Monica Ros School

May 2008

It’s hard to believe the school year is quickly coming to an end with only 5 weeks left.  The last weeks of school are a favorite time for all of us.  The children in this class have become great friends and have learned to work and play together.  We had fun at the Zoo, and Storytelling.  We want to thank all the parents that drove on these fun trips.

WARNING WARNING…CATCHY TOONS COMING YOUR WAY!  We will be performing 21Days, a chick opera.    Save this date May 30th and more information will follow regarding this fun event!

In language arts the kindergarten children will become experts on butterflies and moths.  As we read about the life cycle, we document our newly acquired knowledge in our butterfly book.   While we anxiously await the arrival of our real butterflies, we will be learning about the stages and life cycle of “Painted Ladies”, 

In math we are spending our days reviewing topics learned throughout the year, emphasizing number families (also known as addition and subtraction) and continuing to review the many things we’ve learned throughout the year.   As we become butterfly experts we will begin to graph butterfly sightings for the butterflies we find at home and school.

Thank you to all the parents for coming out to our Grand Opening of our Rainforest Habitats.  The opportunities to use math during this project were endless and the children learned more than imaginable during the process.  

You are all invited to a special field trip to Mrs. Fiore’s house to move our chicks.  We’ll enjoy snack, celebrate summer birthdays, sing and dance, enjoy a “Goat Walk” and celebrate our fun year.

Reminders:
May 23rd  - Move the chicks to summer home at the Fiore’s
May 26th – School Holiday Memorial Day
May 30th   – 11:00a.m. 21 days- followed by a cast party pot luck lunch.
June 2nd  - Field day at Thacher school
June 5th  – Last of School- Noon dismissal and no day care. 
                               Alice & Rychelle

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our best wishes for a very Happy New Year, and we are pleased to welcome your children back to the classroom-we have missed them!

January plans to be an interesting and invigorating month for the children. Our winter classroom theme is the investigation of the life cycles of many penguin species.  We will explore where they live and how they survive the harshness of their environment.  Some of the books we will be reading are The Penguins, by the Cousteau Society,

Mrs. Fiore and Mrs. Krout

Kindergarten Newsletter
October 2007

The children are adjusting well to their Kindergarten environment and enjoying new experiences, friends, and teachers.  We are excited to begin our all school theme week.  We will be exploring Inventions.  James Dyson, designer and engineer and inventor of the cyclone vacuum cleaner, said  “At school you are taught English, math and science, but imagine if you had the good fortune to attend lessons in inventions.  Inventions come down to a curious mind, determination, and creativity-things that we all have”.  Stay tuned for the exciting adventure. 

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 sound introduction.  We will write letters in many different ways, on chalk boards, in salt trays, and on magic slates.   The children are happily singing 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 begun reading a favorite children’s chapter book, Charlotte’s Web, during the afternoons. 

We have begun 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. Many thanks to the parents who accompanied us on our field trip.  A special thanks to Grandma Joyce for her help and support in the classroom.  We have had so much fun listening to stories read to us by Stacy_Davis, Anamaria_Schmid, and Donna_Pope.
We enjoyed singing fun songs with Doug_Day and meeting the well loved puffer fish brought in by Cullen_Robertson.
 
Reminders:

Shoes- We have P.E. on 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.
Library-   We will be going on Wednesday October 3rd.  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.
Halloween-  We will be having our annual Halloween parade and party on Wednesday October 31st.  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 8th  –No school: Staff in-service
October 9th  –Theme week begins
October 22nd - Picture Day
October 31st –Halloween party and parade
                        (Parade 8:45)                                                

Kindergarten Teachers
Mrs._Fiore and Mrs._ Krout

Kindergarten News - March 2007

Our focus this month is the life cycle of the chicken.  Other springtime fun will include learning new songs, getting ready for the mischievous wee folk, and a special spring celebration.  March will prove to be an exciting and memorable time for our kindergarten class.

