Leap Day!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: all year we have known c and k make the same sound and we always just had to guess which letter we used for certain words....until now!  We learned that we have to listen to the vowel sound that follows the /c/ or /k/ sound to help us determine if we use a c or a k.  If we hear the a, o or u sound, we use the letter c.  If we hear the i or e sound, we use the letter k.  We have the poster you see below to use as a resource when tapping out and spelling words.  The kiddos have done a GREAT job of using this chart to help them know which letter to use.

Shared Reading & Spelling: we read the Big Book I can be and the poem As Fast as a Cheetah to help us practice our new spelling words as and has.

Next week's new spelling words:

was

look

Writing Workshop: this week we wrapped up our narrative writing unit.  Since the beginning of Kindergarten we have been writing narratives, stories about our lives, as this is what Kindergarteners are experts on and can easily come up with something to write about.  Whether it was a t-ball game, playing in the snow on a snow day or a simple trip to the store with their parents.  They have grown from telling a story only through a drawing, to writing a simple sentence to writing 3 details.  I am so proud of their hard work and growth and loved sharing this growth with you at parent-teacher conferences this week.  

On Monday, we will clean out our writing folders and send home their work from the past couple of months for you to see and treasure. 

Next week we are beginning our opinion writing unit!  This is always a fun one, as we know that all 5-6 year old's have opinions! lol! 

Math: we have begun unit 6 in math.  Please check your child's Friday Folder for what we will learn in the upcoming unit and how you can support their learning at home. Check out the photos below.  Lots of addition going on through games and activities. They have loved learning addition! 

During the third trimester of school, please also practice any skills they haven't yet mastered according to the Kindergarten skills report that you were given at parent-teacher conferences this week. 

Leap year: today we talked about what a leap year means.  It's kind of a tricky concept for Kindergarteners, but still fun!  We did some leap year math (addition problems), read a book explaining leap year that they are bringing home to keep, watched a Mystery Science video about leap year and made these cute leap year crowns for our craft today! 

Spring Picture Day: Picture Day for Beulah Ralph Elementary School has been rescheduled for Monday, March 4th and every student will be photographed. The online order code will stay the same and anyone who has already placed an order is still good to go. This event's order code is 85497YF. Online ordering is available before and after Picture Day. Shipping and handling charges may apply to orders placed after Picture Day.

Picture Ordering Link-https://inter-state.com/Hom

Kindergarten Registration:  have a child who will be a Kindergartener NEXT school year? Join us for Kindergarten Registration at Beulah Ralph Elementary on Thursday, March 7 from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Students must turn 5 before August 1, 2024 to register for kindergarten. Don't want to wait until then to register? Register online now at https://www.cpsk12.org/Page/10659. We strongly encourage families to register online before attending. If you have questions about registering your kindergartener, contact Barb Lambert, BEU Secretary at (573) 214-3840. Please share with any and all families you know who have incoming kindergarteners! 

Columbia Fund for Academic Excellence- CFAE: The Columbia Fund for Academic Excellence was established during the 1979-1980 school year with the purpose of providing cash awards to educators who are selected as exemplary in certain categories. At Beulah Ralph Elementary, we firmly believe in recognizing the dedication and excellence of our educators and we are excited to announce our Beulah Ralph Elementary Columbia Fund for Academic Excellence (CFAE) nominees! Congratulations to Leah Lindaman, Quintin Imler, Ambria Bade and Robert Fears!

Outstanding Elementary Educator of the Year, Grades Pre-K-2 - Leah Lindaman
Outstanding Elementary Educator of the Year, Grades 3-5 - Quintin Imler
Outstanding Educator in a Specialized Area - Ambria Bade
Outstanding First Year Educator - Robert Fears

We would love to provide as many letters of support as possible for our BEU nominees! Our staff will submit letters in support of our nominees and we invite you to do the same. If you would like to write a letter for one of our four nominees please include the following things:

1. Name of nominee
2. State the reasons why you believe the nominee is worthy of this award. Your letter should outline specific examples of how the teacher has made a difference in your child's life and why you believe they deserve this honor.

Please submit your nomination letter to Beulah Ralph Elementary by Monday, March 4th at noon (deadline was extended). Thank you for your support in recognizing the incredible efforts of our teachers!

I had the honor and privilege to receive this award in 2019.  I was nominated by my colleagues, like the teachers above, and then won the Outstanding Elementary Educator of the Year award for grades PreK-2 for all of CPS.  The letters are what mean the most.  I hope you will take the time to write one for at least one of our nominees.  I promise you, your words will mean more than you know. 

Feels like spring!

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: tapping, tapping and more tapping!  Such an important Kindergarten skill.  We also have several new literacy workstations that focus on tapping out CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words to reinforce our learning from Fundations.  Ask your child about these workstations! 

I encourage you to use the parent packets that come home every Friday if you don't already.  Have your child tap out and write the words so you can see their tapping/spelling ability.  When your child asks you "how do you spell...?" don't tell them! Remind them to "tap it out." Phonetic spelling is developmentally appropriate at this stage in their education career. 

