Parents Help With Our Unit of Inquiry!

Week 11

THINGS TO TALK ABOUT OR ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

·       The IB word of the week is APPRECIATION:  How does your child show appreciation? What are ways to show you are grateful?  

·       Short /i/ Words – Can your child read and or spell consonant/vowel/ consonant words? pig, rip, hit, dig, sit, lip, did, bib?

·       Math – What have you measured in the classroom and at home using non-standard forms of measurement?

·       IB – Communities. As your child what buildings in our community are essential to our community?

·       Communities – What do these terms mean? Urban, suburban and rural.

·       Ask your child what he/she planted this week.

·       What is a Veteran?

Upcoming Testing

The Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT 7) will be given November 18. The students will take the non-verbal section of the test. This is a paper-pencil test containing 38 questions. The CogAT is a teacher paced test, with students bubbling in their answer choice in the test booklet. Test results will be sent to parents in early January 2015. 

The IOWA Test, a nationally normed assessment, will be given to all Kindergarten students during December 5-12. Students will take different subtests each day covering reading, math, listening, science, and social studies. This is a paper-pencil test with time limits. Test results will be sent to parents in late January 2015.

Both tests are used in evaluating our students for gifted and talented qualifications. 

Robert's Field Day

Check out our videos! Here!

Week 8

THINGS TO TALK ABOUT OR ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

 

·       The IB word of the week is RISK-TAKER:  How does your child cope with new experiences and ideas? Are they confident
Book to read: Ira Sleeps Over (one of my favorite books).

·       -et Word Family – We are studying the –et word family. If your child is already reading please practice writing sentences with –et words. How many words can your child make with the –op family? Can your child find -et words within text?

·       Tricky teens – We are learning how to read number 11-19. A good video on YouTube to watch with your child is: Tricky Teens -  Harry Kindergarten

Make flash cards. Have your child order the numbers 11-19.

·       Class pumpkins – We measured, weighed and all types other activities using our pumpkin. Please have your child read his/her class Math and Science pumpkin to you.  

Week 7

THINGS TO TALK ABOUT OR ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

 

·        The IB word of the week is CARING:  How does your child show sensitivity to the needs and feelings of others? In what ways?
Book to read: The Kissing Hand

·        -op Word Family – We are studying the –op word family. If your child is already reading please practice writing sentences with –op words. How many words can your child make with the –op family? Can your child find -op words within text?

·        Review sight words. Even the sight words your child has passed.  Practice will help your child become more fluent in his/her reading.

·        International Presentations and things to talk about with your child:

1.   Mexico – The Mayans, pyramids – Chichen-Itza, volcano – Popocatepetl, The Aztecs, Teotihuacan

2.   Egypt – Wow, what a treat. Ask your child about Jack’s dad’s pharaoh costume (King Tut). We talked about pyramids, camels, sphinxes, mummys (we even make one), hieroglyphics

·       Presentations about family celebrations – What has your child learned? Are there any celebrations that sound really neat?

1.   China – Some people eat noodles on her birthday

2.   Hanukkah and Shabbat – Jewish traditions

3.  Name day in Greece

4.  Indian holiday of Diwali – Festival of lights and eat sweets

5.  Indian holiday called Rakhi where sisters/brothers vow to protect their siblings

6.  Japanese new year tradition where families make mocha (rice cakes) by hitting rice with a large hammer

7.  Coptic Eater where you go to church at midnight and celebrate easter.

              And many, many more!

Week 6

THINGS TO TALK ABOUT OR ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

 

·       The IB word of the week is PRINCIPLED: Is your child learning how to be honest and have a sense of fairness? How so? Talk about ways your child has had to make principled decisions.  How can your child be principled?   
Book to read: Lily’s Purple Purse.  
·       We are learning how to read with a partner.  We sit Elbow, Elbow, Knee to Knee. Ask your child about good “read to partner” skills and what they should be doing during this activity. Have your child demonstrate how to sit with a partner during “read to self.” EEKK!
·       5 Senses – We had a scavenger hunt. What did your child find around the room that was soft, rough, hard, smooth?
·       5 Senses – We studied nature in the Robert’s Garden. What did your child find using his/her sense of sight? What did your child like about the garden? What can they tell you?
·       Review sight words. Even the sight words your child has passed.  Practice will help your child become more fluent in his/her reading.

