Ms. Ridgely

November 14

Unbelievable Waffles!

To celebrate the completion of the alphabet this week, we made waffles to explore the letters U and W. They were wacky, wonderful, unique, and chocolatey! We also used our measuring skills to measure out the ingredients.

E.Q's for next week:

Math: How can I use numbers? How can I sort objects by weight?

Reading: How can I sequence the events of a story?

Social Studies: How can I identify the importance of Thanksgiving?

Writing: How can I write an informational story?

Important Dates:

Tues November 18 : VIP lunch at 11:45

November 24-28 Thanksgivning break-no school

November 2

Thank you to all parents for helping with Red Ribbon Week. We really enjoyed dressing up and learning how to say no to drugs! On Friday we met with our book buddies and decorated cookies for Halloween. We had a lot of fun and a lot of sugar!

E.Q's for the week:

Math: How can I use numbers?  How can I order objects according to their length/height?

Reading: How can I identify the main idea of a story?

Science: How can I observe and communicate the effects of gravity on an object?

Writing: How can I write an informational story using descriptive words?

Important dates:

November 4 : Student holiday- No school

November 7: Dowell Barnes and Noble Night

November 24-28: Thanksgiving Break-No school

October 27-31

Field trip fun!

We had a great time on our field trip to the Cherokee Outdoor YMCA. The students enjoyed riding the tractor, picking out a pumpkin, listening to the storyteller, coloring a toy top, and having a picnic lunch. We didn't let a little rain spoil our great time! 

RED RIBBON WEEK is October 27-31, 2008.  Please join the Dowell PTA and Staff this year as WE ELECT to be DRUG FREE.  To help make this week memorable the students may participate in our fun dress up days as follows:

Monday- “Winners Don’t Do Drugs”…..wear a sports jersey

Tuesday- “I Vote for a Drug Free America”……wear red, white, blue

Wednesday- “Being Drug Free is No Sweat”….wear sweat shirt and pants

Thursday- “Embrace Hugs, Not Drugs”…..bring a stuffed animal

Friday- “Crazy about Living Drug Free”…wear red day and have crazy hair

This week: We will be focusing on the letters Y and Z. We are going to be learning about the different ways an object can move. We are going to be studying shapes in our environment for Math. We are going to continue to write informational stories using descriptive words. Our focus for reading will be finding the main idea of a story. We will be listening to a fire fighter talk about fire safety on Tuesday.

E.Q's for the week:

Math: How can I use numbers?  How are 2D and 3D shapes different?

Reading: How can I identify the main idea of a story?

Science: How can I describe the types of motion?

Writing: How can I write an informational story using descriptive words?

Important dates:

November 4 : Student holiday- No school

November 7: Dowell Barnes and Noble Night

November 24-28: Thanksgiving Break-No school

October 20-24

Report cards were sent home on Friday. Please sign the signature card and return in the yellow school envelope. You may keep the report cards! I am very proud of all students this nine weeks. We worked hard and had a lot of fun and it really paid off! If you would like a conference to discuss the report card or any concerns, please let me know.

This week: We are focusing on the letters O and V. We have our first field trip on Friday to the Cherokee outdoor YMCA. The students are very excited about this trip. Please make sure your child is at school on time on Friday. In Science we are going to look at the different types of soils and discuss how they are alike/different. We are going to be focusing on the main idea of a story in Reading. We are going to be focusing on writing informational stories that use descriptive words. In Math, the students will continue to explore numbers and 2D and 3D shapes.   

E.Q's for the week:

Writing: How can I write an informational story using descriptive words?

Math: How can I identify 2D and 3D shapes? How can I use numbers?

Science: How can I oberserve different types of soils?

Reading: How do I identify the main idea of a story?

