kindercubs

Dietzel Diary - Week of February 20, 2012

2012-02-28T18:21:00.001-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of February 20, 2012

We are collecting donations during the Lenten season for Operation Rice Bowl, which is an international humanitarian agency of the Catholic Relief Services program. If you would like more information about Operation Rice Bowl, please visit orbl.crs.org or call 1-866-608-5978. Please do not just give your child change…let this be an opportunity for them to earn money or learn about making a sacrifice. This is a great opportunity to provide a concrete way for our children to understand what making a sacrifice means. For example, by donating their ice cream money each week to the Rice Bowl, they are making a sacrifice, but providing money for other children to have their basic food needs met.

Such a busy, busy week! We started the week with a Mardi Gras parade. After making masks, we visited the first and second grade classes and they joined us on our parade route through the fourth through eighth grade classrooms. On Wednesday we did a great job in Mass, especially as we received the ashes. This week we talked a lot about the season on Lent. We also discussed how some people give something up (like candy) they enjoy up until Easter, or decide to do something new (like read the Bible every day). Some of the children said they wanted to participate in this tradition. If your child has decided to give something up, or do something new, please let me know so we can encourage them. This has been a tough week for us regarding illnesses. We averaged three students out each day L . Please remind your child how important good hand washing is during this time. This week’s jobs:
Calendar: Anna
Weather: James
Messengers: Jada & Lucas
Paper Attendance: Mackenzie
Pet Patrol: Alec
Distributors: Danny & Andrew

Caboose: Alli & Gaven
Line Leaders: Ava & Kevin
Librarians: Danah & Tavery

Clean Up: Gabe & Sam

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Lucas, Ava. Great job!!

Religion: We learned about the season of Lent and the use of ashes. They students were very curious about where the ashes come from. They were surprised to learn that the ashes are from last year’s left over palms. We also started a garden of flowers. Each time someone in the class demonstrates a good deed or kindness during Lent, we will be adding to our garden.

Language Arts: We continued to work on rhyming words and word families. Congratulations to all the Kindercubs for doing such a great job on their first real test! This week we concentrated our phonemic awareness on the sounds Nn found at the beginning of words. We also worked with the word family –ug. We learned about the positional words “on” and “in”, as well as recognizing our high-frequency word “no”. Our reading comprehension focus this week was on compare and contrast, drawing conclusions and understanding idioms. Our repeated reading book this week was Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig. (Because this was a short week we will finish the book on Monday, 2/27.) Our vocabulary words are: extraordinary, frantic, gully, perplexed, aimless, and ceased.

Math: We are doing a great job counting by 5’s and counting backwards from 40 – keep up the practice. We even started counting by 2’s! This week we also worked on tally marks and learned a new game called the Raft Game. In the Raft Game we learned how to exchange five single beans for one log of five beans. We then transferred this knowledge to exchanging five pennies for one nickel.

Social Studies: We learned about oral hygiene and the importance of taking care of our teeth. We also talked about ways to be a good citizen and help others. We decided that one thing we could do to help our schoolmates was to make posters encouraging them next week. Grades 1-8 will be involved in ITBS/CAT testing. We have to be extra respectful and quiet of their efforts.

COMING UP:

Friday, 2/2/12: Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Celebration! Please wear RED & WHITE to school in honor of Dr. Seuss. We will have a day of reading and fun activities.

In Reading we will be focusing on the /m/ sound, as well as work with memory word “for.” In addition we will be discussing multiple-meaning words: bat, park, duck, and trunk. In math we will be focused on knowing our doubles. In Science we will be learning about our senses.

Supporting our St. Paul friends that are testing this week.

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READ ACROSS AMERICA!

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Save the Date! Friday, March 2, 2012

Read for the Trees and NEA's Read Across America

Calling all of America's children, both young and old … celebrate the joys of reading with Dr. Seuss in honor of his birthday. Readers of all ages are encouraged to celebrate on March 2, 2012.

Our reading celebration will take place on Friday, March 2, 2012. We are looking for anyone that would like to read their favorite Dr. Seuss book to our class. We will be celebrating all day, so just let me know what time works for you!

