Monica Ros School

The children are adjusting well to their kindergarten environment and enjoying new experiences, friends and teachers. We were all so excited to begin our all school theme week. The children arrived at school this week only to find the skyline of a Renaissance castle with a draw bridge and mote complete with a crocodile. Our campus was full of Renaissance surprises and fun experiences. You could visit Leonardo’s workshop and write top secret notes in invisible ink. A favorite was the ship; it was transformed into The Victoria the only ship to make it back to Spain even our chickens were aboard. You could find the children swabbing the deck or cooking in the galley. Experiences that will last a lifetime! The fun has just begun and we have many more great times ahead.

Math: In math we have been working on recognizing attributes and sorting everything imaginable. We are spending considerable time patterning which is said to be the foundation of all mathematics. We will closely examine patterns all around us: in our classroom; in print; and even on our clothing. We will be playing many math games which increase conceptual understanding since children learn best through everyday, playful activities.

Language Arts: One of our primary concerns in the Kindergarten program is reading readiness. The children learn that letters work together in a systematic way to connect spoken language to written words. This understanding is the foundation for reading. We have been working on letter recognition, letter formation and introducing sounds. We will write letters in many different ways, on chalk boards, in salt trays, and on magic slates. The children are happily signing songs, learning rhymes, playing fun alphabet games and illustrating their journals.

Research in Action
Phonemic awareness is the ability to think about the sounds of words as distinct from their meanings. Because sensitivity to rhyme comes quite easily to most children, rhyme play is an excellent first step toward capturing children’s interest in the similarities and differences in the sounds of individual words. (Marilyn Jager Adams, author, Open Court reading)

We’ve enjoyed reading a favorite children’s chapter book, Charlotte’s Web during the afternoons.

We will begin working on “First-step” stories. First Step stories are simple little books the children make. We want the children to understand that words and pictures go together in books and stories. This experience provides children with meaningful “reading” experiences before they are actually reading on their own while increasing print awareness. Illustrating, narrating and sharing their own stories with friends and family will give the children a sense of pride and allow them to practice the skills and behaviors of accomplished readers and writers.
Thank You: We are so fortunate to have great parent support in our kindergarten. Our gratitude goes out to the parents who accompanied us on our field trip to the Sea Center and Longboard grill in Santa Barbara. We hope you enjoyed yourself!

Many thanks to helpful book making parents Aly_Grigsby and Rachelle_Giuliani for making our take home reading books!
Reminders:

Shoes- We have P.E. on Monday and Friday afternoon please send your child in tennis shoes on that day. In consideration of their safety they will not be able to participate in P.E. games and activities unless they have appropriate foot wear. Water bottles are also a great idea everyday, especially on P.E. Fridays!
Library- We will be going on Wednesday October 14th. The children will have a chance to choose a book in our Library and it will need to be returned any time before the end of the month.
Communication- Please contact us any time, our school number is 646-8184 for Alice ext.203 and Rychelle ext.210. We may also both be contacted by e-mail at afiore@monicaros.org.

Halloween- We will be having our annual Halloween parade and party on Thursday October 30th. Please send your child to school in costume on that day. The children will change into their play clothes following the parade so please make sure that they come to school with a change of clothes. Parents are welcome to join us for the parade we will begin at 8:45.

Pet Hen is our Kindergarten mascot. She is excited to visit with each child in our class and get to know them. Pet Hen has a journal and her stay with you can be documented. The sky is the limit…..photos, stories, food, use your imagination and have fun with our friend. Randomly, a child will get to take her home on Monday for the week and she needs to come back to share her adventure with the class on the following Monday morning! Have fun!

Important Dates to Remember:

October 5th -No school: Staff in-service
October 6th -Theme week begins
October 12th -Picture Day
October 30th -Halloween party and parade Parade 8:45) Kindergarten Teachers, Alice_Fiore and Rychelle_Krout

  October 15, 2009

Dear Parents,

What an incredible group of second graders!  All of the students are enthusiastic learners, diligent workers, and kind and supportive team members.  I am so proud of all the children and appreciate how well they have adjusted to the many responsibilities of second grade and also to the curriculum. Please continue, as I will, to encourage and support them in these areas.

Language Arts:  I am very impressed with the tremendous progress I have seen in my students’ daily writing journals.  Each student’s creative ideas are now freely flowing from their mind/heart to their respective journals with increased accuracy in phonics, spelling, grammar, and writing mechanics.  Daily Oral Language is also progressing nicely.  The children are improving dramatically in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and proofreading.  Learning the parts of speech has also been a primary focus in Language Arts.  To date, we have learned about nouns, adjectives, and verbs.  We are also enjoying our study of synonyms and antonyms.  The students have demonstrated strong skills as “Dictionary Detectives” while learning about alphabetical order and I’m very pleased with each child’s progress in this specific area as well.  We are working hard in spelling with weekly spelling and challenge words in addition to working in our Spellwell and Explode the Code books.  Learning about poetry has been enriching and we recently wrote our first Haiku.  Writing our Haikus also gave the students practice in syllable division.  It has been fun analyzing different poems in Tommy dePaola’s Poetry Book.  We continue to do SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) or Teacher Read Aloud for the first fifteen minutes after lunch each day.  Our first “Book Celebration” is due on Friday, October 30^th.  Students will be asked to complete a “Book Celebration” once a month throughout their second grade year.  Each “Book Celebration” will be a unique activity to encourage your child in his/her independent reading as well assisting with reading comprehension, critical thinking, and literary analysis skills. Please remind your student to read at least twenty minutes each evening and to record the data on their reading logs.  Also, our “Mystery Reader” program has been very successful and the students are having a terrific time analyzing the clues and guessing who our “Mystery Reader” is for the week.  Thank you to all the parents who have already been our “Mystery Reader” and to those who have sent in their clues and preferred reading dates.  Our class also has the nice opportunity to read to their Kindergarten Buddies every Wednesday at 11:45 AM! They are all fantastic mentors and role models for our Kindergarten Buddies.  It is extremely exciting to observe the second graders in this leadership role and they always look forward to the valuable time shared with their buddies.

