Holiday Reminders

• There will be no homework or new word lists this week!


• We will be out of school from Thursday, December 20th- Tuesday, January 1st. We will return to school on Wednesday, January 2nd. Enjoy your Christmas Break!

• Tomorrow (Tuesday) we will have the Christmas Program in the morning at 9:00 a.m. We will also have the Christmas Ball in the afternoon. Many students are choosing to dress in semi-formal clothing for tomorrow (clothing appropriate for church).

• On Wednesday we will be having our Polar Express Fun Day. Your child should wear his/her pajamas to school on this day. We will also have our Christmas Party beginning at 12:30 p.m. this day. If you have signed up to volunteer or send in treats please bring them or arrive by 12:15 p.m.

• Each child needs to bring in a classroom gift that is no more than $5.00 for our Christmas Party. Boys will bring in boy gifts, and girls will bring in girl gifts. Please let me know by Tuesday if you need assistance in obtaining a gift.

Great Resource!

www.abcya.com is a great resource for students of all ages!  Every game and activity has been inspired and created by a teacher. Check it out!  

The Family Tree Project

In our classroom we are discussing our school family and our home families. Home families are the people who care for us and keep us safe at home. Our school family is the people who care for us and keep us safe at school.

In order to share more about our home families we ask that each child complete a Family Tree and return by Friday (November 16th).

Family Tree templates have been sent home.  If you need any additional copies please contact me at Melissa.Bazzell@Graves.kyschools.us.

  Thank you for your cooperation!

Career Day!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is Career Day!  Please encourage your child to come dressed up like his/her favorite community helper.  We will be celebrating our community all day long and meet some special guests that help us.  Pictures will be posted soon:)

Words All Around Me

In reading groups next week we will be focusing on environmental print.  Please take a few minutes to read this book with your child.  I'll bet you will be surprised by how many words and symbols in which he or she is already familiar.  In order to help us with our unit of study please send in food and toy labels.  Thank you for your cooperation!

Benefit Tractor & Truck Pull

Saturday, August 18th @ 7:00 p.m. there will be a Benefit Tractor & Truck Pull at the Mayfield Fairgrounds.  All proceeds go to provide Christmas assistance to students in all our local schools.  Cuba Elementary will also be sponsoring a concession stand during the event.  Money raised at the concessions will benefit our school as well as provide a college scholarship in memory of Principal Jill McClain.  Please make an effort to attend--we hope to see you there!

Reading Groups and Sight Words

We are off to a great start with our Reading Groups this week!  Thank you so much for reading with your child each night and signing and returning their Reading Kits each day.  The kids are already making progress with letter sounds and sight words.  This week and next week we will focus on the words "I" and "am".  This video is great for helping your child memorize the word "I" and to learn to track print.  I look forward to continuing to help your child learn:)

Writing in Kindergarten

One of the things that we have started working on this week is learning how to write our names.  This skill is crucial in Kindergarten and we aim to master it the first month of school.  Many children come into school able to write some letters, but they are mostly uppercase letters.  We stress the importance of writing our names grammatically correct from the beginning (with an uppercase letter as the first letter and lowercase letters for the remaining letters).  Please help your child work on printing his/her name at home.  Click here to create and print customized tracer pages with your child's name.

Alphardy

This is a great song to help with letter and sound recognition!

School Spirit Fridays

Each Friday will be School Spirit Day.  The students are encouraged to wear their new Cuba shirts on this day.  This Friday (August 10th) we will have our picture made as a school in the gym wearing our tshirts.  Please let me know if you need any additional info--thanks for showing your Cuba Pride:)

First Day!

We had an excellent first day of school.  We spent the day discussing our families, going over classroom rules, and learning all about the weekly routines that will take place.  We went on a tour through the school, got to meet Ya-Ya, and even earned "Cub Coins" by cleaning up the room faster than the timer. 

Thank you to all of the family members who came and ate at our "BooHoo Breakfast" this morning.  It was a great kickoff for the year.  We appreciate all the school supply donations and the volunteer sign-ups.  We are looking forward to a wonderful year filled with growing, learning and fun! 

Please make sure to return all completed school forms by Wednesday of this week.  If you have any questions please contact me @ Melissa.Bazzell@Graves.kyschools.us 

Family Volunteers

We would greatly appreciate family volunteers for our reading program this year.  We will begin our "Reading Buddies" program in September.  Please start spreading the word about this wonderful program and recruit as many volunteers as possible.  The more volunteers we have the more the students get the opportunity to read with an adult 1-on-1.  These oral reading opportunities greatly improve reading fluency. Please let me know if you or a loved one will be able to assist this year.  Thank you! 

