Sign up Sheets

Sign up to volunteer and to bring supplies!!

Supply List: Snacks & materials for end of year activities!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JBaV-E4mpRzVHBmHrUe5HxUzRw6Su85TGJlZ8l-OXAg/edit#gid=0

Volunteer sign-up for Beach Day!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajcg5Q5jCEkldEdoU3l4Vk5iS2NCWUdQZm4xQUpJTkE&usp=sharing#gid=0

Lots of Important Announcements!

JY Joyner Field Day

Friday, May 23

8:30 – 10:30 K-2

Kiwanis Park

Things to remember…..

*sunscreen should be put on at home BEFORE coming to school

*wear tennis shoes (no flip flops)

*wear tie-dyed Kindergarten shirt

*bring a change of clothing (including socks, underwear and shoes)

*bagged lunch (we will be eating in the classroom that day)

Animal Report

Animal reports are due next Friday, May 23.  We encourage you to go to pebblego.com to retrieve information.  This is a great website – very age appropriate and easy for the kids to use! 

Username:  joyner

Password:  book

Animal Parade:  On Wednesday, May 28^{th at 8:45}, the Kindergarten students will be having their Animal Parade.  Each student will carry or wear their animal project and we will parade through the halls to show off everyone’s hard work!

Lunch Coverage:  Because of Field Day next week, we WON’T be having K lunch coverage, May 23.   We did want to extend our sincerest thanks to parents who have taken the time to cover lunch so that teachers and teaching assistants can have a duty-free lunch once a month.  We are so grateful!  Thank you!

Reading:  We continue to work on building our sight word (target words) vocabulary.  Please continue working with your child at home to recognize these words in their reading and to work toward conventional spelling of these words in their writing.  During Daily 5, we are building our foundation of various reading skills.  We’ve learned that it’s OK to skip a word we don’t know, to read to the end of the sentence and then go back and try and make a guess.  We’re learning the difference between a good guess and a not so good guess.  A good guess needs to make sense, sound right in the sentence and look right (do those letters make the sounds I am saying?)  As we build strategic readers, we are working toward independently moving between difference strategies to solve for unknown words.  Sounding out a word is a good strategy, but it is important to remember that it is not the only strategy and it is not always the best strategy.  By asking the questions:  Does it make sense?  Does it sound right?  Does it look right?, we are helping children to not only build their reading strategies, but it ultimately strengthens their comprehension of the text. 

Writing: In Daily 5, we are thinking about our own writing and what specifically make us a better writer.  We are thinking specifically about the following things that good writers do when they write:

1.          Using finger space between words

2.         Putting a period at the end of a sentence.

3.          Using target words correctly.

4.        Using a beginning, middle and end to our stories.

5.         Writing more than one thought (sentence) about a topic.

As we write in Daily 5, the children are specifically targeting one goal for their writing that day and making certain that we are working toward achieving that goal! 

Math:  We continue to work on addition and subtraction.  Our subtraction and addition problems go to 20.  We are beginning to work on word problems and having to decide whether we use addition or whether we use subtraction to solve the problem.  We try to think…”are we getting more?  …. Are we getting less?”

We begin our study of measurement.  We are using non-standard units of measurement to measure objects.  What would happen if I measured two objects with the same thing?  What would happen if I measure the same object, but with two different measurement units?

We are also studying different types of graphs! 

***IMPORTANT***

Kindergarten plans a beach day at the end of the school year.

Please note the following dates:

Tuesday, June 10

      Forbes

      Thompson

      Piner

Wednesday, June 11

      Del

      Wilkinson

      PreK

(We will doing a specific blog post later in the week to explain all the volunteer opportunities and supplies needed! )  IT’S a BLAST!!!!

Kindergarten Orientation is MAY 2 at 11:30.  I am so sorry for the confusion!  I had the wrong date and time written down, so please take note of this!  Thanks!!

What's coming up...

