More Costumes

Halloween

Friday News

We should have an exciting Friday tomorrow.

We will start the day ON STAGE at the Roundup Assembly.  We will be singing two songs for the A group.  Sorry about the short notice here.  Kids should meet us on the stage before 8:00.

Later in the morning Evri, Issa's dad, will help us with an abstract art lesson.  It is always a treat to have artists join us in the classroom.

Finally, at the end of the day, we are inviting little brothers and sisters to join us in the classroom for a story.  Feel free to bring those younger siblings at 1:50 in the afternoon.

Library books and more!

Library books are due!

Find more information about the costume parade and grandparents / special friends day below.

Writing about Halloween

Our tree art

Every other Tuesday, the class goes to Ms. Rodhe's classroom for science.  Currently the topic is trees. Yesterday the students observed trees in Wallace park then went back to Room 4 and used chalk and starch to draw their tree.  See the results on the Room 2 wires.

Costume Parade and Grandparents Day

Thursday is our annual costume parade and grandparents / special friends day.  We are hoping for decent weather!

Here is the schedule for visitors

 8:00-8:30     Coffee

8:30-9:00     Chorus

9:00-9:40     Parade

9:40-10:00   Grandparents & special friends visit the classroom.

We hope to spend part of the early morning in the classroom admiring costumes, and then join our reading buddies for the parade.  Later we will host visitors, before changing out of our costumes and pretending it is a normal day.

Here are a few more details...

·    Please have your child wear their costume to school, and bring a change of clothes in their backpack.  We will change in to our “civvies” after the parade. 

      No weapons – leave those swords, guns, and other implements of destruction at home (bows are OK, arrows are not).  Please also make sure that your child’s costume is not too bloody or gross.

If your child does not have a costume, we will try to get one for him /her.  Please let me know if you DO NOT want your child in a costume.

The parade is super-fun, but depends on the weather.  If it rains, we will simply walk through the auditorium.

This is a great opportunity for your child to show a grandparent or special friend many things about life in kindergarten.

This should be a fun morning for all!

Classroom wish list

Here are a few things we need for the classroom:

Extra Elmer Glue bottles.  We are very close to having a full class set.
A 3 hole punch.
A soccer ball or two for our soccer-mad kids.

Also, I would love a volunteer to hang our super-cool texture animals outside the classroom.

Playing "Beat you to 10" at math workplaces.

Working on the auction project

Next Week

The big event next week is our Costume Parade and Grandparents and Special Friends day on the 31st.  Look for more information in the Spotlight, but here are a few tidbits.
1) The fun starts first thing with performances in the auditorium.  Grandparents and special friends are invited to be here from eight until around 10:00 (check the Spotlight to confirm the ending time).
2) Students should come in their costumes, but bring a change of clothes.  We will be back in our regular clothes before lunch.

Aside from that, next week looks to be a fairly normal week with a new bunch of centers, a fun art project on Wednesday and Thursday, lots of work on the auction project, and celebration of our star of the week Serena.

Your child should be learning:
Many things about the letter Ss
How shapes can be broken into smaller shapes
More about blending sounds to make words

Don't forget to return those library books!!

Roundup Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning is our Roundup in the Auditorium.  I look forward to seeing everyone there.  With our new schedule, there should be plenty of room for any parent to stay and watch.

Middle school volunteers

Lach and Chella, middle school students, and past Room 5 kindergartners, have been in helping out this week.

Library Books Due Tomorrow!

We have many, but a few students need to bring theirs in!

Mandarin with Tracy

Message from Morgan, our room parent

Dear Room 2 Parents,

Our students will be making a cyanotype (sunprint) to be sold at the up-coming Chapman Auction (November 15th). Sarah Groom (Luca's mom) and I have worked out most of the details and are hoping it will all come together smoothly next week.

I am ordering and gathering the supplies we'll need and am hoping some you have materials around the house that we can use.  The following is an initial list:

Acid free watercolor paper, or drawing paper (20 x 24, or other sizes)
Clear Acetate
Plexiglass (20 x 24, or any other size)
Rinsing tray - shallow tub, like an over-sized dish pan, it doesn't need to be deep
Drying rack/clothes line/or vinyl window screens (to dry the prints)

I will be conducting a few test runs this weekend and may have requests for additional materials. Please let me know if you're able and interested in coming into the classroom next week to help with the project, or if you are able to help cover the cost of materials.

