Journals

HI! Just a reminder January journal are due the day the children return from break. :)
We are writing in them that day.

A Winter Wonderland In Rainbow Valley

We had a wonderful day during our holiday centers. :) Thank you to all of our parent volunteers and parents who came to make learning fun!


Try our video maker at Animoto.

Lunch

This week the children enjoyed reading Lunch and writing a story about their favorite foods. They also worked on their listening and oral language skills as the children shared their stories with their peers using the document viewer.  It was really cool!
They also enjoyed learning about Christmas and Hanukkah through using non-fiction text.
We  had a former parent /former PTA president Laura Kanter teach a wonderful lesson about Hanukkah.
Next week we will be learning about Kwanza.

http://www.northpole.com/

Shop til you drop!

Today the children enjoyed spending their hard earned money at our class store.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays to each of our Rainbow Valley Families.
We are enjoying teaching your children everyday.
They are an amazing group of young scholars. 
Thank you for making learning fun by supporting your child and their teachers!
Mrs. Chiaverotti and Mrs. Stinard

Music is so much fun!

Wear your PJ's to school!

This , Friday, December 16th is school wide PJ Day! Your child may wear his or her PJ's to school.  Please be sure they have clothing on under their PJ's.  No slippers or bath robes.

Timelines

All About Me timeline is due this Friday.  :)
Please have your child practice reading his or her timeline.
We are looking forward to hearing all about each of our kindergarten freinds.

Counting, counting, counting...

Our kindergarten friends enjoyed learning a new song that will help them with transition
 numbers when counting. 

Today the children also enjoyed a lesson with Mrs. Law.  They learned more about sorting. Some of our kindergarten friends discovered really interesting ways to sort during our class time.  For example, Jordan J. and Bella discovered that the houses could be sorted by people living in them and no people living in them.  Abby said, that they could be sorted by short houses and long houses.  Alex S. and Wyatt said they could sort them by houses with fences and no fences.  Alexander said he could sort them by house with triangle roofs and those without.  Please continued to allow your child to pracitce sorting items by different attributes at home.   Enrichment homework from Mrs. Law will be going home today. Please return it by next Friday. 



Cooperative Learning in Rainbow Valley

Cooperative Learning in Rainbow Valley

Today we continued our unit on Needs and Wants. The children were asked to create a Needs and Wants poster to teach others about needs and wants.
As you will see they have a clear understanding about the difference!

Calendar Fun!

Each day during calendar we review many math and language arts skills. 

Monday is filled with learning!

Today was a busy day in Rainbow Valley. 
We worked on creating a writing chart after we read the story I Went Walking and after we went on our own walk where we made observations using our sense of sight and hearing.

Today, we also began our unit on Needs and Wants and All About Me.  The children will be earning money all week long for using appropriate listening and behavior skills. On Friday they will be able to spend their money in our Rainbow Valley Store!  We have a classroom bank where each student has their own bag where they deposit the money that they earn.
Ask your child to tell you what needs are and what wants are and how they are different.

Many of our kindergarten friends are enjoying Read To Self during Daily Five. During this time it has been amazing to see they children applying their reading strategies. 
Please continue to encourage this at  home. Our strategies for WHAT TO DO WHEN I AM STUCK ON A WORD:
1. LOOK AT THE PICTURE
2. GET YOUR MOUTH READY TO SOUND OUT
3. LOOK FOR CHUNKS ( CAMPING: CAMP, AM, ING)
4. REREAD
5. ASK YOURSELF, "DOES IT MAKE SENSE?"

Some information... On Monday, December 19th we will be having our kindergarten Winter Wonderland Party/Centers.  Every kindergarten class will be participating.
All parents are welcome to rotate with his or her child unless you are running a station.
During the next few weeks I will be teaching the children about Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanza as they are holidays that many of our children celebrate.  We are not, let me repeat, we are not having a party for each holiday. 

Read To Self

Our Bank Accounts

Retelling, writing, and numbers

This week we continued to work on retelling stories using details.
We enjoyed reading Maisy's Pool. The class  also worked on starting sentences with uppercase letters, finger spacing, adding puncuation, and our main focus was applying letter sounds to write words.  Please make sure you are reviewing letter sounds with your child daily until learned. We go over letter sounds and sight words daily at school. 
It is a delight to see the children who are actively listening each day learning their sounds and their sight words. :)
To help us learn about the importance of adding details to our pictures and our writing we read the story Frieght Train.
In math we worked on teen numbers; counting, writing and recognizing them in and out of sequence.
Please note it is important that your child is able to write his or her first AND last name. :)
We are really excited about the new chapter book we started this week which is Mr. Popper's Penguins. The children discovered the book is not the same as the movie.

Needs and Wants

Donations Needed for Hands-On Learning!



Over the next few weeks your Kindergarten student will be learning the basics of economics. We will be learning about needs vs. wants and that in order to get what you need and what you want you have to save/earn money.


Students will be able to “earn” dollars in class for a job well done beginning on Monday, December 12th. Each day that week there will be numerous opportunities for your student to earn a dollar to go into their class “bank account”. On Friday the 16th, each student will count the money they earned and use that money to buy supplies from our classroom store that they need for success in the classroom. This is where we need the generosity of our wonderful parents to make this hands-on approach to economics successful. If you are able please send in one of the following:


* holiday themed pencils


* holiday themed mini erasers


* holiday themed stickers (pre-cut into groups of 5 )


* boxes of crayons


* glue sticks


All items can be found at our local dollar stores as well as my favorite spot, the dollar bins at Target! If you are able to donate please have materials into the classroom before Wednesday, December 14th.


