16-19 de diciembre

¡Hola Familias!

Feliz Navidad! Today we wrapped up a week filled with excitement, anticipation, and fun...is anyone else exhausted? ;) Through all the craziness, I know I sometimes need to stop, breathe, and reflect on why we're celebrating Christmas. The fact that God sent His only Son to the earth as a helpless baby for us--now, that's an indescribable gift, and a reason to celebrate!

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again--I'm so thankful for YOU! Gracias for your kind words, encouragement, notes, gifts, and smiles that always brighten my day. It is truly a gift to be your child's teacher and to walk with you on this journey together--juntos!

This past week we had lots of celebraciones, celebrated Las Posadas with our preschool friends, searched for the mischievous classroom duende, enjoyed wearing las pijamas, practice the syllables ba, be, bi, bo, bu, wrote about La Navidad, played Christmas games in matemáticas, and reached our first monthly goal by speaking lots of español.

Here are a few important announcements and upcoming dates to remember:

*Bethany Follow-up Activity: This was due today, but if you weren't able to drop off your book, you may still do so anytime! Thank you for making a difference in a child's life!

*SI Chapel: Coming up Wednesday, January 8th at 10:35am. See you there!

*Grupitos / Small Group time (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY!)
We are excited to start our Grupitos time on Tuesday, Jan. 7. This is a time where all Kindergarten and 1st graders will gather IN THE LIBRARY at 8:15am EVERY DAY. We will then group them based on reading and literacy needs. This is a time where each student will get some focused small group time at their "just right" level in addition to their classroom instruction. There will be 3 teachers available to work with students each day, and this helps make our groups smaller and more efficient. 

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU… 

*If you arrive BEFORE 8:10AM —> Take your child to lockers, put everything away, go outside to play until bell rings (after bell rings, go straight to the library)

*If you arrive AFTER 8:10AM —> Take your child straight to the library (bring backpack and all their things!)

*If your child arrives ON THE BUS —> We’ll direct him/her straight to the library to get started right away

We want to make sure to use every minute of instructional time to the best of our ability. Thank you for making sure your child is at school AT or BEFORE 8:15am each and every day.

That's it for now, I think! Vacation mode on... See you in 2020!

9-13 de diciembre

¡Hola Familias!

What a fantastic week we had! Time is just flying by, and I can't believe we're one week away from Christmas break! Here are some exciting things that happened this week, as well as some important announcements on events coming up:

Cookie Sale: In total, we raised over $800 from our Cookie Sale (on December 5th), all of which was donated to World Vision! On Monday of last week, we met with the other kindergarten class to decide what animals to buy with the money, and we decided on a donkey, a goat, 2 ducks, 3 rabbits, and 4 chickens. The leftover money will go towards an area of greatest need. Thank you again to all of those who donated time, money, or cookies to help us reach this incredible goal!

Christmas Posada: On Friday, we had a beautiful Christmas celebration with some friends from Bethany Christian Services' Transitional Foster Care program. It was a joyful time of playing, making crafts together, and of course, breaking a piñata! In preparing for this event, we also read some books to learn more about where these kids come from. If you would like to continue the conversation with your kids at home, I recommend the books La Frontera, Soñadores, and I'm Like You, You're Like Me. (We have all 3 of the books in the classroom and I would be happy to lend them out to you! Soñadores is the only book that is not bilingual.) You also received a Ziplock bag with a book, a blank card, and a green paper with instructions for the follow-up activity (due Friday). I know this is such a busy time of year--thank you for making this activity even more memorable and special for your child!
**Note: Because of the need to protect these children's privacy, we were not able to take or share photos of this event. The photo to the left shows a banner that we decorated with our friends that they took with them back to Bethany.

Thank you! Thank you to all of the parents who helped make the Teacher Christmas Tea so very special. Teachers enjoyed laughing and breaking bread together over a beautiful lunch! If you provided some of the delicious food, we thank you for your generous offering! Please don't forget to retrieve your cleaned up dish if you haven't already!

Upcoming Events:

Class Christmas Party: Join us this Thursday, December 19th from 2:00-3:00pm in our classroom for a celebration together! Here is the signup if you'd like to bring a food or drink item. Also, remember to have your child bring 14 "penny gifts" for his/her classmates on Thursday! (Ideas: erasers, stickers, pencils, bouncy balls, party favors, etc. Please no food items.)

SI Kindergarten Chapel: It's crazy thinking about 2020 already, but our class will be leading chapel on Wednesday, January 8th at 10:35am! We have been practicing for this special event, and each child will have an acting, singing, and/or speaking part. We'd love to have you join us--mark your calendars!

