Costigan

November

 
See our decorated pumpkins!!   Fall Festival was indeed, so far, the best day ever.  Thank all of you who helped make it so special.  I hope the pumpkins got home in one piece.

It was interesting to see how many children knew about the water cycle when we worked on the Water book.  That was the main lesson of the book, along with the information we learned from it.  We explored our background knowledge about water and then connected that knowledge to help us understand what we read.  The children then took turns re-telling the story.  

Now on to The Best Places.  This is a non-fiction book that gives information about the best places for  real animals and things.  We will review all of the previous strategies we learned about, "What good readers do" and add the new strategy.  It is that good readers pay attention to the words in the title and think about what they know about those words.  Doing this helps us predict what the book will be about. There is a pattern in this book , but the ending is a big surprise.  Was our predictions correct?

Our writing lessons are on details.  We will select an item and give details about it.  They will then draw a picture showing those details and write them down in sentences.  We are explaining that details are small things in a story that help a reader understand and enjoy it better.  They add more information.

We continue to also use our hi-frequency words which should be spelled correctly, because they are on the word wall.  Mrs. Coronado is making a number word  book at her Lit Center this week. Both of theselessons are standards-based.

Our math lessons this nine weeks included ways to make numbers up to 10, estimation and we will go into shapes. The shapes should be mostly a review, but we will expand on the lessons. (triangle, rectangle, square, circle, sphere and cube) Continue with the money recognition.  This can be done with your change at home.  The children should know penny, nickel and dime recognition and should be able to do fair trades with them.  The ordinal numbers will be worked on again next week.  I think we got it!! 

Veterans Day was the new holiday we added to our Social Studies lesson. Please talk to your child about what he knows about the holiday.  We reviewed Labor Day and Columbus Day and Thanksgiving is next.  Review the planet, continent, country, state and city at home.  This is hard for Kdg. students to grasp. The symbols of America are on the list of standards also.  These will be introduced soon.

Science is still motion and gravity and changes from day and night.  We talk about these all year!

Thank all of you for supporting the Foundation. Also thanks for the $50 spa certificate.  Judy and I will share it.

Dates to know

Nov. 13  Indian Pow-wow

Nov. 19 Muffins for Mom 1:30

Nov. 23-27 Thanksgiving holiday

October

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I was so sorry I had to miss the 50th day of school.  I heard the children did a good job of counting the beads by 1's, 5's and 10's.   I'm sure the outfits were cute too.

Now back to some serious work. Our last piece of literature was What Will You Pack?. We used this book to teach about making connections. We explained that good readers think about how a book reminds them of people and things they know.  They may be reading or listening to a story and say: Hey, I remember when I__ just like the girl in the story!  When readers make connections to a book, they have more fun reading and can better understand the story.  The children shared experiences about what and why they packed.  Then we all wrote what special item they would like to pack if they went on a trip in their journals. Our other writings that we did had to do with friends and what we liked to do with a friend.  These should of made it home.  Our rhyming lesson for this unit included an and ap family words

The next book is Water. This is an informational book.  The last book was realistic fiction and this one is non-fiction.  Hopefully the children will get used to these terms.   Our new strategy that we will use is exploring knowledge we have about a topic so we are able to  connect to and better understand what we read.  To simplify that, it begins by us discussing what we know about water...its uses, and where does it come from.  Another discussion question would be, What do you know about the sun? or Where does the rain go when it falls from the sky?. The water cycle is explained and we then retell it.  What a great science lesson. 

Mr John, our wonderful Walton cadet has been working with each child on singular and plural naming words(nouns).  The children love working with him, along with learning to identify action and naming words

Our math lessons are coming along.  Please continue to review coins with your child. Empty those pockets and see if your child can name a penny, nickel and dime...also the value.  They should be able to do a fair trade with pennies for a nickel and a dime.  During calendar time, we go over five and ten frames and always discuss place value.  Our new adventure will be using a ruler to measure.  This will be introduced this week.  Give your child oral math questions when an occasion arises.

Gravity and motion are the new science topics for the next nine months.  We will review Seasons and of course talk mainly about Fall.  Our room looks so good with all the scarecrows, pumpkins, squirrels and colored leaves.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND IN THE PUMPKIN BY WED. We will be using them with our buddies to measure, weigh, etc. on Thursday morning.   We don't want any tears!!

Dates

Oct. 26-30 Book Fair in Media Center

Oct. 30  Fall Festival

Nov.2 Student Holiday

Nov. 5 Barney the Bus for bus safety

Nov. 6 PTA Fun Run

Nov.19 Muffins for Moms at 1:30

Nov. 23-27 Thanksgiving Holiday

Thanks for all the support to the Foundation.  It is so appreciated.

Please Support our Foundation!

