Color Word Songs

RED

r-e-d, red r-e-d, red
I can spell red!
I can spell red!

Firetrucks are red!
Stop signs are red, too!

R-e-d r-e-d

(tune of Frere Jaques or Are You Sleeping)



BLUE

B-l-u-e spells blue!
B-l-u-e spells blue!
High ho! Did you know?
B-l-u-e spells blue!

The big sky is blue
The ocean is, too!
High ho!, Did you know?
B-l-u-e spells blue!

(tune of A Hunting we will go!)

8-21-2008 Newsletter

Ray’s Ramblings
August 21, 2008

Dear Parents,

This is the first official copy of Ray’s Ramblings, my weekly newsletter. I will be sending it home every Thursday. This way, if anything needs a response, you can send it back to me on Friday in your child’s take-home folder.

FORMS – I am sending home a notice of any forms that have not been returned to me. Please send these back as soon as possible. Even if you feel the form does not apply to you, just check the box that tells me that, sign and return. We have to have these forms on file.

Upcoming Fundraiser!!

Each year the technology team helps organize a fundraiser to keep our school on the cutting edge by purchasing new technology for the students and teachers. Once again we will be selling Sally Foster gift-wrap and products. This year we are excited to announce we will earn a 50% profit. Look for packets to come home on Friday August 29. The sale will end on September 12th, and the merchandise should arrive around November 19th for pick up on Family Fun Night. We will let you know more later. Thanks for your support.

Box Tops for Education

We are collecting the Box Tops coupons off General Mills products. Go to this website to see a complete list of items bearing these coupons. http://www.boxtops4education.com/Downloads/Global/products.pdf

Assessment

We are still getting to know each other and things are going well! The kids are already getting comfortable and learning our routines and rules. I hope you are hearing about these at home. I have been giving my initial assessment called the Early Literacy Assessment. This gives me a baseline on where we need to begin in our reading groups. I already have some children bringing in homework. I will be giving you the first homework packet at the Parent Orientation night and going over how to use it. Until that time, I would like everyone to practice writing their name. We encourage using an initial capital letter and the rest lowercase. Many of the children are still using all capital letters. Please help them with this. We have already learned the correct way to form the numbers 1-7 (8 tomorrow). I am sending home a sheet with the rhymes we use to form these numerals. Practice these at home as well. We have also learned the color word songs for red and blue. I’m sending home a song sheet. Please create a folder or a binder to keep my handouts at home for reference. I’ll be sending things home regularly. I will also post them on my blog and on my website.

http://www.clray.blogspot.com/
www.carlaray.net

I am sending home a handwriting guide. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! Please take the time to really look at this guide to see the CORRECT formation of letters. This is what I will be teaching. With our very limited time in a half day session, I depend on you to spend time at home reinforcing school work. Every letter should begin at the TOP and come to the bottom. We NEVER start at the bottom and go up. If your child has already developed these bad habits, please help me break them!

Parent Orientation Night (September 11, 2008)

At Open House, I had a sign-up sheet for the parent orientation night. I really need at least one parent represented at this meeting. I will be going over our handwriting and demonstrating many other things you will need to know in order to help your child at home. We will be going over kindergarten curriculum and expectations and the kindergarten report card. Those of you who were unable to come to Open House night or who did not sign up, I need a note telling me which session you would like to attend. This night is for parents only. Please make childcare plans. Each session is only 30 minutes long. Sessions are: 4:30-5:00, 5:15-5:45; 6:00-6:30; 6:45 – 7:15. If you have not signed up, I am sending a reminder home today. Please send in your choice for sessions.


Parent Orientation Night:

Child’s Name: ________________________________

Parent(s) attending: __________________________________________

Please put me down for the following session:

_____ 4:30 – 5:00

_____ 5:15 – 5:45

_____ 6:00 – 6:30

_____ 6:45 – 7:15

The Star Polisher

"My job is to take the stars in, and shine them and buff them and then send them out into the sky" by Leah Becks

I have a great job in the universe of occupations. What do I do? I am a "star-polisher". It's a very important job. If you want to know how important, just go out at night and look up at the stars twinkling and sparkling.

You see, I'm a teacher. The stars are the children in my class. My job is to take them in - in whatever shape they come - and shine and buff them and send them out to take their places as bright little twinkling beacons in the sky.

They come into my room in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they're bent, tarnished, dirty, crinkly, and brokern. Some stars are cuddly, soft and sweet. Some stars are prickly and thorny.

As I buff, polish, train and teach my little stars, I tell them that the world cannot do without them. I tell them they can do anything they set their minds to do. I tell them they can be the brightest, shiniest stars in the sky and the world will be a better place because of them.