Shared Reading: we read the Big Books I was with and This is big to practice our spelling words is and his this week. The reading skill we focused on was attending to the print. In our books this week there were many words where they had to make sure they were really attending to the print and not just guessing based on the picture.  For example: it was a picture of a sheep, but they used the word lamb in the text or a picture of a horse, but they used the word pony.  We learned how good readers look at the picture and look at the letters in the word and think about what word was used in text.  They did a great job with this! 

New spelling words next week:

as

has

Writing Workshop: this week our lessons focused on putting spaces between our words.  We learned to use a "two finger word space" in between words so that our stories are easy to read. This helps us tell where one word ends and a new one begins.  At school, they can use their fingers or a super cool spaceman stick to help with this!  Check out the photos below! 

Want a spaceman stick at home? Easy!  Get a popsicle stick and you can draw a face on it!  Get as simple or creative as you like!  Or they can use their fingers because they always have those with them! 

Math: they did some incredible problem solving this week.  I posed this question: "I was having a party.  I put 4 chairs at the table for my party.  The doorbell rang and there were 7 friends at the door.  Do I have enough chairs for the party?"  They had to answer yes or no and then show their answer through pictures, numbers and words.  We really worked on showing the whole story, rather than just the answer.  We want to see their thinking as well as the answer.  Throughout the week I posed several problems just like this for them to solve and show their work.  I encourage you to do these same kind of problems at home.  

We also worked on teen numbers and math problems using the + and = symbols.  

Counselor: this week Mrs. Bergeson's lesson focused on mindfulness.  They discussed what mindfulness is and how to practice it.  Such a peaceful and important lesson!  We love our time with Mrs. Bergeson!

Parent-teacher conferences: I look forward to meeting with all of you at parent-teacher conferences next week.  This is our last conference for the year.  In the spring, report cards will be sent home on the last day of school.  

Illnesses: please be sure to read our Kindergarten team newsletter this week.  Illness is running rampant in our class and school and we want to keep everyone as healthy as possible.  We are really stressing the importance of keeping their hands away from their face, mouth, nose.  When you notice this at home, please tell them to stop and properly wash their hands.  The faster we can break those habits, the better.  

Book Fair: the book fair is back at school next week!  This time it is the Literati Book Fair, rather than Scholastic.  We were able to preview it today and the kids found lots of great books!  

We are still looking for volunteers to work a shift at the book fair.  Super easy AND you get 20% off your purchases for helping out!  Seems like a win-win to me!  Click here to sign up.  I will also post the signup on our class Facebook page again. Thanks to Kayla and Jenny for already signing up! 

A beautiful week to play outside!

What a fun week!

What a fun and busy week! 100th Day & Valentine's Day all in the same week, oh my! 

We had a lot of fun and managed to get in some learning as well! 

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: we worked on tapping out 3 letter words, silent/bossy e words and building sentences with our trick words of the week (aka spelling words that can't be sounded out).  We have had some tricky words the past couple of weeks (said, are, etc.) and they have done an amazing job reading and spelling them! 

Writing: Writing time is focused on the craft of writing, rather than the mechanics of writing (that's what Fundations is for).  When they naturally know how to form a letter and don't have to think on it, all of their brainpower can be put into writing a story with detail and sounding out their words. That is why it is so important to hold them accountable for forming their letters the way we have taught them.  We continue to work on making sure we include who is in the story, where the story takes place and 3 details that happened when writing.  We have moved beyond a sentence being acceptable for a story. 

Check out some of our wonderful writers below! 

Shared Reading/Spelling: we learned the poems Jack and Jill and Roses are Red and read the big book What Animals Eat to help us practice our new spelling words. We also use these books to help us apply the reading strategies we are learning in their small guided reading groups. In the photos below, we are reading our new book with a buddy.  Our buddies know to prompt us to "try again" and use our reading strategies if we get stuck on a word.  If we try and are still stuck, our buddies can help us.  I encourage you to do the same when reading at home.  While we never want them to become frustrated when trying to read, it is important they try to figure it out before we just tell them. 

Next week's new spelling words:

is

his

Math: we had a day full of math on Monday with the 100th day of school!  Everything was centered around the number 100!  I hope you enjoyed looking through everything they brought home that day!  This week we also worked on teen numbers, story problems and did a fun little math activity where we graphed conversation hearts and could eat them when finished!  Food always makes learning fun! 

Class celebrations: we had so much fun celebrating the 100th day of school on Monday and I love how many participated in dressing up!  On Tuesday, we celebrated putting forth our best effort on the i-ready assessment the other week with donuts and on Wednesday we had so much fun passing out valentines and our final class party of the year!  Thank you to Kayla Hagedorn for organizing all of the parties this year!  You can see a few photos below, but SO MANY MORE are on our class Facebook page!  Check it out! 

Due to the long weekend, and teachers working on report cards tomorrow, we are not sending home Success Ready Skills Rubrics or Friday Folders this week.  Your child does have a few papers, including their optional handwriting homework, in their daily Take Home Folder.  

More fun from the week