Weekly New Oct 31-Nov 4

I hope your child enjoyed the break from school and their time was filled with lots of outdoor fall fun!  This time of the year is so beautiful that sometimes we need to slow down and remind ourselves to enjoy it!!  I cannot believe we are gearing up for our third month of learning in Kindergarten!!

With this Monday being Halloween, NDLC students will celebrate by dressing in orange and black and teaming up to do some flashlight reading in buddy classrooms.  Students may bring in 2 fall or Halloween books to read with their second grade buddy.  We will also share a snack with them and end our day with an all school story and dance in the gym!

Important Dates and Reminders:

October 31: Orange and Black Day
October 31-November 8: All District Food Drive
November 10: Conferences 4-7:30pm
November 11: Red, White and Blue Day
November 15: Conferences 4-7:30pm
November 17: 1/2 day- 11:30 dismissal
November 18: Wisconsin Badger Day
November 23-25: NO SCHOOL


PSC News

Show appreciation for the NDLC staff by bringing an item or two for their conference meals. We'll be providing meals for our teachers plus support staff and specialists. Thursday, Nov. 10th will be a Taco Bar and Tuesday, Nov. 15th will be Soup and Sandwiches.
 Please sign up to contribute at... http://signup.com/go/i1k9Qj


Here is a link to our November homework calendar!  Please remember, these tasks are optional and are a way to extend classroom learning at home!

Here are also links to our November newsletters and lunch menu!

Here's a peek at our learning this week!

Reading: We are so excited to be learning about our reading super powers!  Did you hear...we had a visit from Reader Man and he left us some very cool pointers to help us activate our pointer power!  This week we will learn how long words can try to test our power, but we know that each word (no matter how long) gets just one point.  We will also be working on using sight words to really help us keep track of our pointing and will rely on our partners to help us make sure we are using our best pointing.

Writing:  This week in writing we will work to incorporate sight words into our books to make books with patterns, which are similar to the books we have been reading and writing together as a class.  We will learn to pick or two sight words and plan for our books to have those words on each page (Ex. The apple is read.  The leaf is brown, The grass is green).  We will also work hard to leave spaces between our words to make it easy for others to read.

Math:We are continuing to work hard to tell story problems to practice our addition and subtraction skills.  We will be introduced to two new math symbols this week: the equal sign and not equal sign and will practice using them as we investigate numbers, quantities and equations.  We will also be introduced to a new math tool called a ten frame that  helps us see groups of 5 in numbers 6-10.
Our math centers this week will be:

• creating equations using 5 groups and equal signs
• using pictures to tell story problems and write corresponding equations
• building numbers using single tiles and groups of 5 tiles
• showing numbers on ten frames using dotters

Social Studies:The students will be working in small groups to apply their school helper knowledge in centers this week.  They will build areas of the school and solve problems using mini versions of our helpers, sorting artifacts that our helpers use and problems they solves, and making webs using words and pictures to show all they have learned about our school helpers.

Word Work: We are continuing to practice the sight words: it, me we, here, can, we.

Field trip

We had the perfect day for a fall adventure this Wednesday!  The boys and girls loved meeting the fire fighters and seeing where they work and were terrific scientists at Heckrodt!

Check out some action photos from our fun day!!

Weekly News Oct 24-28

This week will be short and sweet, but will still be filled with lots of fun and hard work!

Monday and part of Wednesday there will be a substitute teacher (Mrs. Flanagan) in the classroom, but I will be in the building working with the students one on one to conduct the PALS assessment.  PALS stands for Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening.  It is an assessment that informs our work with helping the students succeed as emerging readers and writers.
I will be excited to share results with you at conferences in a few short weeks.

Important Dates and Reminders:

Student Council Hat and Mitten drive is this week!!

October 24th-26th Red Ribbon Week to celebrate drug and alcohol prevention
Mon. Oct. 24th  Wear "Red, White, and Blue” …I Elect to be Drug Free!!
Tues. Oct. 25th  Wear “Active Wear/Sweats”…Stay active and be drug free!!
Wed. Oct. 26th….District Wide Wear ”RED DAY”… Unite against drugs!!
October  27th-28th NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

PSC News

Family Skate Night at Skate City--NDLC has reserved the entire rink for a fun night of skating. Bring your family and friends and join your NDLC friends on Thursday, October 27th from 5:30-8pm at Skate City in Kimberly.

