123 KinderStreet

We just want to thank the many chaperones who volunteered for the zoo trip yesterday. The weather was PERFECT for walking around the zoo, and the kids had the best time.

Our next (and final) field trip will be our Kindergarten Celebration in the Park, which will happen on Monday, June 14 from 9:30-12:30. Please come if you can! Afterwards, we will pass out certificates, say a poem, and celebrate this momentous time in your child's life. Please send a bag lunch with your child on Monday.

Our homework is done for the year (yay!!!). As the students begin their break from formal studies, please continue to provide fun learning activities every day, such as journal writing, daily read-alouds, and fun family field trips to museums. Work on math skills at the ice cream truck or the poolside vending machine. Find opportunities for your child to read and write every day so that they will be ready to begin first grade in August.

Kindergarten will be very busy for the next few weeks! Here are a few highlights. For a complete listing of activities and important dates, be sure to click on the Kindergarten Calendar link to your right.

*Last week of homework is this week. Please be sure to work with your child and let them show what they have learned.

*Field Day--this Friday, June 4th. Students have been assigned to color teams. Be sure to dress your child in their team's colors. Another reminder will come home on Thursday.

*Zoo Trip--Tuesday, June 8th. Send a lunch in a disposable bag, so your child won't have to carry a lunch box around all day.

*Celebration in the Park for Kindergarten--June 14th. We would like parents to attend. Look for an invitation to come home this week.

One final note: Angel the Traveling Bear is lost! We sent home a flyer last week about the yellow sharing backpack that goes home with the Star of the Week each Friday. One of the students took it home over a month ago, and never returned it to class. Please have a look around your home and car for it, and return it to school if you find it. These items were purchased by Mrs. Jenkins, and she would like to use them again next school year.

That's all for now! Please watch and enjoy our latest videos below of the farm field trip, and a montage of Mother's Day cards (coming soon) made just for you.

Have a great week!
Mrs. C and Mrs. J

Some important reminders and upcoming dates:

• Orders for the Kindergarten Yearbook for our class will be placed by Mrs. Jenkins tomorrow for $15.99 each. Please send in your check or cash tomorrow morning if you want to order one at the sale price. After Thursday, April 29, the price will go up to $19.99.
• The farm field trip is coming up on Tuesday, May 4. Most have turned in permission slips and money, but not all. Please send in both tomorrow if you have not already done so, and feel free to call us if you have any questions.
• The K-Team is planning two final field trips for the year that will be coming very soon. We will go to the National Zoo later in May. This is a HUGE trip...lots of fun, but lots of supervision is needed and we could use as many fingerprinted chaperones as possible. Watch for the permission slip to come home soon. Also, we will have a Celebration in the Park to congratulate our awesome students for completing their first year of school. We will be inviting all parents to walk with us to High Bridge Park and enjoy the day. Mor info coming soon.
• Pastries for Parents is coming on the morning of May 10th. You will enjoy delicious pastries, adorable singing by the kindergarteners, and special time in the classroom with your child. Please put it on your calendar...we would love to have you!

We are excited to be creating a yearbook for our class, and hope that you would consider ordering one to commemorate your child's first year in elementary school. An order form came home with your child today with more information. If you would like to purchase one, please send in your money by April 29th for the discounted price.


Also, we have just started a new unit in math on addition. Students will use manipulatives, worksheets, and their own fingers to practice adding. Please support this unit at home by encouraging your child to add up simple household items.


Finally, you may be interested in taking your child to "Maryland Day...Explore Our World" on this Saturay, April 24th at the University of Maryland at College Park. There is so much to do there, including hands-on math and science activities, exhibits, live performances and much more. To learn more, click on the link above. I will be taking my boys to Maryland Day, and I hope to see you there too!

This first week of Spring, we will be doing a variety of special activities to celebrate the new season! We have been learning about the winds of March, and will create items that can catch the wind. In science we will experiment more with the forces of push and pull.

Two very special events will occur on Thursday (which is the last day of school for students before Spring Break). The first is the K-Team's first-ever Spring-Fling Fruit Fair. Three of the K classes will rotate between rooms and do fun learning activites with unusual fruits. If you are available to help out with this event, please contact us as soon as you can. Also on Thursday, Mrs. C is planning a Lunch Bunch Easter Egg Hunt for those students who stayed on green behavior for the month of March.

