Important Dates!

As next week is the last week of class before winter break, we have a list of important dates to keep in mind.

12/16 Wednesday: EARLY RELEASE DAY @ 12:45

12/17 Thursday: WINTER CLASS PARTY; I emailed a signup genius last weekend for this event. One spot reminds for a Holiday Treat! If you have not signed up, please consider helping and if you did not receive the email, please email me so that I can make sure you are on my group list. My email is jlartgirl@gmail.com   

12/18 Friday: DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS will be celebrated and four students in our class are celebrating.  If you are the parent of a December birthday kiddo, and want to visit the class and/or supply a special treat (no homemade items!), please email M. Mauvois to let him know your plans. His email is ymauvois@academielafayette.org 

Winter break starts on Monday, December 21 and students return to class on Tuesday, January 5.  

December Snack List!

Arrington-Laughlin, Connor 12/1/15 Brooks, Williams 12/2/15

Coates, Hector 12/3/15

Farnsworth, Avery 12/4/15

Federlein, Cleo 12/7/15

Hood, Lucille 12/8/15 Jones, Emma 12/9/15

Lewandowski, Roman 12/10/15

Owen-Johnson, Edan 12/11/15

Schaefer, Anasten 12/14/15

Schonhoff, Scarlett 12/15/15

Terrell, Miles 12/16/15

Verkler, Piercen 12/17/15

Vroman, Kaydence 12/18/15

Webster II, Garrett 1/5/16

Welling, Avra 1/6/16

Acorn, Oliver 1/7/16

Allen, Malaya 1/8/16

Important Dates

There are a lot of important dates coming up before the end of the year so I have compiled is a list to keep on hand!

November 17: Picture retakes @ Cherry
November 18: Early Release
November 21: Holiday Market @ Cherry
November 23: M. THOMAS RETURNS
November 24: Generations Day
November 25-27: NO SCHOOL
December 1, 7:30am: Parent Coffee
December 8, 6:00pm: Winter Concert (Kindergarten only)
December 17: Winter Class Party
December 21-January 4: Winter Break

Halloween Party!

We had a great time at our first class party! The students decorated bags, created spooky spiders, played toss the ring on the witches hat and snacked on goodies! Thank you to everyone that helped with supplies and the activities. 

Monthly Respect Awards

Mme Beth and M. Thomas chose the awards for respect for the class this month. The awards went to:
Piercen Verkler and Avra Welling! 

The awards represent the Golden rule; respecting people places and things, Classmates, school rules or school environment, materials/supplies in class, etc. 

Sunflowers

The class is currently discussing the changing weather and using nature to link the harvest, plants and animals changing with the seasons. This includes using math connections as they counted and divided seeds in to 'tens' and ones or in french: "Les dizaines" and "Les unités"

They will also make natural bird feeders (peanut free to attract birds near window) and M. Thomas is  LOOKING FOR DONATION OR LOAN OF A SUCTION CUP HOOK FOR A BIRD FEEDER. 

Newsletter 10.2.15

Link to the current class newsletter: Note de la Semaine

In addition to newsletter, two important points:

1. Zazia our full-time class intern arrives Monday! Don't know much more than this, but know that even though she will be arriving Monday, there will be a lot of paperwork and administrative housekeeping things on her plate. After, she will also need at least 2 weeks to settle into our routine - but YEA! 

2. I failed to mention that Mme Peeler's last day was Thursday of this week and the new K English teacher is Mme Amy Turner aturner@academielafayette.org

Raffle Tickets: race to the finish!

I just learned this afternoon from Sarah Guthrie that we continue to trade places with another kindergarten class for the most number of raffle ticket sold at the Cherry Campus. So, if you have that competitive gene or you're tired of being bugged about the all-year pizza party, DIG DEEP & KEEP SELLING!! :)  

Cartes de remerciement aux équipes de foot - UMKC

    

Students collaborated to make thank you cards for UMKC men's and women's soccer teams for autographed class soccer ball...si gentil! We will send to be delivered next week!

Fall Meet & Greet

Please mark your calendars for Saturday, October 3 at 10:00am.  We will meet outside of room 215 at the playground equipment at the northeast side of Loose Park for an informal gathering to get to know our class community better!  This is a drop-in/drop-out event with no formal structure or expectation.  We hope everyone can attend, even for a few minutes!

Un cadeau des deux équipes de foot à UMKC

We received a very cool gift from both the women and men's soccer teams at UMKC - a soccer ball signed by all members of both teams! And it's meant to be played with, for sure.

We will begin thank you cards tomorrow.

It got a lot of use today and is well on its way to being well broke in! See photos below. Very cool!

La Bibliothèque avec Mme Lyons

Learning how to access information and literacy skills is what it's about in Mme Lyon's class. 

Les Mathématiques: 1-1 correspondence; counting and cardinality 0-12 and and back; groups of 0-12; number shapes

   

Today, Lucy works on representing quantities with corresponding numeral while beginning to learn the 'shapes' of numbers, example seeing two rows of 4 objects and understanding without counting that this represents 8. Nice job!

