Ms. O’Shaughnessy’s Overview 5/24/10

Homeroom:

                Wow, this school year has gone by so fast! I am really going to miss all you. I hope that everyone has a wonderful and relaxing summerJ

                The Monday folders are going to be really full this week. There is a lot of stuff going home that the students worked on this year, and could use as practice over the summer. The student’s portfolios will be ready for your family to pick up with their diplomas and DVDs in the classrooms on the day of graduation.

Important Dates:

Wednesday, May 26th Field Day

·          If you would like to volunteer to help, please email me. Volunteers can meet us outside around 9:00am. Field Day starts at 8:30am, but we will be practicing for Kindergarten Graduation. We would like to keep it special for you so we will meet you at 9:00am outside at field day. Students may wear sports teams all next week in celebration of World Cup and Field Day. Please have your child wear tennis shoes, and be prepared to play outside during Field Day.

·         If your child is staying for the whole day please have your child bring a morning snack and sack lunch.

Thursday, May 27 - Last day of school, Kindergarten Graduation

·         Graduation is at 8:30am. Please drop your children off at the classroom at normal school time. After the program, we will have a reception and you can pick up your child then.

·         If you have not had a chance to get involved with graduation, now is your chance! There is a hands on opportunity for parents to volunteer their time Wednesday evening and Thursday morning to put up decorations for the graduation ceremony. Please email Ms. Murphy if you are interested in helping with this last step to preparing the graduation.

Ms. O’Shaughnessy’s Overview 5/17/10

Homeroom:

We are learning about bugs and butterflies this week. Our class has four pupa in their chrysalis and we are learning how to take care of these insects are they go though their awesome metamorphosis! In between our bugs and butterfly discoveries we are doing a lot of wrapping up for the end of the year. The students are working on their timelines, portfolios, and some kindergarten reflections.

Important Dates:

Monday, May 10th –Friday, May27^th Le Family providing snack

Wednesday, May 19^th  Arya and Kamyar’s share day

Wednesday, May 26th Field Day

·          If you would like to volunteer to help, please email me. Volunteers can meet us outside around 9:00am. Field Day starts at 8:30am, but we will be practicing for Kindergarten Graduation. We would like to keep it special for you so we will meet you at 9:00am outside at field day. Students may wear sports teams all next week in celebration of World Cup and Field Day. Please have your child wear tennis shoes, and be prepared to play outside during Field Day. If your child is staying for the whole day please bring a bag lunch since there will be no hot lunch that day.

Thursday, May 27 - Last day of school, Kindergarten Graduation

·         Graduation is at 8:30am. Please drop your children off at the classroom at normal school time. After the program, we will have a reception and you can pick up your child then.

·         If you have not had a chance to get involved with graduation, now is your chance! There is a hands on opportunity for parents to volunteer their time Wednesday evening and Thursday morning to put up decorations for the graduation ceremony. Please email Ms. Murphy if you are interested in helping with this last step to preparing the graduation.

 Literacy:

Thank you to all the parents that came in to volunteer with our class. You really helped us learn as much as we could about language arts this year! The students writing journals and handwriting work books will go home in next week’s Monday folders.  I hope that your child will look forward to having the opportunity to work on these at home over the summer!

Math:

Thank you to all the parents that came in to volunteer with our class. You really helped us learn as much as we could about math this year! If your child has their math journal here at school, these will be sent home in next week’s Monday folders.  I hope that your child looks forward to practicing their math skills in this over the summer!

Ms. O’Shaughnessy’s Overview 5/10/10

Homeroom:

Thank you all so much for Teacher Week being such a fantastic one! We all really appreciated the generosity of the parents here at Stargate:)

We are having our last puff ball party of the year this Wednesday! The class voted on it, and we decided to have a costume wearing, water color, and play dough party. Some kids really wanted to wear costumes, this is totally optional, and please remember that costumes are invited without masks or hats. This will be a very busy, messy, and really fun partyJ

Important Dates:

Monday, May 10th –Friday, May27^th Le Family providing snack

Monday, May 10^th Kindergarten Graduation RSVP Due

Wednesday, May 12^th Nicholas and Sydney’s share day

* Muscular Dystrophy Walk

This is a school wide event. The students will walk on school grounds to support the fundraiser during specials time, and I am going to walk with them! The class will briefly talk about fundraising for different causes and what muscular dystrophy is on Monday and Wednesday.

* Puff Ball Party

Friday, May 14^th Last day of switching for literacy and math (no homework for the last two weeks of school)

Sunday, May 16 - Rockies Fundraiser

Wednesday, May 26 Arya and Kamyar’s share day

·         Field Day

This is a really fun day for the entire school, volunteers are welcome. Please email me if you are interested. We celebrate this day like a field trip; the half day class is invited to stay the whole day (optional) to participate in the fun activities that Mrs. Lamonski and Mr. C have planned for us!

Thursday, May 27 - Last day of school, Kindergarten Graduation

·         If you have not had a chance to get involved with graduation, now is your chance! There is a hands on opportunity for parents to volunteer their time Wednesday evening and Thursday morning to put up decorations for the graduation ceremony. Please email Ms. Murphy if you are interested in helping with this last step to preparing the graduation.

Literacy:

This is our last week of switching for literacy class. We will finish up the year with more practice in our handwriting journals, journal writing, a summer spelling test, and a little review of the big concepts covered this year in reading and writing.

I will be continuing with the reading assessments this week, as well as into next week, even though we will not be having literacy class. You can expect a slip in the Monday folder with your child’s end of the year reading assessment score in the next two weeks.

