Jessiah turned 6 years old today!

Today was Jessiah's Birthday! He was the first to have a Birthday Crown and pick a present from the Birthday Box! Jessiah's Mom came in and helped with snack. She brought a peanut free birthday snack to celebrate Jessiah's special day. She stayed and read a book to the class.

Happy Birthday Jessiah!

Today we practiced writing the letter "Mm". We used the sidewalk in front of Shirley Hills and chalk! Look at some of the students work:

Here's Mackenzie's:

Here's Luke's:

Here's Robert's:

This week:

Sight Word for the Week: I

Letters of the Week: Mm and Ss

This will be a full week of Kindergarten! Monday morning we start off with our first Character Assembly. Mrs. Swanson is ready to ROCK! Our theme this year is "Learn Like a Rock Star and Teach Like a Rock Star! It will be a lively assembly.

Our first Theme is called "All About Me". We will be focusing on the letters Mm and Ss in handwriting and reading our first sight word, I.

Our vocabulary words are: ability, talent, confident, complained, encourage and reverse.

In math we will be reviewing shapes, directional words and sorting objects by color, size and kind.

This weeks Star of the Week is ******** Ms. Rasicot ********!

I am finishing up my "All About Me Tee" poster this weekend and I will bring one special thing into class everyday! Everyone will learn a little bit more about me and things I like to do.

Today was another great day! We sang some songs, read the book, "The Kissing Hand", talked about what I expect from students, what they expect from me and what they expect from their parents. Take a look at our lists:


We also learned about bus safety. Ask your child what they learned! We finished sharing our special things with everyone too.

I caught Robert, Jasmin, Gavin and Luke in the act of doing something fabulous! Ask them what they did. They all will receive purple slips!

Class of 2023

I had a wonderful ride up to Duluth with my daughter. We moved all her things into her dorm room and she is so organized. It was hard for me to say goodbye, but she will have a fabulous year at UMD and we will have a fantastic year at Shirley Hills!

Wow! I had a great time at the Open House! It was great meeting everyone that came! Don't worry if you couldn't make it tonight. I will have information at your son or daughter's conference on Tuesday or Wednesday next week. See you all then! I am off early tomorrow to take my daughter to college! Have a great Labor Day weekend! See you all soon!

Great News!  Our class got a Smartboard!!!!!  I have been spending a lot of time learning how to use it!  The students are very excited and have started using it in this weeks centers!  

In Math, the students measured things in our classroom with nonstandard measuring tools. The students worked in pairs. One student measured and the other student recorded the data. Then they switched.

We have been reading and using are new sight words "little" and "give" this week. The students have been writing sentences.

In the Writing Center the students read the sentence:

Give a little to the ________.

And then finish it with a word they sound out and then write.

Maxx wrote: Give a little to the Pokemon.

Laniah wrote: Give a little to the pony.

The students are writing great sentences. We have been working on starting our sentences with a capital letter, spacing out the words in the sentence and ending the sentence with a punctuation mark.

We are working on words ending in -ut, un and up.

In the Art Center the students have started their own ABC Books! They look absolutely beautiful and colorful!

In Math the students started measuring everything in the classroom. They are having so much fun finding out how to measure!

We will be finishing our neighborhood this week in Social Studies!

Laniah started off the week as Star of the Week by showing the class pictures of her family. She also brought in the tooth she lost this weekend!

Laniah's mother made her a great shirt to celebrate her being Star of the Week. Laniah's shirt says, "Laniah is the * of the week! In Mrs. Rasicot's Class!

Today, we celebrated Earth Day. The class wrote friendly letters to the Earth, thanking them for the flowers, trees, air and many other things. We painted the Earth and the class pledged to try and recycle more and make the Earth beautiful by planting flower seeds.

This week we will be starting a new theme in Language Arts. Theme 9 is Animals All Around!.

We will be learning the short vowel "Uu".

We will be reading our decodeable books: "Yum, Yum, Yum" and "Is It The Bus".

The students will be reading "Whose House" and "Red-Eyed Tree Frog". In these books the students will learn about animals and their homes.