*$5 admission includes skate rental (no discount for bringing your own skates)

*No charge for anyone who comes to observe and doesn't skate

A peek at our week of learning!

Reading: This week we will start a new reading unit called "Super Powers."  This is an amazingly fun and meaningful unit for  the students as it takes skills we have been working on (sight word recognition, using picture clues, 1:1 matching) and turns them into Super Powers that kids will use to really begin reading!  This week we will learn about Pointer Power and how pointing at each word we read helps us to read accurately.  We will also be getting our very own book bins and new reading spots in the classroom!  This will be an eventful 3 days in our reading world!

Writing: As writers we are continuing to write more and more everyday.  This week we will work on adding sight words and color words to our writing and will also work to draw more detailed pictures that will help us to elaborate and use more words as we plan and write our books.  A HUGE thank you to Liam's grandma for bringing in many types of gourds and pumpkins for us to look closely at and write about!

Math: This week we will finish up out math centers from last week and will also be getting a new math tool: Math notebooks!  We will learn that as mathematicians we not only show our thinking with math tools and on our fingers, but we can also show what we know through math drawings.  We will begin to tell and draw story problems that involve adding and subtracting up to 5.

Social Studies: We are SO close to wrapping up our school helper interviews and writing about each of our helpers...we will wrap that up this week so we can use our new found knowledge in some interactive leaning centers next week!

Word Work:  We will continue to recognize, read and write the sight words: here, can, we, it, me.

Weekly News Oct 17-21

The boys and girls are REALLY looking forward to our field trip this week!  Prior to Wednesday we will discuss fire safety so we can ask great questions during our fire station tour!  At Heckrodt we will learn more about looking closely (like scientists) and this will have a great impact on our writing...I just know it!   Please be sure your child dresses for the weather on Wednesday, unless there is rain, we will be outdoors for the entire afternoon.  Also, unless you have ordered a lunch through Chartwells, please send your child with a lunch in a disposable bag. 


Important Dates and Reminders:
October 18th: Family Night 6-7pm
October 19th: Field Trip to Fire Station and Heckrodt
October 24th-26th Red Ribbon Week to celebrate drug and alcohol prevention

• Mon. Oct. 24th  Wear "Red, White, and Blue” …I Elect to be Drug Free!! 
• Tues. Oct. 25th  Wear “Active Wear/Sweats”…Stay active and be drug free!!
• Wed. Oct. 26th….District Wide Wear ”RED DAY”… Unite against drugs!!

October  27th-28th NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

Here is what our week of learning will look like:

Reading:  Our work in storybooks has really gotten us ready to tackle the challenges of conventional reading!  This week we will wrap up the use of story books by acting our favorite stories out using puppets.  Performing these books will truly be a way for us to show off the many skills we have acquired while working with these books...a huge skill being comprehension of character feelings and actions.  We will also take some time as a class to write some predictable books that include sight words and repeated patterns...we will aim to make these books similar to the leveled books we will be reading soon!

Writing: Our writing like scientists unit is up and running and the kids are amazing me at the work they are doing!  This week we focused on choosing one fall artifact and observing and saying all we could about it and then showing what we learned with words and pictures!  All of the students are bravely attempting to write words on every page!!  This week we will focus on drawing zoomed in pictures, planning books with a partner, listening for more sounds in our words and beginning to write sentences!   

Math: This week we will wrap up our first math unit and will begin unit 2.  The goals of this unit are:  to continue strengthening our knowledge of 1-10 and number order and understand that numbers 6-10 are created composed of a 5 group and some extra ones.  Also to explore +1 and -1 relationships and how they impact the value of a number.

These are the math centers we will be working in this week and during some of our short week next week: 

1. Five Finder: One object of the unit is for students to quickly be able to identify a group of five objects. They will be searching for five groups in pictures, circling them, and writing and equation to match the picture.

