It's October!

Hi Parents and Students in Room 137,

We are entering our first week of October by celebrating Rolin's birthday. Happy Birthday Rolin!
It was great fun at our Mitchell in Motion all school fundraiser. Everyone in our classroom got to participate because they brought in their permission slip signed. The blue shirts are your child's gift from the PTA.
The weather was beautiful, the children had fun at each of the events, and we ended with an all school picture!
Be sure to look for it on our school website in the future!

This is an update on what our school week will look like. The children have learned all five of the components for our Literacy Daily 5, so this week they will be able to choose some of their rotations that they can go to.
In Math, we are working on counting up from a given number, writing numbers, and making jumps on a number line to form addition and subtraction number sentences.

We will be doing a mini-inquiry unit on trees and leaves as living / nonliving things. The leaves sure look beautiful now with all of the fall colors.

A Monthly Behavior Calendar will be in your child's folder for you to sign and to take note of what color your child ended the day on. Please be sure to check the calendar, sign it, and discuss positively!

We're off to a wonderful week!

Mrs. Richards' Reports from Room 137

It is September 24 and our final week of this month already. We are onto Fall so make sure that your child is dressed appropriately for the weather!  On Friday, we completed our MAPS Test in Math, and the children really worked hard. This week we will do the Reading Test. Please be sure that your child is at school on Friday for the test. Our class has been doing the Daily 5 Literacy and Words Their Way with Miss Reichert's classroom for a couple of weeks already. The children are up to reading 11 minutes for Read to Self. That's amazing!  Please encourage nightly reading at home too! This week we will be practicing how to do Word Work as a part of our Daily 5 rotations.  Our class will also be teaming up with Miss Reichert's for Math this week! Our math unit is writing numbers and using the number line to add and subtract.  We will do an inquiry on Johnny Appleseed and apples.

Friday is our first ever fundraiser called, "Mitchell in Motion". You do not have to send money if you don't want to.  You can still participate.  We do need your signed permission slip though, so please return that as soon as possible so your child can get in on the fun on Friday!

This is a message from the office.  If your child is going to be out from school or leave early, please be sure that you send a note or call the office.

We have an afternoon snack every day. Please send a healthy snack like cheese, crackers, fruit, veggies...
No chips, cookies, or sugary treats!

News for Sept.10, 2012

September 10, 2012

We’re off to a great start in our 5K/1 combination classroom.  During the Daily 5, students will work on building stamina during Read to Self and practice Reading with a Buddy.  We also begin our mini lessons using the Reading Wall.  We will do a mini-inquiry unit on hot air balloons. We certainly will have to investigate the big hot air balloon rally in New Mexico which is coming up in October.  In Math, we will begin our study of Geometric shapes as the students move to various stations focusing on shapes and numbers.  Last week, we enjoyed reading books about pirates and their “stinky fish” behavior. We compared it to “good fish” behavior. The children made pirate hats and telescopes to spy for “good fish behavior”.

Our Specials Schedule

Phy. Ed.           Monday and Wednesday          Teacher:   Mrs. Cardwell

Art                   Tuesday                                    Teacher:   Mrs. Landowski

Guidance          Wednesday and Friday            Teachers:  Mr. Taube and Ms. Tupy

Music               Tuesday and Friday                 Teacher:    Mr. Buck

Library             Thursday

*  Please consider participating in our school fundraiser that came home on Friday!

Starting the Week of September 17. please check the Mitchell website for my newsletter in the classroom blog for Mrs. Richards.  Send me a note if you don’t have the internet!

Welcome Back Newsletter

It was so nice to meet all of the parents and children at the “Meet and Greet” last Thursday. Everyone is so excited for school to begin!  It will be an exciting year filled with a lot of learning and fun activities to engage all students.

          This week we will spend time getting to know each other and making friends. The children will learn about the Fish Program, and a letter explaining it will also come home to parents. We will have an all school “Fish” kickoff   assembly on Friday morning at 8:45. We will have a Fish assembly every week at the same time.

          For our Literacy during Daily 5, we will be working on building stamina when Reading to Self. The children will learn to pick ‘just fit’ books and how they can read the pictures, read the words, or retell the story when reading.

          In Math, the children will explore math manipulatives and learn some independent math games using dice, dominoes, and playing cards. We will be working on writing numbers, counting, and number operations.

Reminders for this week:

PIN night is Thurs. Sept. 6   

                                5:30 – 8:00pm.  Parents only!

Show and Tell on Friday Sept. 7   This is a one time only!

          Each child can bring one item for Show and Tell.  Help your child pick something that is important to them and that they can talk about.   It must fit in the gallon size ziplock bag that is being sent home.

Physical  Education Days:  Mondays and Wednesdays

·       Be sure to either wear or have gym shoes on those days!

Mrs. Richards     phone number:  604-4500  ext.1513

                              e-mail: richb@wawm.k12.wi.us

Junior Achievement

The kindergarteners in Room 137 learned a lot about themselves and their community from junior achievement volunteer, Mrs. Marcia Gabriel. They especially enjoyed learning about money and getting a bank to save their coins. The children made some connections when hearing the story about earning money for a new playground.  Here is a picture with Mrs. Gabriel and their junior achievement certificates.

Thank you Mrs. Gabriel for your 5 weeks with us and donating $50 to our playground fund.

Our Inquiry Unit on the Olympics

 For our Inquiry Unit on the Olympics, we have been getting together with two second grade classrooms, Mrs. Francour and Miss Rostermundt. The children have enjoyed making new friends, especially with these older kids. The second graders have been very helpful at working with and guiding the kindergarteners with our projects. We are getting some background knowledge about the olympics.  So far we have colored the olympic rings, made torches, and started painting huge boxes to make the big red bus used as transportation in London. Our focus will be on the host city of "London". We are learning about five of the important landmarks in London, such as Big Ben, a huge clock. Here are some pictures with our olympic buddies!

It's Xavier at the wheel!



Katrina and Jackson at the pizza parlor.



It's time to fix the cars for Tyler and Jackson!




Under construction for Dominic, Kaitlyn, Alex, and Mrs. Richards



We had a marvelous time at betty Brinn at the end of March. Here are some pictures of the children exploring in the grocery store, car fix it shop, and climbing structures.

Important Dates to Remember

Monday May 21              Brae's Special Week

                                        Band, Orchestra, and Chorus Concert 1:30pm

Wedn. May 23                NxGL  Meeting 6pm
Thursday May 24            Yell and Tell Program  1pm
Friday May 25                High Interest Day
Monday May 28             Memorial Day    NO SCHOOL
Tuesday May 29            Alyssa's Special Week
                                     ALL DAY ZOO FIELD TRIP
Friday June 1                PTA Carnival
Monday June 4             Tyler's Special Week
Tuesday June 5             Floral Presentation
Wedn June 6                Field Day
                                  Spring Fling Playground Fundraiser  3:30pm -7pm