It's been awhile since I've posted on this blog & I apologize. Sometimes life gets a bit ahead of me. However I cannot keep from gushing about my kinders. They are so smart, so kind, so hard working! It seems like there is nothing I put in front of them that they are unwilling to attempt.
We have 3 more letters of the alphabet to go and a picnic to follow to celebrate.
We have been painting beautiful paper inspired by Eric Carle for collages.
We are making a map our our days.
We will be studying time, money, addition & subtraction in the weeks to come.
We have field trips scheduled for the Academy of Science & the Farmers' Market.
We will be learning about the rain forest, plants and more animal concepts.
We are making a book entitled "Dear Zoo."
We dance every Friday and we are darn good at it!
We also have drama class on Fridays as well.
We are sounding out more words & are aware of vowels, rhyming words & tier 2 words.
I could keep going. Mostly I am so proud & I thank you wonderful, amazing children in Room 5.
May 31st will be here too soon & I will have to send you off to 1 st grade. I will do it sadly but also with pride and appreciation that you were in my class for a year!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Thank you
Thank yous are in order to those of you who continue to support Room 5. Can't thank you enough for your donations to our snack fund. We love eating and I love that the kids can enjoy a snack together daily. It is a community builder & I love that they enjoy each other so much.
So here,s what we've been uo to:
100 snacks & counting to 100
A 100 word book
Learning about the color wheel & painting paper for our Eric Carle inspired collages
Getting ready for Chinese New Year
Posters for the zoo contest - the kids drew the desert tortoise
Letters I,j & k
Soccer for P.E.
Can't believe the year is half over! Your children have accomplished a lot!
You would have been touched to see all the kids give a stuffed monkey a hug for Jack. We are participating in the Monkey in my Chair program to stay in touch with Jack. A big monkey sits in his chair and the kids send messages via his backpack.
I'm so proud of you kinders. You are rock stars!!!
So here,s what we've been uo to:
100 snacks & counting to 100
A 100 word book
Learning about the color wheel & painting paper for our Eric Carle inspired collages
Getting ready for Chinese New Year
Posters for the zoo contest - the kids drew the desert tortoise
Letters I,j & k
Soccer for P.E.
Can't believe the year is half over! Your children have accomplished a lot!
You would have been touched to see all the kids give a stuffed monkey a hug for Jack. We are participating in the Monkey in my Chair program to stay in touch with Jack. A big monkey sits in his chair and the kids send messages via his backpack.
I'm so proud of you kinders. You are rock stars!!!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
We Did It!!!!
Today we saw a great production of Rumpelstiltskin at the Children's Theater at the Legion of Honor. We loved it! We also trekked the 25 blocks back to Sutro. I was so proud of the class because they behaved perfectly, didn't complain one iota & were appreciative of the experience. I got to be partners with each student so I had a happy day! Thank yous are in order to Eme & Hannah's moms, Fiona's dad & of course my ever present cheerleader and sidekick Ms. Sabrina. I couldn't have made the 1 1/2 mile walk without them. The kids were an absolute delight today & were the best behaved class in the theater. You rock kids!
Thank you for a great day!
Don't forget to check out Jack's website - a bunch of Room Fivers posted good wishes on his site. Jack- we're rooting for you honey!
Thank you for a great day!
Don't forget to check out Jack's website - a bunch of Room Fivers posted good wishes on his site. Jack- we're rooting for you honey!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Here's some news
Well today I got a call from Jack's mom and she confirmed that Jack has leukemia & will not return to school. The kinders &I had a talk and I explained that he is sick & will need a long time to get well. We all miss him and hope that the love we have for him will help him through this.
If you would like to know more, his family gave me this website:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jackonaut/guestbook
I can imagine how his parents feel as one of my kids is a cancer survivor. It can be such a frightening time, exhaustingly draining & unbearable. Luckily Jack's prognosis is good so let's all keep him in our hearts, pray for his strength & ability to come through this without it marring his childhood. The Room Fivers are making a book for him & we plan to stay in touch.
Meanwhile- field trip tomorrow! We're ready & waiting!
Also more intense work in class- more reading & writing- also numbers in the teens.
