Quick update on art

I will not be sending art home this afternoon, but I hope to have it ready in the morning for anyone to pick up. Whatever is not picked up in the morning will go home with students in the afternoon.

Final week in kindergarten

Here are some notes about the week...

On Monday, we walked to the river to see the fleet depart.

The USS Franklin

Tuesday is a relatively normal day with our last guidance, music and P.E. classes.

On Wednesday we are heading to Chapman for Field Day and for lunch with our reading buddies.  Be sure your child is dressed in shoes for running and clothes for the weather.

Also, Wednesday morning is our last assembly. This will be a chance to celebrate  our wonderful crazy first year at the Ramona, and a last chance for coffee and conversations.

Thursday is the last day of school.  We will be having a party in the classroom to celebrate and to talk about each student.  The party will tentatively start at 1:00 (keep an eye out for updates) and families are invited!

I hope to send art home with most students on Tuesday afternoon.  I plan to keep art at school for everyone whose family I see daily.  Let me know if I need to do anything special to keep your child's art safe.

I look forward to seeing everyone Thursday for our classroom party!

A few things

Our class will be the featured attraction at Wednesday's Assembly.  The students will be reading their writing about fun & healthy things to do this summer.  I asked them to think about things that are fun and healthy (and warned them that video games do not count).  We will write about this Monday and practice our presentation on Tuesday.  As a bonus we will have coffee!

Also plan to attend the assembly on the following Wednesday when we hope to talk about our first year at the Ramona.

We are a little low on snacks.  Please consider one last round!

Have a wonderful weekend!

This week in kindergarten

Here is a short post for a short week...

Be sure to note that our last day of school is June 15, not June 9th, due to all of our snow days!

Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are heading to the main campus to see Madagascar (the play, not the movie) and to visit a first grade classroom.  We also hope to squeeze in a good recess, lunch and a visit to our reading buddies.

A cast visit from animals from Madagascar

We are deep into assessments -- it is amazing to see how far students have come over the course of the year..

Next week is our last "normal" week; five days, no field trips, and a regular schedule that includes walk to read and switch in the afternoon.

We are working on plans to walk to Jamison Square with our reading buddies on June 13th.  It would be wonderful to have some volunteers.  Please let me know if you might be able to help.  We also will be heading to the main campus on June 14th for Field Day.

I am excited about our end of the year party, scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday June 14th.  All families are invited to help our young scholars celebrate the end of an amazing year.  Sarah (Tess' mom) is organizing this.  I hope to provide final details early next week!

Our trip to the zoo

We had a wonderful time at the zoo today!  We got to see some bears playfully fighting, some monkeys swinging around, a hippopotamus climbing out of the water, and many other fun (and scientifically worthy) animals.

Thank you so much to all our wonderful volunteers!

Expect to see some very tired children this afternoon...

This week in kindergarten ZOO!

Hi all:

The big news of the week is our zoo trip.  We will be going with Ms. Davenports class.  The basic plan is to leave here around 8:40, catch the streetcar to the MAX, then the MAX to the Zoo.  We will wander around the zoo and eat lunch, and aim to return to the Ramona by 1:30.

Because of our departure time, there will be no Wednesday morning assembly!

Please be sure your child is in comfortable walking shoes and in weather-appropriate clothing (The forecasts for that day range from a high of 62 to a high of 69).  Also, if your child is bringing a lunch, PLEASE BE SURE TO PACK THE LUNCH IN A PAPER BAG AND PLEASE BE SURE IT IS ALL DISPOSABLE!

Volunteers -- please be here by 8:30 and, if possible, please bring a backpack so we can haul lunches.

Apart from our zoo trip, we will keep working on our basic academics.  We had a great time working on "mouse sized books" last week. This week our writing will focus on animals.  We have been working on making sense of addition and subtraction (and even exploring around the edges of multiplication).  Due to the field trips, we will only "walk to read" on Friday.

Thank you for the ongoing donations of snacks!!

