Week 14 Newsletter

Dear TK Families and Friends,

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving holiday. My hopes is that you were able to find a little bit of downtime during the Thanksgiving rush.  As Christmas approaches, our lives will be bombarded with the hustle and bustle of gift giving.  Let us remember the real reason for Christmas and remind our children of the true gift of Jesus.

This week begins the Season of Advent.  When possible, please take your child to Mass to make observations of the church's colors during Advent.  Ask your child the following questions:

• What color is the priest's chasuble?
• Do you see a wreath with 4 candles?  What colors are the candles?  How many are pink? purple?
• Look for a nativity scene.  What characters do you see?
• Discuss the songs that you hear at Mass?  Are any of them about Jesus' birth?

I am hoping that these discussion questions will spark a conversation with your child.  We will be discussing these questions during the month of December.

Each week, a different child takes home the Prayer Monkey named Rosie.  Remember to wash the monkey when your child takes it home, as well as, before he or she returns it to school the following week.  Please wash her in your washing machine with cold water and gentle cycle.  If you are unable to wash the monkey before returning it, please put a small note on her when your child returns it.  This way, I can remind the next child that it needs to be washed right away.  This for hygiene purposes.  I will try my best to send home Rosie on Monday of each week.  I am going in the order of their class number.  

The purpose of the Prayer Monkey is to have the child teach the monkey how to pray.  Feel free to bring Rosie around town.  If you wish, take pictures of Rosie with your child and share it on the Shutterfly page.  I would love to see Rosie's adventures!

Before Thanksgiving Break, the first trimester ended.  This week, I will be focusing on assessments and completing the First Trimester Student Learning Assessments (SLAs).  I will most likely not have a lot of work to send home as many of the assessments are hands on.  I will have a detailed report on the SLA to show you where the areas your child is excelling or areas that need a little more review.

Because we are starting the Second Trimester, I decided to simplify a little bit.  Rather than sending home an overview of your child behavior for the entire week, I will be sending a Yellow Slip (an actual yellow paper) and a Red Slip (an actual red paper) when your child makes poor choices.  I rarely give out yellows and reds which makes sending a behavior report at the end of the week pointless.  If your child takes home a yellow or red, it will go home on the same day that the poor choice was made.  In other words, if your child does not receive a slip, he or she made good chocies that day.  I hope this makes sense.  If you need me to clarify, please let me know.

This week's goals:

Theme: 5 Senses

Religion - Creation Story and our 5 senses

Math - Position Words; number 9; counting to 30 with an emphasis on 0-10

ELA - Sequencing - what happens next?   Letter i, r, u

Science - 5 Senses

Have a great week!

Mrs. Paragas

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all of you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy some quality family time during this holiday.  I hope you get some relaxation in also!

See you on Monday!

God's blessings,

Mrs. Paragas

Week 12 Newsletter

Dear TK Parents and Friends,

Last week was such a great learning experience for me!  Since last week was the elections and celebrating Veteran's Day, we dedicated a week on patriotism by learning about voting, presidents, the flag, and the people who serve us in our community and our country.  With all the "issues" around us, I often have to step back and admire how the children respect each other.  We discussed voting and the importance of voting.  We took a poll on which book I should read that day.  I was amazed at your children.  They did not gripe, complain or cry if their book of choice wasn't chosen.  I hope that as adults, we can learn from our little leaders.  I can't be more proud of them.

On Monday, November 21, the TK and K classes will be having their annual Thanksgiving Prayer Service.  This is not a Thanksgiving party, but a mini retreat to remind us of what we are thankful for. This week we will be practicing our prayers, songs, and reflect on what we are thankful for.

The end of the Trimester is coming.  I will be doing assessments next week and after break.

• Please review letter recognition of 52 letters.  Yes, there are only 26 letters... but there are 52 in all when combing recognizing lower and uppercase.  
• Lowercase letters and their sounds for letters: t, l, i, h, b, f, k, n, m.  
• Writing lowercase: t, l, i, h, b, f, k, n, m.  
• Sight Words: I, a, see, can, the
• Parts of a book - cover, title page, spine, back of the book
• Reading Readiness - pointing to the words, reading from left to right (even if they can't read the words)
•  shapes: circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval
• Number recognition from 0 to 9

• Couting
• position words
• sorting by attributes.
• Writing numbers 0-10  
• Prayers that they should know: Sign of the Cross, Morning prayer, Prayer before snack, Prayer before we go home.  

I don't expect all students to know EVERYTHING, so please do not feel pressured to drill your child.  Learning is a process.  Sometimes it takes longer to grasp certain concepts, and in TK, we give them the gift of time in order to succeed.


This week's goals:

Theme: Scarecrows, Fall

Religion - God's Creation
ELA - letter n, m (sounds, writing, recognition), review all letters for recognition, scarecrow stories
Math - position words, number 8, review of numbers 0-8
Science - body parts


Have a great week!

