Nov. 26 Update

It’s hard to believe that November is almost over!  I have really enjoyed meeting with you all to conference about your child and his/her progress.  If you have not met with me yet, please return the conference sign up with your preferred times marked.

*The long awaited Report Cards are coming home today.  We will also be sending home a Math Expressions workbook for your child to use if they would like.  These are free resources that you can keep at home. 

*One of our biggest events in Kindergarten is fast approaching:  Holiday Rotations!  During the month of December, we focus on traditions around the world and will spend a week highlighting five different holidays from different cultures.  Each class will rotate through the Kindergarten classrooms to learn about these holidays.  We will need help from you for this event to be a success.  There are a lot of supplies and volunteers needed, so please consider signing up to bring items in or help out with centers during Holiday Rotations.  The links to sign up are posted under “Important Classroom Links.”

*We also want to learn more about your family traditions, so please help your child complete the tradition project that was sent home.  The cutout should be decorated to represent your child and then one family tradition can be written on the card.  We have had fun sharing these in class and learning about all kinds of different family traditions. 

*We have been talking a lot in the classroom about the very first Thanksgiving and how different things are now.  I think the thing that really made the children sit up and take notice is that back then you couldn’t charge your phone, iPod, or tablet because there wasn’t any electricity.  That was a real eye opener for them! 

We’ve been talking a lot about what we are thankful for as well, so let me take this chance to tell you that Mrs. Leon and I are very thankful to all of you that have helped out this year!  We are so appreciative of you all for all that you have done for our class!  Chaperones, Book N Bite Readers, Mystery Readers, those who provided lunch coverage for teachers, and to everyone who has donated items to our class:  We Thank You!!

But more than that, we are truly thankful that we get to spend our days doing what we do and spending it with your children.  What a great bunch of children we have this year!  We have fun with them every day and are grateful that we get to do something that we love each day with kids we love!

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will see you in December!

WCPSS Report Card Update

November 13, 2013

Dear Parents:

Due to an ongoing statewide software issue, report cards for elementary students will be distributed by the week of November 25.

Pearson, the third-party software provider, is currently working to address the outage in its system, which has impacted teachers throughout the state. Once the system is restored, teachers will be able to continue to enter first-quarter grades, and schools will be able to print report cards.

We thank you for your patience as the software provider fixes the problem.

Your student’s teachers remain committed to keeping you informed regarding your child’s progress. If at any time you have questions regarding your child’s progress, please contact your child’s teacher.

Thank you,

Wake County Public School System

Conference Sign Up and Other Important Information

Mrs. Leon and I felt so appreciated today!  We were bestowed with so many wonderful, beautiful and yummy things!  Thank you all for your thoughtfulness and your kindness!

First Quarter Conferences

It’s that time of year!  Wow – the first quarter has flown by and now it’s time for conferences.  We are very excited to have the opportunity to share your child’s progress over the past first quarter.  Report cards will be given out during parent teacher conferences.  Please click onto the link to the right and sign up for a time to have your conference.

It’s Turkey Time!  We are planning a special Thanksgiving snack and need several items to assemble our “turkey cookie”!  If you would like to send in an item for our special treat, please click onto the link and sign up.  Please send in all items by Friday, November 22.  Thank you!

Top Dog of the Week I am so excited to start Top Dog of the Week next week!  Each week, a student will be chosen to be our TOP DOG!  Being Top Dog means:

     -being interviewed by Mrs. Tobias or Mrs. Leon

-taking home the “Let’s Find Out” bag

-getting a special snack in the cafeteria

-getting a special award at the end of the              week

It’s going to be a BLAST because it’s so much DOG GONE fun!

Letterland Parade Don’t forget to get your costumes together this weekend!  Our Letterland Parade is next Wednesday at 9:00.  Plan on meeting us in the gym right at 9:00 for our presentation!  The parade will follow right after in the hallways of JYJ!

IMPORTANT DATES: 

Monday, November 11 – NO SCHOOL –Veterans Day

November 15 – Picture Make Ups

November 22 – Lunch Coverage for K Teachers

November 25 – Kindergarten Can Do Thanksgiving (more info to come!)

November 26-29 Thanksgiving Holiday

Creepy Crawly Day

Thanks to everyone who helped make our Creepy Crawly Day a success!  The class had a great time making spooky art and enjoying creepy snacks!  Thanks for all the donations and to those who were able to volunteer!  We couldn’t have done it without your help!!

Check out some pictures from our fun day!

Upcoming Events and News

Come to JYJ and show your PRIDE!

Spirit Week will be the October 28-Nov 1!!

Monday (Teacher Work Day - No School)

Tuesday – Tacky Tuesday – Wear your mismatched and/or tacky/over the top clothes.

Wednesday – World Wednesday – Wear something that represents a heritage or country.