In Our Classroom:

Reading: We have spent quite a bit of time going over the different ways to “make a connection” to the books we are reading.  We will continue this for several weeks as we meet in our reading groups and have carpet time read-a-louds.

Making a connection really just means ….  “When you read this book, what does it remind you of?”   It’s important to remember to give the details of what you're thinking. We’ve learned that we can make the following connections:

·       Book to Myself:  When I read this book it reminded me about when I….

·       Book to Book:  When I read this book I think about another book that I’ve read because….

·       Book to World:  When I read this book, I think about something that I know about or know of that’s similar….(something that has happened in the world around me.)

Writing:  In writing, we are always creating stories that 1) make sense; 2) start with a capital letter and 3) end with a period.  We have been trying hard to shape our lowercase letters correctly, and we are doing a great job at it!   

 

We will soon learn that “How to” books teach us how to do something.  "How to" books are non-fiction and have special features such as using “time words” like, first, then, next, at last.  

Math: We continue to work on composing and decomposing numbers to 10.  We are learning that 2 number friends can make ten and that there are lots of different friends to make 10.  For instance,  3 and 7 make 10…. So does 5 and 5, etc.

We’re rote counting to 100!  Also try rote counting to 100 but starting at any number other than 1 – start at 29, etc.!!

Important Dates:

Report Cards go home at the end of this week.

May 2 – K Orientation (if you know of anyone who has not registered their K child, please tell them to do so ASAP)

A few important updates:
1) Spring Scavenger Hunt sign-up
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar_jC1wzwJj8dHZUV2hWYjdLVU1PREo0dGthb1I1elE&usp=sharing

2) Science-Go-Round
Science-Go-Round is this THURSDAY, March 27. Students must bring a BAG LUNCH on this day.  We will be eating in our classrooms so please plan accordingly.  Sorry for the late notice.  Please email with any questions.

3) Friday's Read-A-Thon!
*Wear your pajamas
*Bring $1.00 for milk and cookies (for us to enjoy while we are reading during the day)
*Bring a few favorite books to share

4) Go Bags
A while ago, some of you requested that Go Bags be sent home on Fridays (instead of Mondays) so that students can have extra time with their books at home, over the weekend.  I started sending Go Bags home on Fridays, but neglected to share this with you.  Go bags will go home Fridays (instead of Mondays) and can stay at home through the weekend and the following week.  Students will have the opportunity to read their books Friday evening through the following Thursday evening.  Thank you for your flexibility with this!  I hope this is working out well for all of you.

WAKE Up and Read Book Drive

Don’t forget to send in your gently used books for JYJ’s WAKE Up and Read Book Drive.  Our school goal is to collect 2,000 books, but within a few days so far, we have collected over 500 books!   So scrounge around your bookshelves and send in those books that you no longer need and benefit another child within Wake County who does not have access to books.

 Kindergarten Spring Scavenger Hunt: The date has not been set, but our class will be having a Spring Scavenger Hunt and we need your help!  I have attached a sign up sheet to the blog.  We need filled plastic Easter eggs.  If you can help, please go to the sign up sheet and put your name beside the item.  We have a scavenger hunt for specific eggs – children will hunt for the eggs that have the following written on the outside of the egg with a sharpie:

S, P, R, I, N, G, a circle, a square, a triangle,  a rectangle, a smiley face and their initials. 

So each child will end up with 12 eggs!  So you can see we need LOTS of eggs!!!  The sign up sheet should explain how you can specifically prepare eggs.  Please DO NOT put chocolate or unwrapped jelly beans into the eggs.  Stickers, tattoos, life savers, individually wrapped bags of candy, trinkets, etc. are great to use!  If you sign up to help, please send in all eggs by APRIL 11 !!!  THANK YOU!!

 What’s Going on in Kindergarten?