Our sight words are: and & there

Please practice the sight words with your child at home. It is so much fun to hear them read the words in our small group reading center! The more your practice the better your child will be!

Our vocabulary words are: hollow, scurry, watchful, cling, defend and ravenous. It is so fun to hear the student sound out these words and then use context clues from the stories to figure out what they mean!

We will continue building our neighborhood in Social Studies. And in Math we will move on to Measurement. We will still check the clock during school to see what time it is!

Earth Day is Thursday, April 22nd. I have something fun planned for our class!

Maxx shared something that was special to him to the class!

This week is a review week in Language Arts. We will be reviewing the sight words are, they, we, she, and good. Practice at home with your flashcards! Last week Owen earned his Sight Word Medallion. He read every sight word to the class! Way to go, Owen!

Today the class learned about the letters Yy and Zz. The class used their April Journals and practiced the letters and then wrote Yy and Zz words. Please practice writing all the letters with your child. Ask them where they should start (at the sky) for UPPER CASE LETTERS and where they should start (at the fence) for lower case letters.

Check you child's backpack for their spring pictures!

Also, thank you to those of you who have donated baking items to our Classroom Baking Basket! Please feel free to continue donating things to our Classroom Basket that will be auctioned off at the Carnival on April 24th!

We will be working on our classroom neighborhood in Social Studies and will be starting Measurement in Math.

Today it was Anida's birthday! She turned 6 years old today, April 9th! Happy Birthday Anida! Anida's Mom brought in cupcakes for the class! Thank you!

It was Tony's birthday on Thursday, April 8th. Wow! Did we have treats! Tony's Great Grandmother brought in cookies and Ebenezer and Gertrude brought in cupcakes and juice boxes! Happy Birthday Tony! Here is Tony's sister, Sabrina, Ebenezer and the birthday boy, Tony!

Grace's grandparents came to visit today! Grace introduce her GiGi and PaPa to everyone!

April 5 - April 9

This week your child is reading "My Teacher Can Teach...Anyone!" and "Bravo, Maurice!". The students will see the wide variety of jobs that people have.

Sight Words this week: she and good. Practice all the sight word your child has learned so far this year with the sight word flash cards!

We have learned: I, a, my, the, go, to, like, he, come, here, this, me, for, where, do, you, look, one, see what, two, up, down, we, want, out, who, are and they. WOW!

We will be working on words ending in -eg, -en and -et.

In Math, we will be practicing telling time to the hour and half hour.

The class was hopping on Friday!

The students made their bunny hats and looked for some eggs in the classroom.

Make sure you look in your child's backpack!

I put another egg in there.

Ask them the questions on the note.

They all are getting great at knowing the answers!

In the Art Center this week, we all got to paint!

Grace was excited to paint a picture for her GiGi and Papa!

Jake painted a bumble bee!

Mrs. Lada helped Kalkidan paint a fish! Thank you Mrs. Lada!

Our class would like to thank Ena's Mom, Ms. Dirks, for her wonderful job sharing all the great art pieces in the Adventures in Art Program. Ms. Dirks showed the class the last two pieces of art this week.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

This week we start a new theme – Jobs People Do. This is perfect timing because last week I asked the students what they wanted to be when they grow up. Look for all their responses in this weeks Laker!

We will start off the week reading the stories “Everybody Works” by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler and “Zara’s Hats” by Paul Meisel. These books talk about jobs that people have.

We will be writing and learning about the letters: Vv and Jj

This weeks sight words are: are, they

This weeks vocabulary words are: protecting, volunteer, responsible, adore, melancholy and exquisite.

FUN IDEAS THAT YOU CAN DO AT HOME: Job for a Day With your child, make a list of family members and close friends. Next to each name, write one or two jobs he or she does, such as paying or volunteer jobs outside the home and household chores. Read the list aloud and invite your child to choose a job to write about. First, talk about daily tasks, uniforms, and things needed to do the job well. Then, ask your child to dictate sentences about the job. Ask your child to draw a picture of the person doing the job and write a caption for it.

