I just got home from a high school graduation party for one of my former kindergarten students.  He is off to Georgetown University in Washington D.C.  I was honored to be there with "Miss Linda" from Children's Corner, and a few of the student's high school teachers and counselors.  It was so special to be considered an important part of his life, his first teacher at "big kid" school.  Seeing my students move on is hard, but seeing the people they become is amazing!

It is now time for these Room K students to move on, but before they leave we have one last fun-filled week together.  Remember we have a 1:35 dismissal Monday-Wednesday and Thursday is a minimum day, 12:40.

Monday:  Track & Field Day
Tuesday:  Teachers vs. 5th Graders Kickball game, 5th grade play
Wednesday:  watch 5th grade culmination practice
Thursday:  Last Day of School, "Coronation," & class party

Thanks to all of you for the help and support during this school year,
Best wishes,
Mrs. W

Speech & Language: This week we will practice the initial sound /L/.  We will make lambs for our craft.

We have concluded sharing however there are a few children who did not share their May/June travel/vacation share.  If your child did not share, they may share this Friday.

Last 2 Weeks of School Homework-I will send this page home again on Tuesday in case it was misplaced.  Please help your child prepare a "talent" for our show.  Room/Party Parents will be in touch regarding our end-of-year snack/lunch party.

We are concluding our academics for the year this week.  We have covered all of the Common Core Kindergarten Standards and I will conclude assessments this week.  I will send the assessments home with your child's report card next week so you will have all of the information regarding your child's progress.  Kindergarten students are grade based on mastery of the Standards.  TK students are graded on developmental progress, taking into consideration their progress mastering the Standards, however they are not required to master the Standards until the end of their second year of Kindergarten.

During reading groups, we are continuing with Lexia.  The children are very excited about progressing in this reading program and I received confirmation that they can continue to use the program during the summer.  In August, their information will be transferred to their new teacher at TECS.

This Wednesday we will be treated to a musical play Famous Americans, presented by the 3rd grade students.  This is always a fun performance and I am sure the children will enjoy it.  The 3rd graders have been practicing for a few weeks!

This Friday will be our final Science Hike.  We will hike to the amphitheater where we will conduct a STEM(Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) project. The children have enjoyed these projects over the last few weeks as they are very creative and hands-on experiences.

A huge thank you to those of you who have signed up to help pack up Room K for the summer.  This is a big job and I really do appreciate all of the help during this very busy end of the year.

Our Schedule:
Monday-Memorial Day-no school
Tuesday-Speech & Language, P.E., Let's Find Out! magazine
Wednesday-3rd Grade Play, Yoga, Council
Thursday-P.E.
Friday-Morning Assembly, Planet Bravo, Sharing (make-up), Science Hike, Art

A gigantic thank you to all the wonderful Room K volunteers who have made this year so very special for the children in Room K. 
Mrs. W.

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the initial /st/ blend.  We will be stringing stars and our snack of strawberries will be contributed by Wiley!

Sharing:  This week the Winnie-the-Poohs will share.

I would like to thank all of our wonderful Room K volunteers!  Having parents in the classroom helps our adult to student ratio, gives insight into what goes on in our classroom and allows everyone in our Room K family to get to know one another.  I know as working parents, it is often challenging to make the time to come into the classroom, or to complete projects for our classroom while at home.  I appreciate your dedication to Room K and to your children's experience at Topanga Elementary Charter School.

Open House:  Tuesday, May 22, 5:30-7:00 p.m.

This week we will be enjoying time with our Room K Families and showing off all of the great work we have done this year.  You will be amazed at how much your children have learned and grown!  Be sure to sign in and let your child take you on a tour of our room with a provided checklist.

Assessments:

This week we will continue our assessments.  I am assessing the areas of language arts and math.  You will receive all of the assessments when they are complete so you can note the expectations and your child's progress.  Remember-the Kindergarten Common Core Standards must be mastered by the end of Kindergarten.  If your child is in TK, they still have one more year to master the Standards.

Science:

We have been learning about insects and sea life.  Our learning has been integrated into language arts and visual arts.  The children are enjoying hearing many stories about animals and insects.  The children have also been bringing stories from home to share.

