Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Here it is...

We recorded our voices reading the book, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," colored our own coconut trees, and took pictures as a class to create out second podcast!

The students are very proud of what they created. We hope you are too! Enjoy!

*** You may need quicktime to view our podcast. Let me know if you have any difficulties watching it. ***

Updates and Reminders

• This Friday, January 29th is a free dress for $1.00 day.

• Book orders are also due this Friday.

• Tickets are on sale for UPA's Father Daughter Dance. It costs $20.00 for 2 tickets and will be on February 12th.

• For the next 3 Fridays, the 5th graders from Mr. Curran's class will sell bagels before school to benefit Haiti. They bagels are $1.00 each. Cream cheese is 25 cents and a juice box is 50 cents. Students who do not finish their bagels before school can save them for snack time.

• We are working on our second podcast of the book, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It's turning out to be very cute and I will post it up as soon as it is finished.

More Patterns!

Yesterday we made patterns using blocks, snap cubes, and shapes. One thing we are working on is continuing on patterns. Each day in our calendar we use patterns to decide what shape will be next for our dates. The students are very comfortable with AB and AAB patterns.

At home, make a pattern for your student and ask them to continue it on. Challenge them with an ABC pattern!

Q & U

In phonics, we learned about the letters Q and U. We realized that they are always together in any word!! The class practiced the sound "qu" makes and created a list of "qu" words we knew.

After, to help up remember that Q & U are stuck together we made QU cookie sandwiches. I baked some Q shaped cookies and U shapes cookies. Each student stuck them together with frosting and the enjoyed their treat. I hope this will help the students always remember that Q and U stick together!

Word Work On Line Games

Here are some more great games on line that will benefit your student's reading skills. They are all based around listening and thinking about sounds of letters and words. Check them out at home together!

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/ears.html
This game is from Between The Lions. The students have to think about what letter is missing from words.

http://disney.go.com/disneychannel/playhouse/bop/bop_wrdmtch.html
In this game, Tigger, Owl, and Rabbit ask student to match pictures to words they spell.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/pounce.html
Students have to match a word that begins with the same sound in this game from Between The Lions.

http://www.kiddonet.com/gb/flash/phonics/Intro.html
Every letter is linked to a page with pictures. Students have to pick the pictures that begin with that letter sound.

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/abcmatch/
Students play memory with pictures and letters. They match the picture to the letter that makes the beginning sound.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/phonics/index.htm
Clifford has pictures that need to be matched to other pictures that begin with the same sound.

I am introducing all these games at centers on Wednesday, so I'm sure your student will enjoy playing them at home too! Have fun!!

Top It

We learned the new game in math, Top It. The students had tons of fun playing it. It is very easy to play at home and school. Check out all our fun!

Play Top It at home with your student!

Materials: Number Cards - 40 cards, 4 each of numbers 1 – 10 (You can even use a regular deck of cards)
Number of players: 2

Directions: This is a game for two people. Deal out a deck of number cards to the two players. The players place their stack face down before them and turn over their top card. Each player reads aloud the number on the card. Whoever turned over the larger number keeps both cards. If the cards match, they are put aside and the next card is turned over. The player with the highest card takes both the tie cards and the new pair. When all the cards are used up, the player with the most cards wins.
Interesting Fact: Adults may remember this as the game “War.”

Our First Podcast!

It has taken me a while to work out the computer issues... but here is our Ugly Underwear song and pictures we made back in November. Enjoy!

Housekeeping

Uniform Policy:

Tonight a note is going home about UPA's uniform policy. Students need to be following this. Please do not send students to school if they are not wearing the school colors, black, white or khaki. Check your student's shoes and socks. They need to be solid white, black, or khaki.

Students will be sent to the office to change if they are not in uniform. If the office doesn't have enough extra clothes, a parent will be called to bring a change of clothes. Please let me know if there are any questions or concerns about the uniform policy.

Be On Time:

School day starts at 8:20am and students are marked late after 8:30am. At 8:30 instruction begins. Please be sure that your student is on time for school. Notes will be sent home if a student has excessive tardys.

Great Math Games On-Line

The other day I did a bit of research for on-line math based games for kindergartners. The students were able to play the games I found in centers this week and really liked them. Here are the links to those games, if you want to play them at home with your student. I hope you enjoy them!

http://www.pbs.org/parents/earlymath/prek_games_sandcastle.html
Students match shapes to build sandcastles on a beach.

http://www.sesamestreet.org/game_player?p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_id=gamePlayer_WAR_sesameportlets4369&p_p_uid=7380c2a5-163c-11dd-98c7-b9f43dcf5330
Students help Cookie Monster finish patterns at the grocery store.

http://www.primarygames.com/math/fishycount/index.htm
Students have to count the fish that swim into the picture and recognize the number.

http://www.primaryonline.co.uk/sitetour/pol/findra.html
Aliens hold up number in order with one missing. Students have to identify the missing number.

http://www.crickweb.co.uk/assets/resources/flash.php?&file=colour-sequence
Students have to match colors to create a picture.

http://www.scholastic.com/clifford/play/sortitout/sortitout.htm
Students have to sort out Clifford's things based on color and shape.

Snack Refill

Happy 1st Day Back!

We had a great first day back at school! I was impressed to see how many students completed the holiday homework. Prizes are being ordered and are coming soon.

Our classroom snacks are running low. I am requesting that parents please send a snack for their own child, or if they can, send a snack for the whole class. The snacks must be healthy and dry. Here are some ideas...

Cheese-Its

Goldfish

Graham Crackers

Fruit snacks

Pretzels

Thank you again for all that you do to help our classroom run smooth! Happy 2010!