Thank you again,

Morgan

Artists at choice time

Picture Retake Day

Wednesday is picture retake day.  If your child was absent on our first picture day, or if the photo your child brought home does not reflect his / her true beauty, tomorrow is the day!  If your child was absent, stop by the office for a form; if your child needs a better photo, return the packet.  Be sure to let me know so I can get your child sent up for a photo.  Thank you!

Monday music class

Volunteers Needed

It looks like we are a little light on volunteers during center time this week.  Please let me know if you might be able to come in from 9:30 to 10:15 (or later) on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday (or even Friday for our "Texture Animals" art project).

Next week

After a fun and crazy week, look for more routine next week.  No field trips and no late starts, but we will have Roundup Assembly Friday, and we do have picture retake day.

Expect your child to...
Write about Max and Tamir, stars of the week for the 14th and 21st, respectively.
Learn about tally marks, and compare different ways of notating numbers.
Work on our "Texture Animals" art project (thank you parents for the cool ovals...).
Focus on the Letter A.
Begin blending sounds together, particularly the letters M, A, and T.
Learn the song Do-Re-Mi from the Sound of Music.

In the long term, look forward to our costume parade and grandparents and special friends day on Thursday, October 31.  The fun lasts from 8:00 to about 10:00.

Thank you so much to the parents and family who have volunteered in the classroom and who helped make our field trip a success.

Check your child's backpack

Lots of stuff coming home today...  Look for your child's photo order.  These seem like a very cute bunch of photos, but be aware that photo retake day is next Wednesday, October 23rd.  Also look for two weeks worth of leveled readers.  Please have your child read these to you (and help where needed).  Finally look for another chicken pox letter and for several days worth of student work.

Class photo from the farm!

Thank you Elizabeth for forwarding this...

cauliflower?

I have two bags of cauliflower left over from the field trip!  Let me know if it is yours!

Kruger's Farm Field Trip

We had a great time at Kruger’s Farm.  We learned about vegetables, toured the farm market, met Matilda the pig and lots of chickens, took a hayride and enjoyed an outdoor lunch.  One child said that it was the best day of his life.  

Thank you to the volunteers who made this possible!

From the auction team

Hi Kindergarten parents! 

This year's auction team would like to encourage you to attend the biggest fundraising event of the year "We Are Portlandia", Friday Nov 15th at Crystal ballroom. . 

For those of you who are new to Chapman, the annual auction not only raises money to support our children's education, but it is also a great opportunity to meet other parents and teachers in a fun, social setting.  And getting some holiday shopping done (seriously great things to buy and great prices).

Here is a link to the auction website to purchase tickets, donate items and browse the catalog. Your attendance is a benefit to the fundraiser on its own!

http://chapmanschoolauction.com/

The doors open at 6:00. The evening will start off with the silent auction where you will find various items of great value. Then the live auction will follow. There will be dinner, entertainment and a wine bar with tasty selection by a Chapman parent. Your children's classroom art projects will be auctioned off during the live auction. If you like, come dressed Portlandia style, whatever your interpretation of it is. 

Chapman has a fantastic community of parents, teachers and neighbors. Please join us and be a part of it. 

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact Mai Teherani-Ami (maickn@hotmail.com) or Antoinette D'Ambrosio (antangela@comcast.net)

Hope to see you there!

Your 2013 Auction team

Lots of reminders for Thursday...

Don't forget library books!

Volunteers, be here at 9:15 sharp!

Lunches in paper bags - everything disposable!

Good mud shoes!

Bird art

Thank you Penny for putting these on our bulletin board!

Late Start Tomorrow

Don't forget -- tomorrow is a late start Wednesday.  Everything, including buses, will be two hours behind schedule.  I look forward to seeing everyone at 9:50.

Field Trip News

Here are some helpful reminders about Thursday's field trip to Kruger's Farm.

1. Please be sure your child is dressed appropriately for the morning weather. Please also help your child choose comfy shoes that are ok to get dirty when walking in a field.

