Friday, October 27, 2017

Friday Note (10/27/2017)

Math In math, we learned the attributes of shapes. We practiced finding squares, circles, rectangles, triangles, and hexagons around the room. We also learned about some 3D shapes. We talked about cylinders, cones, cubes, and spheres. We will be assessing over these shapes next week.

Language Workshop This week we finished our author study on Mercer Mayer.  We read his series of books about finding unusual things in hidden places around the house (There’s a Nightmare in my Closet, There’s Something in my Attic, There’s an Alligator Under my Bed, and There are Monsters Everywhere.)  With each book we discussed story elements (characters, setting, and sequence of events).  

Writing Workshop Our sight word was “be”.  We practiced it by using it in the predictable chart, “For Halloween, I will be ____.” 

Word Study We are starting through the alphabet a second time. We are focusing on the sound the letter makes and the correct formation. Our goal is for every student to know all 52 letters and their sounds by Christmas.

Content Workshop We read several Halloween books.  On Friday, we had our Halloween Party!  Thanks to everyone who helped make our party a big success!  

Important Dates:
  • Nov 2- PTA Fundraiser Pickup in the FEMA shelter (cafeteria)
  • 11/9 Veteran's Day Assembly 1:30-2:30
  • Nov 20-24- Thanksgiving Break
  • Nov 30- Picture Retakes
  • Nov 30- PTA Skate Night 6:00-8:00 @ Skateland

Next Week:
  • In Language and Writing Workshops, we will begin our unit on The Little Red Hen.
  • In math we are starting a unit on measurement
  • Our sight word will be “she.


Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Vaughn

Friday, October 20, 2017

Friday Note 10-20-17

Events of the Week:
Math:  We finished our unit on numbers 0-10.  Then we started a new unit on shapes.  This week, we began learning about flat shapes (triangle, rectangle, square, circle, and hexagon) and their attributes (curved sides, straight sides, corners, etc.).
Language Workshop: We began a Mercer Mayer author study and focused on many different Little Critter books throughout the week.  We learned about the characters, setting, and major events in stories.  We wrote about these story elements in our reading logs.
Writing Workshop: On Monday, we read a Little Critter book called All By Myself.  It is a story about all the things Little Critter can do.  We wrote “I can” sentences about the things we can do on our own.
Word Study: Our sight word for the week was “can” to go along with our writing.  We learned about the letters “Yy” and “Zz”.  We spent some time playing fun games to review all the letters of the alphabet.  
Important Dates:
  • Oct. 24-27:  Red Ribbon Week
             Monday:  Crazy Sock & Crazy Hair
          Tuesday:  Favorite Team shirt
          Wednesday:  Pajama Day
          Thursday:  Hat Day
Friday:  Halloween Party Day - Bring your costume to school
  • Oct. 27:  Halloween Party 12:00-1:00 (additional info below)
  • Nov. 2:  Cookie dough fundraiser pick up in FEMA shelter

Halloween Party
Our Halloween Party will be October 27th.  We will eat a sack lunch in our classroom before parents arrive for the party.  After lunch, we will begin changing into costumes at 11:30.  Parents are welcome to help at that time.  Parents may also start setting up for the party at this time.  At 12:00 we will parade through the school in our costumes.  The party will begin after the parade and last until 1:00.  Please remember to send your child’s costume to school that morning!  Do not bring it with you—you never know when you might be delayed unexpectedly. *Special note about costumes—NO weapons of any kind allowed, please keep blood and gore to a minimum!

A big thank you to each family for making time to meet with me at conferences!  Thank you for sharing your child with me each day. Your involvement in school makes a world of difference!

Weather Alert!
With the temperature dropping, please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather.  We will make every effort to go outside for recess even on cold days!

Next Week:
  • We will start going through the alphabet again, with a strong emphasis on letter sounds and letter formation.
  • We will continue our Mercer Mayer author study.
  • In math we will continue learning about shapes.
  • Our sight word will be “be”.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Vaughn

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

A note from Mrs. Twigg

We are excited to offer a counseling referral option for K-8 grade students at Clever Schools.  Dr. Raquel Morrow will be in Clever on a weekly basic to offer counseling services to students who need more than what a school counselor can offer.  She is currently accepting Medicaid patients with appointments available during the school day (no transportation is required).  If you are interested in learning more about this option please contact your student's school counselor or Dr. Morrow directly at 417-569-9979..