Thursday – Team Thursday – Wear your favorite team colors or shirt.

Friday – Fit Friday – Wear your exercise or comfy clothes.

BOOK FAIR

JY Joyner will be having a BOOK FAIR the week of November 4-8.  Extra hours to shop will be November 5 from 3:30 – 6:00.  The book fair will be held in the media center.  Each classroom will have a day assigned to go and make a wish list (there will be plenty of help for K students to make their list of titles).  Another day will be assigned so that purchases can be made during our school day.  If you choose to send in money for your child to purchase something off their wish list, please put it into the zippered pouch in OTIS, labeled BOOK FAIR money and please include the title of the book to be purchased. 

Creepy Crawly Day – Thank you goes out to so many of you that have signed up to send in supplies for our Creepy Crawly Day fun!  Don’t forget to try and send in these items by this Friday so that we can start making final preparations for that morning. 

Don’t forget our Letterland Parade scheduled for November 13^th.  Please help your child decide which Letterland character they would like to represent.  Once you decide, please send in the sheet we sent in OTIS indicating which Letterland character they have chosen! 

Volunteer Registration closes October 31.  If you need to just “renew” your volunteer registration, please do so by October 31^st or you’ll need to start from scratch.  Just renewing is a quick process.  If you have not registered to volunteer, please take a few minutes to come by school, go to the media center and register so that you can volunteer in our classroom!

CREEPY CRAWLY DAY - October 31

We are planning a morning of creepy activities! From 8:45 until 10:30 the kids will be rotating through 6 ghoulish centers!   We need lots of items to make this happen!  We also need 6 volunteers!  Please go to our classroom link and look for Wilkinson Creepy Crawly Day Centers.   Click onto the link and sign up to send in an item or sign up to be a volunteer!  It's loads of fun!  

Kindergarten Literacy Curriculum Information and Upcoming Dates

Daily 5 Literacy:

The Daily Five is a literacy structure that teaches independence and gives children the skills needed to create a lifetime love of reading and writing. It consists of five tasks that are introduced individually. When introduced to each task, the children discuss what it looks like, sounds like, and feels like to engage in the task independently. Then, the children work on building their stamina until they are successful at being independent while

doing that task.

The five tasks include:

1. Read to self

2. Read to someone

3. Listen to reading

4. Work on writing

5. Word work

When all five tasks have been introduced and the children are fully engaged in reading and writing activities, I am able to work with small groups

and confer with children one on one. This structure is effective, the results are amazing, and the children really look forward to Daily Five time. Ask your child about Daily Five and see what he/she has to say. I anticipate your child will tell you about the class stamina, how we are working towards independence, and maybe you will even hear about some of the fantastic things your child

has written, read, or listened to during our structured reading time.

Writers’ Workshop
Writer’s Workshop is the framework for writing instruction and practice in the classroom. It allows students to determine the topics they will write about and work at their own writing stage and pace. The teacher serves as the facilitator and conducts daily mini lessons and conferencing with individuals and small groups. Students always love this time of day and I am excited to watch your child grow into a confident, developing writer!

Letterland

I’m sure many of you having been hearing about Letterland.  This is an imaginary and secret place where all the letters live. We have finished fast tracking all the Letterlanders and their sounds! We will now begin teaching each Letterlander for mastery, introducing capital letters and working on correct letter formation.

What exactly is Letterland??
Letterland is a unique, phonics-based approach to teaching reading, writing and spelling to 3-8 year olds. The Letterland characters transform plain black letter shapes into child-friendly pictograms and they all live in an imaginary place called Letterland.
Simple stories about the Letterland characters, explain the full range of dry phonics facts so that children are motivated to listen, to think and to learn. These stories explain letter sounds & shapes, allowing children to progress quickly to word building, reading and writing.

Letterland fast tracking sounds:

a – Annie Apple	i – Impy Ink
b – Bouncy Ben	j – Jumping Jim
c – Clever Cat	k – Kicking King
d – Dippy Duck	l – Lucy Lamp Light
e – Eddy Elephant	m – Munching Mike
f – Firefighter Fred	n – Noisy Nick
g – Golden Girl	o – Oscar Orange
h – Harry Hat Man	p – Peter Puppy
q- Quarrelsome Queen	r- Red Robot
s- Sammy Snake	t- Talking Tess
u- Uppy Umbrella	v- Vicky Violet
w- Walter Walrus	x- Fix-it Max
y- Yellow Yo-yo Man	z- Zig Zag Zebra

Upcoming Dates and Information:

Volunteer Calendar
The volunteer calendar is now located under "Important Classroom Links". This is where you sign up for Book and Bite and Mystery Reader. These are both great opportunities for you to come in and spend time with your child and our class. We look forward to seeing soon!

