January 8, 2010

Upcoming Dates

* Sunday, January 17th: Scholastic Book Orders Due (attached to today’s newsletter)
Please try to order your books online. Our class earns free books with online purchases. Thank you!
1. Go to: www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
2. Class User Name: Beebear
3. Password: MrsYu (no spaces or periods)
4. Browse books and place order using your credit card (no need to send money to school)
5. About 2 weeks after I receive all the orders, your books will be delivered to school!
If you prefer not to order online, you can return the order form directly to me with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. Please hand it to me by Friday, January 15th.

* Monday, January 18th: No School – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Enjoy your three-day weekend!

* Friday, January 29th: Children’s Discovery Museum Field Trip
1. All Kinders come from 9:00am – 12:20pm! Please arrange to pick up your child on time after school!
2. Remember to wear your red t-shirt to school (layer underneath, we will be mostly indoors).
3. We need about 8 chaperones to each take a group of 3-4 children around the Discovery Museum. Chaperones will need to arrange their own transportation to the museum because there is not enough room on the buses. Please email me if you are interested in being a chaperone!
4. Do not bring your backpacks or snacks that day, just return your Friday homework envelope in the morning.
5. Friday sharers, please prepare your sharing the day before on Thursday, January 28th!


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Dear Families,

Happy New Year! Welcome back to school! I ended up staying around here for the vacation because my husband sprained his ankle. We will have to make a trip to Tahoe another time! It was so nice to relax and spend time with our families and friends. I hope all of you had a wonderful vacation too! It was hard to return back to the regular school schedule, but it helps that this week has been sunny and somewhat warm! I am definitely a California girl! =)

Here are some highlights for the week:
• Star of the Week: Grace and Aditya
You can read about our Star of the Week on our website under “Curriculum” and “Star of the Week.”

• Story of the Week: Snowballs
For listening center, now students have to describe who the main character is and the setting of the story, in addition to writing about their favorite part. I am reminding students to make sure they write complete sentences for their favorite part, instead of starting with, “when…” Remember capitals and periods too!

• Letter of the Week: C
You can see our computer center drawings in the “Classwork” section of our website.

• Language Arts: I am really noticing some great improvements with everybody’s sharing, especially with speaking louder and keeping eye contact with the class. Remember to prepare at least four complete sentences about each sharing topic, not including any introductions. Also, I would like to see the children holding their sharing while they talk and keeping their body still. Other than that, sharing is going very well and is a pleasure to listen to! Thank you for helping your child present each week!

• Social Studies: This week we talked about New Year Resolutions. We discussed what resolutions are: goals, or areas for us to improve or get better in the upcoming year. We wrote four resolutions for ourselves in 2010. Then we made a flip up project to showcase our goals.

• Writing: Our journal entry on Monday was to write about our vacation. We started with the sentence, On vacation, I ______., and students wrote about what they did during vacation. They illustrated their pictures and had the option of writing as much as they wanted. This allowed me to hear about some of the fun activities that your families did over vacation! I posted some of their writing on the homepage of our website. Take a look at some of their resolutions!

• Math: We have been reviewing the terms, addition and subtraction. We are trying to practice knowing when to use a “plus” or “minus” in our math sentences. This week, we practiced saying math subtraction stories using animals and different hands-on manipulatives. We learned that in addition, the magic word is “in all” or “altogether,” and in subtraction, the magic word is “left.” It is important that students not only know how to compute numbers, but also how to explain their thinking.

• Science: We are learning about weather and seasons, especially Winter. We made a snowman glyph during Friday Centers where we personalized our snowman depending on different questions. We also talked about how our clothing changes during the different seasons, and we made mittens and a cap to show what we would wear in the Winter. We are talking about changes in our environment as well, especially noticing the seasons of a tree!

• Computer Lab: We illustrated our January poem this week called, The Snowman. It was about a snowman that somebody made and it specified certain things to put on the snowman. We used Kidpix and added extra details to make our snowman special. You can see these pictures in the “Classwork” section of our website.

• Assembly: Today we had an assembly by the Lawrence Hall of Science. They presented a show about the Human Body. We learned about our mysterious body, how it functions, and its different parts.

This week was a little tough on the students as far as remembering the classroom and school rules. We’ve had many reminders to keep our hands and feet to ourselves, both in the classroom and out on the playground. I’m sure behaviors will improve as the students get settled into the school routine again. Have a great weekend!