February 1-5

February is here! We have so many fun events to celebrate: the 100th day of being Kindergarteners, Valentine's Day, Family Night! We are so excited! 

Here is the February homework calendar.   

Here is the lunch menu.


Upcoming events:

• February 8th: 100 day of school celebration! Don't forget to send back your 100 things poster! 
• February 9th: Half Day
• February 12th: Valentine's Day Party 
• February 17th: Field Trip
• February 25th: Half Day
• February 26th: NO SCHOOL
• February 29th: Family Night-Music, Munchies, and Masterpieces

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: As we continue to grow as readers, we will make sure we are asking ourselves, "Does this word make sense? Does it look right? Does is sound right?" If something doesn't seem quite right when solving a tricky word, readers need to go back to fix it up! This week, we will be focusing on thinking of the whole book and using our prior knowledge to decide what would make sense. As you read with your child, make sure to use those 3 questions when they are working to figure out a tricky word! 

Writing:  This Friday will be our How-to unit celebration. We will review all the different parts of a How-to book using our whole-class book, How-to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.  We will edit our books and prepare to publish at the end of the week. We will test out our class how to book by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a snack! Hopefully we follow the book’s suggestion to clean up the sticky jelly if it gets on the table!

Math:

• Students will use a Math Expressions activity page to practice shape recognition and position words.  
• We will build teen numbers with real objects. 
• Students will play go fish with teen number cards (14 and 10+4 would be a match). 
• Students will challenge each other’s’ adding and subtracting skills by showing a partner a number of chips. Then, they will cover some of the chips with a cup. The partner will need to look at the pieces remaining to determine the number of chips under the cup. This is a great way to practice number sequencing and number sense!  

Word Study: Our new sight words are with, new, away, down, & do.

Here are our sight words.

Science: Back to science this week! We are going to be studying wood and paper. Students will explore different types of wood and study how it feels, looks, smells, etc. Then, we will test whether wood will float or sink.

Our reading celebration!

Centers for socials studies!

Giggling while making up family stories

One of the "acting out" pictures shows a family posing for a picture. This group decided they needed a selfie taken! 

Or two...:)

Working hard on our houses to show who is in our families

Working with partners creates a lot of good conversation in our classroom!

Writing during social studies allows us to practice everything we've been working so hard on during writer's workshop!

Check out our reader's workshop. These independent readers are amazing! 

January 25-29

We had a wonderful time celebrating our school last week! I feel proud and thankful that I have the opportunity to work with such great kids and their families. Thank you for all your do! 


Upcoming events:

• January 29th: NDLC/Quinney Joint Dance 6:00-7:30
• February 8th: 100 day of school celebration! 
• February 9th: Half Day
• February 25th: Half Day
• February 26th: NO SCHOOL

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: As we wrap up this reading unit, I am amazed at the work these students are doing! Readers will search for sight words with endings, make predictions about their books, and retell books with their partners. As you read, ask your child how the characters might be feeling. After reading a book at home, ask your reader:

• Who was in the story?
• Where was the story happening?
• What happened or what were the big events in the story? Remember to tell it in order! 

Writing:  We have been working so hard to add even more to our How-To books. I am astonished whenever I walk around the room and see the students trying to apply exactly what we talked about during the minilesson to their writing. This week, they will learn to use comparisons, writing a collection of How-To’s, and adding introductions and conclusions to our books. These books are going to be so wonderful to share after we publish next week! 

Math: 

• Students will choose a domino and write the equation on a white board. They will practice telling story problems to match the equations. 
• Students will toss red and yellow chips from a cup to a tray. They will look at the number of yellow and red tiles to record partner numbers. 
• Mathematicians will play memory with teen numbers and equations. 14 and 10+4 would be a match
• We will build teen numbers with unifix cubes and a teen number. 

Word Study: We will continue to work with the following sight words: he, she, did, help, & make.  

We will also discuss long and short vowels. Typically, we focus on the short vowel sound, but as students are reading more and more, they will come across the long vowel sounds as well. The chart is a helpful visual!

Here are our sight words.

