Hi Parents!

We ran out of time for closing meeting today but we had a great day in Kindergarten! Here are a few things we did!

We retold our story The Mitten using paper characters! They also practiced retelling the story to a partner. Your child is bring this home today so they can tell you the story this weekend!

We read books with our 3^rd grade reading buddies in their classroom. Check out the pictures on Twitter!

We used a spinner to collect pattern blocks in math and then collected data on which shapes we collected. We made a graph of the information.

The kids got to enjoy some extra sunshine outside for P.E.

In your child’s folder you will find a pre-conference survey sheet! Please fill this out and send it back before February 11^th! You will also find a behavior update.

Have a great weekend!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did writing. We wrote when our story happened. (Kate)

We had snack time. It was Miss Tappana’s birthday! She gave us her special birthday snack that she made for us. (Jayden and Layla)

We learned about capacity in math. It means how much something can hold. (Dylan)

We did Daily 5. (Logan)

Today is the 95th day of school. We have 5 more days until 100! (Max)

For Fundations we did some tapping. We did word families. We did –at words. We did the big cards and the little cards. Some friends came up to the SmartBoard to write E and F. We did the vowel chart. (Ginger)

We did our poem. We read it 2 times. Our word is “it”. (Andrew)

We did math workstations. (Connor)

We did art. For art we got to paint fish. (Sophia)

Miss Tappana read The Hat by Jan Brett. (JR)

In your child’s folder today you will find some very important papers! You will find a yearbook order form, a Valentine’s day note, and a 100^th day of school reminder!

Also Parent Teacher Conferences are coming up at the end of February. My conferences will be held Monday-Friday, February 22nd-26^th. I am attaching the schedule from the fall. Typically we try to keep the same day of the week and time. However, I do have Monday after school available this time around and I know some of the times in the fall did not work well for families. Please reply to this email if you have a preference about days and times.

Thanks!!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We had an electronic or toy party! We brought our toys to school. (Connor and Dylan)

Today was an early release day. It was kind of mixed up! There were some club pictures today. It was fun! (Ginger)

We did Fundations. We did sky writing for E and F. We did the big cards and little cards and vowel chart. We did our whiteboards. (Logan and James)

We started a project for The Mitten. It was amazing! We are going to retell the story and bring it home. (Andrew)

Ms. Mielke came today. We talked about liking ourselves. We did a project. We made a flower. We wrote our name in the middle and we wrote things we like around the flower on the petals. It was fun! (Layla and Sophia)

Today is the 94th day of school. Only 6 more days until 100!! (Max)

Have a great night!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did Fundations. We did our big cards and our little cards and we did some tapping and Mrs. Hotchkiss built some words. We wrote letters in our Fundations notebook. We colored the picture. We did the letter B. (JR)

We did writing. We did something new. We wrote about our lives. We drew what happened first, next, and last. (Kate)

Miss Tappana called name sticks to help tell the story The Mitten. We acted the story out. We used puppets. There were lots of animals. (Ginger)

We did morning job. We designed our own mitten. (Andrew)

We did Daily 5. (Layla)

Today is the 93rd day of school. There are 7 more days until 100. (Max)

We played Total of 10. We wrote down the ways to make 10. (Connor)

Toy party tomorrow! Have a great night!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did writing. We did our Monday News. Some people got to share their writing. (Andrew)

We did math. We did Quick Eyes. It was pictures of shoes and flip flops. We had to say how many and how we saw it. We talked about the numbers (Kate, Layla, and Ginger) We were working on mental math strategies!

We had P.E. We got to do a fun game. We had groups. We had to knock down their pins. Whoever knocked down all the pins gets a point. (Sophia)

We did outside recess! Finally! (Jayden)

We got new jobs. (Connor)

Today is the 92nd day of school. There are 8 more days until 100th the day. We are getting so close to the 100th day! It is so exciting! (Max and Sophia)  Currently, the 100th Day of School is scheduled for Thursday, February 4th (unless we have any snow days between now and then). As a part of our day, our class will be creating a “100th Day Museum.” Please have your child bring a collection of 100 things to school on Thursday, February 4^th. The collection needs to be small enough for your child to carry to school.  Some examples might include 100 paperclips, cotton balls, pennies, cereal pieces, ribbons, beads, toothpicks, pencils, playing cards, etc.  Let your child use his/her imagination to come up with a unique, one of a kind collection. Our class will be displaying their collections on the 100th Day of School during math.           