This week in Kindergarten

Our field trip to the zoo is next Wednesday, May 24th.  We will be taking the streetcar to the MAX train and taking MAX to the zoo.  This is our last major field trip of the year.  We need several more volunteers for this trip.  Please let me know if you can attend.  Oh, and please get those forms back!

Speaking of field trips, we have a few smaller field trips planned including two visits to Chapman -- we will be visiting first grade on the 31st, and participating in Field Day on June 14th.  We also plan to do a walking field trip with our reading buddies on June 14th.

Our last day of school is June 15 (not the 9th!).  That afternoon we hope to have some sort of celebration.  Sarah Groom is organizing this (let her know if you can help).  This is a great time to celebrate all of our students and their accomplishments.  All parents are invited!!

Also our volunteer tea is on Tuesday, May 30th at 3:00 at the main campus.  If you have volunteered in the classroom or for kindergarten in any way, you are invited.

I am not sure I had a chance to thank everyone for all the wonderful things that happened during teacher appreciation week.  Thank you for the wonderful food, for helping your child write wonderful notes and for all the other acts of kindness.

This week will include writing mouse sized books in response to the book The Library Mouse.   We will be learning a bit about Africa, and reading some African folktales (speaking of Africa; this morning I read this fun story in the Guardian about robot traffic signals in Kinshasa -- I shared the story and we looked at pictures. You can see the pictures at https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2015/mar/13/kinshasa-traffic-robots-robocops-in-pictures).

We have deep thinkers here in kindergarten.  In response to a class discussion that somehow made it's way to the subject of whether aliens were real, one child responded "they have to be real because there is an infinite universe."  How can one argue with that!

This week in kindergarten

First off, my apologies for not posting for several weeks.  It has been super busy.  I have sent out several emails regarding Art Ball and Run for the Arts.  If you did not receive these, let me know so we can figure out email issues.

Art Ball was fantastic.  Our display of each child's work looked great in the gym on Friday night, and our cityscapes made Room 6 look like an urban center.  Many thanks to our artist in residence and Chapman parent Morgan Korn for the cityscapes.  The portfolio displays were the product of a huge amount of work by a team of kindergarten parents. Many thanks to everyone who helped, and especially to Molly Porter who both coordinated volunteers, and put in many long hours.

The Run for the Arts was also wonderful.  Thanks to everyone who volunteered for this event, to everyone who came out to cheer for their child and friends, and to everyone who solicited pledges and got their child's pledges in.

Our new "walk to read" program is working well. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday students are fanning out to the four different classrooms to read and learn with other students who are working on similar concepts.  Ask your child which teacher they are meeting with and how it is going; feel free to let me know how your child perceives this change.

Here are a few events coming up in May:

On Tuesday, May 9th at 9:00 we have the Fall Kindergarten information meeting.  Please tell your friends with incoming kinders.  This is a child-friendly event -- we will be hosting next year's kindergartners in the room.

On Wednesday, May 10th, our class will be featured at our weekly assembly.  I have no idea what we will be doing; it will be slightly lower key than our March presentation of Henny Penny.

On May 24th, we are heading to the zoo for a field trip.  Look for information and a release coming home soon.  We need lots of volunteers for this trip!

This week in kindergarten

I hope everyone had a wonderful break.  The students enjoyed writing and talking about their big and little adventures.

The students did an amazing job yesterday during our difficult afternoon transition.  Please feel free to catch me if you have any questions or concerns.

Our big change this week is moving to a "walk to read" model of teaching reading.  Many students are going to different classrooms during our reading time (formerly our center time).  In each classroom the teaching will be more closely aligned with students reading levels.

In math, we have been moving into concepts of addition, subtraction and "number sentences".  A number sentence is another word for an equation, e.g. 2+4=6.  We are working to make sense of the different symbols and how they work with numbers.

We are a little low on snacks right now.  Please think about us as you shop!

