Portfolio Conferences

Dear Parents,

As you may or may not have noticed, TK has been blocked off for the Portfolio Conferences when you log on to your Sycamore account.  TK will not have Portfolio Conferences.  Portfolio Conferences are student led and are based on the School's SLEs.  TK has been introduced but will require more time to understand how to connect the SLEs to their own work.  At the end of the two years of Kindergarten (TK to K), students will have their first Portfolio Conference.

The following are the School-wide Learning Expectations (SLEs) for grades TK-2.

A Faith-filled Active Catholic Who

• Prays.

• Attends Mass respectfully.

• Shows respect for others and the world God created.

• Participates in service to those in need.

A Critical Thinker Who

• Listens to the teacher.

• Works to his/her potential.

• Expresses oneself through music, art, and literature.

• Completes work neatly.

• Solves problems effectively.

An Effective Communicator Who

• Listens attentively to others.

• Shares ideas and information.

• Writes and speaks using correct grammar/vocabulary.

• Articulates and projects clearly.

• Communicates using technology.

A Globally Aware Citizen Who

• Learns about new and different cultures.

• Shows respect for people of different cultures.

• Shows awareness of current events.

• Shares God-given talents.

A Life-long Learner Who

• Makes good choices.

• Uses self-control.

• Works and plays well with others.

I will personally contact you if I feel a conference is needed to discuss your child's progress. However, if you would like to schedule a conference, please e-mail me so we can plan one.

Thank you,
Mrs. Paragas

Week 32

Dear TK Parents and Friends,

This week we are learning the following:

• Jesus feeds us special food.  (Communion)
• Letter Yy - sound, writing, words with beginning sound Yy
• Sight word: You
• Number 0-10 (writing)
• Counting up to 29 (writing the number 29 is ideal but not required)
• Numbers before and after a given number
• The 3 Piggy Opera 
• The Three Bears - the different versions; understanding vocabulary: porriage, frighten, trust, cooled, peek; setting and characters; retelling of the story
• Introducing seeds and will continue this next week

During the month of May, we will be spending more time working on the student production of The Three Piggy Opera.  This play targets the following learning standards and objective:

• Listening and speaking skills
• Storytelling
• Social Skills
• Reading skills - characters, setting, plot
• Performing Arts/Music skills
• Performing Arts/Drama 

Our performance will be on June 9 at 10:45 AM.

An envelope with a yellow note was sent home today in your child's folder.  This envelope is for your son or daughter to earn money to purchase a Moother's Day gift.  Envelopes are due Wednesday, May 4.   This is not a school or grade level fund raiser.  All profits will be donated to the Precious Life Shelter.  

I would like to thank all of you for the wonderful flower pot.  It now resides in my kitchen soaking up the sun.  I appreciate you thinking of me on my birthday.  I always like reminding you that being able to teach your children is the most humbling gift of all.  I thank you each day for trusting me with their education!

I hope you have a great last week of April!

Your child's teacher,

Mrs. Paragas

Week 31

Dear TK Family and Friends,

This week we are learning:

• Jesus Feeds MANY people.  
• Letter Xx
• Review of all Sight Words
• Writing all digits from 0 to 9 (and number combinations i.e. 10, 19, 28 and so forth)
• Adding! (Yey!)
• The 3 Bears - characters, setting, and retelling
• How to be on stage (preparing for our play)

Tonight (6:30pm) is the Talent Show.  I would like to give Arabella a two thumbs up for participating at this year's Talent Show.  She is the youngest on the show! :)  

In Religion, we are talking about Jesus Feeding Many People.  This story is very relevant to this week.  The school is collecting food to feed the children.  There will be an additional HOPE collection due by Friday.  All food collected will be donated to feeding the children with very little food.  I hope you each can bring in a small contribution.

Starting in May, we will be reciting the Hail Mary.  You are welcome to begin saying this prayer with your child each night.  They will be tested on the prayer towards the end of May.

I will be sending bits and pieces of assessments home from now until the end of the year.  At any time, you feel you want to discuss something, feel free to schedule an appointment with me.

I feel like April just starting and by looking at the calendar, it's just flying by!  Hang tight as the year is just coming to an end faster than I'd like!

Have a good rest of the week!

Mrs. Paragas

April Birthday Snack

This Friday, we will be celebrating a couple students' birthdays.  If you are a parent who will be joining us for the birthday snack, please be sure you are fingerprinted and safe-environment trained.  If you are unsure, please email me.

Note to parents of April Birthdays:  If you plan to send a snack for the birthday snack for Friday, please let me know what you will be sending so that we can make sure to have a variety of items for the children.  Please note the allergies in the class.

Week 30

Dear TK Family and Friends,

This week we will learn the following:

• Jesus has many friends; baptism
• Counting to 27
• Writing numbers 0 to 10
• Recognizing numbers to 27
• Addition Concept
• Letter Ww
• Sight word: she
• The 3 Pigs - vocabulary: bundle, blaze, fortune, huffed
• The 3 Pigs - character and setting
• pigs and wolves

We are busy learning in TK!