 

Similarly, Connor and Cleo work on recognizing that certain patterns or groupings of objects will equal the same quantity regardless of orientation in space; representing a quantity with a numeral; identifying 2-D/plane shapes; recognizing and naming the properties of each shape; guided practice and review of colors, among other foundational math skills.

Bienvenue M. Alix

We want to extend a warm welcome M. Alix to our classroom community! When not interning at AL in Kansas City, Alix is a university student in Nantes, France. Nantes is located in Northwestern France on the Loire River, approximately 30 miles from the Atlantic coast. Nantes is the sixth largest city in France, with a population of about 300,000 and metropolitan area near 900,000 - not too much different from the size of Kansas City. Nantes is also the capital city of the Pays de la Loire region and the Loire-Atlantique Département. It is the largest city in traditional Brittany and in all the Grand-Ouest (Northwestern France).

Although Alix has only worked with us one full morning so far, he has been very well received. He rolled up his sleeves and jumped in from the very start. He immediately set out learning all the kids names by heart. More telling were the student's questions he was peppered with this morning in the hallway: "Are you coming back today M. Alix?" Followed by a collective and disappointed sigh by his response: "non, pas aujourd'hui, mais je serais dans ta classe lundi matin (no, not today, but I'll be in your class Monday morning)...". This response plus expressions on the students in the photos below are even more telling.

We have a couple of friends - not purposefully - left out of photos who weren't feeling so photogenic this afternoon. I've included a few to provide at least a glimpse of almost all their faces, rather than backs, or hidden behind someone else. Enjoy. 

We look forward to getting to know Alix better in the weeks ahead! Right now, and cross your fingers, we hope to have Alix in class with us at least some part of each MWF mornings - maybe not the entire morning, but at least a portion of those mornings. 

Newsletter 9.11.15

To view the current classroom newletter, please follow this link.

Wholehearted teaching

I came across this 'manifesto' in a parenting book written by a professor of Clinical Social Work at UT - Austin, Brene Brown. While I completely understand how this could seem trite, fluff, or simply repackaged ideas in a new and somewhat distracting font, when I replace the word parent with teacher, there are still several lines that at the least serve as good reminders for me as a teacher of young learners or really any age - even with the fancy font. 

How our token economy works

Many of you have likely run into token economies either in your child's pre-k, an older child or even in your own school experience. 

In a nutshell, students are 'caught doing something (a desired behavior)'. Students can earn tickets, coins, or in or case electronic points for being 'caught' modeling a behavior we are or have worked on. The timing and duration should be completely random and unexpected, increasing the probability that the student motivated by the random points, in our case, are more likely to display this behavior more frequently. In our class once a student reaches 10 points he may go shopping. 

The students can then exchange these points for items in our class store priced at different 'point prices'. This is an effective and fun way to promote desireable behaviors, aid in classroom management and finally work on Math as they shop for items at different prices with at least 10 points. 

How many 3 point tattoos can I buy with 10 points? Can I still afford to buy a 2 point eraser pack? I really want that stuffed dog, she costs 18 points and I only have 15; should I wait and save until next week? The store owner is often very amenable to placing items on hold for a small fee. And so on...

Some of the behaviors students can be rewarded for include: 

1. Effort in French* 

2. Respect (or character trait of month)*

3. Good idea or solution 

4. Following directions 

5. Modeling good listening 

6. Hard work

7. Hallway, bathroom or cafeteria (common areas) behavior expectations 

8. Using kind or complimentary words with others

9. Actively looking for solutions to problems 

10. Making a mistake or getting the wrong answer in looking for the expected response*

11. Keeping my area clean

12. Helping a friend*

*worth 3 points instead of 1

Please see previous post on Token Economy to see how you can donate to our class store! 

Mme Beth Teaching: R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Here are the four main points and the language Mme Beth uses in her class. We use similar, but more simple language in French for right now. 

Mme Beth teaching Tuesday afternoon. Everyone looks forward to her visits!

Token Economy

We need Toys for the Token Economy!


The Token Economy is a valuable lesson used throughout the year to teach kids about money, but it only works well if the shelves are well stocked with Toys. At 10 tokens earned, each kid gets to go shopping for a toy in the Room 215 Store. Please help stock the shelves with gently used toys or other items valued by 5/6 year olds. We are accepting items all year long. Just drop them in your child's backpack with a note or email.

Newsletter 9.4.15

Note de la SemaineSeptember 4th , 2015


Français
• Letters of the alphabet
• Responding to Ça va? (How are you?)
• Asking frequent questions in French. Ex: Est-ce
que je peux aller aux toilettes? (Can I go to the
bathroom?)
• We read the book “Grand” and learned some new
vocabulary words.
• We read the book “Je suis capable” (I am
capable) and discussed that it’s important to follow the rules and that anything is possible.