Ask your child what he or she thinks you do during the day while school is in session. You may be surprised at some of the idea!

In Math we will be reviewing what the names of each coin is and their values. We will also start practicing telling time to the hour and half hour.

Hannah showed everyone how well she can jump rope! Great job Hannah!

Hola from Punta Cana, Dominican Republic,
I hope you are all having a wonderful spring break! Jamie and I just swam with the dolphins! I can't wait to see you all on Monday!

Centers are so much fun to watch. The students are getting better and better at working independently at each center. In the Letter and Sound Center Laniah built different words. All the students were doing a great job!

Today K-5 learned about the different coins we use. They learned their names and values. Help identify the coins with your child when you are shopping, banking or just added to a piggy bank.

Medallions:
Starting in March until the end of the year, your child has the opportunity to try to earn medallions by completing the tasks listed below. Please encourage your child and practice the tasks with him or her. When he/she is ready to try and earn a medallion, have them come to school and tell me! Have fun!

Your child should be able to:

Days of the Week: Name each day of the week and know them in order.

Shapes: Name the following shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, cross, oval, diamond, squiggle.

100: Count to 100 without help.

20: Write to 20 with the numbers facing the correct direction.

Address: Say address – house #, street, city, state, & zip code.

Alphabet: Recognize all the letters (upper and lower case).

Sounds: Say all the sounds in the alphabet.

First and Last name: Write first and last name with correct uppercase and lowercase letters

with all the letters facing the correct direction.

Birthday: Say birthday – including month, day and year.

Colors: Know the 8 basic colors. (red, blue, yellow, orange, green, brown, black, white)

Phone Number: Know all 10 digits.

Zip: Zip coat. Once they have done this, they will be doing this by themselves for the rest of the year!

Tie Shoes: Once they have done this, they will be doing this by themselves for the rest of the year

Sight Words: Know all sight words from the kindergarten language arts curriculum

This week your child will be learning more about stories that are realistic and stories that fantasies.

We will be learning about the letter "Ee". In our Literacy Centers the class will be doing some word building activities to isolate initial, medial and the final sounds in words.

Our new sight words are we and want.

Our vocabulary words are: treasure, sturdy, worth, compliment, confer, and mingle.

In Science we will observe our goldfish and guppies. The class has identified the parts of each fish. Each day we will record what we observe.

In Math the students will be learning about money and time. We will start out the week learning about the names and values of coins and practice telling time to the hour and half hour.

Also, in your Friday Folders, I put in a note about how your child can earn Class Medallions. Mrs. Koepp had a wonderful idea and I asked her if I could borrow it!

Your son or daughter can earn medallions for different skills till the end of the year. There are 14 medallions and when your child has practiced a skill and feels ready, they can come to school and share that information with me. Once they master the skill, I will put a medallion on their ribbon on the Class's Ribbon Banner.

This week we will be learning the new sight words: up and down

We will be talking about opposites and in our centers we will be working on words ending with the word families: -ox, -ix and -ax.

All of the students will be writing about places they like to go. They are sounding their words out and spelling the words just like they sound. Today, Maxx told me and wrote that he likes to go to "Trget". Karina likes to go to the "bech".

Our vocabulary words are: contrast, meander, tidy, famished, modify and unfortunate

Today, the students were so excited to see the goldfish and guppies in the tank. We will be starting a new science unit this week. We observed the goldfish and guppies today. We will write down our observations and learn all about them in the next couple of weeks.

Today was the 100th day of Kindergarten! We had so much fun and learned a few new ways to count to 100! All of us fit through the "100" door frame! We all had fun gong in and out of the room.

We counted out a 100 Fruit Loops in groups of 10 and then made some beautiful and yummy necklaces.

Our snack even looked like 100!

Wow! Monday, March 1st will be our 100th day of Kindergarten! I have some fun things planned for that day! The room is all set just waiting for all of you to come through the door!

Watch out though.......you might have to duck!

Grace the Birthday Girl!

We all enjoyed some hot cocoa!

