20-24 de enero

¡Hola Familias!

We sure had a jam-packed short week! We had a great time at mi casa on Thursday for breakfast and had fun engaging in creative play together. We've also continued to learn a lot! More details below:

Biblia / Bible: We learned about how after Salomón, king Acab did not listen to God. We also learned about the profeta Elías (Elijah) and how he showed that our God is more powerful than Baal. It's amazing to think that the same God watches over us today! I encourage you to ask your child about what he/she is learning in Bible, and to enjoy these stories at home together. :)

Lectura / Reading: This week we learned about the letter q and its friend u. We studied different words with c, k, and qu in Spanish. We also learned about how verbs change in Spanish depending on the person we're talking about.

Escritura / Writing: We have been practicing producing quality work that we can read and share with others. Take a look at the writing we're bringing home and have your child tell you about it!

Matemáticas / Math: This week we continued reinforcing numbers 11-20, finding 5-groups in numbers, and counting from 1-100. We're excited about el centésimo día coming up!

Announcements / Upcoming Dates to Remember

*Tuesday, January 28th: Field trip to GR Lollipops Concert. We'll leave around 10am and arrive back at school around noon.

*Friday, January 31st: 100th Day of School! Would you be willing to help us with a special 100s Day snack? Here is a signup!

*Friday, January 31st: Scholastic Orders Due! Check out some amazing titles available from Scholastic this month from Club Leo, including La Frontera and Soñadores/Dreamers, two of the books I read with the class last month before our service project with the Bethany kids. Place your order here!

*February Fun Fridays at Rose Park

Join us for Fun Fridays for the month of February!

-Friday Feb 7: Wacky Hair Day

-Friday Feb 21: Pajama Day
-Friday Feb 28: Silly Socks and Hat Day

Fun Night Date Change: Since our school-wide blog was published last week, our Fun Night date has been moved. We would like to allow as many students and families as possible to attend our Kid Stuff Resale on the previous date. Please note: the Kid Stuff Resale will be held on Saturday, March 7. Our Family Fun Night will be held at Rose Park on Friday, March 20. More details forthcoming! 

Immersion Tip of the Week
Your child brought home some writing samples this week. Ask your child to read one or two to you and to talk about what he/she wrote and drew. I hope you will be impressed with how far your child has come in the area of writing!

Reading Tip of the Week
You already know that reading to your child is critically important, but did you also know that talking to your child is just as important? When we engage in conversation, we model language, taking turns, eye contact, listening behaviors, comprehension, and good manners. Take some time to talk to your child this weekend. Ask about his/her favorite activities in school, games to play on the playground, or just play together!

I think that's all for now! Have a great weekend, y hasta el lunes!

13-17 de enero

¡Hola Familias!

Here we are, closing out another productive, positive week in kindergarten! This week we enjoyed time playing, working, singing, and building friendships together, and boy, did we learn a lot too! Here are some of the highlights:

Biblia / Bible: We learned about Israel's first rey, Saúl. We then learned about el rey David--how he fought the giant Goliat, and how God saw his corazón instead of his outward appearance (like he does with us!). Finally, after learning about how el rey Salomón asked God for wisdom, we worked in small groups to re-create el templo where the Israelites worshiped.

Lectura / Reading: This week we studied the syllables va, ve, vi, vo, vu, as well as practicing the use of los verbos. While we completed lots of activities to practice these concepts, I was also working with individual students assessing their reading, letters, and high frequency words. More info to come on their report cards, but feel free to check in if you'd like to hear how your child is progressing!

Escritura / Writing: We practiced writing verbs this week, wrote more about our experiences, and worked on revising our writing. Finally, we spent some time today learning about a heroic and admirable man, Martin Luther King, Jr. and his work to fight for equality. After talking about what this means for us, we did some writing about our own sueños for a world free from hate and discrimination.

Matemáticas / Math: This week we have practiced counting from 1-100, counting by 10s, adding and subtracting within 5, and many other skills. We also worked on classifying shapes and animals according to different attributes and played games to guess the animal secreto!

Ciencias / Science: We practiced the difference between empujar (push) and jalar (pull).

Immersion Tip of the Week
We have been practicing simple addition and subtraction problems in math (mostly with numbers 1-5 and occasionally 1-10). This skill should easily transfer over into English. For fun, use a white board and write out a few problems. Ask your child how to do them--in either English or Spanish!

Reading Tip of the Week
When you are reading to your child this week, spice things up by reading with lots of expression. We have talked about some punctuation marks like puntos (.), signos de exclamación (!), signos de interrogación (?) and comas (,), so exaggerate them when you see them--or ask your child, "What does this symbol mean?"