This weeks themes:
(This looks a lot like last week...)
Theme Book: Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Letter study: Gg
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb, Rr, Dd, Kk,Ff, Oo, Hh, Ll
New words: one, two, three, four, five
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for, me, with, she, see, look, they, you, of, do, are that
Writing: Challenge Paper & details
Math: addition and subtraction and "number sentences"
Song: The Fox

have a great break

A few quick notes before break:

Several of you have asked about our Run for the Arts.  it looks as if we will be doing our Run for the Arts on April 11th, details TBD.

We were a little tired today.
  Hopefully everyone will return from break well rested

We are a little low on snacks -- think of us when shopping!!

Have a wonderful, adventurous, and restful break!

This week in kindergarten

We had a fantastic field trip to OMSI last week.  The students did a great job walking to the MAX, and being wonderful transit riders.  The OMSI exhibits were amazing-- the students especially enjoyed the Lego exhibit. For me the best part was seeing the students taking it all in.

Thank you to our volunteers.  Several of you signed up well in advance, and I roped some of you in at the last minute.  Altogether I felt that we were in very good hands.

Last week we also met twice with Morgan Konn, our Artist in Residence.  We have been doing a variety of art projects exploring shapes, patterns, cityscapes, symmetry, and other concepts.

On top of this, Mollie spent several days last week helping us start seeds for the Chapman school garden.

This week we will continue working on addition and on understanding the idea of number sentences (e.g. 3+2=5).  We started another week of centers based on Keriko Kasza's book My Lucky Day.  If all goes ads planned, we will spend much of Wednesday creating our own "sea creature" story problems.

This is our last week of school before Spring Break.  I hope all of you have a wonderful and restful break.

This weeks themes:
Theme Book: Goldilocks aand the Three Bears
Letter study: Gg
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb, Rr, Dd, Kk,Ff, Oo, Hh, Ll
New words: one, two, three, four, five
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for, me, with, she, see, look, they, you, of, do, are that
Writing: Challenge Paper & details
Math: addition and subtraction
Song: The Fox

This week in kindergarten

On Wednesday morning we will be performing at the Roundup Assembly.  We will be performing the folktale "Henny Penny".  I believe that there also will be coffee and time with Ms. Kruger and Ms Vanderwolf.


This week is classified appreciation week -- classified is edu-speak for almost everyone who supports us teachers.  Be sure to offer a word of thanks to Shari, Heather, and all the other amazing folks who are an enormous part of your child's time here at the Ramona.


This weeks themes:
Theme Book: My Lucky Day
Letter study: Ll
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb, Rr, Dd, Kk,Ff, Oo, Hh, Ll
New words: do, are that
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for, me, with, she, see, look, they, you, of
Writing: Challenge Paper & details
Math: addition and subtraction
Song: TBD

This week in kindergarten

First off -- I emailed this out yesterday!  If you are a parent of a child in my classroom and you did not receive this, this means that we no longer have your email.  I received notices of three failed emails yesterday!

This week is a busy week with our “Read Across America” theme days, our 100 Day celebration and our field trip to the Chapman main campus.  Read Across America week coincides with Dr. Seuss’ birthday on Thursday, and out themes this week go along with his books.

On Tuesday we will celebrate Green Eggs and Ham by wearing the color green to school.  Tuesday is our morning of Stories with Ms. Davis, Guidance with Ms. Cox, P.E. with Mr. Studt and music with Ms. Jetton.

On Wednesday we will celebrate Wacky Wednesday with clothes that are backwards, inside out or mismatched.  Wednesday morning is also an off-week small assembly.

On Thursday we will celebrate Dr. Seuss’ real birthday with the Cat in the Hat book and wearing cool hats.  Thursday, of course, is library day and share day.

Friday is a big day; Students can wear mismatched socks to celebrate Fox in Socks.  Students should bring in their 100 collections, and we will be touring different classrooms to check out every 100 collection.  Later we will board busses to go for our first visit to the Main Campus of Chapman School, and we will spend much of the day visiting the campus, enjoying some lunch and recess, and visiting with first grade and with our third grade reading buddies.