Math:  Addition and subtraction strategies have been the primary focus the past several weeks. The “Counting On” strategy is very helpful and used with time and calendars.  The “Make Ten” strategy facilitates the counting of larger numbers.  This week, we are learning the tens and ones place value position in working with two digit numbers.  Math facts are another emphasis and the students are progressing well on their timed math facts challenge quizzes.  We are also learning the concept of telling time on analogue/ rotary clocks and plan to focus more in depth on this concept in the next couple of months.  We are playing a variety of math games and are also using math manipulatives to help reinforce the concepts we are learning.  If you are interested, I would recommend the following internet sites for extra challenge and math practice:  1) www.aaamath.com 2) www.hotmath.com 3) www.harcourtschool.com  Please encourage your child to be involved in math in their daily lives by asking them to count change, estimate time, practice telling time, or find patterns in everyday life and nature.  Additionally, please help your child become automatic with math facts by playing games and practicing with flash cards at home.  The best learning takes place when we are having fun!

Science:  What super second grade scientists in our class!  In addition to the science curriculum, we have been conducting numerous activities to help us better understand plant life.  The students have enjoyed learning about different types of leaves, parts of a plant and flower, the respective functions of the plant and flower parts, and the essential components necessary for plants to grow.  We have been working hard in our plant life science journals and look forward to measuring and documenting the daily growth of our lima bean plants which we planted last Friday.

Social Studies:  We have concluded our study of “All About Me” and have been primarily focusing on map skills.  I am very proud of our cartographers for their hard work and accomplishments in this unit.  We will continue our map skills along with geography studies throughout the year, but our primary focus in social studies will be “Our Community” beginning Monday, 10/19. 

Special Subjects:  The second graders continue to do a fabulous job in Art Class with Ms. Fox, Spanish Class with Ms. Carlson, Music Class with Ms. Zonic, and Physical Education with Mr. Franco.  Please encourage them to share all the enriching activities they are participating in all these special subjects.  Just a reminder….our scheduled Library Day is Monday.  Please return your library books on or before Monday so your child has the opportunity to check-out a new book each week.  

Our second grade play, “Turkeys on Strike” will be presented on Thursday, November 19^th at 11:00 AM.  In addition to our practice at school, please encourage your children to practice their character lines and songs at home.  A copy of the script and CD of songs will be sent home in your child’s B.E.A.R. Binder on Monday, 10/19.

Our field trip to Faulkner Farms is this Friday, 10/16.  We will be leaving Monica Ros at 9:15 AM.  Please wear comfortable clothing, sunscreen, and bring a lunch for a picnic at Faulkner Farms following our tour.  We expect to return to Monica Ros by 1:00 PM.

Thank you for sharing your incredible children with me.  I appreciate your dedication, support and collaboration in regards to your child’s education and I am thrilled to be your child’s Second Grade Teacher at Monica Ros School. 

Fondly,

Kerri_Griffee                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Renaissance Week – Second Grade Quotable Quotes

Riley:  “I loved making the pony prancers, the jousting, the weaving machine, hat making and wax museum.”

Meg:  “I really liked Renaissance Week.  The feast was fun and tasty.”

Stapley:  “Renaissance Week was awesome!” I saw my sister, Darcy at the wax museum.”

Jane:  “Renaissance Week was fun!  I liked the feast and horse races with our lineages.”

Kate:  “Everything was fun, especially when Mrs. Griffee dressed up!”

Lillian:  “I loved to play all the games during Renaissance Week.  Thank you so much!”

Tyler:  “I really liked the games, food, hat making, the moat, the feast, and the whole week!”

Alice:  “I liked the wax museum.  I also liked the horse races and castle at the gate.”

Audrey:  I liked the Renaissance Feast, games, horse races, cookies, and everything!”

Arley:  “Thank you for the Renaissance Feast, the weaving machine, and the wax museum.”

Kiana:  “The hat making was really fun.  I also liked the costumes.”

Rhett:  “I liked everything, especially the costumes.  It was neat since all the teachers dressed up.”

September Blue Room News

Dear Parents.

Welcome to school. Our first few weeks have gone wonderfully! Your children are learning so much: how to be a good friend, the bike rules, Blue Room routines, and cleaning up after they play to name just a few. They do love to play! We have a strong contingency of block builders, sand diggers, puzzle doers, kitties, imaginary families and stick horse riders! Imaginary play helps develop social skills that lead to success later in life. We have had Spanish with Senorita Carlson and dance classes with Mrs. Hamann. We are creating our classroom rainbow as we learn about colors, color mixing and shapes.

When the weather was so incredibly hot we purchased an Arrowhead water bottle for each child. These water bottles were filled as needed. We now have a break from the heat but we would appreciate it if you could provide a water bottle for your child that can be sent home, cleaned and brought back to school the next week. We are encouraging the children to drink water daily and having a water bottle has helped immensely.

There have been many children coughing in our classroom. We have been teaching them to cough into the crook of their arm instead of their hands or into the air. We are washing our hands regularly and using tissues as needed. If your child is sick, please allow them that extra day at home before returning to school.

Attached is our first Scholastic book orders. They are a wonderful way to increase your home library at very little cost. Thank you so much to Kara_Hooper for volunteering to take care of the book orders for us!

If you ever have any questions please ask!