Ms. Shelly's News September 21

Happy first day of Fall!  We have been working hard to learn our numbers, write our numbers, and represent a group with a number using different math tools (pictures, tally marks, ten frames)

We made our class goal for the DASH run.  We will work to get 12 or more sponsors as a class.  More info will be coming home about the DASH soon.  

The Washington Farm field trip is coming up in October.  Please be sure to return your permission slip and cost of your students ticket. If you are unable to pay for your student due to financial hardship or you are willing to sponsor another child, please let me know ASAP.

Be sure to attend the last volunteer training on October 2 , from 12:30- 1:30.  You must have completed the volunteer training to attend field trips and class parties.

Week in Review:  

• Writing and representing numbers 6-10 (tally marks, ten frames, number line, one more, one less)
• Letter O, o long and short sounds and letter formation 
• Sentence formation (capital and punctuation)
• Five senses
• CGI math (Cognitively Guided Instruction)

Activity Snapshot: 

• 5 senses Popcorn Party! We discussed how we use all of our senses to experience popcorn.  Always a fun one to do again at home for a movie night!
• Journal Writing about what we will be when we grow up
• Writing our "I can" book

Sneak peek at the week:

• Practicing different ways to represent numbers
• Letters B,b  (Bouncy Ben) and P,p (Peter Puppy)
• STEM challenge
• Continue learning about Writer's Workshop
• Blending

Star Student: Sara Kate Blevins

Reminders and Announcements:

Sept. 24 RBES spirit night @ Zaxby's

Oct. 2 LAST Volunteer training 12:30-1:30 

Oct. 5 Teacher work day- no school 

Oct. 8 Fall Break- no school 

Oct. 12 Field trip- Washington Farms 

Oct. 15 iMom breakfast 7:20am 

Oct. 19 DA$H for Excellence Fun Run 

Oct. 31 Book Character Parade 

Ms. Shelly's News September 14

The book fair and grandparent lunch was a great success! Thank you for the donations to our classroom library!  I hope all of you got a chance to come to STEAM night.  If you missed this one, there will be another one in the spring. We ended this week with a morning pep rally to cheer on our Titans! 

Please continue to practice sight words each night for homework for 5-10 minutes.  I will be checking everyone on sight words at the end of this month.  The expectation for 1st quarter is 30-40 words.

Week in Review:  

• Writing and representing numbers 1 to 5 (tally marks, ten frames, number line, one more, one less)
• Letter F, f; V, v sounds and letter formation 
• Sentence formation (capital and punctuation)
•  Complete Community Helpers
• CGI math (Cognitively Guided Instruction)

Activity Snapshot: 

• Firefighter speaker
• Veterinarian speaker

Sneak peek at the week:

• Practicing different ways to represent numbers 6- 10
• Letters O,o
• Continue learning about Writer's Workshop
• CGI 
• Blending; Continue practicing letters and sounds; continue practicing sight words

Star Student: Charlotte Platt

Reminders and Announcements:

Sept. 18 Community Involvement session- Civic Center 6-8 

Sept 22 First day of Fall!

Sept. 24 RBES spirit night @ Zaxby's

Oct. 5 Teacher work day- no school 

Oct. 8 Fall Break- no school 

Oct. 12 Field trip- Washington Farms 

Oct. 15 iMom breakfast 7:20am 

Oct. 19 DA$H for Excellence Fun Run 

Oct. 31 Book Character Parade 

Ms. Shelly's News September 7

Book fair and grandparent lunch begin next week.  Our day to go to the book fair as a class is Tuesday 9/11 @ 12:30. We would love to have you come be with us at the book fair if possible. Visitors are welcome at lunch any day and may take students to the book fair once they have finished eating and walk them back to my classroom when they have finished shopping.  STEAM night is a lot of fun!  It is free to participate and the book fair will be open that evening for those who are not able to come during the day. Ice cream and toppings are helping to raise money for our school library.

iMom breakfast is Monday morning beginning at 7:20.  They will have several of these breakfasts throughout the year for K-2.