Thank you,
DaLynn Twigg, PK-4 Counselor 743-4810
Lindsey Casey, 5-8 Counselor 743-4820
RED RIBBON WEEK  K-4
Red Ribbon Week is a week where we focus on making healthy choices for ourselves by staying away from drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
October 23-27

Monday-File:Toesocks.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
We are CRAZY about healthy living!
Wear crazy/mismatched socks and crazy hair
Sock hop for K-3

Tuesday-Bill Baker's U.S. Olympic Hockey Team Jersey, 198 | Olympic … | Flickr
Team up against drugs!
Wear your favorite jersey or team shirt

Wednesday-Winter Pajama Sew-Along | A sew-along for footed pajamas, fr… | Flickr
Dreaming of a drug-free life!
PJ day

Thursday-Cowboy, Hat - Free pictures on Pixabay
Hats off to living healthy!
Hat day

Friday-Free photo Funny Disguise Groucho Marx Costume Glasses - Max Pixel
Bring your costume to school

Halloween Party Day

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Thursday Note ;)

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!
Events of the Week:

Math:  This week we arranged, analyzed, and practiced counting with numbers 1-10.  We also worked on one more and one less with numbers through ten.  
Language Workshop:  We continued talking about fall this week.  We read several fiction books about fall and discussed the difference between fiction and nonfiction books.   
Reading Workshop: This week during literacy centers I worked with students individually checking their understanding of concepts of print.  This week I used the book “It is Fall”. I continue to ask your child basic questions such as, “Can you show me where to begin reading?” “How many words are in that sentence?” “Where would you read next?” “Can you point to an ending mark?”.  I’m also looking to see if they are using the picture for clues.  I am also looking to see if they point to each word as they read (one-to-one correspondence) and if they can correctly identify our sight words in text.  They are doing a great job!
Writing Workshop:  This week we completed our scarecrow unit.  As a class, we worked together on writing.  The first day we labeled our scarecrow.  The second day we added descriptive words, and the third day we wrote sentences about our scarecrow.  We put these sentences together to write a story.  (Be sure to check your child’s daily folder!)
Content Workshop/Word Study: This was Fire Safety Week.  We learned what steps we should take in case there was ever a fire in our homes or at school.  We read different books and talked about how firefighters are our friends.  On Wednesday, the Clever Fire Department came and spoke to us about the importance of fire safety.  We got to see the fire truck up close and crawl through the smokehouse to practice what to do in a real fire!

Our sight word was “he”.  We learned about the letters “Vv” “Ww” and “Xx”.  Please don’t forget to practice letter and sound identification with your child at home.


Important Dates:
·        Oct. 16-17 ~ Parent/Teacher Conferences
·        Oct. 16-20  ~  Book Fair
·        Oct 23-27 ~ Red Ribbon Week (more info to follow)
·        Oct 27 ~ Halloween Party (see below for details)

Halloween Party
Our Halloween Party will be October 27th.  We will begin changing into costumes at 11:30.  Parents are welcome to help at that time.  At 12:00 we will parade through the school in our costumes.  The party will begin after the parade, at approximately 12:20 and last until 1:00.  Please remember to send your child’s costume to school that morning
Reminder  
Conferences are next week.  I look forward to meeting with you and discussing your child’s progress in kindergarten.  Check your child folder for a note explaining how we assess in kindergarten.  Please take time to read this before our conference.  By reading this ahead of time, we will have more time at our conference to answer questions and discuss concerns.  

PLEASE CHECK OUT THE LOST AND FOUND DURING CONFERENCES.  EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT CLAIMED WILL BE DONATED AT THE END OF NEXT WEEK.  

Book Fair
The book fair will be going on all next week.  It will be open until 7:30 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday during conferences.  We will also visit during our library time on Friday.  You may send money in a sealed envelope if you would like your child to purchase something.

F O O D  D R I V E
October 16th-20th

Please turn in donations to your homeroom teacher.  All donations will be collected by Clever High School FBLA and FBLA-ML to be given to the food pantry at Clever First Baptist Church.

Suggested Items to Donate   -Macaroni and Cheese   - Soup, Chili, Beans, etc.  
-Canned Fruits and Vegetables    -Peanut Butter and Jelly   -Pasta and Pasta Sauce


Next Week:
  • Our letters for the week will be “Yy and “Zz”.
  • Our sight word will be “can”.
  • In math we will finish our unit on numbers 1-10 and begin 2D and 3D shapes.
Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Vaughn

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

October Principal Newsletter

District Logo


October 12,  2017

Dear Families,                                                                                      

It is hard to believe that it is already October, and Fall is here. As we complete the last week of the first quarter, I want to encourage parents to stay connected with what is going on in your child’s classroom. Please reach out to your child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child or the learning taking place. In addition, you can find up to date information on the Clever School District website www.cleverbluejays.org.

The end of the first quarter also brings us to a very important time of your child’s education. This is the time of the year that we host parent teacher conferences. All conferences will be held on Monday, October 16th and Tuesday, October 17th from 3:30-7:30. Our goal is to provide you with as much information regarding your child’s academic, social, and behavior progress for the school year. Information and sign-ups should have been communicated to you at this point. If you have not heard from one of your child’s teachers, please contact them or the front office for more information. It is our goal to meet with 100% of our families.

I am happy to share that our overall K-4 attendance for first quarter is OUTSTANDING! Right now we have an attendance rate of 96.85% since the start of the school year. All students who have met the 1st quarter attendance goal and have missed 1 day or less (tardies and early departures were included) will be recognized on Monday, October 16th with a certificate and a candy bar. I am proud of the students for their efforts to be present at school for the learning taking place. As parents, you also play an integral part of your child’s daily attendance. We appreciate your support and look forward to this continued success of our attendance rate.