Thank you for helping support our learning. We couldn’t do it without you!

We are thankful for so many things

Learning About Kindness

Parents:
Shortly after the hurricane this summer I found a baby squirrel that had lost its home and its family. Knowing this was not a pet I found a great wildlife refuge who cares for sick and homeless wildlife.  Upon arriving there I was amazed with what the folks do for the animals.  I explained this story to the kids and they too thought it was pretty neat!  We are, after all, learning about the importance of kindness in kindergarten. :)
In order to help out these little creatures we are going to begin collecting supplies for them beginning Monday, Novemeber 28th - Thursday, December 22nd.  We will incorporate our collection into math and graph and count our supplies as they begin to increase.
I spoke to the folks @ http://www.evelynswildliferefuge.org/
and they need the following and yes, it must be exactly these items/brands:
Bounty Paper Towel-easiest to tear when you are holding an animal in one hand
bird seed- brand doesn't matter
sunflower seeds- UNSALTED
Gerber Baby Food(brand specific)- Stage 2 sweet potatoes,green beans, mixed vegtables, spring vegtables
peanuts- in shells, unsalted
suet- They said it is the cheapest at the Commissary for those of you that can go there.
We have a gigantic holiday stocking to fill and we are excited to start counting!
You may also bring your kindergartener there to see all of the neat animals that are being rehabilitated.
Please E-mail me if you have any questions.
Thank you for making learning fun!

Thanksgiving Centers

Today our Rainbow Valley friends enjoyed interactive activities that were all about Thanksgiving Then and Now. Thank you to all of our parent volunteers who helped to make today a success!

WORD MASTERS

Congratulations to all of our kindergarten friends who have learned their first set of sightwords and have become word masters. If you don't know about Word Masters ask your child.


The children are enjoying posting their name on the Word Master Wall for all to see.


Please remember to have your child practice his or her sight words as often as possible. I will be assessing the second set of sight words after the holiday break.
 

Making Connections

We have been reading the story I Love My Hair and discussing things that we love about ourselves.  I always ask the children to try to make connections to the stories that we are reading because it will help them to comprehend the story.
Here is a perfect example. One of our friends loved the part that read, "The beads click to the rhythm of my walk, helping me remember what we are going to buy." 
Reading is thinking and our kindergarten friend sure was thinking!

Learning Is Fun!

Our Rainbow Valley Friends have been learning about retelling, practicing Turn and Talk, and writing about things they love about themselves.
We read two really great books to help us learn.
Pumpkin, Pumpkin and I Love My hair.
This week we also enjoyed SPARCH where we learned more about Fall and Apples.  The  students created a really colorful art project. 
Ask your child about their learning fun!

Retelling to a partner

Mrs. Ward teaching SPARCH

Following directions

Describing how a pumpkin grows.

I asked, "How are you like a pumpkin?"

Thank You Veterans

Today we learned about Veteran's Day.  Ask your child to share what they learned.

Hands on Learning in the Lab

Today was our first visit to the science lab and it was a success!  
Our Rainbow Valley friends learned all about their senses. They made lots of really neat observations while experiementing at the different stations. Please ask your child to share what they learned.  If you were wondering why your child came home with his or her snack it is because we ate snack in the lab.  One of the stations involved eating popcorn. :) 

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Learning, learning, and more learning!

This was a fabulous week in Rainbow Valley.  I throughly enjoyed returning to work.

• This week we started our unit on Pocahontas and Powhatan.  Please review the Pocahontas book that came home today with your child.  Ask them how Pocahontas was a friend to the Jamestown Settlers?
• In writing we worked on sounding out our words.  It is important that when your child is writing he or she is at least writing beginning letter sounds to match their pictures.
• Many guided reading groups this week enjoyed learning two new reading strategies for when "We get stuck on a word." They are: Look At the Picture and Sound it Out. Please encourage your child to try these strategies often.

Word Wall/Sight Word

What's A Word Wall? and Sight Words

A word wall is a systematically organized collection of words displayed in large letters on a wall or board in our classroom. It is a tool designed to promote group learning.  A word wall consists of words that children frequently see when reading and use when writing.  Each week words are added to help children appropriate spelling and sight word recognition skills.  Some words help children learn rhyming word families (at, hat, fat, cat, etc.), while others do not follow phonetic spelling patterns.The purpose is to help children learn to spell high frequency and vocabulary words as they begin to use the words in their daily writing. 
Please remember to review sight word flash cards with your child as often as possible.
You may want to play games with the sight words to make learning fun.
Hang the words on a wall and ask your child to say the Flashlight, flashlight poem (we practice this when working on our sight words) and shine a flashlight on the word.  Encourage your child to use the words in sentences.  (Verbally or if they are ready have them write their sentences.)
Your child can chat or sing their words.
Create a SIGHT WORD JAR.  Add sight words to the jar and have your child pick a word and chant it. 
Post the words in various rooms in your house and say, go to the _________room and tell me the word.  Or what was the word in the ___________?

Here is a websites that you can download game boards from and create your own game.  Your child could write in their own words!  :)
http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/Games/GamestoMake/games_to_make.htm

Literary Pumpkins

Rainbow Valley won 1st Place for the Literary Pumpkin Contest!!!
http://www.wvec.com/news/slideshows/Literary-Pumpkins-created-at-John-B-Dey-ES-in-Va-Beach-131850843.html

November News

Fall Fun Day

Wow! Today was a fabulous day in kindergarten.  I returned from maternity leave an came back to two wonderful groups of students! 
The children learned about many math, science, and language arts concepts during Fall Fun Centers.