Do you know about our ELMOs?  Thanks to the Foundation, we started the school year with an ELMO in every teacher's classroom! Click here to learn more!

The Mt. Bethel Foundation is funded 100% by parent donations and the Patron Program, which ends next week, is their only fundraiser. If you plan to make a donation or pledge, please send in your patron card ASAP. The superb programs and teacher grants provided by the Foundation are in jeopardy! Thank you to the families that have contributed!

Our class currently has 41% Participation!

Highest participating classes per grade level: 

• Kindergarten - Schreck
• First - Cillian
• Second - Birdsong
• Third - Bredickas
• Fourth - Sloan
• Fifth - Jones

Please view the MBESF website for more information about the Foundation and what it provides for our school. 

Keep Mt. Bethel students' thinking caps fully charged, send in your patron card before 10/30/09!

Please Support our Foundation!

Do you know about our ELMOs?  Thanks to the Foundation, we started the school year with an ELMO in every teacher's classroom! Click here to learn more!

The Mt. Bethel Foundation is funded 100% by parent donations and the Patron Program, which ends next week, is their only fundraiser. If you plan to make a donation or pledge, please send in your patron card ASAP. The superb programs and teacher grants provided by the Foundation are in jeopardy! Thank you to the families that have contributed!

Our class currently has 41% Participation!

Highest participating classes per grade level: 

• Kindergarten - Schreck
• First - Cillian
• Second - Birdsong
• Third - Bredickas
• Fourth - Sloan
• Fifth - Jones

Please view the MBESF website for more information about the Foundation and what it provides for our school. 

Keep Mt. Bethel students' thinking caps fully charged, send in your patron card before 10/30/09!

Fall is here!

At least the heavy rains have ended.  It was nice to have two days off, but not fun for trying to catch up.  We were so fortunate to not have any damage like some schools did.  We will be having a clothing drive for good, clean used clothes to donate to those less fortunate.  Details to follow.

Our book that we read after Baby Talk was What is Green?. We reviewed the strategies to problem solve unfamiliar words. I explained that Reading is sometimes like a riddle and we need clues to help us figure out the words.These are looking at the title, cover, pictures, beginning and ending sounds and would it make sense.  If none of the strategies work, then we need to  ask for help.  The children were good at modeling how to pose the question.  We listed things that were green and grouped them into categories..such as fruits, animals, vegetables, etc.   Then we used the words in our writing lesson.  Rhyming was also part of this lesson.  Most of the children can make up rhyming words.  We have fun making up silly ones.  This is a skill that continues throughout the year. Our next book is called Sunflower. Of course, we'll begin by asking what they know about a sunflower and go from there. The lesson here will be summarizing and retelling.  We will discuss in what order events happened, how pictures can help what might happen next, and how stopping awhile to think what I read might help me understand the text. Next, we will talk about what happened and see if we can retell the story.

We made Me books and discussed things we know to write about. We used topics about ourselves, family and next week, friends.  We will model writing a story about staying on one topic.  On Monday, since we have to decorate our room for Fall, we will discuss squirrel facts and read a fun squirrel book.  This will lead us into discussing fiction and non-fiction.  From there we will make up a fiction class squirrel story.  We will choose partners and illustrate it.  Then home to read with our parents. 

Please continue to have your child practice writing the letters.  Most all of the children can already do this, but a few still need practice.  We practice weekly in Lit Centers.  Also, all of the children can write their first names....now work on last names if needed.

Our new hi-frequency words (added to the last list) are was, saw, to, two, and too.  Since our new L.A. program includes a noun lesson, we added zoo, apple, and squirrel.  Next week we will add pumpkin. I am hoping that the children can also read or sound out the am, at, and an family words.  We have been busy working on these and presenting them to the class. 

Our math lessons consist of recognizing and giving the value of a penny, nickel and dime. We do give mental math problems to see who can add money.  Some are quite good.  The number line was introduced to use for adding and taking away.  We also reviewed ordinal numbers. I think almost all of the children has mastered that concept. The main lesson in our workbooks is graphing and using the vocabulary, more, less, fewer and equal.  Part of the lessons also include writing numerals to five correctly.

Next week, we will finish the 5 senses and then discuss rocks.  This is following our standards.  Animals and their babies were also part of the Science lesson this month.  Kudos goes to Sarah Bittner, Josh Zeiontz and Justin Cohen for entering the Science Fair. Way to go.

We tried so hard to learn the continent, country and state, but it is so hard for the little ones.  At least they got the main idea!!!   We will talk about this over and over.  I explained that we say the pledge to the flag to show that we LOVE our country.  With Monday being Columbus Day, we will review that Labor Day is a holiday and so is Columbus Day.  The children like this lesson.

Things to know:  

Picture re-take Day is Wed. 14

Media Center Day is Wed.  Make sure books are returned.