Language Arts – An EGGciting adventure…The children will be keeping a scientific journal about the eggs developing in our incubator.  We are hoping for baby chicks to start hatching around the 21st of March.   We’ll be reading a book Egg to Chick by Milicent E. Selsam.   The study of Embryology is a fascinating, rewarding and educational experience.

Math – Our 100’s day celebration was a raving success. We are so proud of all the children; what a creative group.  We will continue to review the penny, nickel, dime, and quarter by playing matching coin games.  This month we will begin a chapter on Measurement.  We will learn to compare the length, weight, and capacity of objects by making direct comparisons or using reference objects. We will also begin a Farm Counting Book to help reinforce our number writing skills. 

Science Fair: We will be exhibiting our “Chicken Project” at the Monica Ros Science Fair.  Be sure to mark you calendars for this long awaited experience. An evening exhibit will be held on Wednesday March 28th from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
 
Book orders are due back this Friday!
 
Dates to Remember:

March 7th- Field trip to see The Silly Jellyfish

March 12th – 16th Parent-Teacher conferences- There will be an early dismissal of 11:55 this week.  Hot lunch will not be served.  Please send your child with a lunch if they plan to be in daycare.

March 17th    Art Auction

March 21st - Baby Chicks Due Date

March 28th- Science Fair 5:30-6:30p.m 

March 30th - Skating Party

March 31st -April 9th  - Spring Break 
 
We look forward to meeting with you at conference time.  Please complete and return the attached Parent Reflection form to help us prepare for our conference.  

Alice and Rychelle

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

Our best wishes for a very Happy New Year, and we are pleased to welcome your children back to the classroom-we have missed them! January plans to be an interesting and invigorating month for the children. Our winter classroom theme is the investigation of the life cycles of many penguin species. We will explore where they live and how they survive the harshness of their environment. Some of the books we will be reading are The Penguins, by the Cousteau Society, Antarctica, By Helen Cowcher and The Emperor’s Egg, by Martin Jenkins.

As we bundle up to keep warm in the cool morning air, we can only imagine how penguins withstand their icy and freezing environment. We will eat like penguins, waddle like penguins and play penguin games. We will learn first hand how they adapt and endure their environment. The kids will get to enjoy playing with pretend penguins in icy water, and learn how their feathers, air and fat insulate them. We continue reading our chapter book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We are looking foreword to the “Grand Finale” of this endearing book when we celebrate with our Charlie Party.

Arts Month We return to our school wide theme Ancient Greece, for Arts Month. This is a wonderful tradition at our school and we are excited to have the opportunity to participate. Kindergarten and Gradeschool students are broken into multi-age groups which meet twice per week, Tuesday and Friday to engage in a specific art experience. The culmination of these experiences will be on display in Meyer Hall for founder’s day. More information will follow regarding this special event.

Looking Ahead:

No School Monday January 15th - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Founders’ day is Wednesday January 31st… details to follow!

Mrs. Fiore and Mrs. Krout

We welcome the children back from a week of giving thanks to begin a look at warm holiday traditions. We will be reading many versions of a beloved holiday tale, The Gingerbread Man. As we read the story we’ll be baking, graphing, comparing, enacting and incorporating the science of our taste and smell into this curriculum. We will culminate the festivities at our annual Holiday Program on December 15^th at 11:00 am. The kids have been practicing the songs, in anticipation of the performance. The Kindergarten will be performing in 3 languages this year; English, Spanish, and Sign Language.

Language Arts: In addition to all the “merry –making” we will forge ahead with reading and writing. We will be reading seasonal literature, including Caldecott Medal Winner, The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. We will also read The Legend of the Poinsettia, a Mexican legend retold by Tommie de Paola. The warmth, tradition and magic of these stories are fitting for this season.