Our Week

Bible: We've been practicing the Christmas story, making puppets, and practicing for our upcoming chapel service.

Reading: We have been studying the syllables za, ce, ci, zo, zu this week. This sound is similar to the "s" in English with both "z" and "c" letters. Students are doing a great job practicing listening to the sounds in words and writing them!

Writing: In writing, we have been practicing use the possessive adjectives míos, tuyos, and suyos (which means mine, yours, and his/hers). We also used our imaginations to write reactions to some books we read. We always enjoy reading our work to each other after we finish it!

Math: This week we've started hitting hard on sumas and restas, this time written as simple addition and subtraction problems. We also played some Navidad math games and practiced measuring green strips of paper making a Pino de Navidad! 

Reading Tip of the Week
In some of our reading groups, we've worked on developing fluency when we read. Fluency is reading like talking--not too quickly, but also not in a choppy way. When you read to your child, read with lots of expression to model this!

Immersion Tip of the Week
What's your favorite Christmas song or carol? Try to find it and listen to it in Spanish this week. YouTube is a great resource for this!

I think that's all for now... enjoy the rest of your weekend as well as these pictures!

2-6 de diciembre

¡Hola Familias!

A Message from the SI Team (Dinah, Hillary, Taylor, Perla, Daniela):

WOW! What a wonderful sight it was to see so many smiling faces at our Christmas program on Thursday night. We feel so blessed to get the opportunity to partner with you in teaching and guiding your child(ren) each and every day. Thank you so much for your donations of desserts, drinks, but most importantly your support. We could do none of this with YOU!  We could see and feel the genuine JOY that comes with sharing such a precious time with family and friends.  We were blessed with some generous monetary donations to help us grow our Spanish Library, if you'd like to contribute but were unable feel free to send it with your child in a sealed and labeled envelope. 

May the JOY of Christmas last far beyond just December. May you be blessed with time to enjoy each moment and remember the birth of our precious Savior Jesus Christ. We wish you each a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a very HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Announcements / Upcoming Dates to Remember

*Cultural Field Trip for December: I have been working on organizing a "stay-in" field trip for our class to receive visitors from Bethany Christian Services' Transitional Foster Care program. We will be welcoming them to our classroom for a Christmas posada (party), where we will play games, sing songs, do crafts, and break a piñata together! I am so excited for this opportunity for the kids to play with Spanish-speaking children their own age. There will also be a follow-up activity for families, which I will send home with your child next week. This event is still in the works, but we are planning for Friday, December 13th, from 1:30-2:30pm. Interested in helping or in providing some of the supplies we'll need? Please talk to me!

*Christmas Gifts: I am beyond thankful for all of my students and for you, my SI families--you're an amazing group! If you were thinking of giving me a Christmas gift, I would like to suggest that you check out my Amazon wish list, donate books to our classroom, or donate to my Teachers Pay Teachers Class Fund to help me continue to do my best in developing our SI program. ¡Muchas gracias!

*Class Christmas Party: Our class party will be on Thursday, December 19th from 2-3pm. You and your family are invited to come and enjoy a time of celebration with us. In the spirit of celebrating diversity and learning about other cultures, would you consider bringing in a food or drink item that you and your family enjoy? Here is a sign up for these items, as well as a few more things. We will also have a "penny gift exchange"--your child will bring in 14 small gift items, one for each classmate (ideas: pencils, erasers, sticker sheets, SMALL toys, etc. Please no food items!) I look forward to this time of fun and fellowship together!

*Cookie Sale: Wow! What an amazing turnout! We made over $600 from our cookie sale, all of which will go to World Vision to help purchase animals for families in need! We'll be working together with Mrs. Bos's class next week to choose the animals we will buy. A HUGE gracias to everyone who helped out making cookies, coming to 

Finally, here's a bit of what we've been up to this week:

Bible / Biblia: We've been studying and practicing the Christmas story and making puppets (títeres) so we can act it out!

Reading / Lectura: This week we studied las sílabas con d: da, de, di, do, du. It's really exciting to see just how many words the students know after only a few months of Spanish Immersion!

Writing / Escritura: We've been continuing to write a few more pattern books, as well as describing our experiences and sharing them with the class.

Math / Matemáticas: We are focusing on teen numbers and how they are made up of groups of ten. We've also been working on addition and subtraction facts!

Reading Tip of the Week
Make reading time fun by having a puppet read to your child, or read with a favorite stuffed animal or while cuddling in a blanket. This is especially fun on cold, gray December days!

Immersion Tip of the Week
Remember that your child's reading skills WILL develop in English, even though there is no English reading instruction in the classroom. Help your child do this by reading a lot at home and engaging your child in conversation!

Enjoy some pictures below, and have a great weekend!