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! :-) 

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!

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!

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! 

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

 

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!

Thursday

What an interesting day! We have had many, many students sick and today was no different. I am really hoping that no one else comes down with a cold or the flu! The students all seemed a bit off today. There was a lot of crying over small things and a lot of fighting over small things. We had to REALLY work at being quiet in the hall and in class. We did get a lot done today though.

Math- We worked on numbers that come before. For example the number that comes before 8 is 7. The number that comes before 42 is 41. There was a wide range in understanding. One of the things that really helped the students was to look at or make a number line to follow.

Science- We began a project that we will finish tomorrow. I will tell you more about it as it nears completion.

Reading- We had the chance to reread and discuss The Lion and the Mouse. We also worked with our letter sounds and picking out the beginning, middle and end of a story.

We did get a chance to use computers today. The class does very well with them and while they are working I pulled kids aside to begin some of their 3rd quarter testing. Can you believe we are in the 3rd quarter??!

All in all, we did do quite a bit. Have a great evening! Mrs. Hansen

Thursday!! :-)

So here we are again! Another Thursday has come and gone here is a quick snapshot of the day! 

Math- We began chapter 6 with measurement. Some of the words we will be learning are: weighing more than, weighing less than, full, empty, taller than, shorter than. Anything that you can do to begin helping your child with the concepts of measurement will help them continue to grow their background knowledge. Tomorrow we will begin 6-1 by comparing and ordering things by size. 

Reading- We reread the story of Farfallina and Marcel and discussed characters. We discussed and reviewed about change that can take place in an animals life. We did a lot of Spelling today on our whiteboards. The students have been doing great about, "giving it a go" when trying to spell words. I see confidence growing! 

Science- We compared and contrasted night and day. The students drew in their journals the differences that they can see in night and day. 

I FORGOT to finish up show and tell today, so those that did not get to share will be able to tomorrow. 

Have a great day! Thanks for all that you do for your child!! 

Busy Thursday

What a jam packed day we had! Here are some of the things we did:

Reading- reread the story for the week, discussed the story and discussed how things have changed over time. We worked with letter tiles to spell words and read them as a class. Some of the words were, dad, mad, sad, lad, tip, dip, did.

Math- The students completed a counting sheet today that came home in their Thursday folders. They counted numbers up to 31. We also worked on what the word Estimation means.

Science- We discussed our solar system and sky, this was just an introduction to what we will be studying in the coming weeks.

Computers- The students had a chance to work with starfall again today. We focused on the letters d, c, k and f. 

The students had a chance to work with centers today and I then began pulling students to work on reading one on one with me. Today the students I pulled (I didn't get to everyone) read the book, "The Dip" which is a part of our curriculum. 

All in all the day went fast and the class was a bit chatty, they still got their work done though! Thank you for all the love and support you show your child everyday! 

Thursday!

Here we are at Thursday again! :-) Sorry to all you parents who did not get a weekly letter this week. Mrs. Clapper and I spaced putting one together for next week. I will remind you however that next week is a short week. We only have three days of school. We would like to thank each of you for sending cookies, frosting or volunteering to come help with our cookie decorating, it turned out great! The students today were both tired and excited for Christmas to come. I know that makes it harder for them to study academics! The class worked on a lot of Math today. We have been working on the "teens", writing them out, counting them out and working on forming their background knowledge with important concepts of grouping numbers. They did well! We have been reading and working this week with the book Little Quack. The book incorporates addition. R week has been great. Continue to ask your child what begins, ends with R. Have a great evening! Thanks for all that you do for your child! 

Thursday, Another Quick Day

Hello! The week is almost over and I am going to share a bit of what we worked on today:
Math- we continued working on 13, 14, and 15. The students also reviewed with me 12, 9, 20 and 17.

Reading- We reread our story for the week, Little Panda. The students and I came up with "N" words and stretched the words into sentences, they did amazing! Tomorrow they will label and write sentences with "B" words. We have really been working on the sounds letters make to form words. These sounds are what we are listening to when Mrs. Hansen says a word like, "PIG". The students tell me each sound segment of the word. (This of course is only one example.)

The students reviewed verbs today (action words, for those of you who may not remember) and comparing and contrasting.

Have a great evening! Thanks for all the love and support you show your child everyday!

Fast Thursday

So, here we are again, another day flew right by! Here are some of the things we did today:

Math- We created patterns, added on to patterns and sorted the shapes into categories. The students also played a game of math the number of items to the correct number listed. The students also worked on one-to-one up to the number 10.

Reading- We reread Jack and the Beanstalk and retold it through drawing a sequence of events for the beginning, middle and end of the story. The students worked hard at drawing and telling me about what they decided to draw about. We also worked with the words "he" and "for" and placing them in sentences.

Science- The students sorted different objects in to groups that held the same type of material. They did very well with this and they labeled their picture as well.

Phew! That is just a part of our day! Hope you have a wonderful evening! :-)

Thursday Letter

Newsletter for the Week of Nov. 15th - ,19th
Monday	Tuesday
Letter of the week is “I  i” High Frequency Words:  he    for  Amazing Words: nest, meadow, stump, tree                                    trunk, hive, den   P.E.  Please wear tennis shoes	Story: A Bed for Winter Question of the week: “What kind of                         homes do animals need?   Show-n-Tell: Austin, Eli,                         Maddy and Treyden
Wednesday	Thursday
Library Day – Since we didn’t check out books last week your child’s book may already be in the gray box.  But check to be sure, please   Show-n-Tell:  Elias, Ella, Emma,                          Ethyn and Erica	Show-n-Tell:   Gabrielle, Jaxton,               Kaleigh, Kendal and Orion
Friday	Special Announcements
Music     Show-n-Tell: Reese, Morgan,            Remington, Rikki and Sophia	Thanks to all who have brought snacks. If you haven’t we can still use more to provide some variety.  Carrots for C week would be awesome!
Reminders
Thankful homework coming home 11/11/2010.  It will be due next Friday 11/19 before our very short week of 1 ½ days of school before Thanksgiving break. Directions: Talk to your child about what they are thankful for.  Have them draw a few of their ideas and labels what they are.  You can help them with the spelling but let them do as much of the labeling as they can, even if you write the word on a separate sheet and have them copy it  Encourage them to share more than one thing and to color it nicely because it will be a page in our “Thankful Book”.  Then have them sign the bottom in their very best writing! Thanks so much!

Thursday Newsletter

Great day! We had a lot we completed. In Math we worked on place value. The kids had a great question about why there was a digit for 1 and a digit for 0 making up the number ten. We talked about how when the ones house (place) was overflowing we made "one" group of ten, hence the ! and 0 ... 10. It was a great question! We worked on rhyming words today with "cat" they should have  a sentence that they wrote about a cat. Some were able to rhyme with cat with one of the words we came up with as a class... pat, rat, sat, mat, fat. We reread, The Bear Snores On and reviewed the letter "P" and the sound it makes... phew! That is just a quick snapshot of the day! 

Thursday, Another Quick Day

Today was another 1/2 day of school. The kids have been working hard during the mornings and can get pretty hungry and tired by the time noon rolls around. We had a guest teacher from the school district in today to work on writing practice with the class. We reread animal babies and wrote, "who is my mommy". The kids chose an animal and their baby to draw and write about. We will finish these up tomorrow. The kids got to join me today for a quick reading group. They did well! Thank you so much for taking the time to join your child in their learning. Thank you also for making it a point to come to their conference time as well.

Thursday Newsletter

10/14/2010

Wow! Another week has come and almost gone! Here are just a few reminders for this next week:

~”S” week is coming up.

~Next week there is an early out on Wednesday the 20^th. There are sack lunches available. The students will be released at noon. There is NO SCHOOL that Thursday and Friday.

~There is a note about conferences. Please fill it out and send it back as soon as possible.

~Tomorrow is SPIRIT DAY for Meadowlark Elementary!!! Dress in the school colors (Gold and black) if you don’t have a Meadowlark shirt.

~Book orders are due tomorrow, Friday 15^th. Have a wonderful upcoming weekend!

     ~Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Clapper

Newsletter!

Newsletter for the Week of Oct 11th – 15th
Monday	Tuesday
Letter of the week is “Tt” High Frequency Words:  to   a  Amazing Words: scooping, swooshing,       squelching, gobbling, spinning and rumbling   P.E.  Please wear tennis shoes                     Columbus Day	Story: Dig Dig Digging Question of the week: “How do machines                                  help people work?   Show-n-Tell:  Abe, Austin, Eli,                         Maddy and Treyden 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. PTA Ice Cream Social
Wednesday	Thursday
Library Day – Please return library books to the gray tub in our room so you can check out another one for this week!   Show-n-Tell:  Elias, Ella, Emma,                          Ethyn and Erica	Show-n-Tell:   Gabrielle, Jaxton,               Kaleigh, Kendal and Orion
Friday	Special Announcements
Music     Show-n-Tell: Reese, Morgan,            Remington, Rikki and Sophia      Book orders due today!	Mrs. Hansen and Mrs. Clapper love to see our students being  kind and caring to one another!
Reminders
Next week the children have an Early Out on Wed. Oct 20th and No School on Oct. 21st and 22nd. Because of the shorter week we will not have Show and Tell or a newsletter for the 18th – the 20th.   Snacks are running low, donations to our cupboard would be appreciated!