The Kindergarten Song

Please share this song with your child!  It is a great introduction to Kindergarten and some daily activities that your child will experience. After viewing the video draw pictures about what your child finds the most exciting about beginning Kindergarten.  I would love to post the pictures in the classroom for all the students to view--so if your comfortable please bring them in during our Kindergarten Kickoff:)

 

Dealing with Anxiety About Starting School

Some children can feel apprehensive and a little bit nervous about starting school. Try reading some books about kindergarten to ease their fears. The following books can be checked out at the local library.

Carlson, Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come!
Choldenko Louder, Lili,Davis, Kindergarten Rocks!
Delton, My Mom Made Me Go to School
Henkes, Wemberly Worried
Keller, Harry and Tuck
Kunhardt, Red Day, Green Day
Lyon, The Pirate of Kindergarten
Martin, Rachel Parker, Kindergarten Show-Off
McGhee, Countdown to Kindergarten
Rockwell, Welcome to Kindergarten
Penn, The Kissing Hand
Portis, Kindergarten Diary
Slate, Miss Bindergarten series
Vernick, Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten?
Weiss, Hank and Oogie
Yolen, How Do Dinosaurs Go to School?

Creating a countdown calendar for special events (Kindergarten Kickoff, Open House, First Day, etc.) can help give your child a visual representation for time.  For a step by step tutorial on how to involve your child with the calendar making process--click here.

Kindergarten BooHoo Breakfast

Parents and family members are invited to attend a BooHoo Breakfast on the first day of school (Monday, August 6th).  The breakfast will take place at 8:00 am that morning.  The Family Resource Center will be paying for family breakfasts on this day.  Help send your child off on the right foot!

Kindergarten Kickoff and Open House

Kindergarten Kickoff will be Monday, July 30th at 6:00 p.m.  We will meet in the gym first and then tour the school after a general information session.  You may bring school supplies at this time, however, it is not required. 

Open House will be on Wednesday, August 1st from 3:00-5:00 p.m. Please come by anytime during those two hours and bounce on the inflatables, eat ice cream, get a free haircut, and meet all of the staff at Cuba! I will also be available to answer any questions that you may have regarding this year or to clarify any information that was given at Kindergarten Kickoff. If you have any questions beforehand you may e-mail me @ Melissa.Bazzell@Graves.kyschools.us. I'm looking forward to a wonderful year!

Lennie the Leprechaun

Today was a fun-filled day chasing Lennie the Leprechaun. Lennie visited the classroom today and left us clues that lead to a Treasure Hunt. We received magic gray powder that transformed into green pudding. He left us notes in the classroom and even asked us to graph Lucky Charms (his favorite food). Several of the children brought in Leprechaun traps today (pictured) to catch Lennie--but he was just too sneaky. Have a happy St. Patrick's Day!

Homework Highlights

Next week we will be starting Week 18 in our Systematic Sight Word Instruction. Week 18 is a review week so there will be no new Spelling or Sight Words for next week. We will be reviewing the 107 sight words that we have covered so far. I will be sending home a list of all the review words next Tuesday. It is very important that each child knows as many of these words as possible. We will be covering an additional 60-80 words before the end of the year. To make sight word instruction and spelling more fun for you and your child you may want to try some of the ideas listed below. Thank you so much for all of your hard work at home. The spelling tests are improving each week and this class is reading wonderfully!

Jump on It!
Copy sight words on index cards (one per card). Make a second set of the same words. Scatter one set faceup on the floow, leaving a bout a foot between each card. Place the other set in a stack facedown. Turn over the first card in the stack. Have your child read the word and then jump on the corresponding card on the floor. Turn over the next card and have your child read it or spell it and then jump to that word. Continue until your child has jumped on all of the words. Mix up the cards and play again!

Read My Back!
"Write" a sight word on your child's back. Can your child guess the word? Trade places--let your child trace a word from the list on your back. Continue taking turns tracing and guessing sight words.

Spill a Sight Word
Copy sight words onto small cards. (You can cut index cards in quarters or cut sturdy paper into pieces.) Place the word cards in an empty container, such as a tall plastic tumbler or an empty tennis ball can (Pringles cans work great too). Invite your child to shake the container, spill out the words, and read the ones that fall faceup. Give each word your child reads a score that is equal to the number of letters in the word. Record the total, then place the remaining words back in the can and shake and spill again. Add the total to the first score. Play until your child has spilled and read all of the words.