What is keeping me together through all this are your wonderful children. Thank you for entrusting them to me, for their pure hearts and spirits!
If you would like to know more, his family gave me this website:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/jackonaut/guestbook
I can imagine how his parents feel as one of my kids is a cancer survivor. It can be such a frightening time, exhaustingly draining & unbearable. Luckily Jack's prognosis is good so let's all keep him in our hearts, pray for his strength & ability to come through this without it marring his childhood. The Room Fivers are making a book for him & we plan to stay in touch.
Meanwhile- field trip tomorrow! We're ready & waiting!
Also more intense work in class- more reading & writing- also numbers in the teens.
What is keeping me together through all this are your wonderful children. Thank you for entrusting them to me, for their pure hearts and spirits!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Wow we are making progress!
The kinders are doing well thus far. We have covered the letters: m,s,f,b,t,c,a,r,l,p,o,d and now we are on the letter/g/. Your child should be able to read & spell words like pot, cat, fast, lost, soft etc. During spelling time most of them can!
I am amazed at how the class gets to work. Transitions & clean up take a bit longer than I'd like but we manage. Nevertheless it is a busy, chatty class & I love them.
We are gearing up for our Thanksgiving Feast- another note will go home tomorrow. Our feast will be next Tuesday & we're making fruit salad. There will be turkey, cornbread, stuffing etc. for the K-2nd graders. I myself can't believe how the holiday crept up on us! I'm cooking for about 15 and my kids say I go into my crazy zone- but I love cooking for a crowd.
I am slowly depleting our snack fund so if you can, please help out with a donation so I can continue to feed our kids a snack. Thanks,
We just finished reading Fantastic Mr. Fox and my instincts were correct- Room Fivers love being read to even without pictures!
We are finishing a rhyming food book - this time the kids stayed organized and the pictures are great! Look for it in the next couple of days!
As always, love you kinders! Great job!
I am amazed at how the class gets to work. Transitions & clean up take a bit longer than I'd like but we manage. Nevertheless it is a busy, chatty class & I love them.
We are gearing up for our Thanksgiving Feast- another note will go home tomorrow. Our feast will be next Tuesday & we're making fruit salad. There will be turkey, cornbread, stuffing etc. for the K-2nd graders. I myself can't believe how the holiday crept up on us! I'm cooking for about 15 and my kids say I go into my crazy zone- but I love cooking for a crowd.
I am slowly depleting our snack fund so if you can, please help out with a donation so I can continue to feed our kids a snack. Thanks,
We just finished reading Fantastic Mr. Fox and my instincts were correct- Room Fivers love being read to even without pictures!
We are finishing a rhyming food book - this time the kids stayed organized and the pictures are great! Look for it in the next couple of days!
As always, love you kinders! Great job!
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Back at Sutro & yes we have a vowel!
I'm so glad to be back at school with all of my little guys! I love Seattle and it's so pretty there - it did my heart good to see my daughter (no, she's not home yet) and be away from S.F. for a few days.
Last week we worked on the letter /a/ in the medial position. That pesky /a/ is posing some problems for some. We are working on the letter /r/ this week and are making rhinos, rockets, & robots.
In math we are still working on one to one correspondence with numbers and we are doing more graphing. It is fun to see them grasping the concept of graphs - a visual way to show information so they can generalize.
Parent conferences are next week. Please remember that dismissal is at 1:40. I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your wonderful children!
More later
Last week we worked on the letter /a/ in the medial position. That pesky /a/ is posing some problems for some. We are working on the letter /r/ this week and are making rhinos, rockets, & robots.
In math we are still working on one to one correspondence with numbers and we are doing more graphing. It is fun to see them grasping the concept of graphs - a visual way to show information so they can generalize.
Parent conferences are next week. Please remember that dismissal is at 1:40. I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your wonderful children!
More later
Friday, September 30, 2011
The letter /Cc/
What a week we had! Lots of busy days and lots of work from Room Fivers. Something came over the class this week - there seemed to be this buzz of determination. After center time in the mornings, kids kept asking me what other work should be done so I cranked it out and so did they! I wanted to pinch myself but instead reveled in the fact that all of my students kept working and didn't mind not taking a bit of a break for free time. I am so proud of them!