Each night as I look at the sky, I'm reinded of my very important job and awesome responsibility. I go and get my soft buffing cloth and my bottle of polish in preparation for tomorrow and for my class of little stars.

August 18, 2008

I am working hard to get ready for our first full week of kindergarten!!! I have many exciting things planned for your children this week. As we are still getting to know each other and the routine, we are not truly following the schedule I gave you at Open House. We will be working this week on writing and recognizing our names, assessing pencil grips, cutting and gluing. We will be going over our colors and learning some color words. We will be practicing counting and recognizing numbers to 10. Please be practicing these skills at home.

If your child cannot write his name, please put this skill at the top of your homework list! We write our name on every paper we do!

I did not send a newsletter home on Thursday because I felt like I had given you enough paperwork for this week!

We will begin writing in our writing journal this week. If you have not sent one in, please do so soon. We will go to the computer lab and to Art on Monday, Tuesday our Occupational Therapist, Julie Wells, will come in and have a lesson/assessment on pencil grips. Wednesday we will not have a special but I have an art project planned. Thursday is Music and Friday is Gym.
We have new wood chips on the playground. Many of the children who were wearing flip flops last week complained about getting stuck. There are some fixtures on the playground that the children are not allowed on if they do not have on tennis shoes. If at all possible, tennis shoes would be the best choice in footwear for school.

I am getting a tremendous amount of response via e-mail. I am thrilled that I have such a tech savvy group of parents. This will make communication much more effective!

We have a great week planned! You have a good one, too!

Exciting Times

It's almost time!!! I have been working very hard to get our room ready for Open House on Monday. It's just about ready. I will have an information packet for you. There are some forms that you will need to fill out on Monday night and leave with me. Please come prepared with all emergency names, phone numbers and driver's license numbers. You will need this information for anyone you list as a person to call in an emergency. Other forms, you may take home and fill out. Please complete the forms and return them to school with your child on their first day.

Monday night, please come in, help your child find their cubby in the hall. Find their name on the bulletin board. Find their seat at a table. Put their supplies in their chair pocket.

AM children will have names printed in red and will use the TOP chair pocket and the TOP cubbyhole. They will also use red folders. I have used ladybugs to designate AM class.

PM children will have names printed in blue and will use the BOTTOM chair pocket and the BOTTOM cubbyhole. I have used bees and/or flowers to designate the PM class.

There will be a sign-up sheet for you to choose the time you will attend the Class Night on September 11.

I look forward to seeing you all on Monday Night.

It's In the Mail!!!

My welcome letters went out on Wednesday this week to my new 'family'. I am already receiving e-mails from my new parents. I got to thinking that since I gave you the address of my blog, I would post a new entry.

First of all, let me give you a tech tip. I, personally, use google as my home page on my computer. If you do this, you can set up a google account. It's free! You can use the classic home page that just has the google search box AND you can click on the igoogle link and create your own individualized home page. There is an 'add stuff' link to add different components to your page. One of these is "google reader". This is a blog reader application. You can copy the link to this blog and add it as a subscription. Then, whenever I post a new entry to the blog, it will show up in google reader, just like getting new e-mail in your mailbox.

There may be other ways to do this, but I am most familiar with Google!



NICKNAMES: I am already getting responses telling me your child goes by a nickname. This is fine. I just need to know what name you want them to be called in the classroom and what you want them to write. I will use this name to label their cubbies, nametags, etc.

Please get this to me as soon as possible via e-mail: cjlray@gmail.com since I will be spending the next few weeks preparing name tage, cubby tag, desk tags, bus tags, etc. Tags, tags, tags,.

It would be great to begin having your child practice writing their name now. I will quickly begin to have them write their name with a beginning capital letter and the rest lowercase. No time to begin like now! We will do papers on the very first day of school and we always start by writing our name!

This is a very exciting time of the year! I'm getting excited and I know your little ones are, too!

See you soon!

Getting Ready

I can't believe it's getting to be that time of year! Next week, I will pick up my new class lists. I can't wait to find out who my new friends will be this year!!! My Welcome Letter should be in the mail by next Friday. My parents should be receiving their letters by the 29th.

I am working hard on getting our room ready. This is always an exciting time for me! I will be posting our supply list on this blog shortly. (I don't have a copy with me right now!) I will not need everything on the list. I have many supplies stockpiled from the past few years. I basically need each child to purchase a zippered cloth pencil bag and fill it with: 3-4 sharpened pencils, 8-pack crayons, fiskar scissors, 1 large glue stick and 1 pack of colored pencils. I will post the additional items needed later.

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am getting excited and hope you are, too!