OCS K5 Class News

January Newsletter 1 14-Jan-10

Kindergarten News

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their family!

I want to thank all of you for blessing me with cards and gifts at

Christmas. Also, a big thank you for all the parent help for both the Christmas Program and our classroom party. Both were a wonderful success!!

3rd Marking Period: Begins Monday, January 18th

· We begin our new quarter special on Thursday. We will have Gym on Thursday

mornings. We will continue to have afternoon Gym on Wed. and Thurs.

· We finished our Social Studies curriculum which entailed Community and its

helpers including fire safety, leaders of our city, state and country. We also studied Christopher Columbus, the Mayflower, Martin Luther King and Maps.

· We will begin our fun and exciting Science curriculum which will cover our body

system, our 5 senses, healthy habits, liquids & solids, weather, animals (including a

milk makers unit), life cycle and plants

· Report cards will come home Thursday, January 21st. Please sign and return. Call or email me if you want to discuss your child’s report card.

Reading Groups: Assessment is finished and we will start our reading groups next week

· I would love a parent or two who would like to come in a couple of days

during the week for 30 minutes at 10:30 am. If you would like to help please let me know.

· Your child will be coming home with:

o A letter explaining our reading program. Please sign and return.

o Current reading book for homework

o A reading log that will need to be initialed daily

Auction Information:

· I’m still in need of items or funds for our classroom masterpiece

· I’m in charge of the dessert portion of the auction so I’m pleading to all my

parents if you or someone you know can make a dessert please help me and OCS outJ

· Don’t forget to purchase and sell your tickets for the auction

Book orders:

· If your child is ordering from this months book order please return form and $

by Thursday, January 21st

Sincerely Yours in Christ,

Heidi Wagner

December Newsletter 08-Dec-09

Important Kindergarten News

I’m so sorry for the short notice with information on this newsletter but with

our unplanned snow days and rescheduled field trip this was the best I could

doJ

Thank you for everyone that was able to chaperone and drive for our field trip on such short notice. The kids had a wonderful time and were truly blessed by all of you!

We will be having a very busy week preparing for our Christmas program. Please be sure to have your child listen to the Christmas program CD they brought home for homework and initial homework form in front of BEAR book.

Christmas Program Practice:

Practice at E-Free church tomorrow Wed. 16^th and Thursday 17^th from 8:45 – 11:15 **Drivers are needed for delivery and/or pick up of all students
Please sign permission slip and return by Wed.

Christmas Program:

Program is held at the E-Free Church
Thursday December 17^th at 6:30….Be sure to have your child there between 6:00 – 6:15
They need to be dressed in their Christmas Program clothes/costumes
- Sheep – black pants, white long sleeve shirt, black shoes or socks
- Angels – white tights or leggings, white long sleeve shirt, white socks or ballet slippers
- we will have some costumes pieces for them at the church

Parent help before and after program is needed for costumes and make-up

**I hope everyone can make it. The children have worked very hard and it’s too precious to miss!!

Class Christmas Party:

Will be in the morning on Friday December 18^th from 9:00 – 11:15
We will have a $5 gift exchange – bring a wrapped ‘boy’ toy if you’re a boy and a ‘girl’ toy if you’re a girl
I will need a few parent volunteers, activity and snack items for the party – Please see attached sheet for items needed and party volunteer sign up

B.E.A.R

I’ve added our new sight word chart on the back of BEAR books. We will be working on ‘color’ sight words. Sight words from Table One have been put into the sight word/learning aides section. Please make sure you review this section with your child over the course of the year.

What we’ve been learning:

Language arts: Poem tracking, sight words through games, songs and activities. I will begin assessment for reading groups after Christmas break.
Math: Analog and digital time, patterns, ordinal numbers, the penny and it’s value up to 10 cents, grouping by 10’s, counting by 5’s and writing our numbers.
Social Studies: Our great country ‘America’
Writing: Model writing, both teacher led and student led writing activities…It’s very exciting watching and reading their work!!

Have a wonderful Christ-filled Holiday with your family!! I’ll see you in the New Year!!

