May 13, 2010

Dear Parents,

Can you believe we only have 13 more get-ups!!?!! That’s it!!! Where has this year gone???
Tomorrow is our Fairy Tale Celebration. Please help your child dress as their favorite fairy tale character. We have talked about magic people, princes, princesses, bad guys, dragons, giants.
Permission Slips went home this week for our Transition Field Trip. These are due ASAP!!! By Monday the 17th. They are hot pink! If you have not returned this slip, please do so as soon as possible. No permission slip = no trip!!!
PICTURES: Last notice – Please, either return $55 to pay for the school pictures OR return the pictures to school.
LIBRARY BOOKS: We will not be checking out library books for the remainder of the year. If you have a library book that has not been returned, please make every effort to return the book or the payment for the book ASAP.
INDEPENDENT BOOK CHECK-OUT: We will not be checking out my independent books for the remainder of the year. If you still have one of my books at home, please return them to me!
JEWELRY: We are having a LOT of trouble with the little rubber shape bracelets, as well as other necklaces, bracelets and earrings. Please do not send these to school. If they stayed on and were not played with, they would be OK but this is NOT the case. They are a big distraction! We have lots of assessment during these last few days and we need to be paying close attention!!!
PLEASE NO FLIP FLOPS!!! Tennis shoes!!!!
It is very important to bring folders and backpacks everyday during our last days. I never know when very important papers will be coming from your new schools. This is very important!!!b
Next Week: Pond Week. We will be having reading groups on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. There is NO SCHOOL on Tuesday because of Election Day. Friday will be our MAE Day Celebration (Music and Arts in Education). This is our Village version of Field Day. Please coat your child in sunscreen before sending them to school on Friday. We will spend as much time OUTSIDE as possible! Wednesday the 19th is our End of Year Math Assessment. Depending on the weather, we could walk to the pond behind the school on either Monday or Thursday. Sooooo, please make sure your child wears tennis shoes for walking both of these days. Also remember TENNIS SHOES ARE REQUIRED FOR GYM DAYS (WEDNESDAY) THE REST OF THE YEAR!
Week of 24th to 28th – Monday the 24th is our Transition Field Trip to our new Elementary Schools. Parents will not be going on the field trips. However, parents ARE HIGHLY encouraged to attend the Transition Family Fun Night on
Tuesday, May 25th from 5:00 to 7:00!! Principals and first grade teachers will be here that night to meet you. They will answer any questions you have at that time. This is also the night of the Jim Gill FREE concert!!! Book Fair will be open that night as well!!! The JELV Library will be having a book fair during the week of May 24-28. This gives students a chance to buy quality books for reading over the summer. The profit for this fair will be used to buy books for the new, expanded library at the new village. The book fair will be open Tuesday, May 25 during Family Fun Night from 5:00-7:00. Thank you for your support of the village library. Lots more exciting things planned are plannedbbb. Please make EVERY effort to attend this evening!!!
Wednesday May 26 is our DIBELS End of Year Benchmark test.
Monday, May 31 – NO SCHOOL – MEMORIAL DAY!!!
Tuesday, June 1 – weather permitting, we will walk to Asbury City Park. More information will come later. I would like to have parents join us on this trip. If anyone would be willing to meet us at the park and provide a cooler with popscicles, ice cream sandwiches or juice boxes, that would be GREAT!!! Other parents are welcome to walk with us!!!
Wednesday, June 2 – WATER DAY – Weather permitting, we will have a day outside to play in the water. I have not heard if anyone has sprinklers, water toys, pools or slip and slides you would be willing to bring to school to share with us!!! Again, we will be outside most of the day so prepare your child for the sun by using lots of sunscreen!!! Please send a change of clothes, an outfit (swimsuit) for water play and a beach towel! Flip flops are fine for this day!!! 
Thursday, June 3 – Our last day together! Students must be present this day to receive report cards. If anyone is willing to send a treat for this day, please let me know!

http://www.softschools.com/math/games/addition_practice.jsp

I just found the greatest online game - the link is above when you open it, you will find this page
Check NO regroup 0 decimals
First addend minimum 0
First addend maximum 5
Second addend minimum 0
Second addend maximum 5
Total 5
Any number of problems
Then go! Watch your child have fun

We have to master facts to 5 before going to first grade! What a fun way to do it!