P.E.:

We have been practicing our Track and Field events in preparation for Track and Field Day on June 4th at the Community House.  This is a non-competitive event (for Kindergarten) that the children really enjoy.  Please help out when contacted by the parents in charge of the even including our own Kelly Rockwell!

Reminders:

Please remind children that it is best (and more safe) to leave jewelry such as necklace and watches, at home. 

Continue to practice Lexia at home for at least 10 minutes per night for maximum progress.  The expectation is 60 minutes a week.  We complete approximately 40 minutes per week (10 minutes a day, 4x per week).

Best wishes,
Amy Weisberg

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the sound of initial /S/.  We will make sock puppets and practice conversations with our puppets.  We will not have a snack this week.

​Sharing:  The Piglets will share this week.

Thank you all so much for all of the wonderful Teacher Appreciation gifts and good thoughts.  I felt so special all week and I always love to see the children learning about gratitude and appreciation.  I am so very grateful for the kind thoughts expressed all week.

Assessments:
This week we will begin end-of-the-year assessments for all Room K children.  Some DIBELS assessments have been completed for Kindergarten students to assess reading progress, however, we will be assessing all children on the Kindergarten Common Core Standards. Please remember that Kindergarten students must meet the Common Core Standards. Transitional Kindergarten students are introduced to the CCS, assessed and graded based on progress towards meeting the standards.

There are a few assessments we will give:
1.  Paper/Pencil mini-quizes
2. Educational Software for Guided Instruction online assessments
3. Lexia Progress assessments

These assessments will be part of what we use to determine end-of-year grades on our final progress report.  ALso, in consideration will be:
1.  Classroom participation
2.  Homework completion
3.  Classwork progress
4.  Formal/Informal observation during both work time and free time

You can help your child during this assessment time by:

1.   Keeping home routines in place, including an early bedtime, healthy meals (etc.)
2.  Arrive to school on time.
3.  Avoid leaving school early.  Attend school everyday.
4.  Remind your child to do his/her best!

This week we will be preparing for Open House!  We are very excited to share all of the exciting things we have been doing in Room K-from growing bacteria to building a mural to crocheting "seaweed."  We are also excited to share our special Room K authors library!  As you know we have been working so hard on completing our Fairy Tale books and we also have our Animal Books to share.  Additionally we will share our "tubs" containing all of the work we do each week:  Handwriting Without Tears/Kickstart Kindergarten, Writing Journal, Science Journal, Word-Picture Dictionary, Letter People Binders, Rhyming Books, Math Journals, and our Benchmark Unit 10 workbook about Insects and Ecology. You will also get to see the amazing art portfolios containing work from our Art Trek lessons, our ocean mural and of course the much anticipated Crowns. 

The children have been working hard to earn jewels on their crowns and are making good progress.  Please remind them to practice at home so they will be very aware at school.  Many children have earned multiple gems already!

Remember to have your child work on Lexia at least 15 minutes per day.  They will progress much more quickly if they have support from home.  We complete 10 minutes per day 4 days per week here at school  Children are supposed to complete at least 60 minutes per week to stay on target for meeting goals for the year.

Happy Mother's Day!
Amy Weisberg

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the sound of initial /R/.  This is a very challenging sound!  We will make rainbows and our snack of raspberries will be contributed by Angus!

Sharing:  This week the Tiggers will share.

This is a very busy week!  We will be creating our covers for our Fairy Tale books and working very hard to earn gems for our crowns.  We will begin our last Benchmark reading unit which focuses on insects.  We will crochet so that each child can complete a chain of stitches and some will work on adding rows to their chain.  We are continuing our ocean studies and making fish to hang in our Room K aquarium.

I will be assessing the children to compile a final assessment.  It is hard to believe that our final report cards are coming up already!  Kindergarten students will also have their final DIBELS assessment.

Our Schedule:
Monday:  Let's Find Out! magazine, Buddies
Tuesday:  Speech & Language, P.E., Crochet time
Wednesday: Ocean Art, Yoga, Council
Thursday:  P.E., Crochet time
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Planet Bravo, Homework Review, Sharing, Science

A big thank you to our field trip chaperones:
Stephen, Rich, Jesse, Renee, Dana, Adrianna, Katey.  The trip was great and all children were safe, engaged and excited to explore the aquarium!