Fireman visit on Friday 16

Report cards sent home.

Early Release Day is Wed. 21

Fall Festival is Friday 30.

We have a cute group picture from the N Ga. Fair and the Science fair.  I could not get them on.  Will try Monday.  Have a great week-end.

Almost Fall!

Rain, rain..go away.  Our children want to play!  Believe it or not, the children are enjoying inside free time.  It also gives us get a good look at social skills. 

Our last shared reading book was Noggin and Bobbin in the Garden. We used the title and images on the cover to predict what might happen in the story. We listed words that we thought might be in the book and found out we were very good.  Most of the words did appear in the story. We discussed how to do a picture walk to preview the book.  Now for the story.  The children enjoyed listening to it and then acting it out.  Our great Walton cadet worked with small groups of children on action words that we found in the book or in magazines.  This was made into a poster to share with the whole class.  A list of fruits and vegetables were made that were in the story.  We added our own to make a long list and used this in our writing lesson.   You can see that we do a lot with one book.

Our next book is Baby Talk. We will review the skills we used with our last book. The main focus of this book will be on asking questions about the book.."What questions do I think of when I look at the cover?"..."Why is it called Baby Talk?"  These and other questions help us predict what the story will be about.

Almost all the children can recognize and copy all of the letters now.  If your child is one that can't, please work on this.  We are beginning to put letters together to make words to use in our journal writing.  The main letter sounds we already worked on are M, T, F and Z. We do know all our long vowel sounds and we will introduce short "a" next week.

Our color books are completed and are being presented to the class.  When your child brings it home, please have them share it with you.  Again, if your child is still having trouble reading the color words, spend time going over them.

Our writing lesson this week is "Ideas for Writing." We brainstormed topics that the children could write about.  We then explained that they could write about things that they like or know a lot about.  This was fun and informative.  We discussed that there are lots of ways to find out how to write words. Good writers use resources such as dictionaries, the word wall and words around the room to find the word they need.  Kid-writing is also encouraged when a word can not be found.  Our hi-frequency words so far are:  I, a, is, it, in, if, see, like, can, my and goes(next).

Patterning is coming along.  We worked on AB, AAB, ABB, and AABB.  Most of the children caught on quickly.  We will culminate this with our own patterning book to see if we really understand the concept.

Coin recognition is presented during calender time. So far we focused on the penny and nickel and fair trades using those coins.

We finally finished the numeral writing and the books should of arrived home.  You can see by the booklet what your child needs to practice.  It is common for backward numerals, but we need to learn to write them correctly.

The children had a lot of fun predicting what will float or sink.  We got many correct, but some objects amazed us. How does a huge boat float anyway?

Our Social Studies lesson is a very important one.  We will begin by drawing our house and putting it in the correct neighborhood. We will attempt to lay out our community.  We will then go from Marietta to Georgia to the United States to North America and finally the planet Earth.  Whew!  Is this kindergarten?  Our science table includes Georgia items and facts.  This is a good visual clue for them to relate to.  (cotton, peanuts, pine cones, peaches, flag, Coca Cola, and pictures from a Georgia fact book).   A booklet will be made and your child's address needs to be written in it.  This is when your child needs to tell us their address

Dates and important reminders

*Second Trained Parent Volunteer opportunity  Sept.25 at 9:30

*Mrs. Cikovic...Mystery Reader   Set. 25 at 8:00

* Center helpers for Sept.29, Oct. 2 and 3 are (in order)  Purcell, Cohen and Hudson at 10:00

*N. Ga. Fair field trip on Sept. 30...no snack needed that day.  We will be back in time for lunch.   We will bring hand sanitizer!. Wear comfy clothes and tenners

* Germbusters from WellStar is coming on Oct. 5.  Good timing!

*Apple due next Monday..detailed note to follow.

Wow was that fun!

September News

Tomorrow is the big Boosterthon Fun Run.  Please have your child wear some comfortable shoes to run around the track.  T-shirts will be given to each and every child. All parents are invited to attend. Kindergarten will be running from 9:15-10:20. Thank you for your support.

The menu in the Bugle is incorrect.  Judy printed one off the Cobb County School web site and sent it home today.  This is something that is available to all of you.  The address is www.cobbk12.org.

Night in the Parking Lot picnic is this Friday from 6-8p.m.  If you are in town, it is a lot of fun and is always a great way to meet parents and children in the classroom.  I will be going to Pittsburgh and will not be able to attend. :(

I noticed there were a lot of PTA e-minders today.  If you do not receive these e-mails and would like to, register on the Mt. Bethel blog.

Thanks also for the dry erase markers for Powers Ferry School.

