TK Update

Samantha is still doing great in TK.  She loves her teacher and has made some really sweet friends, many that will go on to her new school for kindergarten.

I help out once a week in Samantha's class and it amazes me to see how much all of the students have improved.  It also amazes me the conversations they have.  I help with morning rotations so the students are broken up into small groups which rotate to different stations.  Samantha's group happens to be all girls and let me tell you, they are a CHATTY group of 5-year-olds.  While trying to keep them on task the other day of cutting/coloring/pasting a zebra print-out (they are working on the letter Z), my head was spinning with conversations between five girls that went something like this:

"I've been to San Francisco before."

"Oh, my grandparents live there."

"They have a zoo there."

"Our zoo has a zebra."

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does!"

"Samantha, your skirt looks like a zebra."

"Yeah, my mom likes to dress me like a zebra." (no, I don't...)

"I wear makeup at home"

"I wear makeup to school."

"No you don't, you are not allowed to."

"Yes I do, I can do whatever I want."

"I was born in 2007."
"How old are you Mrs. Fallon?"
"35."
"I think my grandma is 35 too."
Gee thanks....

And then cue the music, they all burst into singing the song Yankee Doodle Dandy..... (which I later learned they are singing in music class which helped make sense of the song because I was wondering who even sings that song anymore?!).

Here is a recent note sent home with Samantha.  

She has plenty of time to learn how to do addition but we are proud of her for getting a head start on it and trying.  :)

And here is the most recent TK newsletter from Ms. Trainor:

Dear Parents,

                  I hope this letter finds you all doing well.  I would like to inform you on what your children have been working on in class as well as let you know of important dates and events that we have coming up.  This week your child has been working on the –at and –an word families.  Students have been decoding consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words with these word endings in addition to coming up with their own words with the –at and –an endings.  Next week we will be working on –am and –ap word families.  We are almost finished with our alphabet (as we have been working on one letter a week since school started).  Ww is the letter of the week and we only have three more letters to go before the students finish their alphabet books, which will be one of the pieces of work showcased at Open House.  The students are also working on recognizing their sight words and have been building their own sentences with sight words and CVC words.  In math, now that the students have gained number sense, they are beginning to understand the concept of addition.  I have introduced the concept of subtraction and we will continue to work on both adding and subtracting for the rest of the school year. 

                  I am excited to let you know that I am beginning a unit on springtime and gardening.  We will be making many art pieces in class to build our garden (an art piece that will be on the wall).  We will be spending time in the garden outside to discuss the different plants and the process of how plants grow.  We will be reading many stories about plants, how they are grown, and how much of our food comes from plants.  We will also be reading many stories about springtime and we will be creating art to go along with the stories.  I am working on putting together a fieldtrip to the Fairview Gardens.  They have a great education tour/program: The Urban Seeds Program.  I am hoping that we will be able to go on this fieldtrip in April.  I will keep you all posted! 

                  One of my friends who is a 5^th grade teacher at Franklin Elementary School (here in Santa Barbara) is coming next Friday afternoon to read Peter Cottontail to the students and create an art project with them where they are going to make their own bunnies (and bunny stories too!).  Please let me know if any of you or any of your family members would like to be a special guest in our class and do a project with the kids.  If any of you have expertise in certain area that you would like to share with the kids or if you have an idea of a project that you would like to do with them, please let me know! 

                  Our Open House is on Thursday March 21^st.  On this night your children will show you the fabulous work that they have created at school.  I know that they are all excited to share what they have done with you.

*****Lastly, please remember tomorrow is early release.  The students will be dismissed at noon.

Thank you so much for all of your support!

Warm Regards,

Ms. Trainor