Math
We will be starting the new math envision series sometime in the near future and the first chapter is “De un à cinq” ( From one to five)
• I will learn how to read, write, and count numbers from 1-5.
• I will be able to identify geometric shapes. Ex: carré (square), cercle (circle), rectangle (rectangle), triangle (triangle).

Science
“Weather” Describe the weather daily and create the secondary colors (purple, green, and red) using the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue).
Social Studies- “School Routine”
• School rules, classroom rules, and playground rules.
• Recognize that the school is a community
• Be able to locate the office, playground, cafeteria, nurse’s office, and classroom.

From the Desk of M. Thomas
• Please don’t forget to subscribe to our classroom blog for updates at kindergarten215.blogspot.com
• First Field Trip, Monday, October 19th 2015 at Weston Red Barn. We will leave at approximately 8:45am and return to school around 2:15pm. Please let me let me know if you would like to chaperone. Everyone is welcome including siblings. Limited number of paid spaces are available.
• Have a great holiday weekend!


September/October 2015
Kaydence B-day (4th)
No school- Labor Day (7th)
No school- Staff in Service (18th)
Lamar’yah B-day (21st)
Mme Roxanne B-day (27th)
Early Release Day 12:45 (30th)

Les responsables/class helpers

We are slowly learning responsibility for ourselves, the members of our classroom and school community, and for the the physical objects that make up our world through direct instruction with Mme Beth, encouragement to think about the golden rule when interacting with our classmates and adults, opportunities to grow through  everyday opportunities and through taking on specific responsibilities for different parts of our day. These may change throughout the year as our French vocabulary grows and ability to take on more complicated tasks increases. 

Currently, I have chosen jobs for each student that will both help develop basic vocabulary either directly acting out the job, the information required to carry out job (forming questions, etc), using number sense in real life, everyday situations, etc. We will change jobs weekly. These jobs, while simple, serve us well in many ways. They are (top left to right):

1. Chef de la porte - making sure the classroom door is closed and begin to pay attention to noise level in hallway and decide when it should be closed or left open

2. La lumière - making sure lights are on and off at appropriate times, thinking of energy conservation, appropriate amount of light for work, etc. 

3. Le recyclage - monitors appropriate items for recycling and empties at end of day

4. Le goûter - not only passes out utensils and snacks, but has practiced beforehand to help guide classmates in how to ask for potentially new items on our snack 'menu' 

5. Compteur - is in charge of counting all students whenever going somewhere to make sure all who should be are present. This will include math concepts not only of counting and and cardinality, but later concepts in addition/subtraction, place value to ten "nous sommes 22 avec M. Thomas et Mme Roxanne...il y a combien groupes de dix (combien de dizaines? Combien d'unités?)?" We are 22...how many groups of ten can we make? Ones? Even Algebra - if we're 18 in line in line now and there are 20 in class, how many more students do we need to make 20 (18 + x = 20)? 

6. Le concierge - is in charge of holding the door as we go outside. We practice using "la politesse" or our polite words and phrases to this helper

7. La balle/le ballon 

8. Uniforme - is in charge of making sure we're all in uniform before leaving the class, reinforcing vocabulary around clothing, colors, positional words (prepositions) "mettez vos t-shirts dans les pantalons, s'il te plaît" Please tuck your shirts IN your pants, etc. 

9. Numéro de jours à l'école - (counting the number of days at school to 100) this students job has endless mathematical applications

10. L'emploi du temps - is responsible to keep us on track with our schedule using moveable arrow - will later include reading the schedule and morning message. 

11. Chef du gel - either helps keep time to make sure we're washing our hands for at least 30 seconds as we sing ABCs (in French) or giving hand sanitizer in a pinch. 

12. Météo - is in charge of leading our weather song and helping count and chart our weather during two week periods. 

13. Les pansements - is in charge of carrying and keeping an eye out for any scrapes on playground and then getting teacher. 

14. Le calendrier - one of the most math intensive jobs

15. L'aquarium - to help feed classroom fish and let adult know any observations during the day

16. Courrier - charged with running errands to office with hope of interacting with another French speaker during exchange. 

17. Les plantes - waters and observes plants well-being. Uses daily journal to record daily observations 

18. Les lingettes - charged with making sure we are respecting our classroom and keeping clean. A frequent duty will be to pass out wet wipes for hands and wipes for surfaces. 

Two of the jobs require more than one person each week. We are also respectful of one family member who would prefer no photos, but will still have a job each week! 

Les anniversaires de Septembre

Remember, all birthdays will be celebrated on the last Friday of that same month at 2:30pm. Summer birthdays will be celebrated in May. Please contact me rthomas@academielafayette.org or Antonia Acorn at antoniaacorn@gmail.com with questions 

Kaydence 9/4

Lamar'yah 9/20

Les auto portraits

Working on self portraits:

Learning fine motor skills, parts of body, colors, and shapes in french in line with our theme: Auteur: Moi! 

New photos below: