News In A
Nutshell
Welcome to the world of Kindergarten!
November 2009
Dates to Remember:
Wednesday, November 11--No School--Veteran's Day
Thursday, November 12--Last day to donate Husky items for auction
basket
Friday, November 13--Sock Hop
Wednesday, November 25--1/2 day/early dismissal
Thursday, November 26--Thanksgiving--no school
Friday, November 27--no school
Monday, November 30--No school--Teacher work
day
Aaargh! Our own 'Jolly Rodger' with his band of
miscreants!
Students study the letter 'P' with a pirate theme
Reading-In November we
will introduce your child to the letters "Dd", "Ss" and "Ll".
During our unit on 'Dd' the children will learn to blend sounds
into words which is the beginning of the reading process.
There will be no stopping them now!! This is an exciting time
for the children as they discover this new skill. Not only
will the children learn the names and sounds of the letters we will
teach the correct formation as well. Please refer to the
alphabet card we gave you at 'Back to School' night when helping
your child with their letter writing. It is also a good idea to keep
reviewing the names and sounds of each letter that has been
taught. By the end of November all children should know:
C, O, G, A, D, S and
L.
Handwriting-I have
found that most children come to school writing their names with
uppercase letters. Kindergarten is the year when we will ask
them to form their names correctly. We will show them how to
begin their name with an uppercase letter and demonstrate how to
make the rest of their letters in lowercase. I would ask that
you help us by modeling the correct formation at home. Please
don't expect that your child will make the transition overnight but
we will begin the process early in the year so they will have many
opportunities to practice the correct form.
Math-In November we
will be doing a lot of patterning and will introduce the idea of
symmetry. We will continue sorting, classifying and
reviewing number 0-19. Please continue to help
your child as they work to count to 100.
Science: In Shoreline
we use the FOSS (Full Option Science System). In kindergarten
we will be using 5 different kits: Trees, Wood, Paper, Animals, and
Fabric. Our second unit is about wood and is a natural follow
up to trees. Students will be introduced to several kinds of
wood. They will observe and compare the properties of
wood.
Home Connection Project: Each month there will be a
Home Connection Project Assignment. These will be fun
activities that support classroom learning. By participating
in these activites with your child, it is my hope that positive
homework habits will be established early in their school
experience. Each child is expected to complete the activity by the
due date.
This month each child will be given a packet of wood pieces as we
work through our unit of wood in science. They will be given
a sheet of directions and are to create their own design.
They may paint or decorate their creation as they wish.
Additionally, students will be asked to work with you to learn
personal safety information.
We are asking the children to learn their full name (first,
middle, and last), their address (house number, street name, city,
state and zip code, phone number (including area code), birth date
(month, day and year), and both parent's names. Look for a
note to come home that outlines how we will proceed through this
important information.
One of Last Year's
Home Connection Projects:
For our
Science unit on Paper the children created paper bag self-portrait
masks.
News Telling
News telling is an ongoing homework responsibility.
Here is our news telling schedule
We will begin News Telling on October 5
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Friday
Alec
Andrew
Ashlee
Calvin
Dane
Diego
Emma
Jack
Jordan
J.
Jordan
T.
Kiefer
Lindsay
Marie
Marieke
Matthew
Megan
Nicholas
Zoe
Owen
Rhene
Savannah
Development of oral language is an imprtant part of
kindergarten. Our goal is to help your child learn to speak
to a small group with ease and confidence.
This is an ongoing homework assignment. Children are expected
to bring their plan each week. Parents should help their
child prepare their plans and practice before their news telling
day.
Grading
Standards
Daily Activities
4 Cheeseburger-Extra Effort
• You have exceeded the
basic expectation.
• You have gone
beyond.
• You have shown you can
apply what you have learned to other areas.
3 Hamburger-You Got It!
• You have met the
standards.
• You have followed
directions.
• You have successfully
completed assigned work.
2 Meat Only-Keep Working
• You need more
practice.
• Perhaps your work is
messy or incomplete.
1 Plain Bun-Reteach
• You did not understand
how to do assignment.
• You did not try to do
the assignment.