Upcoming Dates to Remember / Announcements

*Monday, January 20th: No school; MLK Day

*Thursday, January 23rd: Desayuno Con Maestra! Drop off your child at 8:30 at my house (details to come!). We'll take a bus back to school around 10:30. :)

*Tuesday, January 28th: Field trip to Grand Rapids Symphony Lollipop Concert (10am-noon). Please let me know if you'd like to come along to chaperone; we can take a couple of parents along! (Please note it will be on a first-come, first-serve basis!)

JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER...that our school day begins at 8:15.  The first bell rings at 8:10, and students start working at 8:15.  We've had a few latecomers this past week and that makes it difficult to give your kids the quality education that they deserve.  If you need to set the alarm a few minutes earlier or leave the house sooner, we'd appreciate that effort in getting to school in a timely manner.  Thanks for your attention and support in this area! We truly make good use of every minute your child is in school. :)

Hoops & Hoopla 2020!  It’s a night of hoops, featuring the dueling staff basketball teams of ZCS and HCS, along with 56ers scrimmages and a Unified slam dunk contest.  Come also for the hoopla– photos with Elsa, Anna & friends, carnival games, bounce houses, and more, on Saturday, February 1, starting at 6:15 pm at Holland Christian High School.  All this family fun for a suggested donation of $5 ($20 per family). Proceeds of this game will go to help make the HCHS band & orchestra trip to Florida in April affordable for the over 90 students participating. 

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your long weekend!

6-10 de enero

¡Hola Familias!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo! Even though we've only been back for a week, it feels like we've done so much! We had a great week back--here are some of the highlights:

El Día de Reyes: this holiday is celebrated in Spain and most Latin American countries on January 6th. On our first day back from break, we had a great time with our 1st grade friends eating some Rosca de Reyes and doing fun reading and math activities related to the holiday. We also put out our shoes in the hallway and the Reyes visited us and left us candy! 

Grupitos: Our small group time in the library has been very successful thus far! We have been making some minor tweaks, but overall it has been a GREAT way to start the morning. In working together, we are able to deliver rigorous, focused instruction to meet ALL levels of our students.

Chapel: We had an amazing chapel service on Wednesday! Be sure to check out the videos. Thank you for coming to worship with us!

Bible/Biblia: We've jumped back to the Old Testament and started learning about Saúl, Israel's first rey, as well as David.

Reading/Lectura: Our syllables of the week were fa, fe, fi, fo, fu. Students were able to produce LOTS of words with these syllables! We've also been learning to differentiate between sustantivos (nouns) and verbos (verbs). 

Writing/Escritura: We wrote about our vacations, our chapel service, and made mini-books with verbs. We have also been practicing revising our work, making sure we can read it when we're done!

Math/Matemáticas: This week we studied how we can use las formas (shapes) to make designs and to cover other shapes. It's been fun to manipulate and use our imaginations with círculos, rectángulos, cuadrados, triángulos, y hexágonos.

Social Studies: We talked about the difference between things that yo quiero (I want) and things that yo necesito (I need).

Reading Tip of the Week
Try introducing your child to a new book series. Some of our favorites are Henry and Mudge, the Berenstain Bears, or the Magic Tree House books. If you aren't sure where to start, visit the library and try out some different ones!

Immersion Tip of the Week
Do you have Netflix or Hulu? Does your child have a favorite show or series? Try changing the language to Spanish this week! Or, search for some videos in Spanish on YouTube. Peppa Pig en español or Pocoyo is a great place to start.

Upcoming Dates to Remember

*Tuesday, January 14th: Preschool and Kindergarten Discovery Night (if you have a child entering preschool and/or kindergarten next year)

*Monday, January 20th: NO SCHOOL: Martin Luther King Day

*Thursday, January 23rd: Desayuno con la Maestra! Drop off your child at my house at 8:00am (I'll send info/directions a couple days before)! We'll have breakfast together, play some games, and then take the bus back to school at 10:00. If you would like to come and help out with games/breakfast/cleaning, please let me know! Parents are more than welcome! 

*Friday, March 6th: Family Fun Night at Rose Park


*Spirit Fridays and Wacky Wednesdays at Rose Park: Join us for Spirit Fridays for the month of February! Wear your Maroon and White gear to celebrate our school.

In February we will also have Wacky Wednesdays:
Wednesday Feb 5: Crazy Hair
Wednesday Feb 12: Crazy Sock and Hat
Wednesday Feb 19: Pajama Day
Wednesday Feb 26: Career Day