Reading: We continue to build our understanding of story elements.   Practice having your child read their text two times  - the first time to word work and the second time to remember the story.   Practice retelling the characters, setting and sequence of events.  We are beginning to focus on making a connection to the text.  Here are the different types of connections that we are making:

1.          Text to Self – “This story reminds me of something in my own life.”

2.       Text to Text – “This story reminds me of another book that I know.”

3.       Text to World – “This story reminds me of something that has happened in the world around me.”

Making a connection requires children to make inferences and requires much time to teach this skill and  plenty of practice.  Help your child to formulate connections as they read their books each night! 

Math:  We continue addition with numbers to make 10.  We are learning that addition word problems use specific language such as plus, more, altogether, and in all.  The children are practicing making their own simple one-step word problems.

Science:  We are continuing our study of weather.  We have conducted experiments with thermometers to learn how to read a thermometer and to build an understanding about how different temperatures impact our daily decisions. 

Things to remember:

March 27 – Science Go Round

March 27 – End of Quarter

March 28 – Read – a – Thon for Wake Up and Read Book Drive

March 10-14 

JYJ Book Drive

   JYJ is participating in the WAKE Up and Read Book Drive sponsored by WCPSS and Barnes & Noble. This program puts quality books in the hands of children who may not have reading materials at home otherwise.

   We’ve set a goal for our school to collect 2,000 children’s books March 2 – 28. On March 28 the entire school will have a Pajama Day and set aside a time to “WAKE Up and Read” our favorite books from 8:30 – 9:00. If our school collects 2,000 books by March 28, our principal, Mrs. Hutchinson, has promised to wear a rooster costume on that day!

   We are also having a friendly competition here to see which grade level can bring in the MOST books. The children at that grade level will receive a special treat. So look around, clean out your at-home library, and send in those books!

*So far, our classroom has brought in over 100 books!!

In Our Classroom:

   We are working with children on a number of skills during the month of March. We are practicing how to identify characters and the setting in stories and being able to retell at least 3 things that happened in a story we have read. They are coming home with bookmarks in their go bags that they can "touch" to help them remember what to retell.  We are introducing the sh, ch, and th diagraphs in Letterland, including songs, activities, and stories to help us remember the sounds they make.

   We also ask that you work with your child at home on recognizing vowel sounds. They are quite tricky and take a LOT of practice to get right. In Letterland the short vowel sounds are made by Annie Apple, Eddy Elephant, Impy Ink, Oscar Orange, and Uppy Umbrella. The long vowel sounds are made by Mr. A (the Apron Man), Mr. E (the Easy Magic Man), Mr. I (the Ice Cream Man), Mr. O (the Old Man), and Mr. U (the Uniform Man).

   In math we are learning how to solve addition word problems. We are learning vocabulary associated with addition problems with words like “and”, “too”, “altogether”, "more" and “in all”. We are starting with small numbers and not worrying too much about using the plus sign (+) and the equal sign (=), but those will come in time. Soon, we will solve problems using larger numbers with sums up to 20. We will also learn how to add using more than 2 addends.  

SUPPLIES WE CURRENTLY NEED (please and thank you!):

-Lucky Charms Cereal - we need 4 boxes total

-Lysol Wipes (we are low and will continuously need these)

-Coins (chocolate-foiled "gold" coins) - we need 10 bags 

*I will remove/update items as they come in*

*Please note an addition to our "Classroom Supplies Needed" list below

We are finally back into the swing of things after all this wintry weather has interrupted all our school routines!  Hopefully the groundhog was WRONG & Spring weather will be here soon! 

Healthy Choice Marathon: Help your child remember to keep making healthy choices each day.  We are keeping track of the children reading, exercising and making healthy food choices.  Check out our poster in the hallway to see who has been HEALTHY & don’t forget to sign up for the JYJ 5K!

