradition of Groundhog's Day. We also need to write sentences about Gabrielle as she had so many fun pictures to share with us as the Star Student and we didn't get time to write about her on the big poster paper. We also ran out of time for our "h" show and tell items, so the Tuesday students and Wednesday students get to share tomorrow.

As you can see our days are full of learning. Our new high frequency words are "do" "that" and "are". Those pages of the Reader Writer Notebook may not get done this week, so please help them learn those 3 words. We will review them next week, but they are a little trickier than some of the words we have already had.

I am off to babysit my granddaughter in Utah for a few days while Mrs. Hansen is teaching, so I wish you all a good weekend and may your team play well in the Super Bowl!

Sincerely, Carol Clapper