Math: We will continue working on our numeral formation and counting. We will be making a class number line using decorated Christmas trees to reinforce the skill of counting by 1’s and 10’s. We will be baking number cookies, a fun and tasty way to practice our numbers. The kids will enjoy making their very own “Monster Squeeze” game and “Spin a Number” game, both of which work on number recognition.

Notes and Reminders:

A big thanks goes to Sara_Moses and Connie_Cline for helping with our Thanksgiving Feast.

A special thanks to Tami_Winbury for sharing their family Indian heritage, Sue_Gilbreth for sharing their recent Pilgrim trip and Joy_Golbere for sharing African drums with our class. We are looking forward to making holiday ornaments with Dana_White later this month.

Our class will be raising money for a school wide Adopt-a-Family project. We will be collecting money for an Ojai family. Details to follow.

Caroling on the Ojai Trolley - December 4th

Holiday Program will be Friday, December 15^th @11:00 a.m. (no day care following performance)

Library books due Wednesday, November 29t^h. We will be checking out new books in January. (Special thanks to Sara_Moses and Dana_White for helping with Library)

Please make the following change in your school directory-

Catherine C.

We would like to extend warm wishes to each of your families. We are very pleased and proud of each of our students. They truly bring joy to our days and delight to our hearts. We wish the best of the holidays to you all.

Alice and Rychelle

Kindergarten News
November 2006

The crisp, cool fall mornings are a gentle reminder that it is time to celebrate the warm traditions of the changing season. We have so many exciting things happening over the next few weeks. Our theme for the month of November will be fall harvest, and the history of Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and Native Americans. This month we remember how our forefathers, the Pilgrims and Indians joined together in thanks for the harvest and survival of the first year in America. In keeping with the harvest season and autumn, we plan to prepare, cook and eat a feast, along with baking and making Native American or Pilgrim hats to don as we recreate the banquet of our forefathers, Our feast will be on Wednesday, November 15^th @12:00. Please send $5.00 to off set the cost of food etc. You do not need to send a lunch to school on that day. We look forward to talking to each of you during our conferences this week. It’s a great opportunity for us to gain further insight into these wonderful children. We will have early dismissal at 11:55 during conference week. In Language Arts the children have been working in their Get Ready for the Code books and taking great pride and pleasure doing activities in them. We’re enjoying reading pre-decodable books and the children delight in recognizing many of the high frequency words. Each day we play fun games, read stories and do activities to help the children hear the sounds in words. Each time we read in class, we are working toward these goals and behavior strategies: Activate prior knowledge Make connections Visualize images Ask questions Predict what might happen Think about how the story makes you feel Sum up the story Apply picture clues In Math we have been working on matching and one to one correspondence. This is an important foundation as we begin to work on numbers and number formations. We will play with “clean” finger paints, rub over sand paper numerals, and write in the air and on our backs. We’ve had fun singing math songs by Dr. Jean Feldman, “Macarena Math” and the “Numeral Song”. We are excited to be publishing our classroom telephone books. The children will each make a page with their self portrait and write their phone number. You can look forward to receiving you copy soon! At Monica Ros, our parents are the finest, most excellent and the BEST ever! We want to thank you all so much! We are looking forward to our “spooktackular” and “boo-rific Halloween party”. Thanks to our party parents, Blair_Cahill, Sarah Del Vecchio and Connie_Cline for all their effort. Thank you Tami_Winbury for compiling our take home reading books and for planning a fun day of “Bat Wings” and “Pumpkin Dip”. Parents are always invited to read book and share a talent or project with the Kindergarten. We love having you! Notes and Reminders: No school Friday November 10^th- Veterans Day Thanksgiving holiday week begins November 20th. Please be sure to send a note or write on the after school board if your child will be going home with another parent. If you are dropping off, please write after school plans on the check in board or tell the gate teacher. The book order for November and December is due this Friday, November 3 ^rd. If your order is to be a surpriseholiday gift, please send a note with your order and we will make arrangements for you to secretly pick up your books! The Kindergarten Team
Mrs. Krout
Mrs. Fiore