So please mark your calendars now and feel free to call me if you have questions. NEA’s Read Across America theme for 2012 is green and is showcasing The Lorax. For more information about how to encourage and generate excitement for reading with your child, visit http://origin-www.seussville.com/loraxproject/

Ruth Dietzel

dietzelr@saintpaulakron.org

330-221-5322

Dietzel Diary - Week of February 13, 2012

2012-02-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of February 13, 2012

What a great time we have this week! We had a sweet start to the week by making Valentine boxes for all the wonderful Valentine’s we received. A BIG THANK YOU to all the parents for providing such wonderful treats and to the parents that were able to join us for all the fun activities. The children had a terrific time! This week we got started on the vocabulary action research project by completing our repeated readings of This Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. Our focus vocabulary words were: country (as in country vs. city), curious, brook, blossom, harvest and winding (as in a winding road). I have been very pleased at the children’s participation and ability to transfer new knowledge into their journal writing during the week. This week we also participated in the Scholastic Read Valentine celebration read aloud. We watched a webcast of Tim Tebow reading Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. It was fun to see him reading a book many of the children can read, too! This week’s jobs:

Calendar: Jada Weather: Danny

Messengers: Sam & Gabe Paper Distributors: Danah & Alec

Caboose: Ava & Lucas Line Leaders: Anna & Tavery

Librarians: James & Gaven Attendance: Andrew

Clean Up: Mackenzie & Kevin Pet Patrol: Alli

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Lucas, Ava, Danah and Danny. Great job!!

Religion: We learned about Saint Valentine. The children were surprised to hear he was a real person. We also continued to learn about Jesus’ stories at Mass, and that we can share God’s love with others. We also learned that “Alleluia” is a word of praise.

Language Arts: We continued to work on rhyming words and recognizing opposite words. We also worked with word families –ub, -ag, -ug and recognized that it is just as important to look at the ending sounds of words as it is the beginning sounds of words when we are decoding. Our focus vocabulary words were: scrub, robins, globs, blobs, many, few, some, plenty, and phrases: a pinch of, and a bunch of. We also continued to work on reading comprehension skills: sequencing events, making predictions, cause and effect, determining important ideas and drawing conclusions.

Math: We are doing a great job counting by 5’s – keep up the practice. We were also doing so well with counting backwards from 30 that we are now counting backwards from 40! This week we also worked on measuring things with non-traditional measuring items – like our feet. We realized that although it was interesting to know how many of our feet it took to measure how tall our table is, everyone got different answers. We then practiced measuring various items in the classroom with a ruler and yardstick.

Social Studies: We continued to explore wheels and movement. We have done a great job with cooperative work this week. We also learned about why we have Monday off from school for President’s Day. We read about our first President and our current President, as well as what their job is and where they live.

Science: We worked on combining primary colors to make new colors. We then used our new colors to create original works of art and to paint Bible characters we made out of clay!

COMING UP:

Monday, 2/20: NO SCHOOL IN HONOR OF PRESIDENT’S DAY

Tuesday, 2/21: Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras

Wed, 2/22: Ash Wednesday; 8:30 Mass (with Ashes)

In Reading we will be focusing on the /n/ sound, as well as positional words “on” and “in”. We will also be working on creating complete sentences and ending them with either a period or question mark. In math we will continue working on computations. In Social Studies we will be learning about Mardi Gras and other people and places in the world with the recent letters we have received back from Flat Stanley.

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION HAS BEGUN FOR 2012-2013!!

Happy Mardi Gras!

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Creating new colors by mixing primary colors

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Racing our cars!

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Valentine's Day Celebration!

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Getting ready for our Valentine exchange

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Dietzel Diary - February 6, 2012

2012-02-11T17:30:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of February 6, 2012

We had a great time this week learning about our new unit in Reading. We also had fun changing our reading jungle into a Club House! We have begun working with the SuperKids Club unit, which is accompanied by take home readers with stories about our SuperKid friends. As a part of this program your child will need to read their book at home 2-3 times as a strategy to increase fluency. Better fluency will lead to better comprehension skills. In addition, occasionally a homework page will also accompany their reading book. Please review homework with your child. On Wednesday we participated with other schools, businesses and families in celebrating Akron’s This City Reads! by reading for 30 minutes during the day. What a great job the students are doing in learning their high-frequency words. Please remember to practice these words with your child and send the ring of words back to school each day. THANK YOU to everyone that sent in 100 things last Friday to celebrate our 100^th day of school. We had a great time making a graph showing what 100 animal crackers looks like compared to 100 M&M’s, pennies, marshmallows, and beans!