Social Studies : We will have center rotations where students can explore families and create representations of their families. So far, the students have had meaningful conversations about how all families are different and what it means to be part of a family. Here are the centers:

• Students will looks at picutres of families. They will act out the scenarios thinking about what the people might be saying and how they are feeling. 
• Each student  will create a family books to teach others about his/her family
• Students will interview a partner by asking questions about who is in their family. They will create a grid to represent who the people in their family are. 

Don't forget: there is a final info sessions for families interested in enrolling! Remind your friends and family members who are interested to join us January 25th from 6-7 at New Directions to learn more about our school. Or, have them call 766-6116 to set up a tour anytime! 

Crazy hair and hat day!

January 18-22

It's Celebrate New Directions week! 

Upcoming events:

• See Above! 
• January 22nd: Yearbook forms are due! 
• January 29th: NDLC/Quinney Joint Dance 6:00-7:30

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: Readers are looking closely at the words in their books rather than relying on pictures to help figure out tricky words! We will get ready to read our new books by previewing pages to look for words we know (our sight words!) and checking the whole picture to find clues about our words.

**I will be sending home a "Matching Books to Readers" sheet in your child's book bag. Refer to this sheet for tips and information about your child's current reading level. Feel free to keep these sheets at home! 

Writing:  We will study other How-To books to see how we can make ours even better! Students will learn to use the word ‘You’ when writing a book of directions. We will focus on choosing descriptive words and giving our readers warnings, suggestions, and tips just like in published How-To books. 

Math: Students are exploring sorting, equal and not equal, addition, teen numbers, and shapes this week. Ask your child to sort things around the house with you and DESCRIBE the attributes of the objects. The math talk is the most important part of the activity!

• Students will use dice to compare numbers with equal and not equal signs. 
• Using a variety of math shapes, students will sort and ask partners to describe why the shapes are sorted that way. Then they will play, "What's Missing". Partners place objects on a grid. Partner 1 removes an object. Partner 2 guesses which object was missing using positional words. (i.e. The blue square below the orange triangle is missing.)
• Students will choose a domino and add the numbers they see. Students will practice writing the equation. 
• We will build teen numbers using tiles, five groups, and ten strips. Using the different types of number groups will help the students to group numbers when counting and visualizing. 

Word Study:  Our sight words for the week are he, she, did, help, & make. One way we work on sight words at school is to look, say, cover, write, then check the word. Try it out at home!  

Here are our sight words.

Social Studies : We explored families using the iPads last week. We looked up information using Pebblego. 

January 11-15

Brrrrr! It's cold. Remember to come to school bundled up! Feel free to send extra gloves in case a pair gets wet during our first recess. 

Starting this week, students can bring one thing in to share from home during our Morning Meeting time! Check your email to see what day your child can bring something in to share.

Here is the January homework calendar. 

Upcoming events:

• January 15th: Half Day 
• January 18th-22nd: Celebrate NDLC Week! 
• January 19th: Family Night-Spaghetti and Art Night at 5:30
• Remember to send in your RSVP
• January 20th: No School
• January 21st: Family Night-Gym Night 
• January 22nd: Pep Rally 
• January 29th: NDLC/Quinney Joint Dance 6:00-7:30

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: You may notice a new 'dot' color in your child's book bag. These books may be tricky as they are full of new words, longer sentences, and even dialogue. Remember to keep asking, "Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?" while your reader is figuring out those tricky words. 

This week, the readers will use their letter-sound knowledge to help them figure out tricky words on the page.

Writing:  As we continue to work with How To books, students will work with partners to act out the books to check if the directions/steps make sense. They will add labels to their pictures and diagrams. Finally, they will look at our charts to set goals to create the very best writing they can! For example, students may choose to focus on writing details about their topic. I am excited to see how the students set goals for themselves. 

Math: We will work with teen numbers, adding and subtracting, and shapes. 

• Students will use dice to race to be the first to make a teen number. They are encouraged to add numbers and group manipulatives in ten and five groups to see the numbers quickly.   
• At a listening center, students will hear adding and subtracting word problems. They will show the problem/solution using manipulatives and by writing the equation.
• Students will use triangles, rectangles, squares, circles, and hexagons to create new shapes. A partner will try to create the same shape. Then, they will discuss the shapes’ attributes and how you can use familiar shapes to make a new shape. 
•  Mathematicians will dump of cup full of chips to find out what teen number is in the cup. Then, they will draw a picture of that teen number and fill in the blanks to tell how many 10s and 1s make up the teen number. 

