Hoot11 Lantern Walk and Halloween

We will be celebrating Halloween in kinder on Monday. I ask that your child comes to school in regular clothing. The children will change into their costumes after lunch. There will be a costume parade and a class party starting at 1:30.
Please DO NOT SEND (or let your child bring/use) the following items: masks, weapons, blood, gory costuming, fangs (they come in and out of mouths and get passed around = unsanitary). Thank you for your support!

Boo! Not your grandma's beef stew!
Kinder is Making Witch's Brew on MONDAY!
Please bring the ingredient assigned for our "boil and bubble" Halloween! (What the ingredient stands for is a surprise! Shh! Don't tell!)

Annabella - Cheerios = cat eyes
Clover - Whipping cream = werewolf saliva
Gracen - 2 bottles of club soda = gargoyle sweat
Isaiah - Gummy Worms = earthworms
Miguel - Candy Corn = chicken toenails
Milo - Sunflower seeds = cat claws
Owen - red jello = vampire heart
Paris - Chocolate sprinkles = chopped bat whiskers
Santi  - Bugles = witch fingers
Sebastian -  Red Hots = blood drops
Tessa - kale chips = swamp weed
Tiana - chopped yellow onion = mummified toenails
Timothy - party prizes for 14 (stickers, tattoos, small party favors)
Winterfox - Pretzel sticks = bat bones
Jutka - marshmallows (skeleton teeth), M&Ms (zombie eyes), raisins (Dracula's buttons), fritos (bat wings), utensils, cups, plates, and cauldron + served on dry ice?

Halloween Parade and Party: 1:30-3:00
Please send costume with your child.

Please email/message me if you are interested in helping with the any of the following. If you are not avaiable on Monday, we'd love to have you ANY OTHER DAY between 2 and 3pm with one of the activities!

Monday between 2:00-3:30:
Candy graphing (I will provide graph and candy.)
Halloween write around the room (I will provide the activity. Your task is to set up and monitor.)
Halloween ring toss game (We have the game)
Face painting (I will provide paint)
Pumpkin/gourd activities such as counting, weighing, measuring (I have one pumpkin. We could use a couple more. Also a scale that's big enough for pumpkin weighing.)
Wax resist window art (Got paper and paint -- needed: small solid color candles from Cid's)
Maracas making (I have the decorations and rice/lentils to put in the shakers. You'd need to bring bottles/containers.)
Music (Halloween-themed karaoke)
Haunted Doll House
Ghost Frog Toss

Monday sometime before 2:00pm (the room needs to be ready by 2:00pm):
Party set-up/decorations (Halloween color balloons and paraphernalia)
Halloween riddles with prizes and scavenger hunt (hide prizes and bring riddles to solve before the party -- hide prizes around the playground for 14 children)
Room on the Broom Shadow puppet play (I need help setting up the shadow puppet screen. I have the puppets and the story)

I RECOMMEND CHARTING/STASHING/HIDING (or whatever else you might come up with) some of the candy and in bed by 8:00pm on MONDAY! 

PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOUR CHILD DOES NOT BRING ANY CANDY OR SUGARY TREATS AFTER MONDAY!

Learning update:
Last week's letter: Aa
This week's letter: Gg
Encourage correct lowercase letter formation and using sounds for letters: a, b, c, g, m, p, t
Reading: "Tat the Rat" (see text attched)
Math: Adding within 10

Homework:
Reading response sheets (extra copies are in the tray by the homework basket)
Beginnig reading text to practice: Tat the rat (copy in same tray for you)
Number squeeze (You can use use a ruler or the number line from the learning resource packet you received at the open house. Please ask your child to teach you.)
Math book: page 11

Parent-teacher conferences: 
Sign up online here or in class.

Lantern Walk Memories


Dripping color wax


Adding watercolor art

The Sugar Sprite and Other Halloween Candy Alternatives

Here are a few alternatives to the sugar high around this time of year

from this site

1. You could go to a celebration that isn’t centered around candy. This might mean having your own Halloween party with lots of yummy nutritious treats. Or you could find a local event to attend. A third option would be to opt out of the Halloween theme altogether and have a harvest or All Saints Day party.
2. You could do limited trick-or-treating: once around the block, or a “trunk-or-treat” event that’s contained to a parking lot, thus limiting how much candy gets brought home.
3. You could do trick-or-treating as usual and pool the candy in a “treat jar,” doling out pieces for special occasions. That stuff does not not have an expiration date, trust me.
4. You can eat a little bit of candy and use the rest for candy experiments. I actually tend to sort out the cheap “made in China” candy for this purpose, since I am concerned about recalls and testing of this sort of candy in past years.
5. You could also sort and save candy for baking. Chocolate bars can replace chocolate chips, M&Ms for cookies, etc.