We had a great outdoor science time in our garden with Melanie and Mary.  We planted our vegetables that Melanie had helped the children grow from seeds.  The children weeded, watered and planted and had fun exploring the garden!

Thank you all for being such supportive, engaged parents.  Your children are thriving due to your devotion.

I appreciate you all,
Mrs. Weisberg

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the sound of initial /L/.  We will make ladybugs and our snack of limeaide will be contributed by Mia!

Sharing: This week the Eeyores will share.  This will be our last month of sharing this year.  The assignment is Going Places. For sharing time your child may share pictures, maps, and souvenirs from a remembered vacation. Also, your child might tell about summer vacation plans. You may wish to help your child
create a photo collage or book of an actual or imagined family trip. Your child might use photos, drawings, postcards, and mementos to tell the story. Feel free to write down your child’s story in his or her own words.
Have fun! This will be our last share of the year so be sure to check the calendar for your child’s share day.

We are very excited about our field trip to the Santa Monica Aquarium this Thursday.  Please remember to send a lunch and water.  Send a snack that is easy (not messy) to eat such as a snack bar.  We will have a few minutes to eat a quick snack right when we arrive at the Pier.  We will eat our lunch at picnic tables by the play equipment at the beach.

*All children must wear shoes and socks!
*Please prepare your child with sunscreen and a hat is fine.
*Bring a sweatshirt for the morning hours.

We are still finishing up our Fairy Tale books.  The children are doing an amazing job and have written their "about the author" page. 

We are still working on learning the chain stitch crocheting.  It has been so great having Katie help this week.  If you would like to come in to help working with a few children at a time just let me know.  I would like each child to create a chain to display in class and then they can take it home.

Science is exciting in Room K!  We have Painted Lady caterpillars, seashells and an ocean mural, plants growing and now it is time to begin our science experiments, growing bacteria!  The children are very excited and many have been asking about it. 

Manners!
We are officially beginning our Kings & Queens of Manners lessons.  Each child will be able to earn a crown bedazzled with jewels of different colors.  On Friday we made our crowns and now the children will earn their jewels.  Our official coronation ceremony will be the last day of school.  Help your child practice at home and we will recognize the good manners we see at school.

Jewels:
Red-Friendship and Kindness
Gold-Following the Three B's
Pink-Listening and Working Quietly
Green-Playing Nicely on the Playground
Purple-Lunch Table Manners (including eating your lunch)
Silver-Using Polite Words
Blue-Following Carpet Time Manners

Our Schedule: 
Monday:  Let's Find Out! Magazines, Buddies
Tuesday:  Speech & Language, P.E., Crochet time in the afternoon
Wednesday:  Ocean Art, Yoga, Council
Thursday: Field Trip!
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Planet Bravo, Homework Review, Sharing, Science (hike) in the Garden, Art Trek

Best wishes,
Amy Weisberg

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice multisyllabic words.  We will focus on articulation.  We will make a watermelon for our craft and our snack of watermelon will be contributed by Paloma!

Sharing:  This week the Tiggers will share their Mother Goose rhymes!

Our field trip to the Santa Monica Bay Aquarium is quickly approaching!  Please return your field trip slip if you have not done so.  Chaperones are welcome to ride on the bus with us and I would like to be sure we have enough chaperones so please let me know as soon as possible if you will be able to help on our field trip.

We are beginning our ocean studies and will be making sea life fish and animals to bring our ocean mural to life! This is always an exciting time of the year and a favorite study unit.  We have many ocean books and each student will delve into researching a favorite sea life animal.

We will continue perfecting our printing of letters and numbers.  Be sure to reinforce this when your child completes his/her homework.  Habits become habits when they are reinforced at school and at home.

We are completing our Fairy Tale books this week and each child will design their own book cover. 

Thank you all for your support of Lexia at home. The children are really enjoying it and especially enjoy seeing their progress and high scores!