 

Your child may be able to answer all of these questions or just some of them.  Whatever they can do, celebrate it!  I’ll try to send questions like this on a regular basis so that you can extend and share their learning from school at home!  J

Week 5

THINGS  TO TALK ABOUT OR ASK YOUR CHILD  ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

 

·       The IB word of the week is COMMUNICATOR: How does your child receive and express his/her ideas and information?
·       We have been working very hard in our writing activities. Our motto is: When you’re done, you’ve just begun.
So often students race to finish their work. We have been working hard at using more than 3 colors in our drawing, we have been working on labeling our pictures in our work and also writing words. Students who are not writing words this early in kindergarten are encouraged to write the letters they hear in a word, even if it just one letter. Encourage your child to work on these components at home.
·       We are still working on our 5 sense. While doing an activity, ask your child how many senses he/she is using at one time.   We sorted items into categories of: Touch/Don’t touch. Did you ask your child about their touch/don’t touch picture? A good book to read to your child is 5 Senses, but Aliki.
·       In math we are working on patterns and extending patters. We have talked about AB patterns and AAB patterns. What patterns do you see around your house or out and about in your environment? Is anyone in your family wearing a pattern today? Talk about it.
·       Can your child make tally marks up to 5? Write a number from 1-10 on a piece of paper and have your child make tallies for that number.
·       How many days have we been in kindergarten? 24
·        Who is Johnny Appleseed? We had a quick lesson Friday morning.

Week 4

·        We read the book, “Chrysanthemum,” by Kevin Henkes.  We talked about feelings/emotions and touched on the elements in a story. I hope you were able to read over your child’s work and review elements in a story. We will cover this topic often.

·        Each week your child will have the opportunity to go “book shopping.” We pick out books using this acronym – IPICK. I pick books are based on the following:
 

·        We are sorting by more than one attribute. Can your child sort items that are big and read small and yellow? Things that are purple with 3 corners?

·        We read the book, “When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry,” by Molly Bang. We talked about how illustrators use different colors in their art work to create emotion. Ask your child what color Bang used to demonstrate Sophie getting REALLY ANGRY. (Red). Why do you think the author/illustrator used that color to show anger? We also talked about what makes us REALLY ANGRY. Ask your child. In this unit a lot of our focus is on emotion and feelings because guess what?? We all have them and share that in common.

·        The IB word of the week is THINKER – How does your child use his her mind to think about the world out him/her. Talk about it

·        We are starting the writing process and brainstorming about what we are experts at. This will come into play when we begin writing. What is your child an expert at?

 

Your child may be able to answer all of these questions or just some of them.  Whatever they can do, celebrate it!  I’ll try to send questions like this on a regular basis so that you can extend and share their learning from school at home!  J

Week 3

THINGS TO ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

 

·        Practice sight words. Make sure your child is reviewing. I will test students at the end of the week.

·        We are working on our reading stamina. We are up to 11 minutes and filling in each minute on a pie-chart. Ask your child’s how it’s going.

·        Calendar – How many days have we been in kindergarten? 14. Have we had mostly hot days? How do you know? We graph the weather.

·        Does your child know the name of these blocks? We are learning about pattern blocks/shapes. Hexagon, trapezoid, parallegram, square, triangle, rhombus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·        We will be studying and decomposing numbers 1-10. How do we spell these numbers? What do they look like on dice? Dominos? Tallies? How many ways can you make 5, 6, 7 and so on.

·        We read the book “Chrysanthemum,” by Kevin Henkes. We graphed how many letters we had in our name. Does your child have the same number of letters in their name as another classmate?

·        We have begun to dive into our first unit of inquire and discussing how we are the same and different. We have begun discussing human emotions and that we all can demonstrate the same characteristics. We read a book about being GRUMPY! When has your child been grumpy? Ask! The replies were great!

·        Have your child name one new friend he/she has made in kindergarten.