I can't believe this is only day 17.  I feel like we have been a family for a long time.  Everyone is adjusting and the routines are in place.  We also got a new student.  Now we have Josh, Joshua H. and Joshua P.  Joshua Purcell comes to us from Eastside Christian and we are so happy to have him in our class.

Today was our first day of Lit Centers. It went smoothly.We did some handwriting, started a color book and worked o n rhyming and some of us did Guided Reading. One day this week your child will be bringing a book home in a plastic bag with a colored dot and the child's name written on it.  Please listen to your child read the book.  Sometimes there is homework. If so, please return it along with the book in the bag.  This needs to be returned by the next Monday.  At times, the books seem easy to read.  However, we discuss characters, settings, predictions, etc.  The books get progressivly harder.

Math is done daily.  We continue to write our numerals correctly...we are up to 5.  Today we graphed and worked on fair trades with pennies and nickels.  Our discussion included the differences and how the coins were alike.  Most of the children are able to match the correct numeral with the same number of objects.  Patterning is our next unit, along with daily oral math questions.

Hopefully, all of you received the schedule and welcome letter from the home room moms.  The directory will be in place soon. Thank you Mrs. Davenport and Mrs. Lloyd.

 

August Updates

 

Don't we make fine buccaneers?

We have been working so hard!  We all need the week end to get refreshed.

Language Arts

The first lesson in our new L.A. series was about shapes.  We integrated the unit with our Math series.  Our discussions included the importance of reading and writing.  Mrs. Vedopia, our secretary visited us and explained when and why she had to write.  The children enjoyed listening to her.  Journal writing included drawing and writing our favorite things.  The children also cut out a magazine picture about something that meant a lot to them and wrote what it was.

We used the Smartboard to do sorting shapes by color and shape. Then we cut, and glued our shapes in our workbook to make a graph.

We ended our lesson by discussing how to care for books and why we need to put them away where they belong.  This lead up to our first library visit, which will be on Monday.  Please go over the book with your child and then return it.  We will go the Media Center twice a week.

Our next Big Book lesson is Today is Monday.  The emphasis will be on rhyming. At and an families will be the phonograms.  We will work on how to take words apart(onset and syllables), one-to-one word correspondence retelling the story in a sequence. 

Math

Our math not only consisted of shapes, we also did some counting, numeral writing, patterning and graphing. 

Manipulatives were used to match correct amount of objects to the numerals.

The penny was introduced on the five frame and a fair trade was made with a nichel.

Social Studies and Science

Our first nine weeks will include maps and globe reading.  We will further this by talking about where we live....the Earth, North America, Georgia, Marietta and each individual address.  Please review the addresses with your child.

Labor Day and community helpers will also be a part of the S.S. unit.

Science topics will be animals and senses the first nine weeks.  These will be on-going lessons throughout the year.

Volunteers

Our room moms, Mrs. Lloyd and Mrs. Davenport will be getting in touch with you soon concerning Mystery Readers and Center Helpers.  We would like our Mystery Readers to come at 8:00 on Friday morning.  Please bring a few books with you to share with the class.  Mrs. Cohen will be receipting the monies and also volunteered to be our Foundation Representative.

Extras

The children already had an opportunity to go to Drama and Computer Lab is next Wednesday.

Kid of the Week will also begin soon.  Information will come home with your child when it is your child's turn.

DON"T FORGET PICTURE DAY!  It is on Wed. the 25th.

Last...The BOOSTERTHON will begin next week. We will have a Pep Rally on Monday. This is taking the place of the Sally Foster Gift Wrap fundraiser.  Our lunch will be at 11:24 on Monday in case you were planning to have lunch with your child.

Have a great weekend and we will be ready for the children on Monday!

Hello

Off we go!  We can't wait to begin a new school year with all new smiling faces.  It was great to meet all of the children and parents last night.  Hopefully we covered enough information to get the year started.  Your child is now an official Mt. Bethel Buccaneer.

The next few weeks will consist of learning the rules and routines, making new friends and feeling comfortable in the new surroundings. 

* We will practice writing our names in our new Zaner Bloser Handwriting. (copy in folder)

*Color words will be introduced.

*Letter recognition will be reviewed. Please work with this at home if needed.

*The Shared Reading book will be our introduction to shapes.  This lesson will consist of plane and solid shapes.

*Math lessons will also include AB patterning and positional words, along with number writing.

* Labor Day and Community Helpers are the topics for Social Studies.

Happy Birthday to: Abbey Lloyd...August 6, Quinn Hudson...August 10, William Cikovic...August 12 and Joshua Hall...August 14.  We will celebrate un-birthdays during the school year.

First day of school is Monday, August 10.

Picture Day for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd is changed to August 25.

Welcome Coffee for Kindergarten and new parents is 9:30 AM on August 21 in the Media Center.

 

 SEE YOU ON MONDAY!!