Gretchen brought in a Create and Color Enchanted Castle! The class will love decorating it with colors and we'll add some numbers and words and............we will brainstorm and think of a lot more things!

Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!

This week we start a new theme in Language Arts: On the Farm
We will be making animal mobiles, singing songs, learning about the vowel "Ii", listening for the sound at the beginning of a word, learning the new sight word - "come" and much more.

Our new vocabulary words are: squabble, mischief, uproar, tend, soggy and wobble

We have been working in our Literacy Centers and doing great! This week we will have a Listening Center , Reading Center, Word Work Center, Writing Center and a Letters and Sounds Center.

Malia's Mom came in to celebrate Malia's birthday! She read one of Malia's favorite books. It was a Fancy Nancy Book!

K - 5 is thankful for you!

Click on the picture to see all of the classes artwork!

When I was taking attendance, I noticed something that one of my students was wearing. It was a great time to talk about symmetry! Gavin, who makes me smile with some of his comments, was not symmetrical today! I explained what the word symmetrical meant and then asked the class to look around and see if they could guess who was not symmetrical. Then I asked who was. Sam guessed that Jasmine was symmetrical. Look and see! Oh, Gavin told us that one shoe just didn't feel good with a sock and the other did!

K - 5 is thankful for:

Sam's brother, Jack, read to the class today for Star of the Week. Thanks Jack! You were great!

EVERYONE tried the Kiwi Fruit today and Luke ate it like an apple (skin and all)! Ask your son or daughter where they are grown, how they grow and what other fruits Kiwi reminded them of.

Week of November 12th - 19th:
I hope you all got outside and played in the snow! Did anyone make a snowman? Did you put a cap on it?

This week the class will be rereading stories from the theme "Friends at School." When we reread a story, we encourage children to chime in on familiar words or phrases, to ask question and to make predictions. The students will be writing and illustrating what happens at the beginning, middle and end of a story.

We will be working with words ending with -an and -ap this week.

Our new sight words it "he". You can help you child learn our sight words by making flash cards and you can look for them together in a magazine or newspaper! So far we have learned:

I, a, my, the, go, to, like

In Science, we will be looking at how our tree is still changing and we will be learning about different foods.

Our vocabulary words are: sly, proceed, apparel, announced, imaginary, precisely, active, gigantic, voyage, gasped, glum, whimper

It was great talking to all of you at teacher parent conferences. Thank you for coming!

Today we worked on the letter "Dd" and wrote a sentence in our November Journals using our new sight word "like". We are working on always starting a sentence with a capital letter, spacing our words in a sentence and ending it with a punctuation mark.

I like my ________.

In math we will continue to work on writing numbers 1 - 10. We will be working on number lines and I will introduce different 3-dimensional shapes. Today we talked about a sphere and a cylinder. I asked the students to find the shapes in the room. They found the globe and the kickball. Jasmine also said the Earth is shaped like a sphere. Luke said a baseball. Sam said a can of soup is like a cylinder. Jasmine held up a glue stick and said, "This looks like a cylinder." Adeline and Jessiah found things in the room too!

Wow! The students were so excited to see their Grandparents or Grandfriends walk through the classroom door! The Kindergarten Program was wonderful. The students enjoyed performing and I know the Grandparents and Grandfriends loved watching! Thank you all for coming! Check out all the great pictures.

Here is Gavin with his Grandmother and Great-Grandmother!

The students are practicing their songs for their Grandfriends! If you haven't let me know if your child's grandparent or grandfriend is coming please put the information in their backpack tomorrow.

Tomorrow each student will get to work on an I-Touch. We will be working on writing words and writing our numbers. We will end with a fun game! I can't wait!

The students are working well in their literacy centers. I set up 5 centers and we made it through all of them. I was able to listen to each guided reading group read. I told the students at the end of the day that they gave me goosebumps!

Adeline's Mom, Dad, and sisters, Lilly and Emma, came to celebrate the Star of the Week! They read a funny book to the class and showed some wonderful photographs of Adeline.

This week instead of focusing on a new letter, the students will be learning phonograms: -at, an, and -am. They will use what they have learned about rhyming and letter sounds to help them blend sounds together to create words.

Our sight word for the week is to.

Vocabulary words are: sly, proceed, apparel, announced, imaginary and precisely.

In math we will be finishing up our chapter with numbers 0-10. The students are learning how to write their numbers (and letters!) correctly. In class we've been practicing starting at the "sky", going through the "fence", and ending at the "ground". When you practice writing at home, please reinforce this skill!

The book fair is going on in the Media center. Stop in and check out all the new books! The class will have the chance to fill out a wish list.

Friday is Grandfriend's Day at Shirley Hills. If your child is going home with their Grandfriend on Friday, please make sure that you have filled out the form and have sent it back on Monday, November 1^st.

The students are having so much fun roller skating with Mr. Halvarson!

Thank you to all of the parents who helped with the class Halloween Party! The students had so much fun! There was "Put the nose on the Pumpkin", a great guessing game, the students made popcorn hands, made decorative pumpkins and bats and played Bingo! Then they split up into three teams and made one of their classmates a mummy! Take a look at all the pictures. Just click on a picture under the title "Picasa Photostream".

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We have been working on writing numbers 0 - 5. Tomorrow we will
practice on numbers 6 - 9. All the students are great at memorizing
the rhymes that help us write the numbers. They start at the sky, past
the fence and go down to the ground.
0 - Round and round just like an "O", now you've made the number zero.
1 - Start at the top and down you run, that's the way you make a one.
2 - Make a candy cane and give it a shoe, that's the way you make a two.
3 - Around and around just like a "B", that's how you make the number three.
4 - Down and over and down some more, that's how you make a four.
5 - Short neck, belly fat, Mr. Five wears a hat.
6 - Make a "C" then in you go, now you've made a six you know.
7 - Across the sky and down from heaven, that's the way you make a seven.
8 - Make an "S" and then don't wait, go back up and make an eight.
9 - Make a circle then a line, that's the way you make a nine.