·        I have exciting jury duty Monday and will be out. : (
Please prep your child for me not being in class Monday. Talk about classroom rules and so on.

 

Your child may be able to answer all of these questions or just some of them.  Whatever they can do, celebrate it!  I’ll try to send questions like this on a regular basis so that you can extend and share their learning from school at home!  J

CHECK OUT OUR COLORS!

 

Week 2

THINGS TO ASK YOUR CHILD ABOUT THEIR LEARNING AT SCHOOL THIS WEEK…..

 

·        How to spell colors red, yellow, blue, green, orange, brown and purple. Read your books with your child and have them sing the songs to you.

·        We mixed blue and yellow play dough together. What color did it make? We mixed red and yellow paint together. What color did it make?

·        Have your child tell you about the books we read this week: Harold and the Purple Crayon, Purplicious, Where the Wild things Are, Junie B. Jones.

·        In math each child received a strip of construction paper and he/she had to find the partner with the strip of paper that was the same length. Ask your child if their strip match with everyone else or just one person? How did you know it matched or did not match? We also measured our hands to our partners and talked about length. Who had the larger hand? Who had the smaller hand?

·        Is your child practicing his/her letter formation? Is your child able to write letters A-F legibly in both uppercase and lowercase?  What about letter sounds? Does your child sounds and letters A-F?

·        We talked about 2 ways we read a book. Ask your child what are the two ways? Answer reading/pointing to the words and looking at the pictures. How is looking at the pictures helpful to reading? Do they tell the same or similar story?

·        Calendar – Has your child taught you the “Days of the Week” or “Montherana” song?

·        We graphed how many boys and how many girls are in our class. Ask your child about it. Answer 13 boys and 13 girls. How did we come to that conclusion?

 

Your child may be able to answer all of these questions or just some of them.  Whatever they can do, celebrate it!  I’ll try to send questions like this on a regular basis so that you can extend and share their learning from school at home!  J
Wendy

Please Read Before Monday!

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

 

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you and your child to the new school year at Roberts Elementary!  In order to have the most productive year possible, please take time to familiarize yourself with the items below.

 

I am so excited about working with you and your children and am looking forward to a successful and fun year.

1.    Conduct

 

Your children and I will be spending the first several days in our classroom getting to know one another, setting up procedures, and (most importantly) building community.  I will let you know about my behavior plan/expectations during the next couple week.  Your children will be helping me develop many of these expectations as a class and I know that they’ll be sharing with you what they come up with!

2.    School Papers

 

Please check your child’s backpack daily.  Occasionally you will find assignments that your child didn’t complete in class.  Please make sure that the work is finished at home.  Encourage your child to be neat and to do his or her best work on all tasks.  If an activity comes home not complete, PLEASE always look over it with your child and ask him or her to tell you all about it.

 

3.    Birthdays

Parents may send cookies/cupcakes on the morning of a child’s birthday.  Please do not send cakes or cupcake-cakes.  Birthday invitations may be sent home from school only if each child in the class is invited.  We don’t want any hurt feelings.

 

4.    Student of the Week

Throughout the year, each child will be featured as the student of the week.  Your child will be asked to bring photographs, etc. to share with their class.  You will receive more information one week prior to your child’s turn.

 

5.    Silent Reading/Quiet Time

A short rest time is included in our daily schedule.  Children are not required to sleep, but must rest quietly.  Please remind your child to keep toys and stuffed animals at home.  Please, however, do send a bath towel (not a blanket) for your child to rest on.

6.    Lockers and Backpacks

 

Each child will have their own locker.  They will be able to keep their backpack, lunch box (if they bring their lunch), a bath towel for quiet rest and reading time (please no blankets, pillows or toys), and an extra change of clothes.  Please put the extra change of clothes in a Ziploc bag with your child’s name on it.  Your child’s backpack should be large enough to hold their Tuesday folder, but also able to fit in the locker.  No rolling backpacks please.

 

7.    Snack Time

We have a snack time daily.  Please be sure to send a small and healthy snack to school each morning. 
Have your child take out his/her snack and place it in the snack box inside the classroom.
Snacks should be packed separately from your child’s lunch and have your child’s name clearly written on it.