Your partner in education,
Mrs. Renee Ramey
PK-4 Principal
(417)743-4810

rameyr@cleverbluejays.org

Friday, October 6, 2017

Friday Note (10/6/17)

**PTA Fall Festival is tomorrow on the playground from 5:00-7:30 with a movie following. **  


Events of the Week:  

Math:  We continued working with numbers 0-10.  We started working on 1 more this week.  For example 4 is 1 more than 3.  Your child should be able to identify numbers 0-10 now.  

Language Workshop:   Our theme this week was fall.  We learned about nonfiction books (informational) by reading books called Fall and Exploring Fall.  We noticed that nonfiction books usually have a table of contents, an index, a glossary, and photographs instead of drawings.  After reading these nonfiction books, we made a list of important key details that we learned about fall.  We added this information to our reading logs.  We paid special attention to the changes that are happening all around us.   

Writing Workshop:  Each day we completed a page about fall using sight words we know and the numbers we have learned to write so far.  Please have your child read this book to you.  We worked together as a class to complete writing pages Monday through Wednesday.  On Thursday and Friday we only talk about what the sentence should say as a class.  Everyone wrote 100% by themselves the last two days.  I looked at all their papers but we didn’t make any corrections because I wanted you to see how well they are doing on their own!  I am very proud of them!  

Word Study: Our sight word was “it”.  We learned about the letters “Rr”, “Ss”, “Tt” & “Uu”.  Don’t forget to practice letter and sound identification with your child at home.  

Content Workshop:  We learned about pumpkins.  Murfins Market in Clever has donated pumpkins for each of our students to decorate to be displayed in the store.  Be watching for these in the upcoming weeks. They also donated a class pumpkin that we used for some investigations.  We described the pumpkin, measured how tall it was using linking cubes and made predictions on whether we thought it would sink or float.  We also sorted through all the goo to pick out the seeds to count them.  Be sure to ask your child about the “pumpkin ooze” experiment we did today and check out the pictures on Seesaw.    

Important Dates:

    • Oct. 7: Fall Festival 5:00-7:30 on the playground with movie following festival
    • Oct. 11 ~ Reading Challenge Due
    • Oct. 12 ~ End of 1st Quarter
    • Oct. 12 ~ Cox Care Mobile
    • Oct. 13 ~ NO SCHOOL (Fall Break)     
    • Oct. 16-17 ~ Parent/Teacher Conferences (see below for details)
    • Oct. 18-  Book order due
    • Oct. 16-20 Book Fair in the Library (We will visit during specials on that Wed.)
    • Oct. 23-27:  Red Ribbon Week
    • Oct. 27:  Halloween Party 12:00-1:00  (Parent set-up & costume change beginning at 11:30)

Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent-Teacher conferences will be held October 16th and 17th.   I posted the link on Seesaw last week.  If you still need to sign up you may sign-up online at  http://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0a44a8ae23a64-1stquarter .  All parents are expected to schedule a conference time.  I look forward to meeting with you.

Halloween Party
Our Halloween Party will be October 27th.  Please send in $15.00 to help cover the expense of all parties if you have not already done so..  We will eat a sack lunch in our classroom before parents arrive for the party.  After lunch, we will begin changing into costumes at 11:30. Kindergarten parents are welcome to help at that time to help change into costumes.  We will parade through the school in our costumes.  The party will begin after the parade and last until 1:00.  Please remember to send your child’s costume to school that morning!  Do not bring it with you—you never know when you might be delayed unexpectedly.  *Special note about costumes—NO weapons of any kind allowed, please keep blood and gore to a minimum!

Box Top Challenge!!!
Please turn in your Box Tops, Labels for Education, and Best Choice labels.  The current challenge ends on Oct. 20th.  This is a monthly challenge so continue sending the labels to school.  The class with the most turned in will earn a class party!  Send them in with teacher name and grade and PTA will do the rest.  Thank you!

Reading Challenge
I hope you and your child have enjoyed completing the Reading Challenge.  Please return your child’s reading challenge paper to school by Oct. 11th.  We will celebrate our reading challenge and have a read-a-thon in our classroom on October 12th.  Be looking for details regarding our next reading challenge.   

1st Quarter Assessments
Next week we will finish assessing over 1st Quarter skills.  If your child has already scored “Proficient” in an area, he/she will not be assessed over that skill again this quarter.  Please be sure to practice at home!

Next Week:
  • We will continue learning about Fall.  We will learn about Fire Safety.  The Clever Fire Department will come to our school to teach us important fire safety tips.
  • We will work on adding details to our writing by writing a fun story about a scarecrow.  
  • In math, we will begin talking about 1 more and 1 less.
  • Our sight word will be “he”.
  • Our letters for the week will be “Vv”, “Ww” & “Xx”.


Have a Great Weekend!
Mrs. Vaughn