2. Students will create a counting book with objects for numbers 6-10.
3. Students will be given a piece of paper with an equation at the bottom. They will trace their fingers on the page to match the equation.

4. Students will roll two dice with numbers 0-5 on them. They will show the numbers using tiles and then add or subtract using the tiles

Social Studies: We are continuing to work on our school helpers interviews and have written and illustrated 3 books together so far!  We have Mrs. Geoffrey (the health aide) and Mr. Tom (the custodian) left on our interview list yet :).

Word Work: Our new sight words for the next two weeks are: it, me we, here, can, we.  These are also listed on our homework calendar to help you keep track!  We will learn a variety of ways to do word sorts in the following weeks as well.  In the beginning of November students will move into differentiated word sorts to fit their individual letter sound and spelling needs; practicing whole group sorts for the next two weeks will build the routines for this work.

Kindergarten FUN!

It is only Wednesday and we have had some major fun and excitement in here!!

Yesterday we took a walk outside and took on the role of scientists as we stop to look and observe and then record our thinking!  The boys and girls took this job VERY seriously and did some wonderful learning!

Today we "showed off" our new reading skill to some of Mrs. Santkuyl's class.  Half of us joined her for reading and half of her class joined us for a bit so we could show another Kindergarten friend the way we point at words we know as we read them.

Last but not least, we practiced writing our sight words with shaving cream!  It was so fun; we now have clean tables and our whole classroom smells like aftershave!!!

Weekly News Oct 10-14

The boys and girls had a great three days with Mrs. Flanagan!  She had so many great things to say about all of the kiddos and was so mpressed by how helpful and hard working they were.  I am a pretty proud teacher right now and am excited to get a new week of learning started with them!

Important Dates and Reminders:
October 18th: Family Night 6-7pm
October 19th: Field Trip to Fire Station and Heckrodt
October 24th-26th Red Ribbon Week to celebrate drug and alcohol prevention

• Mon. Oct. 24th  Wear "Red, White, and Blue” …I Elect to be Drug Free!! 
• Tues. Oct. 25th  Wear “Active Wear/Sweats”…Stay active and be drug free!!
• Wed. Oct. 26th….District Wide Wear ”RED DAY”… Unite against drugs!!

October  27th-28th NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

NEWS FROM THE NDLC PSC Family Skate Night at Skate City--NDLC has reserved the entire rink for a fun night of skating. Bring your family and friends and join your NDLC friends on Thursday, October 27th from 5:30-8pm at Skate City in Kimberly. *$5 admission includes skate rental (no discount for bringing your own skates) *No charge for anyone who comes to observe and doesn't skate Facebook--Don't forget to "Like" the NDLC Facebook page to keep updated on school happenings and events. NDLC wear coming home soon! Orders should be sent home by the end of this week or the first of next week. Save the date 11/17/16, NDLC has reserved Funset Boulevard in Appleton. Family and friends invited to pre-purchase tickets through NDLC and come play games and laser tag. More details to follow.

Here is a peek at our learning this week:

Reading: We are now working in both "old favorite storybooks" as well as familiar texts.  The students are LOVING reading each other's star books!  This week we will be focusing on early reading skills like using picture clues to help us remember and read words on the page.  We will also start pointing under words as we read familiar texts and story books and notice when the words we say match what is written on the page.  Our work with sight words will really help us with this!

Writing: This week we will begin a new writing unit called: "Looking Closely: Observing, Labeling and Listing Like Scientists."  In this unit we will be focusing on the changes that are happening around us.  We will take several outdoor adventures to observe and collect artifacts to write about.   The goal of this unit will be to draw and write details about our observations as a way to teach others.

Math:We will continue to work on number order this week and will also begin to use math tools to show both addition and subtraction.  We will be looking at pictures and determining if the objects in them are joining together (showing addition) or being taken apart (showing subtraction).  Our math centers this week are: working on forward and backward number order using a new ipad app, using pictures to tell addition and subtraction problems, creating our own number parade showing numbers and their quantity in order and using multiple materials to build shapes

Word Work:  We will learn lots of new ways to practice our sight words in the classroom.