Math Problem Solving
4 Cheeseburger
• Includes number
sentence or equation
• Has accurate
illustration
• Has correct
answer
• Includes an
explanation
3 Hamburger
• Has accurate
illustration or explanation
• Has correct answer or
partial number sentence or equation
• Is understandable
2 Meat Only
• Has some illustration
(illustration may be unclear or inaccurate)
• Number sentence or
equation may be incomplete or inaccurate
• No proof of work (with
words or numbers)
• Not clear or easy to
understand
• Good attempt to solve
the problem
1 Plain Bun
• Some attempt to
illustrate
• No equation or number
sentence
• Not clear or easy to
understand
0 Empty Plate
• No attempt
Classroom
Schedules
All Day Kindergarten
Mrs. Travis
School Day 9:05-3:30
Library-Thursday 1:10-1:55
Music--Wednesday and Friday 2:25-2:55
PE--Tuesday and Thursday 2:25-2:55
Computer Lab-Monday 2:30-3:00
Field Trips
Pike Place Market, Friday, February 12
Woodland Park Zoo, Friday, March 26
International District, Friday, May 7
Guess and Go
When children begin to write we
encourage them to use "inventive" spelling. In class we call this
"Guess and Go Spelling". We constantly encourage students to sound
out and write what they hear. We want them to practice and use the
phonetic elements they have learned this year. As children start to
make the links between the sounds of spoken words and the letters
of written words, they may write a whole word using one, two, or
three letters. Sometimes children write words in their own
unconventional way. They may use mainly consonants: 'down' may be
written as 'dn', 'cage' may be 'kaj', 'people' is often written as
'pepl'. As kindergarten teachers we are thrilled when we see
children take the risk to spell creatively.
Some children constantly ask adults to spell for them and we often
have parents ask us what they should do when this happens at home.
We believe that children will enjoy writing more (and therefore do
it more often) if they are encouraged to put their thoughts down on
paper without worrying about conventional spelling at this age. It
is very important that children try to spell words they don't know
when they are writing. If they do not have the chance to 'try' to
spell using their phonetic background they will miss the
opportunity to experience this new strategy. If children only use
words which they know they can spell, they may never make a
mistake, but they will not get the chance to become fluent writers.
Therefore, when children write creatively in class, we will not be
correcting their spelling or telling them how to spell a word.
We will give them lots of praise for using the letter sounds they
have learned this year. A child may see a word correctly spelled on
a chart or in a word bank and copy it correctly in their journal or
story and that needs to be praised as a good strategy as well. We
would encourage you to try a similar technique at home. Enjoy their
inventive spelling. Celebrate it as a natural phase in their
development.
Go Dawgs!
The Big Dawg now lives on my RV at Husky Stadium.
Biography
Liz is proudly from Prosser, Washington! She earned her BA in
Art and Education from the UW and has been a Husky ever
since. This is her 36th year teaching in Shoreline. 33
of those years have been in kindergarten.
Liz is actively involved in the Shoreline Education Association
where she is currently Vice President and Bargaining Chair.
She has served on the Bargaining Team for the past 12 years.
She was Shoreline's 1996 'Teacher of the Year'.
In addition to teaching children, Liz enjoys working with adults as
well. She is a Love and Logic instructor and offers parenting
classes at Brookside each year. She has been working with
this program for 16 years.
She enjoys boating, gardening, music and anything 'Husky'
(especially football!). Liz loves to read and her favorite
book is whatever she's reading at the time. Her favorite food
is anything prepared by Mr. Rodgers or anything eaten at a Husky
tailgate.
Her family includes husband Dale (a Woodinville dentist), daughter
Kristin, an architect (skier and rock climber) in Portland, son
Craig (skiier, scuba diver and former Husky Band Member!) now
a Portland Pharmacist, and her active 92 year old dad (gardener,
bread maker and author) who still lives in Prosser. Liz just
lost her adorable cat, Puma. Sadly, his brother, Adidas
passed away earlier. Adidas had six toes on each foot and
actually once used those toes to call '911' in the middle of the
night. (He said it was an accident, but it is thought that he was
trying to report that Craig had trapped him in a paper bag.)
The police officer that answered the call wasn't amused and Adidas
was not allowed to use the phone in his golden years. They
both are very much missed by their family.
Liz's thoughts on Teaching: "Teaching kindergarten is fun and
different every day. I adore the students I teach, the
people I work with, and the Brookside families that I come into
contact with each day. I feel very fortunate to be a part of
this school community.