They finished 2 books this week, really got the concept of left and right and followed directions so well. On Fridays I give a packet of work to see if they integrated their letter knowledge. It is 4 pages long and they just got it done. I also do spelling in small groups when others are working and I'm proud to say many of them get beginning and ending sounds. Wow!
All of us teachers at Sutro got this very cool piece of equipment this year called an Elmo. Thank you Mr. Poon! It's an opaque projector and it makes teaching much easier. I can share small pictures from books, I can do directed drawing, have kids follow along on a worksheet and much more! They love it because it's dark in the room and they look at a screen. Focusing is much easier and all can see what I'm doing. Love that Elmo.
I started reading a chapter book to them this week - Fantastic Mr. Fox and they love it! I adore Roald Dahl. As much as I love illustrations and book art, I feel it's important for kids to listen to words and form their own impressions & pictures in their minds. This group loves being read to and this is the perfect book to start. Last year I read The Tale of Despereaux to my class and they hung in there for the long read. Longer books let them experience exposition over a longer period, character development and conflict resolution. It also gives them experience with beginning, middle and end. So Room 5, we're off on this literary adventure. They love words - higher tier vocabulary like ordinary, unfamiliar, identical so they are getting that exposure as well.
We sure are a class that loves to eat. This week Khatansuld's mom brought us delicious strawberries and today we plowed through 2 bags of mini bagels and cream cheese. Yum.
Parent conference forms went out on Wednesday. Thank you for being timely about returning your preferences. I will try and honor as many choices as I can, but the Friday afternoon appointments are gone. Please be flexible - I appreciate it.
Next week I will not be in school on Thursday and Friday. I wish I could pack up Room 5 kids & take them with me on my trip. I am going to Seattle over the long weekend. My daughter is moving back to San Francisco and I can't wait to have her here! I have a competent substitute who is very familiar with Sutro. She student taught in my classroom so she is well versed in my program.
Thank you kids for being so great. Thank you families for loving our class. A big thank you to Evan's dad for spending a morning with us. Mr. Papa, no wonder Evan is such a wonderful boy! He has an awesome dad!
They finished 2 books this week, really got the concept of left and right and followed directions so well. On Fridays I give a packet of work to see if they integrated their letter knowledge. It is 4 pages long and they just got it done. I also do spelling in small groups when others are working and I'm proud to say many of them get beginning and ending sounds. Wow!
All of us teachers at Sutro got this very cool piece of equipment this year called an Elmo. Thank you Mr. Poon! It's an opaque projector and it makes teaching much easier. I can share small pictures from books, I can do directed drawing, have kids follow along on a worksheet and much more! They love it because it's dark in the room and they look at a screen. Focusing is much easier and all can see what I'm doing. Love that Elmo.
I started reading a chapter book to them this week - Fantastic Mr. Fox and they love it! I adore Roald Dahl. As much as I love illustrations and book art, I feel it's important for kids to listen to words and form their own impressions & pictures in their minds. This group loves being read to and this is the perfect book to start. Last year I read The Tale of Despereaux to my class and they hung in there for the long read. Longer books let them experience exposition over a longer period, character development and conflict resolution. It also gives them experience with beginning, middle and end. So Room 5, we're off on this literary adventure. They love words - higher tier vocabulary like ordinary, unfamiliar, identical so they are getting that exposure as well.
We sure are a class that loves to eat. This week Khatansuld's mom brought us delicious strawberries and today we plowed through 2 bags of mini bagels and cream cheese. Yum.
Parent conference forms went out on Wednesday. Thank you for being timely about returning your preferences. I will try and honor as many choices as I can, but the Friday afternoon appointments are gone. Please be flexible - I appreciate it.
Next week I will not be in school on Thursday and Friday. I wish I could pack up Room 5 kids & take them with me on my trip. I am going to Seattle over the long weekend. My daughter is moving back to San Francisco and I can't wait to have her here! I have a competent substitute who is very familiar with Sutro. She student taught in my classroom so she is well versed in my program.
Thank you kids for being so great. Thank you families for loving our class. A big thank you to Evan's dad for spending a morning with us. Mr. Papa, no wonder Evan is such a wonderful boy! He has an awesome dad!
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