Updated Sight Word List

The students are becoming stronger readers by learning the sight words we have introduced in class and in flashcards in the homework packet.  Here is an updated list of the words they are reading and and using in their writing.

and, are,at, as, big, blue, be, boy, can, do, dad, eat, for , four, five, green, go, girl, he, has, have, had, I, it is, in, jump, love, look, little, like, Mom, me , my, no ,on, of, one, play, red, she, said, see, the, that, they, this,two, to, three, up, with, was, we, will, what, yes and you.

They are reading and learning to write  short sentences such as:

I can go to the store. 
It is up in the plane.            
I like to eat hot dogs.        
He is at my house.

The spring is a time when they make tremendous growth.  Please continue to work at home and praise there hard work and successes.

Field Trip on Thursday, Feb. 23rd!

We will be taking the class to The Fort Museum of Science and History on Thursday. Parents that have already paid will have a ticket with our group at a discounted price.  If you did not pay ahead of time, we would still love to have you join us by purchasing a ticket at the door.  Students will need a sack lunch that day.  We will leave around 9:15 and return before 2:00.  We will not be allowing them to go into the gift shop area, so there is no need for them to bring any money.  We are all looking forward to a wonderful trip.

Reminder About Upcoming Testing in January

 We have many of the Kindergarten standardized tests coming up in January as soon as school resumes.   We will be giving the second round of the Texas Primary Reading Inventory.  This is the same test they took in the fall and we met to go over scores at the conference.   We are measuring for growth since last time. Most of the children have passed rhyming, we are working on blending word parts ( b--at) and individual letter sounds ( C--a--t) to see if they can hear the word and tell you what it was.  We have begun to work on deleting initial sounds (say nice:  now say nice without the /n/ sound-----"ice").  Most children should be able to complete these skills by the Jan. administration.  If you would like to practice at home, I have included a link for a printable game. 


Printable Game to Help at Home

We will also be doing the second administration of the MClass Math test.  Skills to work on at home is number identification 1-100, counting to 100 quickly, missing number series (  6, 7, ___) and which number is larger using numbers 1-20  (  Which number is bigger ?   12  or 16)  Each of these is a 1 minute timed test.


Also coming up in January, will  be the first Reading Assessment.  To be on level for this point of the year in kindergarten they should be reading a level 2 book.  These have a simple repeating pattern of test with large colorful pictures to help prompt the word that changes on each page.  When you practice at home, remind them to point to each word as they read it to have a one to one match. 

Thanks for all your help at home; it is really starting to show.  The fun time is about to begin in the second semester.  They will really begin to aquire skills quickly  and soar  now that they have the foundation of letters and sounds down. 

Current Sight Words List

Here is a current list of sight words that we have covered in class.  You child should be able to recognized these words within 3 seconds to make them an automatic or sight word.  We have these posted on a word wall in the back of the room and the students are beginning to learn how to use them in their writing to be able to write simple sentences and simple repetative pattern books. 

Today we made a Look Book.  They wrote the frame sentence "Look at the _________". on each page and then completed the sentence and illustrated it.  Those three words were on the word wall and are expected to be spelled correctly, but the final word could be spelled by writing the sounds they hear.

1. and
2. are
3. at
4. big
5. but
6. can
7. Dad
8. eat
9. green
10. I
11. it
12. is
13. love
14. little
15. look
16. Mom
17. no
18. not
19. on
20. see
21. the
22. we
23. was
24. with
25. yes
26. you
27. red
28. orange
29. yellow
30. green
31. blue
32. purple
33. black
34. brown
35. white

Soon we will be adding the number words for 1-10

December book orders are coming home

If you would like to order for Christmas, I am sending home November and December book order forms tomorrow.  They both contain a lot of holiday themed books so I wanted to make sure you get them back in time to enjoy before the holidays.  I had one parent place an order online last month and  I figured out how that works, after a bit of trial and error.  Please see the comment area under this post for the online ordering code for our class.  It should be easy for you to order and pay online. ( I didn't realize that I had to ok the parent order online before it would be filled.  Sorry about that delay).

I am going to set the orders to be turned in by December 1st.  There is a 3-5 day turn around after the order is placed.  So you should have the books near the end of the first week of December.  If  you would like to keep your order a secret for Christmas presents or stocking stuffers, you can order online or send it back to me in an envelope and I will call you to pick it up in the office instead of sending it home with your child.  Just make sure I know that before the order comes in so I don't spoil the surprise. 

If you would like  my suggestions of quality books, they are as follows:

FireFly November order form:
1. Christmas Holiday Countdown Value Pack of 15 books
2.Llama Llama Holiday Drama
3.Fox and the Snowflake Christmas (This is new but the others in series are good)
4. Silly Pigeon Pack ( class favorites)
5. The Hat
6. Froggy's Best Christmas
7. Bear and Friends Collection

SeeSaw November Order form:
1. Jan Brett Pack
2. The Berenstain Bears and the Joy of Giving
3. Season of Sight words winter pack of mini readers
4.Tacky's Christmas
5. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes with CD (I have not read this yet, but have ordered it.  It is the new hit book on the teacher blogs and  NY Times best seller)
6.The Gingerbread Girl (Great book and we will be reading it soon in class)

Firefly December order form:
1. The Amazing Christmas Extravaganza (My favorite Xmas book!)
2. Gingerbread man floor puzzle
3.Pete The Cat: I Love My White Shoes with CD
4. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom pack
5. If you Give a ...Pack
6. Chester Pack


SeeSaw December order form:
1. Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers
2.The Duck Collection (class favorites)

Book It Pizza Coupons

I have set a reading goal of 2 books a week for each child.  These are their Tuesday/ Thursday homework books.  If they read all the books for the month, they will receive a free pizza coupon from Pizza Hut for the month.  Book It runs from October through March.  I will keep track of the books but if they do not return their books so they can get a new one, they may run into a problem of not reading the number of books for their goal.  If they are only 1 or 2 books away, I will try to have them read me one at school so they still get the coupon.  But if they consistently are not returning books on time and rechecking them out, they might not get the coupon for that month.  October's coupons are coming home tomorrow.  They are small, about 2 1/2 inches by 4 inches.  I will try to get the kids to put them in the clear plastic sleeve in their binders.  The coupons do expire one month from the date of issue. 

Reminder that tomorrow is a half day!

School lets out at noon tomorrow for the parent/ teacher conference day.  Lunch will still be served at school so they can bring  a lunch box or they order a hotdog lunch from the cafeteria.