Sing a Song of Sight Words
Practice sight words by singing them to a familiar tune or making up your own. If you run out of words before you get to the end of the song, just start at the top of the list again. Some songs to try include "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."

Cuba's Got Talent!

Join us for the PTO Talent Show and Spaghetti Supper on Thursday, March 22nd. The Spaghetti Supper will be from 5:30-6:00 pm with the Talent Show following from 6:00-7:00 pm. Please invite your family and friends! The proceeds will benefit the Cuba 6th Grade Field Trip. All tickets must be purchased in advance--there will be no tickets sold at the door. Ticket order forms will be sent home in your child's daily folder. If more forms are required please contact me by phone (270.328.4810) or e-mail (Melissa.Bazzell@Graves.kyschools.us) before March 19th. Admission tickets will be sent home when order and money is received.

Reading Celebration

Tuesday, March 13th is our Family Reading Celebration night. We will be meeting in the gym from 5:30-6:30 to listen to special guests read their favorite children's books. There will also be a time to buy books and educational materials from our Book Fair in the library. Please come and support our school and your child's love for reading! We look forward to seeing you here:)

Dr. Seuss Celebration!

In honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday we will be having a week-long celebration next week!

*Mixed up Monday-wear mismatched clothing.
*Top Hat Tuesday-wear a hat
*Wacky Wednesday-wear silly socks
*Theodore Thursday- wear crazy hair
*Funny Food Friday- wear PJs and eat Green Eggs and Ham

Thank you for helping reading come to life!

Mrs. Melissa's Top 5 App Picks

Smartphones, tablets, and iPads make learning on the go even easier and more fun. There are so many different apps available to purchase--sometimes it is difficult to know which ones are the best. These are my Top 5 App Picks:
-LAZ Leveled Readers by Language Technologies ($6.99)
-Math BINGO by ABCya.com ($0.99)
-Teach Me: Kindergarten by 24x7digital, LLC ($0.99) (First Grade and Second Grade Editions are also available)
-My Spelling Test by Funflip Studios ($0.99)
-Super Why! by PBS KIDS ($2.99)

There are so many more apps that I love--for more suggestions contact me anytime:)

Dr. Seuss

We will be discussing Dr. Seuss the next couple of weeks. If you have any Dr. Seuss books that we can borrow until March 2nd, please send them in with your child next week. Make sure that your child's name is written on the inside cover of the book to ensure that the book is correctly returned to rightful owner. You may want to visit a great, interactive website that features Dr. Seuss and his creative characters. The site is http://www.seussville.com/. Happy Reading:)

Spelling City

This Friday (02/03/12) we will be having our first Spelling Test. The Spelling Test will cover List 13 sight words. These words were sent home at the beginning of the week in your child's daily folder. Studying for spelling tests can be a tedious task so we have decided to implement SpellingCity.com to help with this task. You can use SpellingCity.com at home too! Just go to the website (www.spellingcity.com) and click on the tab that says "Find a List." Type in my name (Melissa Bazzell) and all the current spelling lists will pop up. I have added a few practice lists of words in which your child is already familiar. I have also added "List 13" which is the list we will be testing on Friday. There are several lessons and games for you and your child to enjoy together. There is no fee to use this site and no login required--Enjoy:)

100th Day of School

Friday (January 20th) will be the 100th day of school. We will be celebrating the number 100 all day through various activities. We will be doing 100 things, saying 100 things, writing 100 things, reading about 100 things, counting 100 things, eating 100 things, etc.

Please help us celebrate the 100th day of school by encouraging your child to create a 100th Day Collection. Some ideas for 100th Day Collections are: cereal (cheerios/fruit loops), pennies, beads, candy, mini-marshmallows, rubber bands, paper clips, erasers, beans, stickers, marbles, cotton balls, etc. Please make sure that one of each item can fit into a one inch square on a Hundred Chart. These 100 items need to be put into a gallon sized Ziploc bag and labeled with your child’s name. We will be displaying our 100 items on a bulletin board in the hallway after we have counted and shared the collections with the class.

Additionally, we need snacks donated for our 100th Day Snack. There will be 10 different types of snacks—the students will count out 10 pieces from the 10 different snacks to total 100 snack pieces. If you can donate any of the snacks listed below please send them in with your child by Thursday. The following snacks will be used (both name brand and generic): mini-marshmallows, M&M’s, raisins, Chex, Cocoa Puffs, Golden Grahams, bagged popcorn, white chocolate chips, chocolate chips, pretzels.

As always if you have any questions please call me at the school or e-mail me @ Melissa.Bazzell@Graves.kyschools.us Thank you for your cooperation!

Mrs. Melissa