Word Study:  Our sight words for the week are play, have, get, will, & for.  

Here are our sight words.

Social Studies : We are beginning a new unit studying families! We will begin this week exploring the question, “What is a family?” We will do this through a video aloud, read aloud, and class discussions. During a video aloud, students view a video without sound. During this time, they are watching carefully to try and interpret what they see. After discussion, we will listen to the audio and continue class discussion.

Friday's inside recess!

Although it was a bit noisy in our room, these "cats and dogs" had fun with inside recess today! There was so much imagination! Everyone played so well together and were very welcoming to any new ideas. 

Info Sessions

As we move towards January, New Directions begins to think about enrollment for next year. We have several informational sessions scheduled during the month of January for any families who would like to learn more about New Directions for their child. Word of mouth is the best way to spread the great things happening at New Directions, so if you know of any families who would be interested in sending their children to New Directions, here are the dates of our upcoming information sessions:

• Tuesday, January 5th-6:00-7:00 PM Info Session at New Directions
• Thursday, January 14th-6:00-7:30 PM District-Wide Info Session held at Tanner Early Learning Center
• Tuesday, January 19th-5:30-7:00 PM-Spaghetti and Art Family Night
• Wednesday, January 20th-10:00 AM-noon-Open House at New Directions
• Monday, January 25th-6:00-7:00 PM-Info Session at New Directions

Families can also call Mrs. Frischmann at 766-6116 to set up individual tours.

January 4-8

Welcome back! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful break. I can't wait to get started on all of our exciting new K learning! 

Remember to send snow gear to school! Students will be able to use it during recess times and getting ready to go at the end of the day. 

Here is the January lunch calendar. 

Here is the January homework calendar. 

Upcoming events:

• January 15th: Half Day 
• January 18th-22nd: Celebrate NDLC Week! 
• January 19th: Family Night-Spaghetti and Art Night at 5:30
• January 20th: No School
• January 21st: Family Night-Gym Night 
• January 22nd: Pep Rally 
• January 29th: NDLC/Quinney Joint Dance 6:00-7:30

What’s happening in Kindergarten this week?

Reading: Kindergarten readers are about to start growing bigger muscles to read bigger books! We will look closely at the patterns in our books and use those to help us solve tricky words. We will make sure we are understanding what we read by going back to check our reading and using the ending to understand our books. Sometimes, the books that come home in book baggies are tricky! You can help your child out by encouraging him/her to check the picture, use the beginning sound, and use sight words to help! 

Writing:  We will be learning to write How To books during this unit. We will write a class book as a model in the beginning of the week. Students will begin writing their own books too! To help your child generate ideas to write about, talk through the steps of things your child does at home. For example, a bed time routine, cooking dinner, getting ready for school, etc. 

Math:

We will continue to work with teen numbers, partner numbers, and 10 groups.

• Students will make a teen numbers book that shows the teen number as 10+ some extras.  
• Mathematicians will use ten strips, number tiles, and other manipulatives to build teen numbers. It is important that the students see that every teen number has a ten "hidden" inside of it. 
• We will make break apart books where students will use dotters and strips to show the partners of the numbers 2-6. 
• We will practice adding and subtracting fluently within 5 using dominoes. Students will write the equations on whiteboards. 

Word Study:  Our new sight words for the week are play, have, get, will, & for.  I would encourage students to practice writing their sorts at home! Dry erase markers, with a spoon in the snow, or with paint and a Q-tip are fun ways to practice! 

Here are our sight words.

Social Studies : As we come back after a long break, we will use our social studies time slot as a time to ‘reboot’. We will go over what we can do to learn and play successfully in our classroom. Next week, we will begin our Family Unit.

Super Reader Day!

Super Readers! 

Sight Word  POW! 

We built sight word towers, read the words, and knocked them down! 

Super Readers swatted at beginning letter sounds. 

We colored sight word pictures! 

Check out these capes! 

Such STRONG Super Readers!