Our Schedule:
Monday:  Buddies
Tuesday:  Speech & Language, P.E.
Wednesday:  Art, Yoga, Council
Thursday:  P.E., Second Step
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Planet Bravo, Homework Review, Sharing, Art Trek,
************************************************************************************************************************
Upcoming Events:
Field Trip:  May 3rd
Kings and Queens of Manners: Beginning May 7th (more information to come)
Open House:  May 22nd
Room K classroom clean-up:  May 30-June 7 (Sign-Up Genius to follow)
Track & Field Day-June 4th
Last Day of School & Room K Talent Show and Party:  June 7th

Speech & Language:  This week we will be practicing the blend /dge/.  Our craft will be making jellyfish and our snack of jelly sandwiches and juice will be contributed by Robin!

Sharing:  This week the Eeyores will share.

Mid-term reports will be sent home Monday.  These are for children who are in jeopardy of not meeting grade-level standards by the final report card.  If you do not receive one, then your student is meeting the grade-level standards.

We have finished our alphabet letter from A-Z!  Now we are moving on to sight words, playing reading games to encourage the children to blend the sounds to form words.  We will be writing our stories and finish them soon!  We are working in the Kickstart Kindergarten book to sharpen our fine motor skills. 

We are learning to crochet beginning with learning how to make a slipknot and to make a chain stitch.  Many thanks to the parents who have volunteered to help with this one-to-one learning experience.!

Lexia is an excellent computer program our school has purchased to help students practice reading skills at home.  It is beneficial for our children to spend 10-20 minutes each day using this program.  We use it 10 minutes 3 days per week, but please feel free to have your child use it at home. 

We are focusing on:
"Perfect printing" for upper and lower case letters and numbers.  Please reinforce these skills at home when you child completes homework!

Thanks to all of you who attended the Silent Auction!  It was so much fun.  Congrats to Torie and Stephen for "winning" to beautiful painting Amy helped the children create.  Thanks to all who helped get items for our class basket and as always, thank you for helping in the classroom!  We had a great art lesson with Tracy Murphy and Torie on Friday.

Best wishes,
Mrs. W.

Speech & Language:  This week we will have a pragmatic lesson.  The definition of pragmatic speech is:
"Pragmatics refers to the social language skills we use in our daily interactions with others. They include what we say, how we say it, our body language and whether it is appropriate to the given situation. Pragmatic skills are vital for communicating our personal thoughts, ideas and feelings."  There will be no snack this week.

Sharing:  The Winnie-the-Poohs will share this week.

We will be learning and reviewing Mother Goose Rhymes, which focus on the ending sounds in words and are so important for the development of sight words and reading skills.  It is so exciting to see the progress the children are making reading sight words and sounding out words.

Our Schedule:
Monday:  Let's Find Out! magazine, Big Buddies
Tuesday:  Speech & Language, P.E.
Wednesday:  Art, Yoga, Council
Thursday:  P.E., Second Step
Friday:  Morning Assembly, Planet Bravo, Sharing (Winnie-the-Poohs), Homework Review, Science

Speech & Language:  This week we will practice the initial blend /sh/.  We will make shoes to lace and our snack of sugar cookies will be contributed by Robin!

Sharing:  This week we have a new topic, Mother Goose rhymes.  Your child will need to prepare so please read the directions found under Monthly Sharing Assignments in the drop-down menu under "More."  The Piglets will be the group sharing this week.

This week we will meet Ms. Y who has a yodeling yawn!  We will learn about using /y/ as a vowel and practice writing this tricky letter.  We are continuing our regular activities; rhyming books, reading games, Lexia and Starfall on the computer and finishing up our ABC Dictionary.  We are writing everyday as we work on completing our Fairy Tale Books.  The children are very excited about this special project!

We are also finishing up our Handwriting Without Tears books with shapes and numbers and will be starting our Kickstart Kindergarten books.
These smaller books provide practice writing the letters, both upper and lower case, neatly and within lines.

During math time we are using the Zearn program to enhance learning 10 Frames, addition, subtraction and number bonds (fact families).  We will be playing math games and using manipulatives to explore shapes and patterns.

Our Schedule:
Monday-No School
Tuesday-Speech & Language, P.E.
Wednesday-Art, Yoga, Council
Thursday-P.E., Second Step
Friday-Morning Assembly, Planet Bravo, Homework Review, Sharing (Piglets), Science Hike

Thank you for all you do to help Room K!
Mrs. W.