February 4, 2010

Ray’s Ramblings

February 4, 2010

Dear Parents,

Earlier this week I sent a note home about our Valentine party. It will be held next Friday, February 12 at 10:00 and 2:00 followed by Motor Mouth at 10:30 and 2:30. Each child should sent in a shoe box or a cereal box, decorated with their name on it. We will be using these as our “Valentine Mailboxes” to collect Valentines. The note I sent home had a request for an item for the party. Please check your child’s folder for that note. If your name was not highlighted to send something in, you may just send a bag of Valentine Candy OR a Valentine treat of some kind for the class. All children should send in Valentines to pass out the each child in the class. It is NOT necessary to address the Valentines but is IS necessary to have your child sign their Valentine. We will have fun reading the cards and seeing WHO they are from. Please DO NOT DO THIS FOR YOUR CHILD!!!

Our Cookie Dough Fundraiser has begin. Order forms are going home with your student today. The sale will end on February 19th with an expected delivery date of March 22, just in time for spring break and Easter. The earnings from this fundraiser will go towards the purchase of technology. More details will be sent home along with the sales brochure. Thank you for participating in our school fundraisers.

FEBRUARY HOMEWORK PACKET – The February homework packet went home yesterday. I have been asking for 2-3 pages of kidwriting per week. I have now included the writing pages in the homework packet. There are two pages inserted for each week of homework. Please have your child do this at least twice a week. You should have the song sheet, a copy of the sight words and a chunk song (‘or’ for orbit . . . ) I have taught your children how to use these guides in their kidwriting. If you have misplaced these ‘helpers’ and need a replacement, please let me know!! Be sure to put “adult” writing under their kidwriting.

Keep working with your child on coins!!! We have been intensively working with pennies and nickel s. They should be able to name he coins and determine the value of small groups of coins.

New skill list check-offs will be put in the hall as soon as I can get them ready. These will reflect the items on the upcoming 3rd report card (coin identification; coin names; writing last name correctly; naming ¾ of the kindergarten sight words - since we will be ¾ of the way through the year; count by 10, 5, 2; identifying all capitals; identifying all lowercase; identifying all 31 sounds (including both long and short vowels); Please be working at home on ALL of these skills! Come and check the hall to see how your child is doing! (These should be up early next week! )

100th Day collections were FANTASTIC!!! I have them displayed in the hall above their cubbies. I will begin sending them home next week in backpacks if they will fit. If you intend on picking the project up, please send me a note!

BOOK ORDERS: Must be turned in to me by tomorrow. I will place the order over the weekend.


--

January 28, 2010

Ray’s Ramblings
January 28, 2010

Hopefully, by the time you read this, we will have had a wonderful day celebrating our 100th day of school! I can’t believe how quickly this year is going! Thank you to all who completed the Family 100 Project. They are displayed in the hall!

ASSESSMENT: We have spent the last three weeks working very hard on our mid-year assessments. Your child has taken the mid-year ELA (Early Literacy Assessment). I am very pleased with the scores I am seeing! You should be, too! I am sending these scores home today. Please look at the comparison to the beginning of the year scores to see how much your child is learning. This can also give you an idea of what areas your child needs to work on! Please read the explanation of the test on the back and PLEASE schedule a conference with me to answer any questions you may have. The expectation is for your child to score above a 60 and register a DRA score of 3 or above by the end of the year! In order to take the DRA test, your child must have a score on the ELA of 60 or above and know 8 or more sight words (on the word recognition section of the test). If these conditions were not met, they were not given the DRA.

TRANSITIONING: We are now more than half-way through the school year. We will be pushing very hard from this point on to get your child ready for first grade! We started going through the cafeteria line this week. We have not started punching in our cafeteria numbers yet. We will begin that on Tuesday. Our days to go through the line are Tuesday and Thursday. Please be working with your child to learn their account number!