Social Studies:  This week we will interview Mrs. Mitchell (our administrative assistant), Mrs. Frischmann (our principal) and Officer Krueger (our school police liaison). 

Weekly News Oct 3-7

This week will be a week of celebrating (and preparing to celebrate) our accomplishments as readers and writers.  We are getting to the end of both our first reading and writing unit and have learned SO much already in our short time together!!

Just to keep you in the loop, I will be out this week Wednesday-Friday.  Mrs. Flanagan will be here as a guest teacher with the boys and girls.  Many of them already know her from 4K; she is probably the most beloved substitute teacher there is!  She has already met with me to go over what the boys and girls will be working on this week so we will not miss a beat.  I can be reached by email while I am out, but please feel free to call the office if there were to be a change in pick up or drop off for your child to ensure it gets communicated to Mrs. Flanagan as soon as possible.

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

October 18th:  Family Night (please respond on the link below
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScyV_Ksq5kugruQU6RPIt5lWo1WLSO3tz0nwfWB-_Fl4VL3WA/viewform

October 19th:  Field Trip (Please send permission slips and $6 fee to school by Oct 10
October 27-28: NO SCHOOL

Our October Homework Calendar will be coming home with your child on Monday.  Later this month/early November your child will also begin to bring an independent reading book home as well. My goal is for this homework to authentically reinforce math and literacy concepts at home while also being realistic and manageable for our young learners and their families.
Please let me know if you have questions!!

News from the PSC:

There are lots of ways to be involved at NDLC. Consider some of these options:

PSC meeting: Monday, October 3rd at 6pm in the school library. Your thoughts and opinions are so important to the success of NDLC, come join us!

Online shopping: Register with AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) and Amazon will donate .5% of eligible AmazonSmile purchases to NDLC. Go to smile.amazon.com and enter “New Directions Learning Community Inc” as your organization to support.

Box Tops: Collect Box Tops from participating merchandise and send them to school with your NDLC student(s) to help NDLC earn money. Past years proceeds have helped purchase playground equipment and specific teacher requested classroom supplies. Need an extra sheet to attach Box Tops to? Click on this link and look on right side of page (“Box Top 50 Form”):
http://www.kaukauna.k12.wi.us/schools/newdirections/getinvolved/parents.cfm

Any questions or suggestions? Don’t hesitate to send an email to: NDLC.PSC@gmail.com

Here's a peek at our week:

Reading:  Today we celebrated all we have learned about reading so far with a parade!!  Check it out!


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Oi6ZlFl5W4Q2RkUGFYY2dTWEk/view?usp=sharing


 We will now launch into a new unit that will continue to focus on reading emergent story books but will delve deeper into focusing on character feelings and actions.  Students will also start to build comfort with conventionally reading familiar texts that they know well--like their Star Name books, songs, and rhymes we been reading regularly in class together.

Writing: This week will be our last week of writing true stories.  We will work hard this week to add more details to our pictures and to also add more sounds and words to our writing.  We will get ready to celebrate by picking our favorite story to revise AND edit!  We will use a checklist to make sure our story shows something that happened, who was there and how they felt.

Math: We will focus our work this week on ordering numbers 1-10 and also showing number quantity up to 10.  We will pay special attention to seeing/creating a group of 5 when showing numbers 6-10 using math tools.  We will also be working with the concepts of addition and subtraction and will be introduced to how to solve addition and subtraction problems using our fingers.  Our math centers this week will be:  building and comparing numbers using unifix cubes, working to order number cards and finding the missing number in the sequence, using our own math drawings to add to Anno's Counting book (a book we have been reading frequently in math) and working with number formation on the iPads.

Social Studies:  Our school helper interviews are underway!  We will get to know more about our lunch workers this week.  To share what we have learned we will be creating a book about each helper as a class.  This week we will complete Mrs. Steif's book and the book about Mrs. Waters and Mrs. Johnson, our lunch helpers.

Word Work: We will begin learning some sight words this week.  We will focus on 5 new sight words every two weeks.  Our words for the next two weeks are: I, a, the, is, and
Keep an eye out for these words in books you read together at home!