A full week of learning

 A look at our learning...

Fundations:  you guessed it, we worked on tapping out 3 letter words this week!  This will be a continuous focus throughout the end of the year.  It is important that students use their letter sound knowledge to sound out words when reading and writing.  Your child's writing should be getting easier and easier for you to read.  Can't read what they wrote?  This is a sign you need to take a little extra time tapping out words at home to help reinforce their learning at school!  If they know their letter sounds, which they do, that should show up in their daily work. 

Shared Reading: we read the Big Books We make cookies and What has these feet?  We enjoyed making connections to the first book about baking at home and our favorite kind of cookies.  Making connections to what we read is an important kindergarten skill.  When reading books at home I encourage you to ask the following question when you finish the book, " what did this story make you think of" or "what connections did you make when reading this story?" Talking about books shows comprehension. 

Next week's spelling words:

said

am

Writing: we spent time responding to various prompts and writing our opinion about those prompts: favorite food and why, favorite season and why and if they could visit any place where would it be and why.  We are working on telling at least 3 reasons why to support their opinion.  

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.  

While we worked on a variety math topics this week, we really focused on 2D and 3D shapes.  At parent teacher conferences I shared with you what 2D shapes your child has mastered.  Please practice the ones they did not know to ensure mastery by the end of this final trimester of Kindergarten!  We also want mastery of 2D shapes, since we are adding in 3D shapes this trimester.  By the end of Kindergarten, students should also know the following 3D shapes: cube, cone, sphere, cylinder, pyramid. We are singing this song every day at math to help us learn 3D shapes as well. 

Makerspace: on Monday, Mrs. Fitch from the Media Center visited our classroom to teach us about coding using Ozobots.  The students created a code (pattern) and the Ozobots were able to do different tricks based on the code they created with their markers (fast, slow, tornado, zig-zag, etc.)  Ask your child to tell you more!  

Here are a few photos, but I will post more photos and videos to our class Facebook page this weekend.

Guest Reader: Alex's grandma, or Grrr as he lovingly refers to her, visited our class on Friday. This is her second visit and she plans to come and read to the class once a month.  Each time, she has brought us a yummy treat of chocolate chip cookies....baking is a favorite activity for her and Alex.  She read the book The Big Cheese.  We love her visits!

Reading Week: we had fun celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday and Reading Week this week! Here are a few pictures from all the reading activities this week!  Even more on the class Facebook page.

A great way to celebrate at home?  Participate in this month's sneaky reading challenge: read at bedtime. This is something you should already be doing, just snap a picture and post to our class Facebook page!  I can't wait to see you encouraging reading at home!

Friday craft: we made these cute leprechaun hats to decorate our room for St. Patrick's day.  I notice that several students still struggle with independently opening glue sticks.  I encourage you to work on this skill at home and do not do it for your child.  Building up their fine motor skills is so important. 

 

Mardi Gras:  Asher's family brought a King Cake on Tuesday to celebrate Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday. Asher's dad is originally from Louisiana so we learned a little bit about this tradition. Laelah found the baby in her King Cake, so she will have good luck this year! Thanks Asher and family!

More fun from our week

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: this week the students especially loved a silly poem called Have you ever seen a sheep in a jeep? Ask them to sing it for you!  This poem featured our new spelling word have and helped us work on identifying rhyme. 

Next week's new spelling words

of

we

Writing Workshop: we have begun our opinion writing unit and it is always a fun one! We have discussed the difference between a fact and opinion.  We read a cute story called Not Norman: A Goldfish Story and shared our opinions about what pet we think is the best and why.  We also read the fun book Duck! Rabbit! and shared our opinions telling if we thought the main character was a duck or a rabbit. They brought home a cute project based on this earlier in the week.  We ended the week by reading the book I wanna Iguana about a little boy writing letters back and forth to his mom stating his opinion on why he needs a pet iguana.  They are working on writing YOU a letter about a pet they would like to have at home.  Stay tuned!

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.

During trimester 3, it is also important that you work on any of the skills they have not yet mastered from trimester 2, as marked on the Trimester Skills Report I gave you at parent-teacher conferences this week. 

Counselor: this week the students took the NNAT3 assessment during counselor time.  This is an online assessment to determine if they qualify for the gifted program or the next round of testing for the gifted program.  If your student qualifies, you will be notified by someone from the Gifted Education office later this Spring/Summer.

Kindergarten Registration:  do you have a child who will be a Kindergartener NEXT school year? Join us for Kindergarten Registration at Beulah Ralph Elementary on Thursday, March 6th from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Students must turn 5 before August 1, 2025 to register for kindergarten. Don't want to wait until then to register? Register online now at https://www.cpsk12.org/family-resources/enroll/kindergarten 

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 Sarah Croom, Aimee Cohen, Katie Alls and Cameron Dunn.

Outstanding Elementary Educator of the Year, Grades Pre-K-2 - Mrs. Sarah Croom
Outstanding Elementary Educator of the Year, Grades 3-5 - Ms. Aimee Cohen
Outstanding Educator in a Specialized Area -  Dr. Katie Alls
Outstanding First Year Educator - Mr. Cameron Dunn

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 3rd. 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.