MAP scores are coming home in their folders today.  Please continue to practice sight words nightly for homework! It really makes a difference with their reading. Everyone has color and number words.  New lists will be coming home soon!

Our school is working hard to improve overall attendance.  Below is a reminder of the county policy regarding absences and tardies.  Please try to plan long trips around scheduled breaks whenever possible. We receive a class award each month for the highest % of class attendance per grade level.  Our class has set a goal with our Rocket buddies to achieve this for September.  All we have to do is be present every day for school! Easy Peasy!

Attendance/Tardy Reminders

Excused Absences

1.  Excused Absence for Medical Reasons: Absences for which a student requires attention from a health care professional (i.e. doctor, dentist, psychiatrist, etc. . .) will always be excused when a note from the professional is provided to the school.

2.  Parent Note Excused Absence--Maximum of 5 Parent notes per semester; 10 total for the year.  

Unexcused Absence: Any absences beyond the ten (5) parent excused absences, except those supported by documentation from a health care provider, are considered unexcused

Tardy: A student is tardy if he/she arrives after the start of the school day or leaves before the end of the school day, missing no more than three (3) hours. Arriving late or leaving early for a medical appointment can be an excused tardy as long as documentation from a medial professional is provided.

Wish list: 
baby wipes (to clean up after ice cream Fridays!)

Week in Review:  

• Letter I, i short and long sounds and letter formation
• Sentence formation
• Community Helpers 
• CGI math (Cognitively Guided Instruction) 

Activity Snapshot: 

• We made a graph to see how many letters were in all of our names and displayed it
• Counting activities- We counted the letters in our name with numbers, unifix cubes, ten-frames, and tally marks. We made numbers out of playdough and matched with number of playdough balls.
• Met with our 5th grade Rocket Buddies

Sneak peek at the week:

• Ways to represent numbers
• Letters F, f (Firefighter Fred) and V,v (Vicky Violet)
• Finish up community helpers
• Continue learning about Writer's Workshop
• Rhyming words/blending

Star Student: Eureka Zhu

Reminders and Announcements:

• Sept. 10 iMom breakfast
• Sept. 10-14 Fall book fair/Grandparent lunch (please make sure any visitor is listed in PowerSchool that you listed on the paper you returned to school)
• Sept. 11 Fall picture make-up
• Sept. 11 STEAM night and Ice cream social
• Sept. 24 RBES spirit night @ Zaxby's

Community Engagment Session

Please join us Tuesday, September 18 from 6-9 p.m. to provide feedback as our district begins its Strategic Planning Process! This community meeting will be held at Oconee County Civic Center. See you there!

Ms. Shelly’s News September 3

A lot has been happening in our classroom! We have been practicing our reading and math small groups, learning how to work in a small group and with partners.  All the students are working hard and showing what they know. School pictures were this week.  We hope that everyone has safe travels over the holiday weekend.   See you on Tuesday!

Week in Review:  

• Letters S, s (Sammy Snake); Z, z (Zig Zag Zebra) sound and letter formation
• Positional words (Prepositions)- where things are located
• Labor Day
• Community helpers 
• CGI math (Cognitively Guided Instruction)

Sneak peek at the week:

• Counting and number words to ten
• Letter "I, i" (Impy Ink)
• Parts of a book
• Begin Writer's Workshop
• Continue Community Helpers

Star Student: No star student this week

Reminders and Announcements:

• Sept. 10 iMom breakfast
• Sept. 10-14 Fall book fair/Grandparent lunch (please make sure any visitor is listed in PowerSchool that you listed on the paper you returned to school)
• Sept. 11 Fall picture make-up
• Sept. 24 RBES spirit night @ Zaxby's

Ms. Shelly's News August 24

We had a great week and we ended it with a very fun Friday!  We kicked off the day with a NOHS pep rally with football players and cheerleaders! The students got to play with their food in order to sort their special snack into 2-D and 3-D shapes and then enjoyed the yummy treat. We completed our week of "Keep RBES Beautiful" by picking up some trash off the playground and hanging up lost items at lost and found.