Dr. Seuss Week-

Kindergarten will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday during the week of March 3 – 7.  We will highlight one of his books each day and have several activities to celebrate the life of Dr. Seuss.  To add to our enjoyment, we’re asking that the students participate in the following ways:

Monday, March 3	Wear GREEN!	Sam discovers his love for green eggs in Green Eggs and Ham!
Tuesday, March 4	Wear CRAZY mismatched socks!	Those Fox in Socks come up with some really silly rhymes!
Wednesday, March 5	Wear something to show us who you are, what you like to do, where you are from, or what makes you special! (ex-if you play soccer-wear your soccer shirt)	The Sneetches learn a lesson about individuality in this Dr. Seuss book!
Thursday, March 6	Bring in 1 BABY picture to share with your classmates!  Do you look like mom or dad?	Horton Hatches the Egg is a tale of an elephant that helps lazy Mayzie!
Friday, March 7	HAT Day! Wear a hat to school!	The Cat in the Hat always wears his hat!

In the Classroom:

Reading: In Reading we are continuing to use Daily 5 to hone our reading strategies.  Though we are still working on decoding unknown words, we are also focusing on retelling stories we have read or heard.  The children are working on identifying the characters of the story (who is in the story), the setting (where the story takes place), & the events of the story (what happened in the story).  Please help your child point out the characters, setting, and events of stories you read at home. 

Writing: In Writing we are working on writing more than one sentence about a topic.  We are still focusing on recording dominant sounds we hear, but we are also working on other skills that Good Writers use.  Our writing should have spacing between words, capitalization only for the beginning of sentences and names, and a period (or correct punctuation) at the end of each sentence.

Math: In Math we are working on different ways to make 5 & 10.  We have started to introduce the language of addition.  We are practicing using terminology (add, plus, more, altogether) that students will learn to recognize as "addition words.”

Mystery Reader: We have had a lot of parents & family members that haven’t been able to be a Mystery Reader because we have several people signed up to come more than once.  Though this is a good problem to have, we are asking that everyone only come one time as Mystery Reader.  If you have already been Mystery Reader, please allow another person the opportunity to participate.  We aren’t limiting Mystery Readers to one per family, so if mom has already come-feel free to sign up dad, grandma, or another family member!  Also-if you are signed up to be Mystery Reader please don’t forget to email me 3 clues about yourself so the class can make guesses about who might be our special visitor.  Mystery Reader is on most Fridays at 11:20am. 

Classroom Supplies Needed- Please consider donating one of the items below to our class:

*Lysol Wipes 
*Lucky Charms (6 boxes total) for a St. Patrick's project

Upcoming Dates-

February 25-Author Visit-Mike Artell

March 3 – 7-Dr. Seuss Week

March 6-Spring Picture Day

March 9-JYJ 5K

The Mini-Meteorologist Are Coming!

This week we will be having an in-school field trip. The Weather Wizards will be visiting Kindergarten Wednesday, February 5^th and Thursday, February 6^th.  There is no cost for this field trip.  It has been covered by the school. This is a very exciting and educational, hands-on event for your children. This field-trip goes along with our science unit on weather. Ask your “mini-meteorologist” all about it!!

 

The 100^th Day of School is Almost Here!!

How exciting! Our 100^th day of school is drawing near.  Monday, February 10^thmarks the 100^th day of school for our students. What an accomplishment!  We have some special activities planned that require some supplies.  If you have signed up for an item, please send it to school by Friday.  Before is even better! 

Valentine’s Day Celebration

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day next Friday, February 14^th.  If you have not done so, please send in an empty cereal box.  We will be using these to make our Valentine Day mailboxes.  We will be making a snack as well. If you would like to send in an item, please check the link to the right.

 

In Our Classroom!

 

Reading: 

We will continue using all five components of the Daily 5.  It is so exciting to finally be using all 5!  The children have been working hard on using their reading strategies that we have introduced.  They have been working on reading together and are now coaching one another.  It is amazing to walk around the room and see them using the strategies they have learned.  Parents please remember how important it is to give your child “wait time” when you are reading with them at home.  We know how tempting it is  to want to jump right in and help them when they get stuck on a word.  Please allow them time to look at, sound out and use their strategies to figure out a word, when they get stuck.