Our class has submitted an entry to our school science fair, which will be held today. If you get a chance, stop by the school to see our information board. If you cannot make it, just have a look at this video:

What will happen when you put Mentos candies into various liquids?

As Spring comes on the scene, we wave a fond farewell to the beautiful blizzards of 2010.

First off, a note from Mrs. J:

Earlier in the year, I sent home a letter telling you about the STEP podcasting course that I and several other High Bridge teachers are taking, and my assignment to create and share a podcast. Well, I have just completed the first episode of my first podcast, and it should be of great interest to you. "Demystifying Reading Instruction" is a podcast geared towards helping parents and others to teach their young child to read. At the top of this page (just above this paragraph) you will see a small player for Episode 1-Phonemic Awareness. When you can, please take a listen. I hope the show will be interesting as well as instructive. Thanks for all of your support, and stay tuned for more episodes!

We want to give props to our Hamburger reading group for doing a fantastic job last week on their play performance. They have been working on reading fluency (or using their "reading voice"). Each of the four students were given a part in the play and a short script. They were able practice independently and cooperatively for several days, and then they fluently read their parts in front of their classmates. Keep up the super reading, Hamburgers!

Our latest class movie is now out! Several weeks ago, we celebrated the 100th day of school. There were plenty of math and language arts activities centered around the number 100, and a delicious pizza party. Watch the video below to see some of the activities. The video is also up on our Video page of the site. Have a great week!

Well, we have had plenty of lion weather this year! In Circle Time, we learned this phrase and the kids tried to figure out the meaning of that phrase.


In science, our class will be preparing an invention to display at our school science fair. The students will collaborate with Mrs. C to come  up with something great! Stay tuned for more info on that.

If you have older students who attend public schools in Maryland, you know that the Maryland State Assessment (or MSA's) are coming up soon. At High Bridge, 3rd through 5th graders will be involved in testing for the next several weeks. The MSA's are hugely important tests, and classes have been gearing up for this for months. Well, when I came across this cute video, I couldn't pass up sharing it with you! This is a video of students at Forest Heights Elementary (located in our county) encouraging test-takers to do their best on MSA's. If you have older students (or know someone who does), please check out this video and pass it along. Enjoy!

Mrs. C's science class has been exploding with a whirlwind of fun science experiments in the past few weeks! Come take a look at what they have learned.

During our weather unit, the students learned about storms and tornados. They brought in empty liter bottles for the grand experiment of creating tornados in a bottle. The kids added colored water and glitter to their bottles to highlight the swirling funnel clouds.

To see the video of our tornado experiment, just click on the link above or follow the fun stuff link to the right. You can also discover more information about tornados at Scholastic's website.


Here is Miss Veronica once again! She will help the kids review what they know about solids, liquids and gases. The video can also be found over at the Video Shorts section of our classroom website.


Have a great week everyone!

Hooray! We have two new class movies to share with you this week. The first is called "The Mystery Stocking", a tale of drama and intrigue in which the kids try to figure out just what is in that stocking.

Also, be sure to check out "Rules". In this movie, the kids rap about rules and give us an inside look at rules in their homes.  You can find these movies and many more by following the Fun Stuff link to your right, or just click here.

Well, that's all for this week. So...

Our Rainbow Wall is filling up with excellent behavior! So far this school year, the students have completed over 40 rainbows by showing excellent behavior in class. A permission slip came home today in your child's blue folder regarding a pizza party we are having on Friday. Please fill it out today and return it tomorrow so that we can plan our Rainbow Wall party.

Also, here is a link to the Winter Packet for Kindergarten. This is required homework for students to complete over the winter break. Please follow the link, print out the booklets, and have your child complete and return the work in January when we return. We will send reminders about the Winter Packets as the holidays get closer.

Thanks, and have a fantastic week,

We would like to remind you of some upcoming Fall activities that are taking place next week, and we welcome you to come participate if you can.


First up is our Nature Walk field trip to High Bridge Park on Tuesday, October 27 at 10:00. Just like the nature walks you have been taking at home, we will look for and discuss various autumn changes at the park. The kids will eat lunch and have some time to play as well before we head back to school. Several of you indicated on the permission slip that you would like to chaperone. Please make sure you have submitted your fingerprinting receipt to the front office if you plan on chaperoning.


On Thursday, October 29 at 12:30, we will have our Storybook Parade. Students will dress up just like the characters from their book reports and parade all around the school grounds. A book report form and explanation letter were sent home recently. Please be sure to help your child complete this, as it will count for a grade. Dressing up for the parade is optional. If you can, please come out to march with us, and bring your cameras!


