SutroRoom5Kinder

Thank you

2012-01-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

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!!!

We Did It!!!!

2012-01-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

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!

Here's some news

2012-01-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

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!

Wow we are making progress!

2011-11-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

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!

Back at Sutro & yes we have a vowel!

2011-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

The letter /Cc/

2011-09-30T23:34:00.000-07:00

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!

Now we're learning /Tt/

2011-09-20T17:40:00.000-07:00

So far, a good week with the letter /t/. We are making teapots, turtles and tigers. We are also working on books with directional words :over, under, inside, outside etc. The kids in Room 5 love making books. One thing we are doing is a rhyming book of animals. It goes like this:
   Bird, bear, bat
   Camel, cow, cat
   Walrus, wolf, whale,
   Sheep, seal, snail etc.
They love chanting the words and some of our limited English students think every animal is either a dog, bird or cat so I figured we needed some help in that area. What makes me so proud is that many of the kids start working on it on their own after their regular work is done. Today I put Evan and Emeline in charge of paper and most of the kids just got to it! Thank you Kimberly, Alyssa, Milly, Fiona, Ellie, Tony, Mia, Hannah and of course Evan and Eme for being so so responsible and encouraging the others by modeling a great work ethic!

We had our first Harvest of the Month today which was apples. The 3rd graders came into Room 5 with a little presentation so we were informed and ready to eat.

Since this week is /t/ we are also eating tortillas with cheese (quesadillas) so I'm bracing myself for cooking with them! That will happened either Thursday or Friday.

In math we are continuing with patterns. I haven't had a chance to procure the critters yet for Room 5, but they are coming.

We started a new thing - Tulip's Journal. The kids will take turns taking Tulip the pig home. Instead of regular homework, they get to write about Tulip in a journal provided. So far, Tulip's been to Eme's house and today is with Elizabeth. Let's see how this turns out!

All in all, the class is great. We all love each other and they love to dance to loud music with me. What fun!

The letter /Bb/

2011-09-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Some of our letter bags

We have two new students in Room 5. Welcome Tony and Nicholas!

We begin the letter /b/ this week. The kids are making bears, birds and bats. During Language Arts time the kids are finishing up their spider bags - look for them and please review the poem with them. I love center time because it allows me to work closely with a few students at a time. I get a chance to know them better, watch them work and interact.

We also finished a little art project "Five Friendly Fish in a Fine Fish bowl" today. They are gorgeous!

In math we are continuing with patterns - they understand the concept really well. I'm trying to teach them about patterns all around us so we've had some good talks about it. They are making a book of linear patterns and it is coming along nicely.

I read a great book called "One" which is a beautifully written book about bullying. The children loved the book and understood what the point of the story was. It gives me great joy to see my students play with each other, include everyone and also seek out kids they might not regularly play with. Today I watched Fiona and Khatansuld walk out of class hand in hand giggling and laughing. Kimberly helped one of our new students, as did Nathan and Evan. Emeline was a wonderful friend to Jason today as well.

Yes, I cut all that paper & more!

I adore your Room 5!

Frankenstein, Foxes, Fish & Lady Gaga

2011-09-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

This short week is being dedicated to the letter sound/Ff/. So, during Language Arts time they are working on phonics, making a fox, and a letter sound bag with a fan, fish and french fries. I am pleased that the kids are getting more and more independent. My groups have been working with me on the Itsy Bitsy Spider setting bags.

We had a wonderful healthy choices lesson with Ms. Pauline - our nutrition education coordinator. The kids listened to "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", practiced knife safety with plastic knives and made a little fruit cup. The tenets we were trying to impress were:
         get at least 10 hours of sleep
         eat fresh fruit and veggies
         eat breakfast every day
         exercise
         wash your hands
The class did very well with understanding all of these things! They enjoyed a little fruit salad of bananas, strawberries, blueberries & sunflower seeds.


In math we finished up sorting. Now we are moving on to patterns: linear, numerical, patterns in nature etc
.

O.K. now for the Lady Gaga part.