 

Math:

We will continue to explore 2D and 3D shapes.  We have been and will continue to compare and contrast them.  Thank you so much for the 2D/3D objects you have sent in. The children have had a blast looking at them and sorting them into shape categories. Remember, when you are out and about, help your child find 2D and 3D shapes in their natural environment.  We have really enjoyed the pictures you have been sending in of the shapes in your environment.  Keep them coming!

 

Science:

We will continue to discuss weather.  We are focusing on weather terminology, such as: temperature, precipitation and observation.  We have been discussing how we can use our 5 senses when studying the weather.  For example, our eyes can see the rain falling, our hands and body can feel the rain drops, our ears can hear thunder and the rain falling and you can stick your tongue out and “taste” the rainJ 

The children have really enjoyed this unit so far.  We have been observing the weather and acting like “mini-meteorologists”.  We then draw and write what we have observed in our weather journals. Ask your children all about it!

 

Important Dates to Remember:

*February 10^th:  100^th day of school

*February 10^th:  Healthy Choice Kickoff

  We will be having an  assembly to kick off this event!

(Remember to sign-up for Running Club.  Running Club is FREE and open to all JYJ students to prepare for the 3rd Annual JYJ 5K. The Running Club meets every Thursday from January 30th until March 6th from 3-4 pm.Last year over 260 kids and 50 parents participated )

 

*February 14^th:  Valentine’s Day  

   Celebration

*February 17^th:  Make-up snow day

Week of January 13-17

*Just to remind you…

*Do not forget to send in your 3D objects for our shape museum! 

*Also remember that your child will need a regular sized cereal box for a class project.

*Lost and found is overflowing again!  Please remember to write your child’s name in their jackets, etc.

*If you’d like to order books from Scholastic, go to the link on the right and please place orders by Friday!

We are in need of a few items for our classroom.  Please consider donating one of the items below:

                *100^th Day Sign Up – Please see the sign up under “Important Classroom Links”.

                 *Valentine’s Day - Please see the sign up under “Important Classroom Links”.

                *small magnadoodle boards-Target has them currently in the dollar section, though I think they are $3 each.  We use these for target word practice, writing numbers, sounding out words, recording answers during math group, or for any other activity we can.  The children LOVE these, but the ones I have are literally falling apart.

               *Lysol Dual Action Wipes

In Our Classroom!

READING:  

Yahoo!  We have finally begun learning the 5^th component of the Daily 5!  This last component is called READ TO SOMEONE.  This component consists of children partnering up and sharing a reading book.  They are learning to “read to someone” 3 different ways:

   *Check for Understanding

   *I Read, You Read

   *Read Two Different Books

Let me explain “Check for Understanding”….When one child reads, the other student will follow along in the book and express their understanding at the mid-way point and at the end of the book.  We are teaching them to use the words “I heard you read that…”.  This strategy is used to help children build comprehension and a clear understanding of what is being read.

Literacy also includes oral language structures.  During the school day, we practice answering questions in complete sentences.  We are also working to not only answer questions, but also to ask appropriate questions.

   

WRITING: 

Az ur child brings home riting frum skol or triz to du riting at hom, do not be serprizd at the spelling. The inglish langwij is confusing for studints. Making studints uz “correct” spelling inhibits thair dezir and ability to rit. We uz “temporary spelling” in r wrk. It iz a grat assessment to se wut ur child nos.

        Let ur child red thair riting to u. Displa thair riting around ur home. No that as ur child becomz familyer with riting, he or she wil mak the transishun to standard speling!

        Celebrate your child’s work as a writer. Ask them to read their pictures to you, read their writing and enjoy looking at how far they have come since the beginning of the year.

MATH:   

What’s the difference between a triangle and a square?  How are they alike?  We’re learning all about sides, angles and vertices.  The 2D shapes we are learning to recognize and describe include circle, square, triangle, rectangle, rhombus, trapezoid and hexagon.