2. If you are sending a lunch from home, please be sure it is in a paper bag and entirely disposable so we don’t have to keep track of lunchboxes, containers, lids, spoons, etc.

3. Volunteers -- be here at 9:15.  There is some room on the bus.  We may need some parents to carpool.  If you signed up to volunteer, but cannot make it, please be sure to let me know as early as possible.  

4. We will still go to the library in the afternoon. Please help your child remember his library book amid the excitement of the field trip.

Book fair this week

Our Book Fair is in the basement, down the staircase nearest Room 2!

No School Friday

Don't forget -- there is no school on Friday, October 11!!

Next Week

The big excitement for next week is our field trip to Kruger's Farm on Sauvie's Island on Thursday the 17th.  We will learn about vegetables, explore the farm store, take a hay ride, and pick a pumpkin.  We have a bunch of volunteers and everything seems set for a great trip.  Look for more information on Tuesday or Wednesday.

We also have a late opening on Wednesday, October 16.

We will also roll out a new bunch of centers, enjoy science and art with Ms. Rodhe and Ms. Miljkovic, respectively, and work on all the usual subjects.

Next week, expect your child to...

Learn more about farming, vegetables and rural life
Know everything there is to know about the letter Tt.
Keep working on the words to and a
Continue working on the sh and ch "h-friends" sounds
Use "10 Frames" to understand concepts of 10

Think of us while you are shopping

We are low on snacks

Here are some ideas for snacks from back to school night...

Mandarin oranges / bananas / fruit

Cheerios / Cereal

Pretzels

Cheese sticks

Yogurt

Granola Bars

Trail mix

We do have students with Tree Nut allergies and seafood allergies.

Two volunteer opportunities

Here are two great non-classroom volunteer activities (plus a request for material...)

1) Leaf collecting.  Next week our objects from nature will be fall leaves.  These seem to have a shelf life of about a day, so it would be great to get a fresh batch each day.  We will do centers on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday next week.

2) Cutting out cloth for an art project.  I need someone to help cut thick cloth into ovals.  This works well if you have sharp fabric scissors.  Let me know and I will send supplies home with your child tomorrow (Thursday).  I plan to do this project on Friday next week.

Also, if you happen by a fabric store, we would love some faux fur.  Anything that might suggest an animal, so fake fur, scaly fabric or ?? works well.

Library Book due Thursday, No School Friday

We will be visiting the library tomorrow -- I would love to see everyone check out a book.

There is no school on Friday due to the Statewide Inservice Day.

Yet more magnets

More cool magnet tricks

OMSI Marvelous Magnets class

Ask your child

What center were you at today?
What did you like best at your center?
What letter are you working on this week? (Mm)
What sound does it make?
Who is the star of the week this week?
How did you play the "Which Bug Will Win" game in math?
What is the "King of Ing?"
What did you do on your ipod? (tangrams)

Next Week

Next week is a short but busy week.

• There is no school on Friday, October 11 due to a Statewide Inservice Day.
• We will have a "Marvelous Magnets" science class with OMSI on Tuesday morning.
• We will see our reading buddies on Thursday morning.

We have a big change in our letter reviews.  Thus far we have been reviewing letters and letter sounds in a holistic manner, using the whole alphabet.  Beginning next week we will be focusing on a single letter each week, while still working on the whole alphabet.

Expect your child to...

• Know a lot about the letter Mm.  I expect almost all students to be able to recognize an upper and lower case M and know the sound that an M makes.
• Learn the words a and to.
• Learn that it takes an s and h to make the sh sound.
• Read our theme story Julius by the wonderful Dav Pilkey (this week it was Miss Bindergarten Goes on a Field Trip)
• Enjoy more Mandarin, music, P.E., library (don't forget those books) and more.

A few random notes

Look in your child's folder for information about chicken pox at Chapman.

Also in your child's folder you will find a leveled reader and a copy of our classroom magazine "Lets Find Out" .  Encourage your child to read both of them to you!

Finally, we have received about half of our field trip forms back.  We would love to get the rest by Wednesday.