This week’s jobs:

Calendar: Alec Weather: James

Messengers: Anna & Danny Paper Distributors: Alli & Gabe

Caboose: Mackenzie & Kevin Line Leaders: Jada & Andrew

Librarians: Gaven & Lucas Attendance: Ava

Clean Up: Danah & Sam Pet Patrol: Tavery

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Lucas—2 times this week!, Danah and Kevin. Great job!!

Religion: We have been learning about how Jesus told us stories to explain God’s love to us. We learned that the Bible tells us stories and we hear stories when we go to Mass.

Language Arts: We are working hard on recognizing and creating rhyming words. We have a lot of fun playing word games that help us think up rhyming words. This week we also focused on the letter sound /b/ at the beginning of words. We also learned that by adding ‘s’ to the end of a word it makes the word plural, or meaning more than one. Our vocabulary words that related to SuperKids were: stuff, bride, groom, and club. We even wrote a class book about all the “stuff” we have in our classroom!

Math: We are working very hard counting backwards from 30! Most of us have even mastered counting by 5’s!! This week we created doubles books to help us with adding numbers. Please keep working with your children on adding their doubles—it really helps with adding and subtracting numbers.

Science: Our focus this week has been on wheels and movement. We created our own race cars and even raced them down the hall! We then experimented with how fast cars go on different inclines.

COMING UP:

Friday, 2/10: NO SCHOOL

Monday, 2/13 THANK YOU PARENTS for signing the permission slip for me to conduct a 5-week action research project with the class on the effect of repeated readings on vocabulary acquisition. We will begin the study on Monday by reading The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton. Each week six vocabulary words found within the story will be our focus words. We will read the story each day so that by the end of the week your child should have a clear understanding of each of the words selected.

Tuesday, 2/14: 1:00 – 2:30 Valentine Party in the PAC

Friday, 2/17: Scholastic Orders Due

PLEASE REMEMBER TO SEND IN 1 SHOE BOX (if you haven’t already done so). We will be using these to make Valentine mailboxes on Monday!!

KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION HAS BEGUN FOR 2012-2013!!

We celebrated Akron's This City Reads by reading 30 minutes

2012-02-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

100th Day of School!!

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Catholic Schools Week

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Catholic Schools Week -- Thank you grandparents for joining us!

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Catholic Schools Week -- 4th grade friends teach us the motions to our favorite songs

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Catholic Schools Week -- 4th grade friends help us make Valentine cards for shut-ins and our Servicemen and women

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Learning how to balance a scale

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Learning about probability

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No more quiet time :) We are really enjoying silent reading with our reading buddies instead.

2012-01-26T15:03:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary - Week of January 9, 2012

2012-01-12T10:01:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of January 9, 2012

What a great week to get outside and play! Thank you for sending your child with appropriate outdoor clothing this week – it made recess much for fun for all. This week we started a few new procedures for the rest of the year. We added oral math counting and computations during our Morning Meeting time. This week we focused on counting by 1’s and 10’s. In addition, each day we reviewed our doubles from 0 + 0 = 0 to 5 + 5 = 10. We talked about how important it is to know our doubles automatically in order to add other equations up quickly. Next week we will continue to count by 1’s, but will also focus on counting backwards. Our goal is to be able to count backwards easily from 30. This week we also began taking more responsibility for putting things in our Tiger folders at the end of the day. We are filling our folders together, discussing what goes on the “Keep at Home” versus the “Return to School” side. The lack of quiet time has been difficult for some of the students (they do like to nap); but everyone is doing a great job during silent reading and then sharing new things they have discovered in books. There is nothing more rewarding than to see a child get excited about a book! This week’s jobs:

Calendar: Sam

Weather: Tavery

Messengers: Jada & Gaven

Paper Distributors: Danah & Kevin

Caboose: Andrew & James

Line Leaders: Alli & Lucas

Librarians: Mackenzie & Gabe

Attendance: Danny

Clean Up: Ava & Alec

Pet Patrol: Anna

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Lucas. Please try to find time for your child to visit First in Math every day. I have not been sending math homework home in hopes that math skills would be built using current technology. If you are having difficulty signing into First In Math, please let me know.

“I CAN TIE MY SHOE”: Congratulations to Lucas for being able to tie his shoes this week!! As of today, 11 kindergarteners can tie their shoes all by themselves!! GREAT JOB!!

Religion: We have been learning about how we are all God’s children and we can have fun together.