SCIENCE:   We are learning that we use our senses to observe the weather.  We charted our favorite season and learned that the changes in seasons really means that the weather has changed. 

-Important Dates:

January 13 – Kindergarten Registration Begins:  If you or anyone you know has a child that will be entering Kindergarten for the 2014-2015 school year, encourage them to go ahead and register.

January 17 – Early Release at 12:30

January 17 – End of 2^nd Quarter

January 20 – Martin Luther King Holiday

January 21 – Teacher Workday

February 5 and 6 – Visit from Science Made Fun to JYJ Kindergarten – “Weather Wizards”

February 6 – Start of JYJ Healthy Choice Marathon

February  14 – Early Release

February 17 – Teacher Workday

We had a great week at school as we’ve settled back into our daily routines!

*Just a couple of things…

-The January SeeSaw Book Club flyer was sent in your child’s OTIS this week.  If you’d like to place an order online, please click onto the Scholastic link on the right side of the blog page.  Please place your order by Friday, January 14.

-Please send in an empty cereal box.  Just a regular size box will be fine!

Please remember to dress your child warmly when they come to school. We do go outside each day and it is important that they are dressed appropriately.

Here’s what we’re working on lately!

READING:   The children have been very excited to go shopping for their dot books (leveled texts) and taking their go bags at home!   It has been fun for me to see their enthusiasm  as they’ve told me about reading to you at night!

Parents often ask how they can help their child at home to support their reading.  One of the MOST important  things to help a budding reader is to  read  aloud to your child each night.  Spend a few minutes talking about the story.  Asking them questions about books that YOU read aloud will support their comprehension and retelling skills.  Helping to instill the joy of reading is a tremendous gift that will stay with your child for a lifetime!   

Each week, we work on specific reading strategies that are then posted on our Daily 5 Café Menu.  These strategies correspond and support  early reading behaviors.  Here is a list of the reading strategies that we have posted so far. 

-Study the cover and think about the story.

-Do a picture a walk.  (Look at all the pictures before you read).

-Point to the words as you read.

-Get your mouth ready (Say the beginning sound of the word.)

-Look for patterns. (I see the cat.  I see the dog.  I see the bird.)

-Check the picture.

-Remember target words.

-Move through the word. (Segment the words in an unknown word.)

COMPREHENSION:    Gaining meaning from the reading is key to building reading levels.  During our guided reading groups, we not only work on decoding strategies, we are working on building an understanding of how to “retell” a story.  To help you at home, please go to the top of the blog and you will find a “page” which includes the story element questions that we ask at school after they have read their leveled text.  As your child reads their dot books at home, use these questions to help support and build your child’s ability to comprehend and retell the stories they are reading. 

WRITING:  We continue to work on personal narratives.   Our writing process includes  thinking of a story, planning, sketching and writing a simple corresponding sentence.  We will be working on writing more than more sentence to support the story, including more detail in the writing and stretching a story across several pages.   Writing conventions include space between words, proper capitalization and segmenting and recording letters for most dominant sounds in words.

MATH:

• ·        Rote counting 1-40
• ·        Recognizing and writing numbers 11-20
• ·        Decomposing “teen” numbers (10 and 3 make 13)
• ·        Counting forward to 20.
• ·        Recognizing, describing and comparing 2D and 3D shapes (names, sides, angles, vertices)

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SCIENCE:   We begin our science unit on weather this week.  (more info to come)

Have a great weekend and enjoy the balmy weather!

-Important Dates:

January 13 – Kindergarten Registration Begins:  If you or anyone you know has a child that will be entering Kindergarten for the 2014-2015 school year, encourage them to go ahead and register.

January 17 – Early Release at 12:30

January 17 – End of 2^nd Quarter

January 20 – Martin Luther King Holiday

January 21 – Teacher Workday

February 5 and 6 – Visit from Science Made Fun to JYJ Kindergarten – “Weather Wizards”

February 6 – Start of JYJ Healthy Choice Marathon

February  14 – Early Release

February 17 – Teacher Workday