SAFETY CONCERNS FROM THE GYM – Mrs. Rhoades would like to remind everyone that it is important to wear sneakers or tennis shoes on gym days. I have seen an increase in our kiddos wearing those “Ugg style” boots to gym class. They do not offer the support or tread that a tennis shoe does. We have had more slips and falls when our kiddos wear these types of shoes. So for the safety of our students, I’m asking that tennis shoes be worn on gym days. OUR GYM DAY IS WEDNESDAY!!! Thanks so much! - Melissa Rhoads

NOTE FROM COMPUTER LAB: Dear Parents, our Cookie Dough Fundraiser is about ready to begin. Order forms will be sent home with your student on Friday February 5th. The sale will end on February 19th with an expected delivery date of March 22, just in time for spring break and Easter. The earnings from this fundraiser will go towards the purchase of technology. More details will be sent home along with the sales brochure. Thank you for participating in our school fundraisers.


ONE-CALL: The Village has begun using the One-Call system to inform parents of upcoming events and important messages. You should have received phone calls every night this week reminding you of our daily theme for “Count Me In Week”. If you have NOT been receiving these calls, please let me know. If you have students at other schools in the district, this should not be new to you!  We are just a bit slow getting this service!

BOOK ORDERS: The January Book orders should have gone home yesterday. I am including the February Book orders in today’s packet. Please return the orders NO LATER THAN NEXT THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4!!! Please do NOT send cash!!! Send only checks or money orders made out to Scholastic Books. You may always order online using a credit card! To order online, go to the Web address below and enter our class’s personalized user name and password in the sign-in fields on the right side of the page. Note: You do not need to create your own user name and password

www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
User Name: carlaraysclass
Password: JELV

JANUARY HOMEWORK PACKETS ARE DUE TOMORROW!!! February packets will go home on Monday. Please begin to send in 2-3 evidences of kidwriting each week!!! It is very important that your child is routinely using their writing skills at home! Most students are now writing 3+ sentences at a time when we write! Have them write, putting the sounds they hear on paper. Use the phonics song sheet and the word wall words for quick reference. They know how to use these tools! After they do the kidwriting, you supply the ‘adult writing’ under the kidwriting and compare with your child. For example it could look like this:

I hav a dog. He is brn and whit. We like to pla bal aftr skul
_________________________________________________

I have a dog. He is brown and white. We like to play ball after school.

Praise every sound they hear! Some children like to count “points”. All children should have a copy of our word wall and our phonics song at home to use as a reference when writing. I am sending our Chunk Song home today. We are starting to reference this song in our writing. When they hear a chunk, they should refer to this page to find the ‘chunks’. IF YOU HAVE LOST OR MISPLACED THE OTHER SHEETS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW AND I WILL SEND ANOTHER COPY TO YOU.

Ray's Ramblings - 12-17-09

Ray’s Ramblings
December 17, 2009

Dear Parents,

Please read carefully. I am getting a lot of questions about the Christmas program tonight and the party tomorrow. I have put this information in the last three newsletters, posted the information on my BLOG and have e-mailed it to everyone who has given me their e-mail address. If you are not receiving this information (or if you are NOT on the e-mail list and wish to be), please let me know!

TONIGHT’S CHRISTMAS PROGRAM: Students are to dress nicely, but not overly dressed. We will be sitting on the floor, criss cross so choose dresses carefully! There will be four performances tomorrow night. Our performances are #3 and #4. There are 20 minutes between each ‘showing’. Each class is to meet their teacher in the cafeteria prior to the performance. Parents will then go into the gym and find their seats. After the performance, I will walk the class BACK into the cafeteria where parents will pick up their students. The next group will be held in the front hall until the prior group has been picked up and exited the cafeteria. My AM class performs from 6:50 to 7:15 and PM performs from 7:35 to 8:00. It is my understanding that at 7:15, I will bring my AM class BACK to the cafeteria where parents will pick them up. PM students will be held in the front hall until all AM students are picked up. At that time, you will bring your children into the cafeteria to me and proceed into the gym to get your seats. We will be on the front row, facing the bleachers on the left side (your right as you look toward the stage). After our performance, you will pick the children up in the cafeteria, where you drop them off.