Language Arts: We are doing a lot more work with blending sounds to create words. Our letter sound focus has been on /e/ and we met a new friend, Ettabetta, who is introducing us to the /e/ sound found at the beginning and blended middle of words. We are did a great job writing new words and exploring the word families –et and –ell. In addition, we continue to learn reading comprehension strategies. This week we focused on what a setting is, and how to use prior knowledge to infer new knowledge.

Math: This week we worked with probability. Our favorite stories to test out our theories of probability were And the Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street and Wacky Wednesday, both by Dr. Seuss. Our vocabulary focus words were “likely” and “unlikely”. We then transferred the understanding of probability to making predictions when pulling 2 different colored cubes out of bag. “If I have six green cubes and three red cubes in a bag, what is the probability that I will pull out a green cube?”

Social Studies: Our focus this week has been on how to create peace and respect everyone the same. We learned about Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he used words, instead of fighting, to make changes. We also created a “Peace Garden” using our hands and our friends’ hands in multi-colors.

COMING UP:

We will be meeting our last SuperKids friend, Hot Rod. We will also complete our in depth work with vowels by focusing on the /u/ sound. In math we will be learning new games that will provide practice with counting and concrete addition and subtraction. In science we will be learning about shadows and dinosaurs.

1/17/12: Students will learn about “Going Green” during lunch.

1/19/12: 6:30 PTO Meeting

1/20/12: 8:30 Mass; Scholastic Orders Due; END OF 2^nd QUARTER

NO SCHOOL FRIDAY, 1/13/12 (In-Service for Teachers) & MONDAY, 1/16/12 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

2012-01-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary - December 19, 2011

2012-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

A BIG thank you to all the parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that helped make our birthday party for Jesus a success. Thank you also to Mrs. Hogg for helping making hot chocolate on our Polar Express adventure. We had a GREAT week!

This week’s jobs:

Calendar: Anna Weather: James

Messengers: Danah & Gabe Paper Distributors: Alli & Danny

Caboose: Ava & Alec Line Leaders: Jada & Sam

Librarians: Kevin & Tavery Attendance: Andrew

Clean Up: Mackenzie & Gaven Pet Patrol: Lucas

NEXT YEAR REMINDERS….

v We will no longer be taking “quiet time” each day. Therefore, there is no need to send towels in each week. We will be using the time to explore books and enjoy silent reading time together (that includes me modeling that adults read for fun, too)!

v Every child needs to bring a snack each day. We will continue to have snack in the mornings.

v Please be sure to send appropriate outdoor attire for your children to wear during recess. Even when it is cold outside we still enjoy the fresh air, but it is not fun if you are cold.

v During the Christmas break please be sure to keep your child reading and practicing their math skills. The websites for Raz-Kids, SuperKids, and First in Math can be accessed quickly by going to our Kindercub website. If you are having difficulties logging in, please send me an e-mail at dietzelr@saintpaulakron.org

Have a wonderful Christmas season with your families and friends!

Return to school: January 4, 2012

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

2011-12-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Working hard making our Gingerbread Men

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Alli and her friend Alexa

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We celebrated St. Nicholas Day with our PreK and 1st Grade Friends

2011-12-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

We conducted an experiment by planting grass seed in water soaked pine cones to see if we could grow grass.

2011-12-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

We compared the weight of items to determine what weighed "more" and what weighed "less"

2011-12-14T20:06:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary - Week of December 5, 2011

2011-12-14T19:58:00.001-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of December 5, 2011

Happy Birthday Danny!

The holidays have hit the kindergarten room! We have had such a great time learning about Christmas and Advent while we prepare for Jesus’ birthday. We have been making Christmas gifts (shhhhh…) and ornaments for ourselves. The big news of the week, however, was we met a real gingerbread man! We named him Gingy and he was traveling from class-to-class with us until…..GINGY IS LOST IN THE SCHOOL! We left him in the classroom while we went to Spanish and when we came back he was gone. We have received several e-mails from him from around the school. So far he has visited the library, Mr. Brodbeck, the office, 4^th and 5^th grades, and Mr. Longfellow in Music. We sure hope he can find his way back soon because we miss him! A BIG THANK YOU to all the parents that have helped us out at school this week. Helping at Santa’s Workshop and in the cafeteria mean so much to St. Paul school and even more to your child.

If you see Mr. Brodbeck, be sure to congratulate him. He became a GRANDPA this week!!