Personally, I do a combination of these. I let my children each pick out 10 pieces of their very favorite candy. That’s just for them. Then I go through and pull out what I want for candy experiments. The stuff that can be used for baking gets sorted out next and the rest goes in our treat jar.

The Sugar Sprite 
As the weather becomes colder, the Sugar Sprite requires more sugar to
keep warm than she needs in the summer months. So, on Halloween, children
dress up in costumes and go to their friends’ and neighbors’ houses to
collect candy for the needy sprite. Although they do sample some candy along the
way while walking around in the cold night air, Sugar Sprite children place
their candy at the foot of their beds (or outside the front door, etc.)
before going to sleep. During the night, the friendly Sugar Sprite comes in, takes
the candy and leaves a gift of thanks. The Sugar Sprite knows what all
children like, but sometimes the children write letters or make pictures for
the sprite about a week before Halloween so she doesn’t get confused (she
has to visit a lot of children to collect enough sugar for the coming winter!)

It is perfectly acceptable to say, "Look, we don’t need all that candy. It’s not healthy. This is what we’re doing instead.” 

Hoot 10

"Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver"
With beaver skull in hand, TISA kinder explores storyscape of Canadian canoeing song.

Thank you for attending Kinder's Open House! It was refreshing to converse with grown-ups mostly for ninety minutes. On that note, I wanted to share a postcard from my home town: Miskolc, Hungary. With all those churches and terracotta roof tiles, would you believe that Miskolc is an industrial town of 200,000? Still, it is magical to me.


Mix and mingle -- Open House in Kinder
If you were not able to attend, you can pick up your child's folder of resource materials from me.

Molly, our super-librarian with our writing about the children's library.

BOOK MISSING and overdue on Tessa's card: The Berenstain Bears are superbears! by Berenstain, Mike

If you detect it in your home, please send it back with your child. 

Finding "c" words in the library

Book Giveaway at the children's library, Oct. 28!

Building "-am" words

The three Bob Books that we are currently reading: Mac, Mat, Sam

Reading the "bat" band (word stretching training in kinder)

Creating patterns (AB, AAB, ABB, and ABC) -- "caller" reads pattern, peers close their eyes and continue pattern

Tag and read each pattern component

Hopscotch with numbers, shapes and letters: a winning combo

Third graders singing "Mother Earth" with kinder

Precious moment: little sister passing lantern to big brother

This week's dates:
Monday,Tuesday -- please bring in pizza orders and hand them to me or Laurie (envelopes in open house resource folders)
8:30-9:00 every morning -- Lantern walk parent sing-along. Come one, come all! Bring your guitar/ukulele/drum/fiddle!
Oct 27, this Thursday -- 5:45/6:00pm-6:30ish Annual TISA Lantern Walk on Manzanares campus
Oct 31 -- Halloween (I will be posting information and volunteer functions on the blog.)

Upcoming November events:
Nov. 1 -- Day of the Dead celebration -- Please let me know if you have questions about this event.
Nov. 3 -- Twirl: Light Play workshop
Nov. 10 -- Parent-Teacher conferences (I will post sign-up this coming week)

Homework:
Do on Monday: math book page 10
Do on Tuesday: clap syllables in animal's names (at dinner table?) Then draw and write favorite/longest animal name with number of syllables (e.g. cha/me/le/on = 4)
Do on Wednesday: book report

READING RESOURCE: word families

To see original article, go to This Reading Mama's site

Why Reading by Word Families Works

One of the reasons I’ve personally noticed that word family chunks work better is that many times the letter that follows the vowel dictates how the vowel sounds.  For example, in the words pan, paw, and pat, the a‘s all make a different sound; based on the letter that follows the a.  Teaching a child to read through the vowel first, then add on the last sound can be counterproductive and lead to confusion.  This is why I like to teach children to find the word family chunks when reading new words.