RED RIBBON WEEK is October 27-31, 2008.  Please join the Dowell PTA and Staff this year as WE ELECT to be DRUG FREE.  To help make this week memorable the students may participate in our fun dress up days as follows:

Monday- “Winners Don’t Do Drugs”…..wear a sports jersey

Tuesday- “I Vote for a Drug Free America”……wear red, white, blue

Wednesday- “Being Drug Free is No Sweat”….wear sweat shirt and pants

Thursday- “Embrace Hugs, Not Drugs”…..bring a stuffed animal

Friday- “Crazy about Living Drug Free”…wear red day and have crazy hair

Important dates: October 24- Field trip to YMCA Week of October 27 - Red Ribbon Week November 4 - Student Holiday

October 13-17

Welcome Miss Seigler!

I would like to welcome our new paraprofessional (assistant) to our class! Miss Seigler's first day was on Wednesday and we feel very lucky to have her in our room.

This week: Happy Columbus Day! We have been learning about Christopher Columbus and his journey to the new world. We will be focusing on the letters J and K. We are going to begin exploring 2D and 3D shapes in Math. (cone, cube, sphere) In Science we are going to continue to explore rocks and soils. We are going to sort Earth made materials and man made materials. We are going to begin writing descriptive stories using "juicy" words. Juicy words are adjectives that make our story more interesting. Examples: large, red, beautiful, loud, sweet 

E.Q's for the week:

Writing: How can I write a story using descriptive words?

Math: How can I identify 2D and 3D shapes?

Science: How can I sort Earth materials from man made materials?

Social Studies: Who was Christopher Columbus?

Reading: How do I identify the problem/solution of a story?

Important dates:

October 15 - Early Release, Dismissal at 12:20pm

October 17 - Report cards go home

October 24- Field trip to YMCA-you must have a signed permission    slip to attend!

Week of October 27 - Red Ribbon Week

November 4 - Student Holiday

September 29, 2008

Happy Fall! It is hard to believe that October is among us. We have been working so hard and the time is just flying by. We spent two weeks learning about our 5 senses. We had a lot of fun cutting out pictures from magazines to show how we use our five senses. We also celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday by having apple day last Friday. We graphed our favorite type of apple (the red apples won), we ate apple pie, applesauce and drank apple juice.

The letters on the week are I and F. In reading, we continued to focus on literary elements. We have already discussed characters and setting. We will be focusing on the problem and solution of a story for the next two weeks.

For Math, we have begun working on writing numerals and counting sets. We compared sets by using the terms more, fewer and equal. We enjoyed graphing smarties candies last week. This week we are going to review positional words, numbers and continue working with patterns.

We are starting a new unit on Rocks and Soils in Science. We will begin by sorting rocks by size, shape, texture and weight.

E.Q's:

Writing: How can I label my picture using beginning and ending sounds?

Reading: How do I identify letters and sounds? How do I identify the problem/solution of a story?

Math:  How can I identify sets that are more, fewer or equal?

Science: How can we use our senses to sort things from the earth?

Important Dates:

October 9 - Math Night and PTA at Publix on Dallas Hwy

October 15 - Early Release, Dismissal at 12:20pm

October 17 - Report cards go home

October 24- Field trip to YMCA

Week of October 27 - Red Ribbon Week

November 4 - Student Holiday

Please turn in your permission slip/money for our October 24 field trip to the Cherokee YMCA. Every child must have a signed permission slip to attend! 

September 8-12

This week we will be focusing on the letters N and E. We will begin to practice writing  numerals and start counting set of objects. We will be focusing on maps  and globes in Social studies and introduce the cardinal directions. (North, East, South, West)  In Writer's Workshop we will begin labeling our pictures with beginning sounds.

We met with our book buddies on Friday and made apple burritos.

They were delicious and tied into our listening center book about apples and Fall.

Essential Questions:

Writing: How can I label my pictures using beginning sounds?

Reading: How do I identify letters and sounds? How do I identify the literary elements of a story?

Math:  What are numbers? How can I show numbers?

Social Studies: What are maps and globes? What are cardinal directions?

Please continue to review sight words, letters and letter sounds. I can really tell the

students are practicing!  Also, please practice your address with your child.

September 2-5

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing Labor Day. I spent it at home with my family catching up on some much needed rest! Last week went very well. I had 2 days of in school training and the substitute teacher had many wonderful things to say about our class:) The students are really getting used to the routine and daily schedule.

We dove head first into the world of literary elements last week. Our literary focus was on characters. I read many books to the students and we discussed the characters in each book. We even learned that animals can be characters in a story! Ask your child to tell you about some of the memorable characters. (Bear, Froggy, Molly Lou Melon, and Mean Jean) This week we will be reading non-fiction text about maps and globes.

Last week in Math, we made and extended patterns. We will continue to work on mastering this skill. Look out for a pattern bracelet to be coming home soon. The students really enjoyed making a graph using M&M candies on Thursday. We will be sorting items according to shape, size and color.

The students are doing a great job at writer's workshop. This is definitely my favorite part of the day. The students are working on creating realistic pictures and coming up with new and different ideas for a story. A great activity for home is to have your child "write" a story about a topic of their choice. You can give them suggestions for a story. They will love to hang their wonderful work on the refrigerator!

Essential Questions:

Writing: What ideas can I write about?

Reading: How do I identify letters and sounds? How do I identify the literary elements of a story?

Math:  How can I create a pattern? How can I sort objects?

Social Studies: How do maps and globes tell me about my world? 

Important Dates

September 3: Picture Day

September 24: Mellow Mushroom Night

September 26: PTA Fall Festival at Dowell

Join PTA!

Please help support our school by joining the Dowell PTA. I am a member and we need your help. If our class gets 100% membership (that’s just $5 a child) we will be having a popcorn party!

Just send in five dollars (checks payable to Dowell PTA) and help our school!

Thank youJ

August 25-29

I am excited about the upcoming week! We will be focusing on the letters: B and C. Please remember to practice all letters and letter sounds with your child. In Math we will be creating and extending patterns. We will also continue working on positional words. The focus of writer's workshop will be on creating realistic pictures. For Social Studies, we will discuss the importance of Labor Day.

Important Dates:

September 1 - Labor Day, No School

September 3 - Pictures

Sight Words:

Sight word lists will be coming home on Monday. The students will be tested the following Monday. Please check your child's green folder for the list. Flash card drills every day are a great way to learn these sight words.

E.Q 's for the upcoming week:

Reading/Language Arts: Who are the characters in a story?

Math: How can I create/extend a pattern? How can I demonstrate positional words?

Writing: How can I draw realistic pictures?

Social Studies: What is the importance of Labor Day?

Great websites can be found on our Dowell website:  http://www.cobbk12.org/~dowell/  Once on the Dowell homepage, click on Computer Lab link on left-hand side of the page, and then click on Kindergarten.

Week two

Open House

Thank you to all of the parents and students who were able to make it to Open House! It was great to see you again. If you were not able to attend please read over the materials sent home and let me know if you have any questions.

Academics

We reviewed the letters T and A this week. Please review your letters and letter sounds every night. We have been working on colors, shapes, and sorting in Math. Writer's Workshop focused on drawing realistic pictures that match a story that we listened to. We continued to explore the ways that we are the same and different from each other in Social Studies.

E.Q's:

Math: How can I sort objects? (color, size, shape)

Reading/Language Arts: How do I learn letters, letter sounds and sight words?

What are the literary elements of a story? (characters, setting, problem, solution)

Writing: How can I become a writer?

Social Studies: How am I unique?

Book Buddies

We met our third grade book buddies from Mrs. Castaneda's class on Friday. The third grade students interviewed our class and then helped them practice their ABC flashcards. We will meet with them every other Friday at 10:00. The students were very excited to meet their new "buddies".

Sing-a-long:

We had our very first sing-a-long this Friday. Every Friday morning, Kindergarten meets in the cafeteria to sing educational songs that they have learned. The students really enjoy this time to show off the things they have learned!