March 23rd- Mrs. Maxwell's Jr. Kindergarten Class

Notes from Teacher:   We have just finished introducing all letters A-Z.  To foster reading, I have “Itsy Bitsy Books” for A-Z that will come home to be read with you, along with the introduction of vowel sounds, using flip word picture books.  Please note if they read them with you on the “Spring into Reading” sheet so they see praise for their efforts.

Letters of the week: (A & B) we will write the beginning letter for words that start with A & B as a way to reinforce what they have learned and introduce short vowel (a) words, by making their own flip books to be read in class and at home.

Books read:  Flannel board story, “The Little Red Hen,” “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Count With Me,” and “Fun with Magnets.”

Math:  Counting backwards with “Rocket Blast Off” art.  Introduce math worksheets for completing patterns and which picture does not belong. * Time with Jesus; use illustrations to show the groupings of 5000 people Jesus fed with the 12 disciples.

Large motor:  Outdoor play on tricycles, using sand and water tables and easel painting.    Using Big Fat Band music CD, song-Jazz Police, the children will do some fun freeze dance.  Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letters (A & B), and creating their short vowel (a) flip book.  They will also be using colorful clay to make five loaves and two fish.  Together, do a dot to dot lower case letters a-z.

God’s Word:  “Jesus Feeds the 5000,” Luke 9: 10-17.  Memory verse: “They do not need to go away, we can feed them here.” 

For school chapel tithing, we as a school are collecting money to help one of our own. 

Science:  The children will finish designing their own balanced meal for healthy foods from last week. Then we will begin learning about magnets, how they work and how they help us.

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday with Ms. Rosa.   

Music:   Monday and Wednesday morning at 10:30a.m. 

It is fun to watch the children be excited about reading.

Enjoy, Mrs. Maxwell

Notes from Teacher: This Tuesday is Pizza night at Shakey’s and St. Patrick’s Day fun.

Letter of the week: (Z) we will identify word pictures that begin with letter (Z).  

Books read:  “The Zoo,” and a Ugandan Folktale “How Zebras Got Their Stripes.” Flannel board stories counting to 5 and counting back down to zero.

Math:  Counting with zero, counting with tens.

Large motor:  Riding tricycles, painting on the easel, stretching and guessing what zoo animal each child is acting out as for letter Z in Zoo.  Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letter (z) , tracing letters and creating their own zoo animal and zebra puppet with black paint and golf balls. 

God’s Word:   The Good Shepherd: memory verse Psalms 23. 

Science: continuing with healthy foods, the children will identify each food group and create their own illustrated healthy meal. Tuesday, they will make butter to have with bread. Thursday, they will enjoy fruit and vegetables; and Friday, they will all make a healthy meal pizza. *note pizza has two letters Zs, how cool is that!

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday

with Ms. Rosa.   

Music:   Monday and Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m.  Some silly fun songs with be sung for letter Z as well.

Jr. K progress reports will go out this week.

Also, big thanks to Maureen for helping with the school bulletin boards. They are beautiful!  She did many more things for us teachers and staff and we so appreciate the help.  Plus, the continued help for our class treat sale.

Mrs. Maxwell

Notes from Teacher: Thank you Mia’s and Charlee’s mom who came and helped at the jog-a-thon.  All the Jr. Kindergarteners that signed up to run did awesome, between 50 and 60 laps.  What a fun week we all had!

Letter of the week: (Yy) we will identify word pictures that begin with letter (Y).  For fun, I will be singing the Beatles’ song “We All Live in the Yellow Submarine.”  Hopefully, your child will be singing it to you, tooJ.

Books read:  “Why do Mosquitoes Buzz in Peoples’ Ears?”  The classic “Rapunzel,” “ABC” Dr. Seuss book, and create our own Y book, “Why, Where Would You Go in Your Yellow Submarine?”

Math: This week we will hopefully get to our nine dots page and create our own Shamrock patterns exercises.