This week’s jobs: Calendar: James Weather: Alec

Messengers: Jada & Danny Paper Distributors: Sam & Gaven

Caboose: Mackenzie & Lucas Line Leaders: Anna & Andrew

Librarians: Danah & Gabe Attendance: Ava

Clean Up: Tavery & Kevin Pet Patrol: Alli

Religion: We learned about Mary this week and the Immaculate Conception. We really liked being a part of the special Mass on Thursday. It was so much fun to learn about watch a video with our PreK and first grade friends about St. Nicholas. While we were watching the movie St. Nicholas visited us and left Christmas pencils and candy canes in our shoes.

Language Arts: We completed our work with the sound of /t/. We also met a new friend this week, Fritz. Fritz is helping us with words that begin with the /f/ sound, as well as blending /f/ with vowels. This week we also worked on comprehension skills of making predictions based on illustrations and what we have read.

Math: This week continued working with math array cards represented with dots (like on domino’s). We are using the domino dots to practice quickly recognizing basic addition equations. We also worked locating numbers on a number line. In addition, we worked on story problems using manipulatives to represent the number of items in our equations.

Science: We are looking at seed germination. We were so surprised at how fast our pine cones soaked in water and put in a cup sprouted grass. What was even more surprising was the experiment that we tried by placing one cup in our classroom away from the sunlight. The grass actually grew faster and taller! We are thinking it is because of our super new overhead lights!

Social Studies: We have been busy making Christmas gifts and mixing up great smelling cinnamon dough to make ornaments for our Christmas trees.

COMING UP:

We will continue to work with blending /i/, /a/, /o/ sounds in the middle of words. We will also be learning about /f/ beginning sounds. We will be continuing to read lots of fun Gingerbread stories.

12/10/11 BREAKFAST WITH SANTA. Thank you to all the parents that contributed!

12/13/11 FIELD TRIP: Play at Weathervane Theater, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat. We will be

eating lunch in our classroom, so please PACK A LUNCH for your child.

12/16/11 Las Posadas

DECEMBER ACTIVITIES

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December Activities

There are so many things going on in December in anticipation of Jesus’ birthday! If you would like to participate in a specific activity, please let me know.

Monday, 12/5 CLASSROOM BASKET DONATIONS DUE

Our classroom theme is “Snow Day Fun”. Anything you, or your child, would enjoy on a snow day is appropriate. Suggestions—games, snow toys, books, hot chocolate, brownie/cookie mixes, popcorn, art supplies.

Tuesday, 12/6 St. Nicholas Day

Thursday, 12/8 8:30 Mass

Friday, 12/9 9:00-10:00 Santa’s Workshop

This is an opportunity for your child to independently shop for gifts for you, or anyone else you would like. PTO volunteers assist the children in making choices, but the children feel great pride and responsibility in picking out “just right” gifts for the people they love.

Sat., 12/10 9:00 – 12:00 Breakfast with Santa

Sponsored by PTO, this is a wonderful family event. $5.00 each. There are activities – stories, crafts, fellowship, as well as the raffle for the classroom baskets occurs. Festivities of course include a visit from….

Tues., 12/13 Field Trip

Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat

Weathervane Theater (9:00-12:00)

Thurs., 12/14 6:30Christmas Program (Grades 1-3)

Friday, 12/15 Las Posadas

A traditional Mexican holiday festival that includes a star piñata.

Mon., 12/19 Make Gingerbread Houses

Tues., 12/20 Polar Express Day

Wear your PJ’s all day! Hot chocolate and cookies will of course be served.

Wed., 12/21 1:30 Christmas Party

Last Day of School before Christmas Break, classes resume January 4, 2012

Dietzel Diary - Week of November 28, 2011

2011-12-14T19:56:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of November 28, 2011

We have had such a busy week … first adjusting back into school mode after having five days off, then starting the Holiday season with all its wonder, and on top of that, trying to learn without the teacher having a voice! The children were wonderful! We learned how to communicate through sign language, clapping, and light signals. They were very patient when trying to listen for directions, and they even whispered back to me! Mrs. Childress was a big help in the mornings Monday through Thursday. Then we were blessed with the help of a Junior High volunteer, Brooke, who was able to help us out Friday morning. This week’s jobs:

Calendar: Alec Weather: Kevin

Messengers: Anna & Sam Paper Distributors: Jada & Andrew

Caboose: Mackenzie & Tavery Line Leaders: Ava & Gaven

Librarians: Danah & Danny Attendance: Alli

Clean Up: Lucas & Gabe Pet Patrol: James

Religion: We continued learning about friends, in addition to how important it is to thank those that help us. We have also been learning about Advent. Each morning during Advent we read a little book about Advent, which is actually part of an Advent Calendar. We then put the book ornament on our Christmas tree. In addition, we have a Jesse Tree. Each day we read about a symbol representative of part of the story of Christmas.