In between we will be plugging ahead with academics including more work on double digit number & coin values, the words that, are & do, and lots of writing and reading groups. 

I have started getting permission slips back for our March 16 field trip to OMSI.  Please let me know if you have not received a permission form.  We have a limited number of volunteer slots for this trip.

Thank you again to everyone who has brought food for snacks and who has volunteered in the classroom.  These needs are ongoing.

Don’t forget to check the blog often at http://mrmelling.blogspot.com/

Below are a few items from our wonderful room parent Sarah Groom.

Tuesday, March 2 - Volunteers Needed: Volunteers are needed for the vision and hearing screenings on Tuesday, March 2 from 8am to Noon. Contact Tiffany Goldwyn tiffanydmd@hotmail.com for more information. 

Tuesday, March 7 - Math & Science Night: Join us March 7th for an exciting night dedicated to adventures in math, science, and engineering. We will have the Reptile Man with his amazing creatures, engineering and building challenges, science experiments, and fun math games. It's a fantastic evening for the whole family! If you are interested (no experience necessary) in volunteering your time, please contact Mythandra Fenner at mythandrafenner@gmail.com

Wednesday March 15 - PTA Meeting - Attend the Chapman PTA General meeting starting at 6pm in the Library. Our guest, Laura Hanson, will discuss Portland Public Schools' next Capital Construction Bond. 

 

 

Valentine's Week in Kindergarten

First off, the wonderful news...  Yesterday, they drove the last pile, so our winter of pile driving is officially over. This means we will be going to The Fields Park again every day (well, every day that it is not too wet).  The students are very excited about this!

Celebrating our return to the Fields yesterday

It has been a wild week or two, what with the Pajama Rama, report cards, preparing for today's "Connect to Kindergarten" program, and the long awaited arrival of full school weeks. As you might imagine, things have been a bit hectic; I apologize for the missed blog post last week.

Today, we will celebrate Valentine's Day. In the morning, after our "specials" we will decorate bags.  In the afternoon we will exchange cards and have a small celebration.

Over the past weeks, we have been going full steam.  I am enjoying meeting with reading groups, moving forward with our math curriculum, and beginning to work on the idea of extending our writing to add details to enhance our stories.  After our challenging winter, it is nice to get moving again.

 We have run a little low on snacks -- please think of us as you are shopping this weekend!

This weeks themes:
Theme Book: Hide Clyde
Letter study: Oo
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb, Rr, Dd, Kk,Ff
New words: they, you, of
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for, me, with, she, see, look
Writing: Challenge Paper & details
Math: "Teen" numbers
Song: TBD

This week in kindergarten

It was wonderful to be here for five days in a row last week.  I am really hoping that the weather holds off and that we get to be here for all four days this week (plus our evening Pajama-Rama Thursday night)!

Please be aware that there is no school on Friday, February 3.  I will be here that day working on report cards.  These should come home on Friday February 10.

More than anything right now, we are working on  re-establishing our rhythm.  We have been working on centers, doing reading groups, writing and trying to squeeze in math.  I am also working hard to finish assessing everyone for their report  cards.

Valentine's day is coming up.  We will be having a small celebration in the afternoon -- we would love a few contributions -- hopefully mostly healthy food!  We would love to have your child bring in Valentine cards (but no candy) for the class.  I hope to send out a Valentine's list within the next week.

My understanding is that we are moving towards the last month of pile driving, and that they plan to drive fewer piles per day from here on out.  Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in some outside recesses over the next few weeks.


This weeks themes:
Theme Book: Farfalina and Marcel
Other book: Frog and Toad
Letter study: Ff
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb, Rr, Dd, Kk
New words: see, look (week 2)
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for, me, with, she
Writing: friend words
Math: Making sense of 10's
Song: Zip a de Doo Dah
Star of the Week: Malik

A full week in kindergarten

In all my years of teaching, I have never been as excited by the prospect of a five day week..  It certainly has been a challenging few months since we began missing days in November, and my hope is we can get back into the groove this week.