In addition, on the 100th Day of School each student will create his/her own special snack of with 100 pieces of food (like a trail mix).  For this special snack, we would like to ask for donations of the following:  pretzels, cereal (like cheerios/fruit loops), M&Ms, raisins or other dried fruit, mini marshmallows, goldfish or cheese-it crackers, animal crackers, teddy grahams, etc. Please send in your snack donations by THIS FRIDAY, January 29th, so we can ensure we have enough snack for each student.

We did snack. We read The Mitten by Jan Brett. There were animals that squeezed inside a mitten. The mitten went flying in the air! (Logan and Ginger)

We did Fundations. We did the big cards and the little cards. We practiced writing C and D. (Dylan)

Our class earned another set of 100 Cougar Compliments! To celebrate, the class voted to have a “Bring Your Favorite Toy to School” party! We will be doing this on Wednesday, January 27^th! This is an early release day (dismissal at 12:50 pm). Each student is allowed to bring one small toy to school this day. This could be a small bag of legos or blocks, an action figure, a doll, stuffed animal, toy car, etc. No toy weapons please! Students are allowed to bring an electronic toy (such as a DS or small tablet) as long as the sound can be turned off. Please make sure it is fully charged or has new batteries. Please do not send valuable electronic toys because these toys will be unsupervised at times (recess, specials, etc.) Students will have the opportunity to play with these items at specific points in the school day. They will only be allowed to play with the toy in the classroom setting (not bus line, etc.) Please let me know if you have any questions!

Have a great night!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did the last page of our Snowy Day book. (Layla)

We did our assembly about science. There were trash cans with fog inside of them. It knocked over the stack of cups. It was cool! The rag caught on fire. The science guy ate goo and the goo came out of his ear. They had an electricity ball. Students came up to help. (Andrew, Evan, Sylus, and Connor)

It was Dylan’s birthday and we ate his special snack and we sang happy birthday to him! (Sophia)

We read a book about Ruby Bridges. White kids and black kids had to go to different schools. She prayed for the people. (Ginger)

We did math. We played Total of 10. We had 4 rows of 5 cards. We had to find 2 cards that made 10 in all. We have to fill in the missing spaces. (Kate)

There is a February book order coming home today! Visit http://orders.scholastic.com/H2MBR to order online!

Have a great weekend!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

At 5 pm we are going to have cocoa night. We get to teach math games to our parents. We can show a new game and a math workstation. (Ginger) I hope you can make it! Feel free to pop in anytime between 5-6:30 pm tonight!

After music we played a math game called Double Compare. We flipped over 2 cards and we had to see how many there were in all. (Kate)

We did writing time. We worked on our Snowy Day book. The page we did was the page where he slide down a hill. (Andrew)

Mrs. Hotchkiss is back from her trip! Our substitute was Mrs. Cockrell. (Sophia)

We did Fundations. We practiced writing capital A and B. (Logan)

We did snack. We watched a book on the SmartBoard about Martin Luther King Jr. It was called Martin’s Big Words. It was fun! (James)

Today we went to music. (Max)

We did the Zero the Hero Stomp because today is the 90th day of school. (Malai) The 100^th day of school will be Thursday, February 4^th! Your child will bring their 100^th day collection on this day! I will send home another note about this soon.

We did Daily 5. (Dylan)

Our class earned another set of 100 Cougar Compliments! To celebrate, the class voted to have a “Bring Your Favorite Toy to School” party! We will be doing this on Wednesday, January 27^th! This is an early release day (dismissal at 12:50 pm). Each student is allowed to bring one small toy to school this day. This could be a small bag of legos or blocks, an action figure, a doll, stuffed animal, toy car, etc. No toy weapons please! Students are allowed to bring an electronic toy (such as a DS or small tablet) as long as the sound can be turned off. Please make sure it is fully charged or has new batteries. Please do not send valuable electronic toys because these toys will be unsupervised at times (recess, specials, etc.) Students will have the opportunity to play with these items at specific points in the school day. They will only be allowed to play with the toy in the classroom setting (not bus line, etc.) Please let me know if you have any questions!