More on "Jumping to Letters"

Last year (on "Cyber Monday") I managed to acquire an alphabet carpet at a reasonable price.  This has been a wonderful addition to the classroom.  It's bright and colorful, it helps with classroom management ("sit on your letter", "sit on the blue line") and, most importantly, it adds a new element to our literacy curriculum.

When I pull reading groups during center time, I start with the group that is working on learning letters.  At the end of their session, I have them practice the letters they are learning by jumping back and forth to those letters.  This year, I quickly noticed that the other kids were jealous, even though they knew their letters, and some knew their letter sounds.  So for the past two weeks, we have had a "jump to letters" day.

When we jump to the letters, I try to match the task to the students skills.  Some students are challenged to jump to a limited number of letters (a-f on the back row), some to letters around the carpet, some to letter sounds, and some to "the begging letter of the word ____" or to the "middle sound of the word ______".  This seems to offer a wonderful combination of learning through the mind and learning through the body.

Finally a plug for the PTA here.  I was able to get this carpet thanks to generous parents who contributed to the PTA, the PTA then gives each classroom a budget for things like carpets, books, learning tools and more.

No Roundup Tomorrow

Quick reminder -- we will meet in the classroom, not the auditorium.

Jumping to letters during centers and reading groups!

Library books are due tomorrow

We would love to see everyone checking out a new book tomorrow, so be sure to get those library books back to the classroom tomorrow, and every Thursday.

Changes to Friday Roundup

Now that we have everyone trained...

As you may have seen in an email from Mr. Choate, Friday morning roundup is changing at Chapman. Our class will only be going to Roundup on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of the month.  As that there is no school on Friday the 11th, our next Roundup won't be until Friday October 25th.

Math: working on our " shoo-fly quilt"

Communication & tech issues

I am having a perfect storm of tech issues in Room 2 this week. My classroom phone and PC internet access is completely dead. I still have wifi on my Mac and iPad, but there are issues with our email on the mac.  At some points I seem to be able to reply to emails, at other points replying is impossible; I cannot find any pattern on why this works at one moment and not another.

So I apologize for any delays in returning emails or voicemails.  My hope is that things are fixed soon.

From Morgan, our Room 2 Room Parent

Hello Room 2 Parents!

I am happy to serve the students and parents of Mr. Melling's class as the room parent this year.  As we start to move forward into the school year, I wanted to let everyone know about upcoming ways to help out.

Can you spare 10-15 minutes after school? You and your kindergartener can clean the desks in the classroom. Its a very quick task that can be tied in with sharpening pencils or other small jobs for Mr. Melling. We'd like to see this happen weekly or at least biweekly on Mondays (or any other day of the week). Make a note on the calendar in the classroom whenever you can do it.

Able to spend a little money to help replenish supplies? I am going to spend some time going through the kindergarten supplies over the next couple of weeks and hope to have a list of inexpensive supplies families can opt to donate to the classroom.

Over the next month or so, we will start working on our class' art auction piece. This is a single collaborative project in which every student helps complete a final piece to be sold at the annual school fundraiser on November 15. We are still working on the final idea but we may need your help securing materials and supporting the students while they work. Let me know if you have ideas, skills or an interest in this project.

Finally, the students and teacher(s) can always use assistance in the classroom and there will likely be other tasks you can help out without outside school hours. Please feel free to contact me (moko_77@yahoo.com) with any questions, concerns or ideas about how we can make this year a success for everyone.

Thank you,

Morgan Nystrom (Max's mom)
(moko_77@yahoo.com)

Volunteer needed Friday

Speaking of volunteers...

I would love someone to help with an art project this Friday beginning at 9:30.  Please feel free to sign up on the volunteer calendar, or shoot me an email.

Thank you volunteers

Today we had a triple-volunteer-day.  It was wonderful to have so much help; we accomplished much more than would have otherwise been possible.  Thank you Morgan, Janielle and Nain.

Their are plenty of volunteer times open.  I have posted the volunteer calendar through December.  Please feel free to sign up!

Check your child's folder

Today, look for two important items in your child's red folder. There is an invitation to the Chapman Auction, always a super-fun event, and a major fund-raiser for the school.  Also we have field trip permission forms for our October 17 field trip to Kruger's Farm.  I would love to have these back as soon as possible.

Choice time