Mrs. Paragas

Week 11 Newsletter

Dear TK Parents and Friends,

I hope your children enjoyed their Friday off! ...Hopefully some of you were able to enjoy that extra day with your child. :)

Don't forget the SHARE activity for November.  If your child forgets to do his/her presentation, I will try to squeeze them in sometime during the week.

Share Topic for the Month: 

Fall/Autumn, Thanksgiving, Family

Students should begin their presentation with:

Good morning, my name is....

I am sharing something about ______________.

Here are my clues.

1.

2.

3.

Beginning next week, here is the schedule of presentation: (I am using your child's student number)

Nov. 7 - 19 & 20

Nov. 8 - 17 & 18

Nov. 9 - 15 & 16

Nov. 10 - 13 & 14

Nov. 11 - 11 & 12

Nov. 14 - 9 & 10

Nov. 15 - 7 & 8 

Nov. 16 - 5 & 6

Nov. 17 - 3 & 4

Nov. 18 - 1 & 2

During our Share Presentation, your child needs to bring a visual (a photo, drawing, object or other "thing")  The item must fit in your child's tote bag.

Here is an example of a presentation:

Good morning, my name is Mrs. Paragas.

I am sharing something about Thanksgiving.  Here are my 3 clues:

1.  It is an animal

2.  It has feathers

3.  Some people eat it on Thanksgiving.

What did I bring?

This week's goals;

Theme: Patriotism, Veteran's Day, Voting, Presidents

Religion- God Made the World

Math - Number 7; Position words - above and below

Reading/Language - Veteran's Day, letter k, sight word: the

Social Studies - our country

Have a great week!

Mrs. Paragas

Fun Run Attire/Schedule

Dear Parents,

Tomorrow is the Fun Run.  Students should come to school wearing their Fun Run gold shirts with gym shorts or play shorts.

Students who leave at 11:30 will return at 3:15.
Students who stay for daycare will stay until the Fun Run is over.

Parents are welcome to watch at the Fun Run (outside); however, parents who want to volunteer in the classroom or on the field must be fingerprinted.  All volunteers need to wear a volunteer stickers and sign in at the office.

The Fun Run is over at 4:30.  Please pick up students in the classroom.

Have lots of fun tomorrow!

Mrs. Paragas

Week 10 Newsletter

Dear TK Parents and Friends,

I hope you enjoyed your Halloween night!  The kids truly enjoyed last week's Halloween festivities. I saw many of you and your children at Trunk or Treat.  It's nice to see families having fun!

On Thursday, we will be having our Annual Fun Run.  As mentioned in the previous newsletter, I will not be at school that day.  Mrs. Gigi Reyes will cover the class during the Fun Run along with parent volunteer help. 

While I am out, Mrs. Collins will cover my class.  During my maternity last year, Mrs. Collins became my long term sub.  She is an amazing woman.  Please make her feel welcomed to TK as she is truly an asset to me.

This Friday is a teacher's in-service day.  I hope your child enjoys his/her day off!

Book Order forms were sent home today.  I do encourage you to order books through the schools' book fair that will take place next week.  However, if you find a book that you like but is not being sold at the book fair, you are more than welcome to order books through Scholastic.  Since the Fair is next week, I will collect the order forms by Friday. Nov. 11 to give you a chance to browse the book fair before ordeing.

This week's goals:

Theme: USA, Voting, Patriotism

Religion - Saints: What is a saint? 

Math - Number 6 (we are behind since last week was a...TOO MUCH FUN!)

Language Arts - Letter f, words that begin with the /f/ sound, alphabet recognition (lower and uppercase), 

Sight Words: A, I, see, can

Social Studies - USA

Share Topic for the Month: 

Fall/Autumn, Thanksgiving, Family

Students should begin their presentation with:

Good morning, my name is....

I am sharing something about ______________.

Here are my clues.

1.

2.

3.

Today I am going to share with you what I am thankful for

Beginning next week, here is the schedule of presentation: (I am using your child's student number)

Nov. 7 - 19 & 20

Nov. 8 - 17 & 18

Nov. 9 - 15 & 16

Nov. 10 - 13 & 14

Nov. 11 - 11 & 12

Nov. 14 - 9 & 10

Nov. 15 - 7 & 8 

Nov. 16 - 5 & 6

Nov. 17 - 3 & 4

Nov. 18 - 1 & 2

During our Share Presentation, your child needs to bring a visual (a photo, drawing, object or other "thing")  The item must fit in your child's tote bag.

Here is an example of a presentation:

Good morning, my name is Mrs. Paragas.

I am sharing something about Thanksgiving.  Here are my 3 clues:

1.  It is an animal

2.  It has feathers

3.  Some people eat it on Thanksgiving.

What did I bring?

Happy November!

Mrs. Paragas