Have a great night!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We went to music. We sang a song called Bubble Gum. The third time went really fast! (Ginger)

We did math. We got to weigh scissors, crayons, Clifford, a tissue box, and a book on a balance scale. We used pennies and we took the items and we made it equal on the scale. We had white boards in our laps and a piece of paper to write our thinking. It was fun! (Sophia, Layla, and Dylan)

We did snack. We read Peter’s Chair. (Logan)

We did writing. We did the next page of our Snowy Day book. The page we did was the one where snow fell on his head. (Andrew)

We did Daily 5. (Evan)

We did Fundations. We did our little cards and our big cards and we did our vowel chart and we did tapping. We tapped “lit” and “lip” and “set”. (Kate)

We reached 100 Cougar Compliments! (Connor) We will vote on our celebration next week!

It was the 87th day of Kindergarten. It was super fun! We are close to 100 days of school! (Sophia)

For our poem it was called Snow. We practiced reading it smoothly. (James)

There will be no daily email tomorrow or Tuesday because of the sub. Behavior reports will still be coming home but no reading group books to read over the weekend!

Thank you if you have already returned Miss Tappana’s permission slip and interest survey! These are due by Tuesday!

Have a great weekend! Remember NO school on Monday!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We tested things to see what was heavier and what was lighter. We colored pictures blue if we thought it was heavier and yellow if we thought it was lighter. (Kate)

It was the 86th day of Kindergarten. (Connor)

We did snack. Mrs. Hotchkiss read us another book about Peter. He had a dog named Willie. (Layla)

We had counselor. We talked about our brains. We have to try hard things and make mistakes. That’s how our brain gets bigger. (Andrew)

For writing we got to write in our Peter book. We are on the second page. He hit a tree with a stick. (Sophia)

We did Daily 5. (Dylan)

Miss Tappana sent home an introduction letter today in your child’s folder! Please send back the student interest survey and the permission slip as soon as you can! These will be due Tuesday, January 19^th!

I will have a sub on Friday the 15^th and Tuesday the 19^th. If there are any changes in transportation for those days  please let me know today or tomorrow.  If there are any changes the day of please make sure to call the office and they will let the sub know.

Hi Parents!

This is what we did today!

We did P.E. We did stations like volleyball and soccer and 4 square. They were difficult but we tried our best. (Ginger)

We talked about Peter from The Snowy Day. We talked about things Peter does and things Peter and I both do. (Sylus) We compared our lives to Peter’s life!

It was the 85th day of Kindergarten. (Connor)

We did writing. We are making a book of The Snowy Day. We are retelling the story. We drew Peter and what happened in the story. (Andrew and James)

We did snack. We read The Snowy Day. (Logan)

We had inside recess. We got to go to Miss Reinkemeyer’s class. We got to play with play-doh and we got to play with some building blocks. It was really fun in there! (Sophia)

We did Fundations. For Fundations we did our little cards and big cards and we did tapping. We tapped the word “mud” and “mop”. (Kate)

We did Daily 5. (Layla)

We did our poem. Our word this week is “on”. There are a lot of repeating words in it. (Ginger)

Allison Tappana, from the University of Missouri, will be student teaching in my classroom this semester! She started full time this week! She will be with us until the beginning of May! She is looking forward to working with your students!

Today in your child’s folder you will find a note about the 100^th day of school and note about the “tapping” we do in Fundations. Have a great night!!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did math. We learned more about 10’s frames. We played Quick Eyes and did a 20 frame. We did a counting snowman. After we cut out the 10’s frames we put it under the matching snowman. (James and Layla)

We did weekend news. We wrote about what we did over the week. A lot of people went sledding. (Kate)

It was the 84th day of Kindergarten. (Connor)

We did Fundations. We learned about how to tap. We did our big cards and our little cards and vowel chart. (Andrew) Tapping is isolating each sound in a word by tapping our fingers to our thumb and then blending the sounds back together. We practiced with the words “mat” and “mad”. Ask your student to show you at home tonight! I will send home more information soon!