FRIDAY’S CHRISTMAS PARTY: Students are to wear their pajamas to school on Friday. Robes and slippers are fine, once they arrive at school. (Regular shoes and coats must be worn to school.) We will have our meal, as usual at 8:28 and 12:28. Once we return to the room, the students will sit in a circle on the floor with their Christmas gift bag set up in front of them. (EACH CHILD MUST HAVE A GIFT BAG TO COLLECT THE PRESENTS). Children will take turns distributing their gifts to each child around the circle. These gifts can be anything you want. There is no price limit, just so you bring the same thing to each child in the class. (AM has 24 students, PM 22) I have received everything from little boxes of nerds, to pencils, to handmade craft bags filled with goodies to homemade goodies, to personalized gifts. There is no guideline and the price limit can match each individual budget. Each child will pass out their gifts and every child receives the very same bag of goodies! It's wonderful! There is NO other gift exchange. Be sure to send in a large gift bag to collect the presents in! There is no need to put names on the presents unless they are personalized in some way. In fact, it will be easier if there are no names! Once the presents are delivered, we will sing Christmas songs while parents get the tables ready for our treats. We will eat, look through our goody bags, and then return to the carpet for a Christmas story. At 10:00 and 2:00, we will go to the computer lab where we will “board the Polar Express” for the North Pole. We will view a video of the book, The Polar Express. We will return to the room at 10:30 and 2:30 for Motor Mouth and be dismissed at 11:10 and 3:10. We will be putting our Christmas presents for our families in the gift bags, as well as our Gingerbread houses and our Christmas count-down bells.

I am very sad to tell my PM friends that we will be losing two friends over the Christmas Break. Abriel Phelps and her family are moving to New Mexico. And Gabe Hetherington will be moving to Lexington. We will miss these friends terribly but wish them both well in their moves. This will bring my PM number down to 20 but will also put me at the low end number-wise. This means that we will probably welcome any new children who move into our school!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday. We will return to school on Monday, January 4. This Friday is the end of our second nine weeks. Report cards will be going home on Thursday, January 7.

December 10, 2009

Ray’s Ramblings
December 10, 2009

Dear Parents,

We are really enjoying our last days before Christmas Break! We are as busy as elves making things!

Christmas Program: Our Christmas program is next Thursday night. AM performs from 6:50 to 7:15 and PM performs from 7:35 to 8:00. Dress is casual but nice. We will be sitting on the floor criss-cross so dresses may not be appropriate. Use your discretion. If the dress covers the knees when sitting, ok. We are on the first row! If your child will NOT be at the performance, please send a note to let me know!

Gingerbread Houses: Many classes are decorating Gingerbread Houses. The class is very excited about doing this. I had originally planned for us to do this on Monday. However, I am required to give our mid-year math assessment on Monday. This gives us no time to decorate the houses. We have dress rehearsal for the program on Thursday at 10:00 and 2:00. We will be able to decorate the houses at 9:00 and at 1:00. I will need parents to help BEFORE Thursday! The graham crackers need to be hot glued onto the milk cartons PRIOR to Thursday. That way, the children can just decorate on Thursday. I need lots of volunteers. Please let me know if you are able to volunteer prior to Thursday OR on Thursday to help with the decorating.

I am officially “grounded” by Mr. Ray!!! I am overspending – on the Holiday family last week and purchasing all the craft supplies we are working on over the next week! I need your help providing the supplies for the houses. Here is a list of suggested decorating supplies:

Graham crackers (need lots!!! 6 squares per house for 48 houses!!!)
Vanilla cake frosting
M & Ms, red hots, peppermint candies, Gummi bears, small jelly beans, pretzel sticks, pretzel twists, pretzel squares (make great windows!!!), gum drops, Hershey kisses, skittles, mini marshmallows, etc. Anything else you can think of is great!