We watched Mrs. Knauf's 1st graders perform their plays!

Well, the day didn't turn out exactly how we all wanted it, but we still had fun! Our Winter Wonderland Day turned into a Winter Wonderland Inside Day. It was just too cold to go outside today. We started off the day by celebrating Grace's Birthday. Then we were invited to watch Mrs. Knauf's 1st graders rehearse their plays. They were great and K-5 was a great audience! Then we made snowmen, ate donut holes, sipped hot cocoa and enjoyed yummy birthday cupcakes from Grace's mom! Thanks!!!!!!

This week is a short one! We will be working in our Literature Centers and Small Reading Groups on Monday and Tuesday and we will continue to work on our hundreds chart. I would like to have a Winter Wonderland Day on Wednesday. We will finish up the centers and then go outside Wednesday, come back in for some hot cocoa and treats and end the day in Gym. Please dress you child in snow pants, coat, hat, mittens and boots so we all stay warm.

I am looking forward to meeting with you at your child's conference this week. Please review your child's report card and if you have any questions, please feel free to bring those questions to the conference. The conference time slots are only 20 minutes and I want to be respectful of your time and the people scheduled after you, so I do ask that you come on time for your child's conference. Thanks so much!

Today, the students had so much fun counting by 10's, 5's and 2's to 100!  They used all sorts of things!  Look and see......10....20....30.....40....50.....60.....70.....80.....90......100!
The students also read and wrote the room. They all got out their journals and walked around the room and read all the different words up everywhere in the room!  Then they wrote them all down!  Their hand might be sore tonight from all that writing!

Hope you are enjoying this long weekend!

February 16th - 19th:

We will be rereading stories from the theme "Let's Play". As children becomes familiar with a story through repeated readings, they respond to it with more depth and creativity. Last week the class read "David's Drawings". Just like in the book, I started a drawing of a tree and each student in K-5 added something to it. We got very creative! This is our Classroom Picture:

We will be reviewing the sight words: me, for, where, do, you, look, one, see, what and two

We also will review vocabulary words: bound, drooped, joyous, load, steep, thrill, agreed, contribute, fantasy, jolly, spontaneously and versatile

Our letters this week are: "Ww" and "Xx"

We will be reviewing number 10 - 30 and working on Number Patterns. We will be learning about all the patterns that make up the 100 chart. We will be counting by 2's, 5's and 10's and talking more about odd and even numbers.

We will be celebrating 100 days of Kindergarten on March 1st!

What a great day! Our party was so much fun! We started out our day with Ena's Mom coming in and sharing Ena's favorite book. Then we talked about President's Day and then we had our Valentine's Party. We had an Airplane Center, a Candy Necklace Making Center, a Tissue Heart Making Center and a Cookie Frosting Center. Then the students all found a quiet place in the classroom and opened up their Valentine's. Everyone picked a spot. They were in all the corners, under tables and in groups looking at all their Valentine's they got from their friends in K-5. Everyone had a great day!

This week we will be reading the books "I'm a Jolly Farmer" and "David's Drawings". These books show other children using their creativity to make the world a little more beautiful and exciting. K-5 will use their creativity and their imaginations in the Art Center this week. I will start a drawing, just like David did in the book, "David's Drawings" and each student will add to it! I can't wait to see what our class drawing looks like!

Our new sight words are what and two.

Our new vocabulary words are: agreed, contribute, fantasy, jolly, spontaneously, and versatile

We will be working on numbers 10 - 30 and then moving on to Chapter 7: Number Patterns.

Work with your son or daughter at home counting up to 100. Each day the class practices counting to 100 as a group!

Our Valentine's Party will be on Friday, Feb. 12th!

Kalkidan and Grace worked together in Math to put the numbers 0 through 30 in order.

Today, Ena's mom showed the class the first two pieces of art from the Adventures in Art Program. She did an amazing job! The students listened and loved learning about the art pieces. Ms. Dirk's wrap up her visit by having the students make a class totem pole that represented friendship, citizenship, sharing and peace.