Here are a few more reasons reading researchers are word family “crazy”:

• the division of words into initial letters (onset) and rime is psychologically easier; for example, it’s easier and quicker for a child to change pat to cat or hat than it is to change pat to pan or pad.
• rimes are very phonetically reliable or stable
• making rhyming words is one of the earliest phonological skills and teaching by rime accompanies this skill nicely
• the brain works as a pattern detector, looking to chunk new words into pieces, so learning words by chunk works with, not against, the brain’s natural tendencies
• teaching by rime is the basis for learning how to read by analogy (refer to the pattern decoder reason above)
• introducing words by word family allows for new words to be introduced and learned more rapidly and easily
• rimes are the basis for syllable chunks that make up multisyllabic words; for example,hippopotamus is made up of four basic rimes (-ip, -o, -ot, and -us)
• just from the following set of 37 common rimes, nearly 500 primary words can be made!

-ack	-all	-ain	-ake	-ale
-ame	-an	-ank	-ap	-ash
-at	-ate	-aw	-ay	-eat
-ell	-est	-ice	-ick	-ide
-ight	-ill	-in	-ine	-ing
-ink	-ip	-it	-ock	-oke
-op	-ore	-or	-uck	-ug
-ump	-unk

I love how Francine Johnston gives the mama (or teacher) more guidance when teaching word families in her section: How Should We Study Word Families in a Developmental Fashion?

She suggests doing it this way…

1. Start with one word family at a time (for example, -at)
2. Begin comparing word families with the same vowel (-at, -an, -ag)
3. Move on to comparing rimes with different short vowels (-at, -it).

Resources: (all of these resources reference other leading researchers in the field, from years ago until today’s researchers)

• Phonics They Use (Pat Cunningham)
• Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print (Marilyn Jager Adams)
• The Reading Teacher, The Timing and Teaching of Word Families (Dr. Francine Johnston)
• Words Their Way (Bear, et. al)

So, there’s a lot to be said for word families.  They are the foundation for reading and writing new and bigger words and give our young learners decoding/spelling strategies to tackle those words.

READING: sight words

Sight Word Flashcards And Tips For Early Reading

source of article: http://www.schoolsparks.com/blog/sight-word-flashcards-and-tips-for-early-reading

The goal of reading is to be able to read quickly and smoothly with good comprehension. 

Beginning readers pause frequently as they read, stopping to sound out each letter they see. While this is appropriate when children first learn to read, stopping to sound out each letter of every word is cumbersome and makes reading a chore.

Stopping to sound out each word also interferes with comprehension. Rather than being able to focus on the meaning of the words, a child must put all of his energy into sounding out each word, letter by letter. When children are able to read words quickly and focus on the meaning of each word, reading becomes a comfortable and enjoyable activity.

The importance of sight words = We call these high frequency words POPCORN WORDS in TISA kinder -- they are to be instantly recognized and said (instead of sounded out) -- hence the word "popcorn"

Sight words are just what their name implies - words that a child can read “on sight” without having to sound out each letter. Sight words are typically those that break the rules of phonics and cannot be read by sounding out the letters or those words that are written frequently. THEY RELY ON THE CHILD'S VISUAL RECOGNITION AS ONE UNIT (vs. sounding out one by one).

A growing sight word vocabulary contributes to comfortable reading since it allows a reader to quickly read entire words without sounding them out.  When a child can read words quickly, he can maintain a smooth pace and focus on the meaning of the words being read.

Tips for introducing sight words

The easiest way to introduce your child to sight words is through sight word flashcards. 

These sight word flashcards are based on the list of Dolch sight words, which is a nationally recognized list of words children need to know to be able to read quickly and comfortably. The worksheets include all Dolch pre-primer (preschool) and primer (kindergarten) sight words.

A few simple tips will help your child quickly and easily learn the sight words.

Introduce three sight words at a time. Begin with the first sheet of Dolch pre-primer (preschool) sight words and choose three words.  Show your child one flashcard at a time, saying the word clearly and asking your child to repeat the word after you.  Put the first flashcard face down and repeat the process with the second and third flashcards.

As you review each word, remind your child to try to remember what the word looks like.  I would tell my kindergarten students to “tuck the word in their brain.”  This phrase helped the children understand the concept of committing something to memory.

Get physical. Another way to reinforce new sight words is to teach your child a verbal cheer for each word.  Start by labeling each letter as “high” (b, d, f, h, k, l, t and all uppercase letters), “medium” (a, c, e, i, m, n, o, r, s, u, v, w, x and z) or “low” (g, j, p, q and y). (In TISA kinder we use the "writing kitty" to work with high, medium and low letters.)