Joyner Jamboree

Joyner Jamboree is this Friday, October 18 from 5:30-8:00. If you are interested in volunteering or donating items please check Member Hub for more information. We hope to see you there!

CO’IN CRAZY – October 15-25

Join us in the Joyner Elementary Coins for a Cure Campaign. We will be collecting change from October 15-25 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The class who collects the most money in each grade level will win a pizza party. 

Ganyard Hill Farm Field Trip

We had an awesome time at Ganyard Hill Farm! The children had so much fun playing on Hay Mountain, jumping in the corn kernel crib, going on a hayride, navigating through the corn and hay mazes and picking a pumpkin straight off the vine!  A huge thanks to all of our parents who were able to join us! I will soon be posting some of the pictures that capture our hands on learning experience!

Volunteer Opportunities

Hi parents!

My name is Anne Reed and my son Davis is in kindergarten with your child in Mrs. Tobias' class.  I am working with Mrs. Tobias to set up a schedule for parent volunteers to come in and read with the kids!  We have two exciting opportunities!  

The first is Book and Bite.  If you volunteer for Book and Bite you will come in one day during lunch and take a group of kids outside(weather permitting) or to the classroom and read to them (books of your choice) while they eat lunch.  Your child will be in your group and the rest of the kids in your group will be chosen by Mrs. Tobias.  Book and Bite will be the 2nd week (week may be vary if needed, different parent each day Monday thru Friday) of every month so we need lots of volunteers.  If you want to come every week that would be great, if you can do it once, that would be awesome too!  

Mystery Reader is the other volunteer opportunity!  The mystery reader will read at 1:15 on a Friday to the whole class.  Please come in around 1:10.  This is a surprise so don't tell your son or daughter know that you are coming!  We would love to have a mystery reader every 1st and 3rd Friday.  

If you have any questions about Book and Bite or Mystery Reader please email me anne.reed1@hotmail.com.

Thank you!

Field Trip Details

We are very excited about our trip to Ganyard Hill Farm on Friday!

PAYMENT:
Please send your child’s filed trip money  and permission form in by Wednesday! The cost is $15.00, and we ask that you please pay online at: http://osp.osmsinc.com/wakenc/

If you are unable to pay online, please send in a check for $15.00 written out to Joyner Elementary.

The cost of the trip includes: transportation to and from the farm, crop mazes, corn crib, observation bee hive, hayride tour, etc. as well as picking a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch!

CHAPERONES:

Thank you in advance to those of you who have volunteered for this field trip. Please send me an email confirming that you are interested in chaperoning. You must be a registered WCPSS volunteer. If you have not registered to volunteer, you will not be able to independently escort children around the farm. If you would like to register to volunteer, please do so in the Joyner library. It only takes a few minutes and is well worth it!!

·      Chaperones will need to pay $10 upon entry.

·      You will be assigned a group of children that you will escort around the farm.

·      You will be supplied a first aid kit and a map of the farm upon arrival.

·      Unfortunately, (and probably to your relief!), parents are not allowed to ride the bus so we recommend that you follow behind the bus or carpool with other Joyner families. We will be leaving Joyner at 9:30a.m. and departing from the farm at 12:30.

·      Bring a camera!! Please bring a camera and take pictures of your group. I will then post your pictures on our blog for all to see!

·      Thank you in advance to those of you who have volunteered for this field trip. Please let me know, if you have not already, if you are planning on chaperoning!

 LUNCH:

Every child and chaperone needs to bring a lunch/drink in a disposable lunch bag.  Please do not put your child’s lunch in their lunch box!

Please write your child’s name on the front of their disposable lunch bag.  It is best if you send a lunch that does not need to be kept refrigerated.

WHAT TO WEAR?
Dress your child in jeans and tennis shoes.  We just received our JYJ Kindergarten t-shirts and we will change into them prior to leaving.

OTHER INFO:
Please DO NOT be late on this day!  We will have a lot to do check and double check before we leave for the farm that morning.   

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions or payment concerns.

Upcoming Dates:

Friday, October 11 – Ganyard Hills Field Trip

Friday, October 18 – Early Release, Joyner Jamboree

Monday, October 28 – Teacher Workday, No School

Thursday, October 31 – Creepy Crawly Day (more info. to come)

Just a Reminder...

Tomorrow is "Relatives Came Day"!

It's STILL a secret!  I hope you can join us at 1:30 to share stories and have a chance to meet everyone's family. Please remember to wait in the hallway and bring a blanket or towel, some cookies, and some favorite story books to share!

Mrs. Leon and I feel so greatly appreciated after reading all of your kind notes on Friday! Thank you so much for all of your support and for helping make JYJ such an amazing school!