Please be sure to note that there is school this Friday and there is no school on Friday, February 3rd.  This is a change from the original school year schedule!

During this week I hope to run out a new bunch of centers based on our book about pandas, work on several math projects, do a writing sample and to spend lots of time assessing what we have learned.

Our Pajama-Rama party is Thursday, February 2nd from 6:00 to 9:30.

Also coming up is our Connect with Kindergarten meeting on Valentine's day at 9:00.  This is a chance for parents of kindergartners to learn more about the kindergarten program here at the Ramona (the more kid-friendly program is in May).  Please be sure to let friends know about this event!

We had a wonderful citrus tasting event on Thursday, sponsored by Food Front.  Many thanks to Molly for organizing this and for the volunteers who helped out that morning!

This weeks themes:
Theme Book: See How We Grow
Letter study: Dd, Kk
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb, Rr
New words: see, look
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for, me, with, she
Writing: friend words
Math: Making sense of 10's
Song: Jamaica Farewell
Star of the Week: Malik

A short post for a short week

Hi all:

It looks like the crazy weather is behind us (for now) and we can start looking forward to a predictable schedule.

This week is a combination of re-entry into school, celebrating the snow, and doing the best we can to finish up the academics we began last week.  We wrote about the snow yesterday and we will write about Maliyah, out star of the week, tomorrow.  I hope to find time to squeeze in more centers, reading groups and math.

It is not too late to email me a picture of your child or family out in the snow.  I hope to do another round of printing soon!


This weeks (and last week's) themes:
Theme Book: Little Quack
Chapter Book: Dinosaurs Before Dark
Letter study: Rr
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb
New words:me, with, she (week 2)
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for
Writing: independent writing
Math: Making sense of 10's
Song: Jamaica Farewell
Star of the Week: Maliya

This week in kindergarten.

Back in early December, I started my blog with "After a November of short weeks, it is nice to be in the midst of three full weeks of school."  There is some rich irony here.  I am hoping that, at some point, we will have another full week of school.  Many thanks to everyone who is staying flexible, not cursing the phone when it rings at 5:45 a.m., and getting their children to school when it is safe!

Be aware that next Monday, January 16, is the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.  There will be no school that day.

Even with all the missed days, I am enjoying seeing the young scholars make continue to make strides in their reading and writing. I have posted their stories about winter break outside the classroom.

Thank you to everyone who brought in a snack for the class.  We could still use a few more boxes of snacks for our hungry students.

This weeks themes:
Theme Book: Little Quack
Chapter Book: Dinosaurs Before Dark
Letter study: Rr
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii, Nn, Bb
New words:me, with, she (week 2)
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for
Writing: independent writing
Math: Making sense of 10's
Song: Jamaica Farewell
Star of the Week: Maliya

A new year in kindergarten

Welcome back -- I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful break!

We are very excited about our new reading center.  The students seem to have embraced it quickly!  Many thanks to the PTA (and everyone who has helped the PTA) for the funds to make this happen!

Our new reading center.

This week will include a smorgasbord of old and new activities.  We will run out a new bunch of centers, begin a new chapter book (Dinosaurs Before Dark), learn a little bit about panda bears, update our calendar for a new year and do a lot of reading, writing and math activities.

Thank you to everyone who has brought in snacks. We are currently very rich in pretzels, and fairly poor in all other snack areas.  Please think of us as you are shopping!

This weeks themes:
Theme Book: Little Panda
Chapter Book: Dinosaurs Before Dark
Letter study: Nn, Bb
Letters we know: Mm, Tt, Aa, Ss, Pp, Cc, Ii
New words:me, with, she
Words we know: I, am, the, little, a, to, have, is, we, my, like, he, for
Writing: independent writing
Math: December Calendar, Number practice and much more
Song: TBD
Star of the Week: Patrick