Parent Teacher Conferences

Hello Families,

Parent Teacher conferences will take place next week.  I have sent home notices to the parents who scheduled an appointment during Open House.
I still have slots available and so would like to meet with all of you.
I have openings available from 8:15 - 8:30 and 8:30 - 8:45.
The meetings at this point will be on a first come, first served basis.
Please write me a note in your child's planner indicating what day you would like to schedule with one alternate day and time in the event that slot is no longer available.

Available Days and Times:

Student	Conference: Day/Time *please note- subject to change- I will confirm in your son/daughter’s planner*
	Monday, October 22- 8:15-8:30am
	Monday, October 22- 8:30-8:45am
	Tuesday, October 23 – 8:15-8:30am
	Tuesday, October 23 – 8:30-8:45am
	Wednesday, October 24- 8:15-8:30am
	Wednesday, October 24- 8:30-8:45am
	Thursday, October 25- 8:15-8:30am
	Thursday, October 25- 8:30-8:45am
	Friday, October 26- 8:15-8:30am
	Friday, October 26- 8:30-8:45am
	Monday, October 29- 8:15-8:30am
	Monday, October 29- 8:30-8:45am
	Tuesday, October 30- 8:15-8:30am
	Tuesday, October 30- 8:30-8:45am
	Wednesday, October 31- 8:15-8:30am
	Wednesday, October 31- 8:30-8:45am
	Thursday, November 1- 8:15-8:30am
	Thursday, November 1- 8:30-8:45am
	Friday, November 2- 8:15-8:30am

The time slots are 15 minutes only.  Kindly arrive with questions you would like ask to help move the meeting along.

See you then!
Mrs. C.

The Three Little Pigs and S.T.E.A.M.

Hello Families,

What a blast we had today in Reading class!

One of the goals to be assessed this quarter in Reading is your child can retell stories they have read (RL.K.2) and identify characters, setting and details in a story (RL.K.3).

I chose the Three Little Pigs by Margaret Hillert.  In order to prepare our next generation of world class citizens, we have been tasked with finding ways to integrate Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics into our lessons.

The children and I explored engineering and retelling the story as they recreated the three little piggies' houses.

Watch a segment of what happens after the children construct their houses in the sidebar. 
I have privacy settings set for the video, it will not be going viral...It may still be processing--please check back later.

Enjoy!

Warmly,
Mrs. C.

Lending a helping hand

Hello Families,

Sometimes I feel in order to be the teacher I want to be for your learner, I would have to be cloned four times over. 

One person would plan, another would handle administrative duties (like paperwork), another Mayte-me would be an on-site social worker, and lastly the other would be a co-teacher to help me meet the needs of all of my learners.

As cloning can be such a controversial subject and I still have all of my work to do, I have gone another route, I have solicited volunteers. 

My dear sweet, malomee (pancakes....soooooon) left our school. 

One of the gifts she shared before leaving was putting me in contact with her awesome, no task is too big or too small, how do you work with this mess, volunteer, Kathy. 
 
Kathy is a retired teacher with energy, expertise and patience that leaves me in awe.
Kathy has made so many of my dream lesson plans come true by lending a helping hand. 

I am so grateful to her for all she does for me and the children.

I owe Kathy a dinner, at least.
No one can replace her, but, alas, there are only so many hours in the day.

So if you think you want to laminate, prepare bulletin boards, file and organize....let me know!
Many hands lighten the load!!

Becoming a volunteer for my classroom is easy.  Follow the directions here.

Join me in thanking Kathy for what she does and continues to do effortlessly!
Three cheers for Kathy!

Warmly,
Mrs. C.

How sweet it is to be your child's teacher!

In this post, I want to share a little bit of today's joyous learning experiences.  They may seem random.  By this time of night, I am rarely able to string together a cohesive thought.
Accept my apology in advance :-)


Every child learns differently.  I try to engage what are called modalities of learning.  They are visual, auditory, kinesthetic and tactile.  What does that mean?  Well, I try to deliver lessons and give children the opportunity to learn the material through sense of touch, motion, hearing and seeing.