 

Great Thursday!!

What a busy day we had! Here are some of the things we worked on today: 

In Reading we reread Smash and Crash. We blended words like: MIX, MOP, GUM, MET. The students also participated in a shared reading of Bullies Never Win and The Wheels on the Bus. We completed an Art project that involved writing their names on individual pieces and gluing them together to form a caterpillar. We had 5 students today that brought something for show and Tell that started with the letter "M". We also had a bus field trip this afternoon. The bus driver gave the class a HUGE compliment by saying, "This class is an EXCELLENT class." Way to go students!! Way to be quiet and safe on the bus! The students each have a coloring book they took home today. My favorite quote from the day was, "Oh, no! Here comes a roundy-round!" This particular student was talking about a round a bout. I just loved it! Thank you for all the love and support you show your child everyday! ~Mrs. Abigail Hansen

Thursday Newsletter

Dear Parents, September 30, 2010





It’s already time to be sending out the October calendar, Fall is really here!

One thing we noticed about the month is that we do not have any October birthdays. That may mean that we get low on snacks. If you can help us out please send another snack this month. Mrs. Gibson has offered to share her small room refrigerator with us. So if you want to send carrots, apples (we have an apple cutter, so they can be sent whole) or any other healthy snack, we have a place to store them. Other favorites this year are Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, and pretzels. Thanks for your help.



On Picture Day in the fall, each child’s individual picture is taken even if you do not want to order any. This is so we will have pictures for records at school and a couple special art projects throughout the year. Please return the envelopes by tomorrow, if you want to order pictures and request a certain background.



Hopefully, we received all the addresses permission blue slips and parent-helper pink slips. We will get those lists out to you as soon as we compile them. The first Special Occasion will be the afternoon of the 29th. It helps to have a parent helping at each of 4 tables and a parent coordinating snacks so we have a variety not 3 cupcakes for each child. We will send out more information later this month. You are welcome to volunteer by emailing us at clapperc@billingsschools.org and hansen2@billingsschools.org.





Sincerely, Carol Clapper and Abbie Hansen

PICTURE DAY TOMORROW!!! :-) 

Thursday Letter Home

Dear Parents, September 9,2010

The weeks are already beginning to fly by! The students have been doing very well adjusting to routines and procedures. Both Mrs. Clapper and myself are very proud of them. Please read the blog, http://learninginkindergarten.blogspot.com , if you are wondering what some of our daily activities are. Also, be sure to read the important letter from Mr. Croff all about the new Kindergarten class that will be here at Meadowlark.

Some of the things that we’ve been working on as a class this past week are the letters A, B, C, D, E . We have been practicing talking about upper and lower case letters, their sounds, finding them in words and even reading our two amazing words: I, AM. To finish off Unit 1 week 1, we will be sending home their “ReaderWriterNotebook Packets” We forgot to talk about these at Open House. Each week we work in this 4-6 page packet of workbook like pages. Some weeks we get to almost everything, other times very little. We will send them home each week so you can see what your child is learning to do. And to watch their progress through out the year! If your child has been absent, his/her name will be at the top. It would be wonderful if you would help your child complete it but it is not necessary to send it back. The pages we did not get to are fun extensions for those children who are ready for more challenging concepts. The directions are at the bottom of each page. We hope your child enjoys showing you what they did each week! Many times they have to stop coloring the pages to go on to another activity, so we always say “you can finish that when you get to take it home.”

Wednesday was Bear day and the students were able to bring a bear into class with them. They enjoyed reading to their bear. In Math we will be finishing up chapter 1. The students have been practicing, over, under, left, right, above, below, same and different. They have been doing very well. Science has been fun and the students have been exploring their five senses. We have been talking about what a scientist does and how they use their senses to discover new things.

Please take the time to stop by the lost and found. There are already many jackets, sweatshirts and lunch boxes there. Please see if anything may be your child’s.

Thank you so much for all the love and support you show your child everyday! You are the backbone of meaningful learning in your child. If you are excited about school they will be too! Thank you parents!

Sincerely, Mrs. Abigail Hansen and Mrs. Carol Clapper