Large motor:  Riding tricycles, painting on the easel, stretching and moving to “Smart Moves” music cd.  Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letter (y) , tracing letters and creating their own yarn necklace, yarn on a cross and illustrate a yellow submarine page under the sea.

God’s Word:   Last week the children came home with bath salts: glycerin, peppermint, food coloring and Epson salt. They loved making it.

This week our story is:  

Science:  Last week was full of All Lutheran’s Schools’ Week and we did not get to science. So hopefully this week we will review our healthy food and junk food chart, and begin talking about why eating healthy foods is good for our body.

*Does anybody have extra fallen out teeth we can use in a calcium test? We plan to test the effects of soda, juice and water on the enamel of teeth.  *Also, does anybody have chicken bones, cleaned, that we could use for a calcification test using vinegar?

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday  with Ms. Rosa.   

Music:   Monday and Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m. 

Mrs. Maxwell

Mrs. Maxwell's Jr. Kindergarten Class- March 2, 2009

Notes from Teacher: It is Lutheran Schools’ Week celebration this week. We began with praise in Chapel Sunday morning.  More fun is planned this week. Monday- Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses, Tuesday- Crazy Hat day, Wednesday- wear jeans and red school logo shirt, Thursday- wear camouflage, and Friday- jog-a-thon fundraiser, half day.  Be sure to order your Jamba juice for Friday and come if you can.  

Letter of the week: (Xx) we will identify word pictures that begin with letter (X),  For fun will will go on a “Fox” scavenger hunt for words in a box each day that use letter X. 

Books read:  Any favorite books brought from home and the classic story “The Gingerbread Man.”

Math:  Number 9, using dots.  They will be creating their own shamrocks with green bell pepper and paint, count shamrocks leafs and match shamrocks.

Large motor:  Riding tricycles, painting on the easel, looking for letter X box and school relay games and the Jog- a – Thon on Friday.

Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letter (X) , tracing letters and numbers and lego creation, play doh and mixing and pouring their bath salts.

God’s Word:   Story:  “A Woman Anoints Jesus’ Feet.”  Memory verse: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.”  Psalm 107:1

*Also, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday other teachers will visit our classroom and do a special bible lesson. 

Science:  We will review our healthy food and junk food tests of last week and the food pyramid and begin talking about how we maintain healthy bones. Next week we will do a calcium experiment.

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday and Wednesday mornings with Ms. Rosa.   

Music:  Each morning this week we will begin singing praise together as a whole school.

Reading Awards go home this week for the month of February.   Our new reading theme is “Spring  Into Reading.” 

Thursday morning , I will be treating the class to chocolate cake for morning snack.

This week should be a lot of fun.

 Mrs. Maxwell

Notes from Teacher: Open House was great.  Met a lot of new students and enjoyed showing all the children’s lovely work.  For those who were unable to come, the displayed work will come home this week.  Also, February’s “Warm up with a Good Book” will end this Friday and awards go out next week.  Thanks for your support.

*Next week is a fun week, celebrating Lutheran's Schools' Week.  More details will go home Friday.

*** this Sunday we perform in chapel. See calendar and note sent home Tuesday.

Letter of the week: (Jj) we will identify word pictures that begin with letter (J), cut and paste pictures and design their own painted jet.  Last week they created their classroom Q book and their responses to pictures are worth your time reading if you have a chance to come in.

Books read: The classic story: “Jack and the Beanstalk.”  (read and acted out) “JUMANJI” and “The Jungle Book.”

Math:  Number 8, using dots. Counting objects and writing the correct number and tracing numbers 1-10.

Large motor:  With the rain this week, we will dance and stretch to music and play circle games inside.   On sunny days we will start jogging for the upcoming jog-a-thon.  We will also move to Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick for letter J.

Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letter (J) , tracing letters and numbers and one on one puzzles with me.  There will also be play dough, blocks, and cars.

God’s Word:   Story:  “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Science:  What is healthy food and what is junk food?  Introduce the food pyramid.  Cook fat and lean hamburger meat.  We will talk about which one is better for the body, and the importance of fruits and vegetables in our diet.  We will sample cold cuts and enjoy some Jell-O for letter J, too,  this week.