Week of 10/25 - 10/29:
This week we will be rereading stories from the theme "Families". Rereadings enable a child to discuss a story's big ideas on deeper levels.

This weeks letter: "Aa"

We will be reviewing the sight words: I, a, my, the and go

We will be reviewing all our vocabulary words: feast, gusto, prepare, lonely, remind, preoccupied, appetite, savor, urgency, aroma, surround, tradition

In Math we will be using benchmarks to make estimations. We will be talking about the words estimate, more and fewer.

In Science we will be observing what is happening to our class tree.

In Social Studies we will be talking about the "gifts" a family gives each other. We will be making a Family Book.

I will be sending home conference slip reminders this week. All conferences will be Monday, November 8th. If you have any questions regarding your conference time, please feel free to contact me. I'm looking forward to meeting with all of you.

This week the students will be getting very excited for our Halloween celebration. There are some parents planning our class party which I know will be a great success. On Friday, October 29th, please have you child wear his/her costume to school. It will be a very fun day! The MWHS band will be performing their annual Halloween concert for the whole school at 9:00 am. Mrs. Swanson will follow with Halloween safety tips. Our class and Mrs. Schmitz class will parade around the 1st floor classrooms after the assembly is over. (Costumes may not be scary, bloody, or include weapons.)

This week we will be reviewing our sight words, going over our vocabulary words, working on graphing in math and practicing writing our numbers. We will be checking on our class tree. We will be making observations and seeing how it has changed.

We will be working on a Reader's Theater play this week too. The students loved the book Laura's parents read to the class last week. I found a script that goes along with the book, "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything". There will be a lot of CLOMPING, WIGGLING, SHAKING, CLAPPING, and NODDING going on in the classroom!

Laura's Mom and Dad came in to share some traditions they do as a family to celebrate the Star of the Week. They also read the book, "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid Of Anything".

Today was our first time going to the Computer Lab. Mrs. Couser does a great job explaining how to use the computers. She has a wonderful way showing the students where and what to do. Thank you Mrs. Couser!

Today we practice writing the letter "Cc".

Laura shared her "All About Me Tee" Poster with the class.

October 11 - 15
This week we will continue talking about what families do together and the class will be reading the stories "Bee-bim Bop" and Up, Up, Up! It's Apple Picking Time".

Our sight word is "go"
We will learn about the letter "Cc"
We will be talking about words that rhyme.
We will be focusing on the characters in the stories we read this week.
Our vocabulary words are: appetite, savor, urgency, aroma, surround, tradition
When the students write in their October journal this week, we will be working on sentences. How do we start a sentence and what are the different kinds of punctuation marks we can use.

We will be starting our Social Studies Unit: What is a family?
We will explore what makes families special and make our collage. We will talk about "gifts" family members give and do for each other.

Five Little Pumpkins Sitting On The Fence!

Rose's Mom came in to celebrate Rose's birthday and Rose being Star of the Week. Rose unwrapped birthday books her family donated to our classroom library! Thank you Mrs. Gonzalez for reading the books and teaching the class some Spanish words! You did a great job!

Please have your child bring in a picture of an activity you do as a family by Friday, Oct. 8th. They can draw it or it can be a photo. We will be making a classroom collage.

It was a beautiful day for a Field Trip to the Apple Orchard! The students learned how the apples are washed, they learned how to pick apples off the trees, we went on a hayride, picked apples, and had some apple cider! We had a great day!

Congratulations to Malia's Dad for running in the Twin City Marathon! Malia brought in her father's medal!

Happy Birthday Rose!

This week we are starting a new theme: Families
Your child will be reading "Bear's Busy Family" and "What Will Mommy Do When I'm at School?" We will be talking about the characters in each of the stories and making predictions. The children will brainstorm and chart different activities families like to do together.

Please have your child bring in a picture of an activity you do as a family by Friday, Oct. 8th. They can draw it or it can be a photo. We will be making a classroom collage.

Our sight word is " the".
Letters of the week or "Nn" and "Pp".
We will be learning about and writing captions.
Our vocabulary words are: feast, gusto, prepare, lonely, remind, preoccupied

We will be finishing up our Chapter in Math about Patterns and moving on to numbers 0-5. We will be discussing the vocabulary words: same as, equal, more, more than, fewer. We will also be making graphs.

Today we started our year-long observation of a tree and the students examined the roots, bark, branches and leaves. We will be watching to see what happens the next couple of weeks!

This week:

Sight Word for the Week: "my"

Letter of the Week: "Tt"

We will be reviewing the vocabulary words: ability, confident, reverse, complained, talent, encourage, differ, stalking, mellow, automatic, perfectly, resemblance

Math: We will be working on patterns.

Science: We will be starting our Tree Unit.

The students will be starting centers this week. They will learn how to rotate and use each center.

Luke's parents came into the classroom today and we all listened to Luke read the book, "If You Give A Pig A Pancake". Luke did a great job reading!

It was Sam's birthday today!
Happy Birthday Sam!

Sam's Mom came in a read one of Sam's favorite books to the class.
Then Sam's family donated the book to our classroom.
Thank you to Sam and his family!!

What a great week! Last Wednesday, I assessed each student and got to know everyone a little better. I have an amazing class. We are still practicing and learning all the expectations of being a kindergartener.

This week:

Sight Word for the Week: "a"

Letter of the Week: "Rr"

Our vocabulary words are: differ, stalking, mellow, automatic, perfectly, resemblance

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!