Heidi Wagner

November Kindergarten News 17-Nov-09

Kindergarten News

It was wonderful to have so many parents come to parent/teacher

conferences. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to share with you some of what your child has been learning so far this year.

The weather was absolutely beautiful for our week off. I hope all of you found the unplanned time off to be restful and rejuvenating.

Winter Weather: Your child will go out almost everyday for recess. Please be sure to send in winter outerwear each day.

Snow pants
Boots
Gloves, hat, etc…

** For your convenience you are welcome to leave an extra set at school on your child’s hook.

Report Cards:

If you haven’t signed and returned your child’s report card please do so as soon as possible.
You will get it back each quarter

Scholastic Book Fair: Is being held this week in our library. Please take a few minutes to stop in and check it out.

It will be open for parents to visit during drop off & pick up times.
I will be taking the class down to visit the book fair on Wednesday the 18th; if you would like your child to purchase a book at that time please send the money in by Wednesday

Up coming Field Trip: We will be taking a Social Studies/Science/Christmas fun field trip to Isabella’s Copper Pot

· Thursday December 10^th

· More details and permission slip to come home soon

What we’ve been learning?

· Consonant vowel blends

· Sight words trough songs, games, movement etc…

· Model writing sentences

· Prompted writing

· Social studies: community and their helpers, fire safety

· Math: counting by 5’s and 10’s, grouping by 10’s, beginning math sentences,

patterns through manipulatives and sound, number writing 1 – 10, large and small group math centers

· Bible: Joseph and God’s plan for him, David the Shepard, David and Goliath, David

the King

Yours in Christ,

Heidi Wagner

November Kindergarten News 03-Nov-09

Kindergarten News

Thank you for all the harvest party supplies and for the parent volunteers. You helped make our party a success. If you weren’t able to help this time and you’re feeling left out…don’t worry I’ll catch you at Christmas timeJ

Doughnuts for Dads and Dudes: This is a special time for dads or a special male (friend, uncle, etc…) to share a few minutes with their child at school and catch a glance of what they are learning. Don’t forget they’ll share that yummy doughnut treat!

Wed. November 11^thfrom 8:10 am to 8:30 am
Chapel to follow if you’re able to stay and attend. We would love to have you!

No School: Friday, November 6^th for Parent/Teacher conferences

Please send back your confirmation slip with your appointment time
If this time is not convenient for you, please let me know and we can set up another time to meet

Report Cards:

Will be passed out at conferences
Please sign and return the card in the envelope for future quarter grades

New Quarter Activities:

Art on Tuesday’s at 8:10
Choir is still every Monday at 9:15
Gym every Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon

Scholastic Book Fair: Will be held in our school library the week of November 16^th. Come in and check it out…books make great Christmas presentsJ

Wreath Fundraiser:

All orders are due no later than this Friday, November 13^th

Thank you for all your contributions to our Community project. We were overflowing with animal and baby supplies. It was wonderful!!

Yours in Christ,

Heidi Wagner

October Newsletter 2 23-Oct-09

Kindergarten News

What a very busy, but successful week for our Kindergarten class.

Our field trip to Fleming’s Farm was a fun filled afternoon, although a

little wet, but still a great time. Thank you to all of the parent drivers

and chaperones.

Grandparents Day was a great success!! The children did such a wonderful job with their performance. They were very excited to show off their classroom and spend their morning with their grandparents or someone special that came to visit.

Class community project: As part of our Social Studies unit we are learning about our community and our community helpers. We are giving back to our community through donating to the Animal shelter and the New Life Pregnancy center.

We have a classroom dog house and baby cradle that we are looking to fill.
All donated items need to be in class by next Thursday, Oct. 29^th in order to make it in time for the newspaper picture and article. I will deliver items on Sat. the 31^st

Harvest Party: We will be having our class party on Friday October 30^th from 12:15 – 2:30. Your child will not need to bring a lunch. Instead we will be having a class pizza party that day. I will need parent volunteers that can either provide needed items for our party and/or help the day of the party.

Items needed:

· Fresh fruit or fruit cups to go with our pizza

· Juice

· Fall plates and napkins

· 2 dozen plain doughnuts (not doughnut holes)

· Unfrosted pumpkin cookies

· One can white frosting, mini M&M’s, sprinkles

· Bags of candy corn pumpkin mix

**Please let Leigh Ann Klay or myself know if you can bring any items or help at the party.

What are we learning?