Upcoming Field Trip and Other News

Ganyard Hill Farms Field Trip:   

When: October 11

Cost: $15

http://ganyardhillfarm.com/

We are very excited about our upcoming trip to the pumpkin farm!  The cost of the trip includes: transportation to and from the farm, crop mazes, corn crib, observation bee hive, hayride tour, etc. as well as picking a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch!

Please click on the “Online Field Trip Payment” link to pay for our upcoming field trip. If you are unable to pay online, please send in a check or money order written out to Joyner Elementary. Thanks!!

Tomorrow you will receive a permission form in your child's OTIS. Please make sure both sides of the consent form are filled out and return it ASAP. Students are not allowed to attend field trips without this form. More details about the trip and volunteering will be coming home and posted soon.

The Relatives Came
Don't forget that Monday, September 30^th is "Relatives Came Day"!
It's STILL a secret!  I hope you can join us at 1:30 to share stories and have a chance to meet everyone's family. Please remember to wait in the hallway and bring a blanket or towel, some cookies, and some favorite story books to share!

JYJ Kindergarten T-Shirt $10

Please remember to order your JYJ Kindergarten t-shirt. We will wear this t-shirt on all of our field trips and other special occasions. You can pay online using the “Online Field Trip Payment” link located under “Important Classroom Links”.

  

We have enjoyed the Personality Trains that have rolled into class!  The kids and I are enjoying learning things about each other that we didn't know before.  We're finding out that we share things in common and that we're also different from one another! We're looking forward to sharing the remaining personality train posters! 

Upcoming Dates:

Friday, September 27 – Early Release

Monday, September 30 @ 1:30 – Relatives Came Day

Friday, October 11 – Ganyard Hills Field Trip

Friday, October 18 – Early Release, Joyner Jamboree

Attention Parents! The Relatives Came!

 Shhh!! This is a secret!

We would like to invite you to a special reading treat for you and your child on Monday, September at 1:30.

We will be sharing a book in class called The Relatives Came and we are hoping all our parents and/or grandparents will come to surprise the children and read a favorite book with them. 

Please bring a towel or blanket to sit on and your favorite children’s story.  Make sure you arrive with enough time to sign in at the office before coming down to the Kindergarten hall.  We want this to be a surprise, so if you do arrive before 1:15, please try to stay out of the Kindergarten hall as we will be making our way back from Spanish.  After 1:15, please wait in the hall outside our room until we announce your presence.  This would be a GREAT time for you to meet some of the other parents in our room as well!  Please bring cookies to share with the students and other parents.  We can’t wait to see you!! 

Don’t forget…it’s a surprise, so don’t tell your child!

Kindergarten Update and Important Reminders

We had a great week in Kindergarten! The kids are working so well together and I love seeing all the new friendships that are developing. We have been emphasizing working as a team and helping one another throughout the day. I am very proud of how quickly our students are adjusting to the fast-paced life of Kindergarten!! Here are a few pictures from recess and developmental play to give you a little insight. Enjoy!

Thanks again to all the families that have sent in school supplies and wish list items!! We greatly appreciate it!

It was great to see so many parents at Open House this past week. I know we presented you with lots of new information, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

OTIS

Remember that we are sending home OTIS (your child's daily communication notebook) on Monday.  Go through the notebook and check for any notes from our classroom or the school in the communication pocket of the folder.  Please have your child bring it back the next day.  I have been talking with the children that it's their name on the notebook and so they are responsible for giving the notebook to you each day and putting it back in their backpack themselves.  Putting their OTIS where it belongs in our room each morning is part of their morning routine. 

Scholastic Book Club

Monday you will be receiving a few Scholastic Book Order flyers. Scholastic has many great books to choose from and they are very reasonably priced. I am asking that all orders be made online. It is the easiest and most convenient way to order. All you need is the class activation code (see below) for your initial account setup. I will also include this code on the upper left corner of the flyer. Thanks!!

Class Activation Code:J3RKF

JYJ Kindergarten T-Shirt $10

Please remember to order your JYJ Kindergarten t-shirt. We will wear this t-shirt on all of our field trips and other special occasions. You can pay online using the “Online Field Trip Payment” link located under “Important Classroom Links”.

Birthdays

Kindergarten birthdays are acknowledged in the cafeteria.  If it is your child's birthday and you choose to bring something to share with the class, we ask that you bring it at lunch.  During lunch our birthday boy or girl gets to stand in their chair and the entire K grade sings to them.  If you've decided to bring something in, then we'll pass it out at lunch. We eat at 10:45! 

A couple of important dates!
Shhhhhh.... it's a secret!!!   Monday, September 30, 1:30 The Relatives Came:  Details will be coming home this week in OTIS. This is a day when we are inviting all families into our classroom!  But keep it a secret!  The kids won't know until you show up!!

Friday, September 27 – Early Release
Friday, October 11 - Ganyard Hills Farms Field Trip – More details coming soon!