**We will be going to the library on Tuesday each week.  We have talked about where our library book should "live" (in our book bag) when we are not reading it and how to take good care of the books we borrow. The students understand that remembering their book is part of learning responsibility, but know forgetting their book can happen.  Please feel free to help your student remember to return their book on library day if needed.  We will not have another opportunity to go to the library until the next week.

We have a couple of "collections" that we do at our school.  If you would like to send in Box Tops for Education, just send them in a little plastic bag at anytime.  We also collect aluminum can pop tops for the Ronald McDonald house in memory of a former RBES student. Again, just send them in a small plastic bag if you choose to collect them. We will be starting a Project Based Learning project (PBL) school wide that is led by Kindergarten starting in October.  We will be collecting plastic grocery bags and a few select other plastic films.  More information will come home regarding this project around the end of September. Please do not send in plastic bags until we begin because we do not have a place to store them right now. We will have drop off boxes around the school for students to drop off bags and one at the front office for parents to drop off as needed.

Another way to help is through grocery purchases.  If you are a Publix shopper, you can go to this website for more information about Publix Partners: http://corporate.publix.com/community/corporate-campaigns/publix-partners

Looking forward to another amazing week in Kindergarten!

Week in Review:  

• We worked on the "d" sound (Dippy Duck) and "h" sound (Harry Hat Man)
• Practiced writing D, d ; H, h
• Sight words: a, I, the, and, at
• Completed 2-D and 3-D shape review and sorted out yummy shape snack
• Staying Healthy- hand washing; healthy choices
• Began Community Helpers- Doctor, Nurse, EMS
• Special guest visitor: Nurse Ashley, our school nurse, came to talk to students about nurses

Sneak peek at the week:

• Patterns
• Positional words
• Making new shapes
• Letters S, s (Sammy Snake); Z, z (Zig Zag Zebra) sound and letter formation
• Patriotism, Labor Day, Honesty, Pride
• Parts of a book

Star Student: Jase Roberts

Reminders and Announcements:

• Aug. 29 Kindergarten Picture Day
• Sept. 3 Labor Day (no school)
• Sept. 10 iMom breakfast
• Sept. 10-14 Fall book fair/Grandparent lunch
• Sept. 11 Fall picture make-up
• Sept. 24 RBES spirit night @ Zaxby's 

Ms. Shelly's News Aug. 20

We have had library with Mrs. Julie and checked out our second book!  The students were so very excited about doing this. Our class will go to the library every other Tuesday beginning next week.  I have talked to the students about their books "home" being in their book bag and to keep it there when they are not using it. This helps to ensure they have their book when it is time to check out a new book.  Kindergarten students may only check out 1 book at a time. They may choose to leave it at school or pack it up each day.

We are asking each student to donate $10 to help cover the cost of the Scholastic Let's Find Out booklets your child will receive. If you already sent in the donation, we greatly appreciate your help!  Please send any money in a sealed envelope labeled with your child's name and what it is towards. We appreciate your contribution.

We took the MAP test for reading and math this week.  This test gives a baseline of where your student is at in their learning coming into Kindergarten.  They did a great job!

Week in Review:  

• We worked on the "a" sound (Annie Apple) and "t" sound (Talking Tess)
• Practiced writing A, a; T, t
• Color sight word review: purple, black, brown, pink, and white
• Review of 2-D and Introduction of 3-D shapes

Sneak peek at the week:

• Sorting 
• Making new shapes
• Letters D,d (Dippy Duck); H,h (Harry Hat Man)
• Community Helpers

Star Student:  Valerie Farias