I was on yard duty at the last recess. When we came in 7 little girls had smeared glittered lip gloss all over their faces and hair. I wish I had a camera - I thought I had 7 mini Lady Gagas in Room 5. I had to fight not to smile & had to impress upon them how inappropriate that was - first to bring the lip gloss to school, second to smear it all over yourself and third to think it wasn't a big deal. So 7 little girls with this viscous, vaseline glitter stuff in their hair, all over their faces and hands. Yuck. So lots of soap and water and lecturing took up the last 15 minutes of the day. Tears, lots of "I'm sorry Ms. Ogi" and we all hugged at the end of the day.

Tomorrow will be better!

I do love you Room 5. You are terrific kids - even with glitter goo in your hair...

Partner Talk

2011-08-31T20:57:00.000-07:00

I absolutely had to write today to let you all know about "Partner Talk." It's a technique in our Caring Schools curriculum and it was so successful! I asked the kids to partner up and sit knees to knees. The rules are:
   Take turns talking
   Listen
   Be ready to share back
   No one gets left out
They were so great at this! I asked simple questions like "Name a food you think is disgusting. What is your favorite toy? What color do you like?" I asked kids to share back what their partners said and everyone did a great job listening and reporting. Also I heard things like "Join us Jack! Join us Fanny!" It did my heart good! It is all about building community and becoming a family in Room 5. No one was ever without a partner.

Wonderful job kinders! I am so so proud of you!

/S/ is for spider, snake and snacks

2011-08-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

We are in our 2nd week of center rotations and I"m pleased that the kids now know what's expected of them. During that time - 9:15-10:00 it is busy, kids are engaged and working. I am surprised at how much they already know. This week they are reading "Spider, Spider, Come to Tea", making a seal and also /s/ bags with a school, sunflower and a strawberry. After a few more weeks, the bags will serve a purpose. You can have your child dump out all of the things they made in class and then sort them according to letter sounds. That was my intent when I created them. So after this week - 24 bags to go!

In math we continue to sort objects and I am encouraging the students to verbalize attributes and how things were sorted. We graphed colored goldfish crackers after sorting. Today we sorted letters. Everyone seems to be on board. Next week we start patterns.

We began Social Studies this week. The kids know it as the orange book. Right now it's all about beginning school concepts - rules, school, good citizens. Later we will do mapping, community and a bit of history.

I am happy to say that the kids are all getting along. They are trying to get affirmation for routines, good work and behavior. As you probably know, happy notes are a big deal. It's amazing to me that my little drawings are such a huge item at the end of the day.

I am looking forward to seeing you at Back to School Night. I will be showing you some of the books the kids have for their work and will talk about how the first few weeks have been. Bring your questions! See you then. Again thank you parents for your love and support!

The letter /M/

2011-08-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you families for sending in supplies and money for snacks. We are a crew of eaters so we appreciate the contributions that have come in! We have had apples and cheese, popcorn, Asian pears, veggie straws etc. They have been devoured with pleasure and delight!

We started our first week of formal instruction. We began center rotations for Language Arts and so far, the kids are doing well. We are focusing on the letter /m/ and its sound, plus the words 'me, my and I.' It was a bit of a shock to them that they had to sustain an activity on their own, but they hunkered down and got the work done. They are good at helping each other - I hear words of encouragement and gentle corrections throughout the day. Daily News is also a novel thing, but the students are good at listening to the speaker.

In math we are tackling the idea of sorting/classification. So far so good. They have sorted by color, shape, size and other attributes. I'm trying to get them to verbalize about what they did.

The kids love the Piggie and Gerald series of books - they laugh with such joy and get the humor. Also very loved are the Fly Guy books and the David series. Today we read 3 and they are saying "Oh that's my favorite, no that's my favorite!"

I want you all to know that I am falling in love - with all the children in Room 5. They are happy, fabulous children. We are going to have a great year.

Again, thank you for supporting and loving our class!

Welcome to Room 5!

2011-08-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone to Room 5! I was so happy to meet everyone today. The children did wonderfully well. No tears, lots of laughing, they loved the books I read and everyone worked hard!

This week I am assessing the kids both formally and informally. I already have an idea of everyone's fine motor skills. Next week we begin curriculum and our first letter is /M/. We will begin sorting as a topic for math and will have some creatures in the classroom for the kids to study.

I look forward to getting to know your children as time goes on and I know I will enjoy being a part of their academic growth! I am already in love with the class!

If you would like to contact me please see me at school or you can leave me a comment on the blog & I will try & get back to you as soon as I can.