The spelling words this week are swim, bike, play, picnic, camp, read, hike, and scooter. Please use these summer words to write eight fun sentences about your hopes for the summer!

The homework this week is to bring in your favorite book from home to share with your friends on Friday. We are going to have a reading celebrationJ

Math:

This is the last week of switching for math. There is no math homework this week.

For the remainder of the year we will be practicing and preparing these mathematicians for first grade math! This will include doing a lot of review on money, time, addition, and subtraction. A lot of this material will be supplemented and reviewed in the math journals.

There is a small group of students that are going to be continuing with the placements assessments for next year. They are moving quickly through it, and we hope to be done by Friday!

Ms. O’Shaughnessy’s Overview 5/3/10

Homeroom:

We are spending every opportunity of free time preparing for kindergarten graduation. The students are being interviewed about their year, making their portfolios look special, and writing about their timelines. I can’t believe the end of the year is sneaking up on us so fast; the class is always singing the graduation songs that they have been practicing while they clean up and workJ

Important Dates:

Monday, May 3rd – Thursday, May 6^th VanGorp Family providing snack

Tuesday, May 4^th Zoo Field Trip

·         Please plan on picking your children up at 2:45 pm on the kindergarten playground

Wednesday, May 5^th Tyler and Iris’s share day

Friday, May 7^th Teacher Work Day (no school)

Monday, May 10^th Kindergarten Graduation RSVP Due

·         Please hand these in ASAP, so that we can move forward with the preparation process

Monday, May 10th – Friday, May 21st Le Family provides snack

Literacy:

In the beginning of most classes we are continuing to practice and review how to spell colors and the days of the week.  There is review in their homework for these efforts; there will be a quiz on colors and the days of the week on Wednesday.

I am continuing to assess the students for their end of the year reading levels this week. I started with the yellow group, and will move onto the green group this week. The reading assessment process will take a couple weeks, and you can expect a slip in their Monday folders in the next couple of weeks with your child’s end of the year reading level on it.

The spelling words this week are joke, poke, spoke, smoke, stoke, his, how, and into.

The homework this week is to complete the reading log and color/days of the week review.

Math:

We are half way through the end of the year placement test for next year. It is important for the kids to be well rested for this assessment, therefore, there is not going to be any math homework for this week.

On Friday we had first grade math journal conferences with the students, to work with them in their math journals, answer any questions, or go over what they had been working on this week at home.  The students were very excited about them, and I am looking forward to continue working with them in these some more this week. The first grade math journals will go home in their Monday folders again this week, or your child may have made the choice to bring them home over the weekend. The journals are not homework, and it is not required for them to work on them at home, although it is optional if your family and child wish to work in the first grade math journals this week. Please have your children bring their math journals with them to school on Friday, we will check their work and continue working in them during class.

 For the remainder of the year we will be practicing and preparing these mathematicians for first grade math! This will include doing a lot of review on money, time, addition, and subtraction. A lot of this material will be supplemented and reviewed in the math journals.

Ms. O’Shaughnessy’s Overview 4/26/10

Homeroom:

We are hard at work on Tuesdays and Thursdays during specials time practicing songs for kindergarten graduation. The kids are really going to put on quite a show! The class is going to be going to the library during specials time on Fridays now, Thursdays are not working because of graduation practice. We hope that this allows us to get to the library more before the end of the year.

Important Dates:

Monday, April 26^th – Friday, April 30^th Amero and Nandyal Family providing snack

                                Big “thank you” to both families for filling in this weekJ

-          Scholastic Book Fair in library all week!

Wednesday, April 28^th Oscar and Jennifer’s share day

*Our class visits the book fair*

Monday, May 3^rd – Thursday, May 6^th VanGorp family provides snack

Tuesday, May 4^th Zoo field trip

-          Please plan on picking up your children later this day. We will be eating lunch at the zoo. There will be a note coming home in the May 4^th Monday folders with more detailed plans for our field trip to the zoo on that Tuesday.

Friday, May 7^th Teacher Work Day (no school)

Literacy:

We are starting new reading group units this week. The students will be spending some extra time on their sight word books this week, the students really enjoy them and extra practice is always good. In the beginning of most classes we have been practicing and reviewing how to spell colors, days of the week, and numbers. Everything that we can do to help prepare the class for first grade literacy classes!

I will start assessing the students for their end of the year reading levels this week. This process will take a couple weeks, and you can expect a slip in their Monday folders in the next couple of weeks with your child’s end of the year reading level on it.

The spelling words this week are side, inside, outside, beside, help, her, here, and him.

The homework this week is to complete the reading log and story questions. The directions for the story questions are on the activity, they say to use index cards, but on a lined or blank piece of paper would be sufficient. They will be sharing these is their reading groups on Friday!

Math:

For the next couple of weeks we are going to be giving our class an end of the year placement test for next year. It is important for the kids to be well rested for this assessment, there for; we are not going to have math homework for the next couple of weeks.

On Friday of last week the students received their first grade math journals. The first grade math journals will go home in their Monday folders this week. The journals are not homework, and it is not required for them to work on them at home, although it is optional if your family and child wish to work in the first grade math journals this week. Please have your children bring their math journals with them to school on Friday, we will check their work and continue working in them during class.

 For the remainder of the year we will be practicing and preparing these mathematicians for first grade math! This will include doing a lot of review on money, time, addition, and subtraction. A lot of this material will be supplemented and reviewed in the math journals.