Save the Date!

Don't forget that we will be performing The Three Piggy Opera on June 9 at around 10:30 AM.  

Progress Report and How Mrs. Paragas Teaches the Class

I want you all to be aware that I try to teach to all the students.  This age group is very tricky to teach as some children are new to the school environment and are learning the basics of school; while some children have been in a school environment and know their ABCs and 123s...  Despite the wide range of learners in the classroom - I still teach to all.  I teach the basics (which is new to the children who are new to school) and I teach the advanced material to target the children who need more.  For example, when teaching the 3 Little Pigs, I ask the children to identify the letters in the words they see, describe what they see in the pictures, count what they see, what do the given words begin with, what happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story and so forth... Meanwhile, I am also asking the children to listen to the story and based on the context of the story, what does the vocabulary word mean, story elements such as describe the character and setting, etc.  

We will also be diving in addition and subtraction in TK.  For some, I will only be teaching how to add and subtract to 5, while other students can do larger numbers.

Because of the wide range of learners in the classroom, Progress Reports will only go home (on Friday) with the children who are continually having difficulty with the material that has been covered up until this week (past letters, sight words, numbers, etc).  If you have questions or have any confusions, please send me an email.

Science Night

Tomorrow is Science Night at 5:30 in the hall.  I hope to see you there!

Volunteers

I would love to have parent volunteers in the classroom.  If you'd like to volunteer and have been fingerprinted and safe environment trained.  Please sign up.  I'd love to have your help :)

Have a great week!

Mrs. Paragas

Science Night Project

Today your child took home his/her Science Night Project if it is incomplete.  Please complete the project this weekend and return the egg carton with the assigned items in each slot.  Remember that the items that go inside the carton must be directly from nature.  As much as everything comes from nature - paper from trees, fruit snacks from fruit - we are looking for items that are in its natural state; meaning, the items did not go through a factory.

We will label the carton in the classroom so you do not need to print the pictures below.  Use the pictures below as your guide.

The picture below shows that the project is due Wednesday, April 13.  I ask that you return the project in by Monday and not Wednesday because Ms. Cuellar and I have to label all the egg cartons.

If you have questions, please email me.

Have a good weekend!

Mrs. Paragas

Book Orders for April

I forgot to mention in yesterday's newsletter that Book Order forms went home for the month of April.  This month they gave me $5 coupons.  Basically spend $10 and get a free book up to a $5 value.  If you do not plan to use the coupon, send the coupon back to school and I will try to use it to purchase books for the class.

Book Orders are due by Friday, April 15.

Week 29 Newsletter

Dear TK Family and Friends,

This week in TK we are learning the following:

• Jesus has risen!/Easter
• Reviewing the following prayers: Sign of the Cross, Our Father, Glory Be.  Students will be tested on their prayers next week.  Please be sure to recite the prayers often.
• Letters Uu and Vv - letter recognition, sound, initial sounds in words, and write the letter
• Number 26 - count up to, write number 26
• Concept of Before and After
• Graphing
• The 3 Little Pigs
• Characteristics of Pigs and Wolves (this will be on ongoing topic as we will have a week on mammals in a few weeks)
• Science Project to be displayed during Science Night

Science Night will be on April 13 at 5:30pm in the Hall.  I hope to see you there!  Your child's science project will be displayed at this event.  In order for your child to complete the science project, he/she will need to bring an egg crate/carton.  If you have extras, please bring them to school in case others forget.  Here is a picture of what the carton looks like.  We will try to find as many of the items needed for this project at school.  Items that are too difficult to find at school will need to be completed at home.  For example, "smooth rock" - I'm not sure how many smooth rocks we will be able to find on campus.  In these cases, I will have your child complete the missing items at home. Should you have any questions, please e-mail me or ask me in person.

Letter of the Week - We skipped "Share" for the letter Uu since it was a short week but we are back on track with Share for the letter Vv.

Yearbook - The Yearbook Committee is looking for TK photos at school events.  if you have some to share, please e-mail photos this week.   

Looking Ahead:

• Field Study - Rather than leaving campus for a field trip, we are bringing a field trip to school!  We have invited Inside the Outdoors to bring all sorts of animals to school.  This is a great opportunity for students to have hands on interactions with live animals.  This "trip" will cost you $0 because we have great support from HSA.  Your participation with HSA activities help bring opportunities like this to our school.  
• The 3 Piggy Opera - This year, TK will be performing a small play called The 3 Piggy Opera based on the story of The Three Little Pigs.  I am giving all of you a little heads up in case you'd like to take time off work to watch the performance.  We are scheduled to do the play on Thursday, June 9 at about 10:30am.  It's a very short performance but we have already been working hard to prepare for it.  We hope you can join us!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Paragas