Say aloud the sight word and then say the name of each letter in the word to create the cheer. Direct your child to reach above his head for “high” letters, put his hands on his hips for the “medium” letters, and put his arms down at his sides for the “low” letters. Repeat the cheer several times until your child can join you in saying the names of the letters while he looks at the flashcard and moves.

Using body movements while learning the sight words will bring the words to life and add another dimension to learning.  Rather than just seeing the word and saying it aloud, your child can “feel” the word as he moves his body.

Customize the cards. As you introduce each sight word, draw an outline in red around the entire word on the flashcard, highlighting the shape of the word.  Since sight words are visual in nature, the red box gives children another way to visualize the word and remember how it looks.

Keep it fun. Although learning sight words requires memorization, you can play simple games with the cards that will help make this learning fun. 

For example, spread the cards face down on a table and let your child pick one card at a time by saying, “Eeeny, meeny, miney, mo.  I’ll pick a card that I know!”  Direct your child to pick the last card he touches as he reaches the end of the rhyme.  Playful elements such as the silly rhyme and allowing your child to pick his own card will help keep your child engaged and having fun.

Create your own sight word flashcards. Each family has different words that may be common or important.  Ask your child for sight word suggestions such as a family member’s name, a favorite food, or a favorite store.  Use the blank flashcards included with the sight word flashcards to make personalized sight word flashcards for your child.

Track your child’s progress. As your child learns additional sight words, punch a hole in the top corner of each mastered flashcard and keep them on a loose-leaf ring (found at office supply stores).  Your child will be able to see his progress as he accumulates flashcards and the ring will also keep the cards from getting lost.  My kindergarten students used to delight in toting around their rings of sight word flashcards, stopping to show other teachers and their parents the assortment of words they could read.

HOOT9

Oh, there's nothing like the groovy Cat in the Hat, when it comes to reading bat, sat, mat, rat and all things -at.

Oct 18 (Tuesday) -- 10:00: Field trip to Taos Public Library --  Library cards please!
Oct 20 (Thursday) -- 4:30: Open House / Curriculum Night -- Please plan on attending so you can visit your child's classroom, learn about the curriculum, and ask questions. Arriving on time will allow you and your child to tour the classroom before attending an informational session with Miss Jutka. Childcare will be provided till 5:30 pm.
Oct 27 -- 6:00pm Annual TISA Lantern Walk on Manzanares campus

Check out your child's amazing e-portfolio. Please let me know if you need help viewing it.

Sight words on the rise:  a, at, am

We banished uppercase B. Lower case letters rule! (We will be gradually phasing out all uppercase letters. They will only be used to honor first letters in proper names for now.)
Challenge: can your child write their name using lowercase letters (except for the first letter in their name)?

homework: 
Due Tuesday: bring YOUR LIBRARY CARD and a book report (use a piece of paper if you are missing the form and draw your favorite part of a book/story)
Due Wednesday:  Math book p.9
Due Thursday: Check out the lost and found box at school and take home what's yours!

Parents, please check out the resource articles on the blog (under READING) and the volunteer sign-up sheets for upcoming events during open house. Thank you for your support!

Joke of the week
"Teacher: Has anyone ever run away from home? Why did you go back?
Student A: Because I had to pee.
Student B: Because I forgot my bike."

Giant "tessekur ederim" (Turkish "thank you") goes out to my overseas teaching friend, Barbara Tanjala for funding our Big Shot dye cut machine all the way! It's on its way!

Firefighter's workshop with Rick Acedo









Fire Safety Write the Room (Students hunted around the room to find pictures that match the words and wrote the first letter next to the pictures.)


Cat in the hat party in celebration of our hard work with the  "- at"  family


A cat strutting his "-at hat." How about that?


Congratulations! Miguel received a Lexia award for his hard work.



Rhythm stick circle with lantern songs



Finger "pecking" (one finger = one sound --- NOT letter name)



The letter forming kitty (every child made one for home and one for school)



Word building: - at words



Harwood Museum: Cubist Landscapes













Look, what came for homework today! Can you find the dominant shape on the bearded lizard?


Show and tell: Larry, the bearded dragon




















Show and tell: Hickory, the guinea pig



Show and tell: antler shed demo