Izaiah getting better and better at letter formation

Differentiated learning, in my opinion, is making sure that each learner gets what he or she needs.

We gave centers a try today.  I took a deep breath and had faith in my abilities to guide and that the children were ready.  

Oh me, oh my.  Apples were at the table with me.

"Oranges" worked on writing

Nothing could have prepared me for what ensued.

I had yet to see the children so engaged, having meaningful conversations with each other.  All they needed was the opportunity.  My heart soared.

These children are "blueberries".  They worked on letters and sounds.

My "grapes".  Reading and writing what they read about.

And if that wasn't enough, we had our apple tasting today!  We were able to incorporate measurement/data and writing standards to this delicious end of our day.

Gratuitous shot of teacher's kindergarten son helping make the apple cake.

Learners, get your taste buds ready!

YUMMY!  Thank you, Ms. Awilda for your help!

Two of my boys doing the happy dance at the table.

Thank you for the privilege of being your child's teacher.

Warmly,

Mrs. C.

Fall-ing into fun

I like to keep you informed of the exciting academic happenings during our day as best I can.
But, I know what some of you are thinking...."C'mon, lady!  Tell us about what you will do for Halloween!"

I won't let you down on keeping the information flowing.

Get your kiddies costumes ready!

The children will be celebrating Fall by wearing their costumes to school and having a classroom celebration.

Please have your child wear his or her costume to school on Wednesday, October 31st.  We will be having a parade around the school to show off our costumes.  We encourage children to come dressed as storybook characters.  Costumes that depict violence, blood or gore are not permitted.  No face paint, masks or props will be allowed.

I strongly recommend that the children wear clothes underneath their costumes.  This day, after all, is still a day of instruction (I'll let you know how that goes, nyuk, nyuk!).

If you would like to photograph your child, please stop by! 
The best time will be from 8:45 - 9:00 as there will not be another opportunity during the day to do so.

If you would like to send in a store bought snack, be it juice boxes, chips or candy for our celebration, please send it to school by Monday, October 29th.

Special thanks to malomee and Jess for the content and editing of this post! 
Many hands lighten the load :-)

Warmly,
Mrs. C.

To be continued curriculum connections this week

Still muddling through assessments, yuuuuuuuuck.

• Math- Completing classifying assessments, beginning Topic 7:  Ordering numbers 0-10.  If you would like to challenge your learner if this week topic feels to simple, please be in contact with me.  I have user names and passwords available for IXL.com, and Envision (Math series).

• Reading - Retelling a story with details (characters, setting, plot, problem, solution)Three Little Pigs-We are going to intertwine concepts of science and engineering into our Reading block by constructing the three types of shelter we read about in the story.

• Science - Exploring gravity, recognizing the patterns of day and night, talking about the Sun and Moon

• Social Studies - We will finally get to eat apple muffins, apple pie or applesauce and apply our  measurement and data skills to graph what we like to eat best. 
  Once we complete our apple unit, we will begin our weather unit.
  
  
  Looking forward to the week ahead,
  Mrs. C.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Reasons I smile throughout the day

I love teaching.
Without being cross or controversial, there are times when I don't care for the decisions that are made for our children and teachers in the name of education.
Thanks to my loving and supportive family, they understand that I easily work (my choice, completely) an additional 20 -30 hours a week planning and handling what is expected of me by all stakeholders.
I will be honest, there are times that I want to tear down the hall and run out the door, never once looking back.
But then, your children do and say things that warm my heart completely and remind me how much I love them and my job.
Things I have heard: (please don't get mad, parents.  Kid-speak is the most honest revelations of how your children see their school world)

• "Roll the dice!!"  At first, you might think, "What kind of racket does Caronna have going?!" Well, roll the die refers to the conflict management resolution system we currently use.  I become so happy when the children demonstrate prior knowledge to a new situation.  Definitely a good start to upper levels of higher order thinking.  Oh, yeah!