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday and Wednesday mornings with Ms. Rosa.   

Music:  Monday and Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m.  Last week the children did an awesome job singing their LOVE song in Chapel.

Oh, and Friday is always late afternoon snack for a dollar; and  remember, this Sunday at 8:30 is our Jr. Kindergarten through 2^nd grade singing performance in the chapel. Please arrive at 8:15 a.m.

Thanks,  Mrs. Maxwell

Notes from Teacher: We have a four day school week.   We also have Open House this Thursday and Saturday.  See the flyer for details.   Please come if you can, so you can see your child’s work around the classroom.

Letter of the week: (Qq) we will identify word pictures that begin with letter (Q), make a class quilt and look at magazine pictures that illustrate words that begin with Q. 

Books we will read are: “Sam and the FireFly,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Glorious Flight,” “Can You See What I See?” “Weather Words and What They Mean,” “Winnie-the-Pooh’s Colors and ABC,” books.

Math:  Numbers and ABC dominos matching game and art, tracing numbers 1-10 and finishing their creative number of dots book, 1-10.

Large motor:  With the rain this week, we will dance and stretch to music and play circle games inside.   

Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letter (Q) and create a personal patch of art for our class quilt.  There will also be play dough, blocks, cars and puzzles out.

God’s Word:   Story: “The Good Samaritan” Memory verse: “We love because God first loved us.” 1 John 4:19.

Science:   With the book “The Wonders of Water,” we created one terrarium for observation of the water cycle.   The children are amazed at how the plants are doing inside and seeing the condensation of moisture build up.  We are also continuing to make new colors with primary colors out of paint.

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday morning with Ms. Rosa.

Music:  The children have music this Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m.  In Chapel this week, they will also share the L.O.V.E. song with the rest of the school.

Mrs. Maxwell

Mrs Maxwell's Jr. Kindergarten Class: Feburary 9th-12th, 2009

Notes from Teacher: This Friday and following Monday off, we will have a four day weekend, honoring Presidents’ Day.  

Our class Valentine’s Day party will be this Thursday after nap time.  Please bring in your Valentine cards that day.  We will be celebrating with the Kindergarten class.

Next week will be on letter (Qq), and since there are few books with letter Q. Please bring in magazine pictures or words that begin with Q.   For example, Q for quite, quick, quality, quail, Queen, quacking, and quarter ect.

Letter of the week: (Kk) We will identify word pictures that begin with letter (K): kindness, king, kazoo, kangaroo, kitten, Kermit, kite, ect. 

Books we will read are: “Kindness,” “Kitty’s First Airplane Trip,” “Kat Kong,” “I am a Kitten,” “Katy the Snow Plow,” and “The Most Wonderful King.”

Math: Matching numbers to amounts on a kite’s tail and counting and tracing numbers aloud, 1-10.

Large motor:  Outdoor running and playing on tricycles and wagon use; inside, circle games with We Play music cd.   Small motor:  Coloring, cutting and gluing for letter (Kk), creating a plastic kite with streamers, printing one’s name and painting and making a kazoo out of  paper rollers.  Also, there will be water play, baby washing and clothing baby dolls.

God’s Word:   Story: “Jesus Heals a Man.”  Memory verse: “Praise the Lord…who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” Psalm 103: 2-3

Science:  Last week we only had time to plant watermelon seeds. It will take 4 to 8 days to observe seed growth. For follow up, we will read, “We Love Dirt.”  This week we will discuss the importance of the water cycle through the book, “The Wonders of Water,” and create one terrarium for observation.

We will also use primary colors to create secondary colors using paint and labeling our rainbow colors in Spanish.             

Spanish: Conversational Spanish will be taught 8:45 to 9:30 a.m. Monday morning with Ms. Rosa. Music:  The children have music on Monday and Wednesday mornings at 10:30 a.m.  The children are doing a great job learning their songs.

Mrs. Maxwell