New in Room 23

I hope that you heard last night about our new class pet- Hermie the Hermit Crab. The children are excited to say the least and I know they will take good care of him. Nathan even went home and did some research to about hermit crabs and wrote about it which we shared during morning carpet time. I am so excited about the writing that the children are doing. Yesterday some of the children were writing prayers to put into the prayer box. Please if you have someone you would like us to pray for write it down and send it in with your child. We check the prayer box every morning. Our jug from the challenge is already half full. The children love to tell us what they did to earn their money to share and I love to hear them tell us how good they feel inside. Ella Quiesser was our guest reader last week. A few students have brought in a book to share and we are still practicing but they will be reading for us very soon.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Charity Challenge

After Mass today we presented each grade level their Faith In Action jug to collect funds for their charity of choice. Together with Miss Hill we have decided that our charity will be the St. Elizabeth/Coleman Pregnancy Adoption Services. Please give your child the opportunity to earn change to bring into school reinforcing service to others and sacrifice. Spring pictures are tomorrow so your child will not have to wear their gym uniform but they will need to bring their gym shoes to change in to if they are not wearing them in their picture.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Prayer Box

Dear Parents,
We now have a prayer box in the classroom. I have told the children that they can write down a prayer for someone that they would like us to pray for every morning as part of our morning routine. This would be a great opportunity for you to see how their kindergarten writing is developing. We are writing everyday in school and hopefully you are seeing your child writing at home. I encourage you to remind them to stretch out the word listening for the sounds as they are writing. Also, encourage them to use their popcorn words. Thank you Miss Hurst for the donation of the mailbox.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

WOW!

It sure was a busy morning in kindergarten. Our 100's Day stations were a blast. We counted, moved, read, wrote, drew,ate, built and just had a great time! I would really like to give a special thank you to Mrs. Schene, Mrs. Welty, and Mrs. Emmert for their help today. Stations are such fun and a great learning opportunity when they are monitored. If you would ever like to come in and help at stations it would be welcomed and I know you would enjoy it. It gives you a great opportunity to see what is going on in your child's classroom as well as connecting with their classmates. Your child would love it too! Please let me know if you would like to volunteer. Thank you for helping your child prepare for 100's Day and Catholic Schools Week. Sad to say that we didn't make it to 100 canned foods but we got close with 65 so thank you for sharing.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Next Week is a busy one in kindergarten

Please read the school newsletter for information on Catholic Schools Week. We will be actively participating and having all sorts of fun. It is also the 100's day of kindergarten on Thursday, Feb 2nd. I would like to incorporate the two very special events. Part of our Catholic faith is service to others and I know that Mrs. Parsons was contacted by a past student who is in need of medical supplies. I was going to have you help your child count out 100 items to bring into school to share at a community circle on Thursday. If you would like to count out band aids, Q-Tips, cough drops, cottons balls, etc. that would be awesome and we will forward those to her to use with her service to the community. If you don't want to count out those type of items, please help them count out 100 of something else to share.  Ideas- M&M's, pennies, rubber bands, straws, etc. As you are counting the items out with them model count by ones, twos, fives and tens. Also, please send in a canned food items as we are working with Miss Hill's class to see if we can collect 100 cans by Thursday. These will be donated to a food bank. You may start bringing in canned foods on Monday.  I am in need of a three volunteers on Thursday for stations from 8:15-10:00 if you would like to help out just let me know.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Guest Reader and Harmony

We had a guest reader this week in kindergarten- Miss Emily Shea. Emily read us the book The Big Box. She did a great job. Emily asked me if she could read to the class one day. I told her that I wanted her to choose a book from home ( appropriate reading  level), practice with someone at home, and then bring it into school.  She read the book to me and I was able to give her some reading instruction. Once we did that she read to the class with confidence.I was able to video her on our IPAD and shared it with the other kindergarten class.  Many of the children asked me if they could be the "Guest Reader" in kindergarten. So here is the challenge. If your child would like to bring a book into and read to the class they will need to do the above mentioned steps and I will schedule them to be the "Guest Reader." The greatest thing you can do for your child on their journey to literacy is to read to them daily. This week we focused on the word "harmony" during our study of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Please ask your child what the word harmony means and what they can do to help our classroom live in harmony.
Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton

Riley Kids

Dear Parents,
Today as part of our Martin Luther King prayer service we were given the opportunity to do service for the kids at Riley Children's Hospital. We had a wonderful presentation about Riley and as a school we are trying to earn $100.00 to donate to Riley. I am asking that you give your child the opportunity to help you out around the house to earn some change. Chores for Change is what we call it and the kids love to help you and help others at the same time. The children can start bringing their change in tomorrow. Thank you for helping your child with this activity about service to others.

Here is another copy of the sight words introduced so far. Please practice them at home along with reading to your child daily (Book-It) and the homework calendar.
and, the , I, go, is, me, at , the, to, it, we, my, am, a, be, on, in, up, this, like, had

Respectfully,
Mrs. Catton