Students with small problems are empowered to make their own choices with the little frog, Kelso.

• Aha moments by the kids.  I am constantly looking for tried and true ways to help the children create connections that will help fortify the foundation of their learning.  All it took was baggie, hair gel, and glitter.  Just look at the letter formation our learner created after just a little bit of practice! He was so proud, as was I.

Before practice

After practice

• Children being themselves.  There is nothing quite like teaching, trying to guide the children to learning.  You look up and see:

Teacher Paparazzi strikes again!

I love my job.

Always,

Mrs. C.

Please practice sight words

Sight words help our children read fluently.  They are words they know by heart.  I will be assessing the following words within the next two weeks:

• a
• at
• go
• I
• in 
• my
• no
• on
• the 
• to
• my
• like

Please visit www.spellingcity.com for games and practice with sight words.  You will notice there are more words on that list than what I am requesting the children to know at this point.  Before the children move on to first grade, they will be expected to know 80 words.  Of course, we will be thrilled if the children know more, but, I will be very happy if they know the ones I have listed above.

Here are the children finding sight words in big books during class.  They get so excited!

Thank you for your continued support in your child's education.

You can count on me.

Warmly,

Mrs. C.

Rock Climbing Wall at RES

Hello, Families,
Your learner has the opportunity to participate in a climbing wall as part of the physical education program.  In order for your child to participate, a signed permission slip must be returned by October 11th.  
The traverse climbing wall will be 8 - 10 feet and is approximately 40 feet long.  The children will climb horizontally across the wall.  Their feet should never be any higher than 3 1/2 feet off the ground.    The coaches will teach the children safety rules and will be under the careful supervision of the PE coaches at all times.

Curriuculum Connections this Week

Dear Families,

Assessments help provide a baseline of where your student is and help me craft instruction.  I don't mind telling you it is a great tyrant of time!!  Our testing in Kindergarten is mostly one-on-one.  Alas, it must be done.  Tomorrow it will be completed until the next round which will be in Mathematics for Topic 3, Numbers 0 to 5.  I say all this to say thank you to the children for being patient and mulling through less than stimulating work while I get the testing done.  I appreciate your support as I circle the wagons on the homework, coming your way by Wednesday of this week.  I realize in the past I wasn't requiring for homework to be turned in, but am requesting it be turned in now. The skills sent home mirror what we are working on in class. The children will have a week from when it comes home to turn it in.  If you have any questions, please feel free to write me or call me.

Math - Completion of Topic 3- Numbers 0 to 5 and assessment
Reading - Retelling a story with details (characters, setting, plot, problem, solution)- Three Little Pigs
We are going to intertwine concepts of science and engineering into our Reading block by constructing the three types of shelter we read about in the story.  I'll be sure the Teacher Paparazzi shows up that day (a fellow teacher blogger came up with the term and every time I go grab my phone to take pictures I say, "Look out, learners!  Teacher Paparazzi!"
Science - Exploring gravity, recognizing the patterns of day and night, talking about the Sun and Moon
Social Studies - Recognizing how types of weather affect apple trees
Social Studies should be yummy when we incorporate mathematics into our lessons!  We will use measurement and data skills to graph what we like to eat best: apple muffins, apple pie or applesauce.
I want to be done with the testing to get to creating authentic learning experiences with the children.
I can hardly wait!
Warmly,
Mrs. C.

Rymfire Spirit Week October 1st - 5th

Hello Families,
Rymfire is supporting Fun Coast Down Syndrome Association in a fun way.
Your student can pay $.50 per day to participate in Spirit Week.
Tuesday - Crazy Hat Dat
Wednesday- Mix Match Shoe Day (must follow dress code)
Thursday - Wild Hair Day
Friday - Sports Jersey or Favorite Team Shirt