8.    Lunchtime 

You are encouraged to send or purchase a healthy lunch for your child each day.  Lunch money should be kept in your child’s backpack until we eat lunch each day from 10:43-11:13. On the first day you may want to consider sending a lunch. Your child may be unfamiliar with cafeteria food.
 You are welcome to come join your child and eat with them in the cafeteria; however, HISD policy states that you must sign in at the front office first for a visitor’s pass and then meet us in the cafeteria. At the end of lunch please say good bye to your child in the cafeteria.  

9.    Extra Clothing

Please send an extra change of clothing to be left in your child’s locker at all times for emergencies, this can include accidents, food spills or getting dirty on the playground.  Please put clothing in a Ziploc bag, labeled with your child’s name, and change out as needed.

 

10. Tardies/Absences

Please make sure that your child is in their classroom ON TIME each morning (8:00 am).  Students who arrive after morning announcements have begun will be asked to go to the front office for a tardy slip or admit to class.  Students who are absent are required to bring a note from their parent and turn it in to the office on their day of return.

 

11. Arrival

As stated before, school begins at 8:00 am.  Beginning on the second day of school, we will be lining up outside under the covered area (next to the playground) at 7:45 am.  For your child’s safety, please do not arrive before 7:45; there is no one on duty before that time and children not are not allowed to gather in the hallways.  There will be four lines under the covered area.  One of the lines will be for the Kindergarten students.  Students will need to get into the appropriate line and stay there until the bell rings, when all lines will go into the school.  Please make sure that your child does not play on the playground at this time.

 

Mornings can be hectic and announcements start promptly at 8:00 am. Please allow your child to come inside the classroom on his/her own and put their things away. If you have questions please send me an email and I will promptly reply. Tardy slips will be given to students who arrive after 8:00am.

12. Dismissal

Kindergarteners dismiss at 3:10 on School Street. We will exit as a class each day out of the school doors (leading to the playground).  We will then walk down the sidewalk to School Street, where we will wait for cars in the pick-up line.  If you are walking up to get your child, please meet us when we get out to the dismissal area at the end of the sidewalk by School Street (please do not wait on the steps or on the sidewalk as there is a LOT of student traffic).  It may be confusing at first, but you’ll get it after the first few days. J

 

Please remember to fill out your carpool number and place it in your window for pick up.

 13. Our Class Blog and email

 The website is www.watermanswatch.com you will find valuable information when logging on to the class website. Please take a moment each week to browse.  I will also update you when I make a new post.

My email is wwaterma@houstonisd.org. I will reply to emails as promptly as I can.

 

14. Food allergies

 

It is very important to notify me if your child has an allergy or specific health problems.

 

15. Writing portfolio

Your child will be improving his/her writing skills this school year and will accumulate many writing samples throughout the year.

Please send a 1inch clear view binder to school so that we may store all your child’s writing.  Please let me know if you have a question about what the binder should look like.

 

16. VIPS/Volunteering and Field Trips

 If you would like to chaperone on our field trips you MUST register online through the VIPS link on the HISD or Roberts website. Parents who have not gone through the correct process will not be able to volunteer and attend field trips.  Please begin this process right away. The front office will gladly assist you if you have any questions about this process.

Thank you for all of your help!
Wendy

Wear your colors!

Ms. Waterman’s Class

  

Not only will we be learning our colors (most students already know them), but we will be learning how to spell and read the words, learn poems about the colors and read special books about them. Please have you children dress accordingly to each color day.

Wednesday, August 27^th, have your child wear RED

Thursday, August 28^th, have your child wear YELLOW

Friday, August 29^th, have your child wear BLUE

Tuesday, Sept 2^nd, have your child wear GREEN

Wednesday, Sept 3^rd, wear ORANGE

Thursday, Sept 4^th, wear PURPLE

Friday, Sept 5^th, wear BROWN

Monday, Sept, 8^th, wear PINK

Tuesday, Sept, 9^th, wear BLACK

Wednesday, Sept 10^th, wear WHITE