After the parade we will have a class party with food, music, and dancing to some of our favorite Kindergarten tunes. Our Room Mom, Mrs. Calloway, is coordinating the snacks for us, so please contact her if you would like to contribute or help out in any way.


As we know, cold/allergy/flu season has hit us, and many of our students have been out sick with various illness. We just want to remind you to please keep your child at home if they have fever, rash ,vomiting or diarrhea and are fever-free for 24 hours. Also, children are NOT allowed to bring medications to school in their backpacks. If you need your child to have medicine administered to them during school hours, you must get a form from the nurse and deliver the medicine directly to her yourself . Teachers can not administer medicine. Thank you for your cooperation.


We hope you and your child are enjoying the activities on the Fun Stuff page. We will be uploading more PowerPoints, class books and movies very soon, so stay tuned!

Q:Think back to when you were a little child. Who was your first teacher?
A: Your parents!

Parents are a child's first teacher, and we know that parental involvement is the key to academic growth and learning. So with that in mind, we are beginning to put a variety of things your child's blue folder that encourage home learning.  Last week, a supplemental packet of work came home. We will sometimes send these home with students just to provide some extra reinforcement of concepts we learned in class. This supplemental work is not for a grade, but if you could find the time to use them for home learning, they will greatly help your child.

Another packet you will see today is an article with fun activities that will  help your child learn to read. Each Monday, another article from the series will come home. As we come across other interesting reads, we will share them with you as well.

We are also sending home a list of sight words that we are working on in class. You can create flash cards with the words and use them in fun games, such as Concentration, Bingo, Crazy Eights, or Go Fish. When your child masters all the words on the Kindergarten list, we'll send home a new list that you can work on.


Hot Links
Mrs. C and I have discovered a great website called Crawford the Cat. It has free videos, books and activities that teach about health. We watched the handwashing video in class as a health lesson. Check it out!



Have a great week!
Mrs. J & Mrs. C

This week in Kindergarten, we will be reviewing position words in math, such as under, over, left and right. You probably noticed your child's right hand has a flower stamp on it. We will be doing activities all week to help the kids distinguish right and left.



In language arts, we began Story Journals and Poetry Journals today. Each Monday, a new poem will be introduced. The students will memorize the poems, learn about rhyme, and do guided activities with the poems. On Thursdays, the students will add their poem to their Poetry Journal. Journals will come home for sharing periodically.



Kindergarten readiness assessments, as well as informal assessments, will begin this week. We want to see what your child knows in the areas of reading readiness, letter recognition, writing and number skills.

Science lessons have been quite tasty this past week! The kids got to smell, taste, and listen to a variety of objects and sounds while learning about the five senses. For fun, try to concoct your own taste test at home with the flavors salty, bitter, sweet and sour.

Other new things that are starting this week are daily behavior chart (filled in by your child; reviewed and signed by you each evening), class helpers, Star of the Week, and the rainbow wall (ask your child about it!)

• Fill out and return all emergency cards and forms that were sent home last week. If you need another set, please let us know.
• Remember to place your child's lunch money in a labeled baggie or envelope. Loose bills or change tend to get lost or shared.
• Send a change of clothes for your child in a labeled baggie in case of spills, illness, or accident
• Be sure to check the calendar on a regular basis. Lots of great activities are coming up in the next few weeks. Just click the link to the right to access it.

Have a fantastic week!

Mrs. J & Mrs. C

We had a fabulous first day of school today! There were lots of smiles, some nervousness, and a few tears at the start, but we got throught the day and had fun. We hope each of you got to celebrate this beautiful milestone in your child's life.

Today we focused on learning some of the rules and routines for school, such as how to line up and walk in the hallway, cafeteria protocol and schedules. We sang the Good Morning Song, Barnacle Bill, I'm Going To School Today, and the Rules Rap. We also toured the classroom, and the students had the opportunity to try out the Art Center. Ask your child what their favorite part of school was, as well as their favorite song we sang today.

Each child received a blue folder today. This will be our communication folder for the year. Please be sure to check and empty the folder each evening, and have your child return it every morning.

One other folder was sent home today as well which contained a variety of information forms. Please take the time to fill them all out accurately and return them by next week. These forms give us valuable information about your child.

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more!

Mrs Concepcion & Mrs. Jenkins