We did our poem. It is called Snow! There is snow on the ground outside. It has some rhyming words. (Mikayla)

We had snack. We read a book called The Snowy Day. (Jayden)

We did art. We got to color a monster with a special crayon. (Sophia)

We did Daily 5. (Evan)

We did morning job. We did math workstations. (Logan)

Have a great night!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did writing time. We finished our party hats. We made a project about our balloons. We called a paper face. (Logan and Layla) The kids have been working on a New Year’s resolution project this week! These will be on display on the hallway bulletin boards soon!

It is the 83rd day of Kindergarten. (Connor) The 100^th day is quickly approaching! I will send home information next week about our 100^th day celebration!

We did a snowball fight. If someone throws it all you, you have to sit down. It was boys vs girls. The snowballs had word wall words. We had to open it and read the word. (Kate)

We did snack. We read a book called Blizzards. It is a really big snow storm. (Andrew)

We did Fundations. For Fundations we did got to do our big cards and our little cards. We did Qu and z. We got to skywrite and write them on the white boards. (Sophia)

We did Daily 5. (Kymiah)

We did our poem. We highlighted the word wall words. We added some pictures. We put it in our poetry folder. (Mikayla)

We played Quick Eyes. It had 2 tens frames. (Malai) We worked on identifying numbers in the teens and describing them using a group of 10. For example, 14 is a group of ten and 4 left over.

We went to music. (Malai)

Your child is coming home with books to read at home this weekend! They picked out a few books from their book box that they wanted to share! Please return these books on Monday!!

There is a book order in their folder as well! To order, there is a link on my classroom website or you can find it here: http://orders.scholastic.com/H2MBR

Have a great weekend!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We got to find out if Mrs. Hotchkiss’ baby was a boy or a girl. We took a bite of an energy bite and it was blue on the inside! It is a boy! (Kate) Here is a video of their reaction! The ending is my favorite part! https://youtu.be/6vNkuiO_oyg

We played a game where we had to draw circles in the 10’s frame to match the number. (Evan)

We did snack. We read a book about snow. It was called Snow. (Andrew)

We went to library. We got to do a vote of books we like on the computer. We got new books. We got to play fun games on the computer. (Sophia and Dylan)

We did our poem. (Logan)

For writing we got to write about our goal for 2016. We wrote about trying something new or something we want to get better at. (Ginger)

We did Daily 5. (Layla)

Have a great night!!

Vesta Hotchkiss

Mill Creek Elementary

Kindergarten Teacher

417-818-9848

http://mrshotchkisskindergarten.blogspot.com/

https://twitter.com/hotchkissmce

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!

We did our Winter poem. (Logan)

We did Fundations. We practiced our letter cards. (Mikayla)

We read a book called Snowballs. It was a really cool author named Lois Ehlert. Mrs. Hotchkiss got to read it. She is one of her favorite authors. (Sophia)

We did our creativity lesson. We made inventions. (Andrew) Mrs. Cardetti from the Gifted Center came and did a lesson with the kids today!

We will spend the end of the day with Mrs. Winn. (Kate)

We are going to go to P.E. We are going to do games. (Ginger)

We have a new friend in our class named Max. (Mikayla)

Have a great night!

Hi Parents!

Here is what we did today!!

We did a snowman for the people that help us. (Kate) We made artwork for our Partners in Education to hang in their offices!

We did art. In art we played a game. (Andrew)

We did Daily 5. (Logan)

We read a book about snow at snack time. (Jayden) We started talking about the season of winter today.

We did our last 2 letters in Fundations. We did z and q. Q is always with the letter u. (Ginger)

We wrote about what we did over our break. (Dylan)

A January calendar is coming home today.

We will have a new student starting tomorrow! His name is Max! You are welcome to pass along the news to your child!

I will be leaving early tomorrow for a doctor’s appointment. Please let me know before 1:30 pm tomorrow if your child has a change in transportation.

Thank you! Have a great night!