Christmas Party: The children have asked to have a pajama party on the last day. This is a great chance to show off our Christmas PJs!!! Our party will be on Friday, December 18 from 9:00 to 10:00 and from 1:00 to 2:00. At 10 and 2, we will go to the computer lab to hear the Polar Express.

All children need to send in a LARGE Christmas shopping bag to collect presents!

All children need to be sending in treats for each child in the class. You may send these in at any time if they are not perishable items.

Our Volunteers are having trouble getting to school during this holiday season. For this reason and since we need assistance with the Gingerbread Houses, we will NOT be checking out the independent books until after Christmas. After Christmas, I will be moving ALL children up a level in these books. Look for a possible challenge!!!

Assessments: It is now mid-year and we are going to be doing our mid-year assessments – (Math on Monday). After we return in January, we will be giving the Early Literacy Assessment again, and Dibels. Report cards will go home soon after we get back to work. At this point, ALL CHILDREN should be half-way through achieving goals in our kindergarten skills. The hope is that all letters and sounds are mastered by this report card and we can spend the rest of the year working on reading sight words, word families and kidwriting. Please don’t forget to work with your child over the Christmas Break!

Thank you to all the parents who helped me with the Holiday Family! This was a tremendous opportunity to help one of our own JELV families during this Holiday season!

I will have volunteer moms “spot call” to get treats for our party on Friday. We do not need much – just drinks and a treat, plates and napkins. The goodie bags will be the highlight!!! If you would like to get a gift for the classroom, we need more 8 packs of crayons and large glue sticks!!! We also need treasure box items!

Personal Update: My grandbaby is showing signs that she may be here very soon! I am excited and looking forward to possibly being a grandmother before Christmas!!! I will keep you posted!

Ray’s Ramblings
November 19, 2009

Dear Parents,

Our Thanksgiving Feast will be on Tuesday, November 24 from 9:30-10:30 (AM) and 1:30-2:30(PM). We have had parent volunteer conflicts this week and have been unable to do the call list. I am assigning requests for food items for the feast. If the item in non-perishable, you may send it anytime. I would like to have all items by Monday to insure that we have what we need. Please look at the Feast sheet and send in the highlighted item. If you are unable to send this item, just send a note back to school on Friday and we will take care of it. Remember, each child should have a plain white t-shirt and/or a pillow case by Monday. We will be decorating our Feast outfits on Monday. (I will keep all extra t-shirts to decorate later for field trips.)


I am sending home the December Book Orders today. I realize the November orders just went home. Due to our short month in December, I wanted to get the orders out soon to insure delivery before Christmas break. I suggest books as Christmas presents – there is nothing better!!! If you plan on the order being a surprise for Christmas, please attach a note to me or include it in the order and I will put the orders in a bag so the children will not know.

OUR CHRISTMAS FAMILY. I asked the Family Resource Center to give us a family to help for Christmas. This is a family at the Village but NOT in our class. The family consists of 2 parents and 3 children. If you are interested in helping with this family, please send me a note and let me know. If you would like to send a donation, Mrs. Kim and I will take whatever money is collected and go shopping! I have been given a list of wishes/needs from the family. I will send this list home to anyone interested in shopping yourself. Thank you in advance to anyone willing to help a family in need during the holiday season!!!

TURKEY PROJECTS are due on Monday!!! Please work on them over the weekend!

NOVEMBER HOMEWORK PACKETS are due on Monday, November 30. Double Treasure box will be given on Friday, Dec. 4 to those students completing the November packet AND having good behavior for the week.

CHRISTMAS PARTY – Friday, December 18 is our Christmas Party. Remember, each child should bring in a LARGE Christmas shopping bag to collect the presents AND should bring 24 treats – 1 for each child in the class (PM – 22). There is no price limit on the gifts. It is entirely up to you. You may send something as simple as a piece of candy, a holiday pencil or sticker, a homemade treat or craft, a goody bag for each child or an ornament for each child. It doesn’t matter! Each child will receive a bag full of goodies! Be creative!

Christmas Program – Thursday night, December 17. Please put this on your calendar! If your child will be unable to attend, please send me a note!