We worked on the ‘at’ family this week
We went on a word wall parade and marched 7 words to the word wall

- at - cat

- rat - sat

- mat - hat

- bat

They have been reading their new words and using the words to write stories….it’s very exciting for themJ

Have a wonderful weekend!

Yours in Christ,

Heidi Wagner

September Newsletter 2 18-Sep-09

Y5 and K5 Notes and Reminders

We’ve had a great 2^nd week of school! The children are slowly beginning

to adjust to being in school all day. J

Class News:

Please have your child bring in 2 apples on Monday. We will be starting a science/math unit on apples. Any variety of apples (green, yellow, red, etc…) will do, in fact the more variety the better.
Library started this week. The children really liked being able to look at all the books and check one out. Please be sure to have your child bring back their book before next Thursday so that they will be able to check out another book.
Scholastic books: If you are ordering for the month of September please turn in order form and $ by next Friday the 25^th.

Emergent Writing and Reading:

Your child will be exploring both of these subjects during the school year. Learning to read and write is a gradual process that will take place over time and with lots of patience. Emergent writing occurs in several stages and they pass through these stages in a variety of ways and at different ages. You will see some of their work come home and it may not look like they’re writing, but it is part of the learning process. Please be sure to read the writing rubric in the learning aides section of their BEAR book. Hopefully, this will help explain the stages of writing.

Letter Formation:

Proper letter formation is very important. It helps foster letter recognition, word awareness, sentence skills and helps with letter reversals. I have sent home a laminated letter formation sheet for both capital and lowercase letters in their BEAR book. Please keep this in your child’s BEAR book so both you and your child will have it for reference.

School News:

If you haven’t already brought in your letters for our OCS Champion Event fundraiser please do so ASAP.
We will be collecting box tops and soup labels again this year. I’ve sent home a few sheets for box top collection (soup labels can just be placed in a plastic Ziplock bag). This is a great way for the PTF to help raise $ for school activities such as Grandparents Day. There is also a drawing using the box top sheets once a month for a prize.

Yours in Christ,

Heidi Wagner

September Newsletter 11-Sep-09

Y5 & Kindergarten News

We did it! What a great first week we had. We had a fun

time learning the rules of our classroom and making new friends. We took lots of pictures and cannot wait to display them all over our room.

Things to Know:

Snacks: I am going to have 2 snack times a day; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This snack will be a shared classroom snack. In order for this to work I will need every child to bring in snack twice a month for 15 children (Young 5’s only once a month). A shared snack will help ensure all children have a snack.

Snack Ideas: Please try to keep the snacks healthy unless it’s a birthday treat.

Cheese sticks, fruit, yogurt etc…
Peanut butter crackers, animal crackers, granola bars, goldfish etc…

Thank you for helping to stock our snack cupboard. I’ll give you a friendly snack reminder on our monthly calendar and if we get low I’ll post it in a newsletter.

School Pictures: Young 5’s and Kindergarten school pictures will be this coming Tuesday, September 15^th. Please fill out the order form and return it with $ by picture day.

BEAR Book-Homework/Communication Folder: Please be sure to check your child’s BEAR book every night. Initial the behavior chart and check the homework/communication folder for either homework and/or school/class notes. I will try to limit homework to 3 nights a week and I will never give it on Fridays. Please help get your child on a routine of giving you their BEAR book and returning it the next day.

Reminders:

Please remember to send gym shoes to school; we want your child to be able to participate.
Hot lunch will start on Monday. If your child is going to have hot lunch please fill out the form and return to office.

In Class:

I’m really enjoying getting to know all the children
We’ve spent the week getting back to basics and will continue on that path for the next couple of weeks. I want to assess all the children and acclimate them to full day Kindergarten before we jump into our full academic curriculum.
I’ve introduced:
- calendar math center
- basic writing skills
- name skills activities
- Zoo Phonics, letter recognition

***Please let me know if you have any concerns or questions.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Heidi Wagner