Language Arts: We completed our work with the sound of /l/. We also met three new friends this week – Tic, Tac, Toc. We are not only working on the beginning and ending sounds associated with /t/, but we are also blending /i/, /a/, and /o/.

Math: This week we have been working with two new concepts. The first is recognizing math array cards represented with dots (like on domino’s). We are using the domino dots to practice quickly recognizing basic addition equations. We also worked with weight comparisons this week. We used a balance scale to compare the weight of items. Our vocabulary words included: heavier, lighter, and equal.

Science: We are looking at seed germination. We soaked pine cones in water and then placed them in a paper cup. We then sprinkled seeds into all the nooks and crannies on the pine cone. We have placed them in a window and will be checking on them each day to see if grass will sprout.

Social Studies: We have been learning about different holidays around the world, and how people celebrate the birth of Jesus. We learned about Advent, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. We want to keep in mind that although people celebrate holidays differently, we need to respect everyone.

COMING UP:

We will continue to work with blending /i/, /a/, /o/ sounds in the middle of words. We will also be learning about /t/ beginning and ending sounds. In math we will be focusing on telling and drawing number stories. In addition, we will begin two weeks of Gingerbread ____ stories in which we will be using Venn Diagrams, learn about compare and contrast, baking, making gingerbread houses…lots of fun activities!

12/6/11 St. Nicholas Day

12/8/11 Mass

12/9/11 SANTA’S WORKSHOP!!

12/10/11 BREAKFAST WITH SANTA – PLEASE SEND IN YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO OUR

“SNOW DAY FUN” BASKET ASAP!!!

12/13/11 FIELD TRIP: Play at Weathervane Theater, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat

12/16/11 Las Posadas

Dietzel Diary - Week of November 7, 2011

2011-11-13T20:09:00.000-08:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of November 14, 2011

We had quite a busy week learning lots of new things. Our guinea pigs have names!! The white one is named Charlotte and the black one is Alexa. The class did a great job advertising and promoting the names they wanted. On Tuesday they voted in our voting booth and then tallied the ballots.

We started the week by learning about mills that grind corn like in our weekly poem, Blow, Wind, Blow. We watched a video that showed a mill grinding corn, and made corn bread muffins, too! The children did a great job measuring and mixing the muffin ingredients. We had lots of fun practicing our letters using shaving cream on our tables (we cleaned our tables really well, too)! We took advantage of the good weather early in the week and spent extra time outside during recess. Please be sure to check the weather and send hats, coats and mittens when appropriate. When it rains or is too cold we will have recess either in the gym or in our classroom.

This week’s jobs: Calendar: Kevin Weather: Jada

Messengers: Anna & Gabe Paper Distributors: Alli & Lucas

Caboose: Gaven & Sam Line Leaders: Ava & Andrew

Librarians: Tavery & Danny Attendance: Mackenzie

Clean Up: James & Alec Pet Patrol: Danah

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Gabe, Danah, Ava (very sad that two days this week no one played L)

“I CAN TIE MY SHOE”: Congratulations to Gabe, Danny and Anna for being able to tie their shoes!! If your child cannot tie their shoe yet, please be sure to send your child’s shoe to shoe EVERY day so we can practice.

Religion: We have been talking about friends – how to be a good friend and what we like in a good friend. We also worked together with a partner to cut out shapes and create a design.

Language Arts: We worked with our friend Sal to create words that begin and end with the /s/ sound. We also met a new friend – Lily. Lily likes to play with her lions, Lass and Lad. Most of the children did a great job this week with our poem. We could find rhyming words, and did an even better job reading our poem with the proper inflection.

Math: This week we learned about symmetry. We created pictures, and looked for symmetrical things in nature. We also continued to work with the “tricky teens” as well as practiced counting backwards from 20.

Social Studies: We learned about symbols of the United States. We specifically looked at our flag, bald eagle, the White House, the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Bell. We talked about freedom and how much we owe to our Veterans.

COMING UP:

We will be completing our focus of /Ll/ sounds (found at the beginning and end of words), and start working with short /Ii/ sounds. In Math we will continue to explore symmetry

11/16/11 6:30 – 8:00 Academic Showcase (PreK-8^th Grades) in the PAC

11/18/11 6:00 – 9:00 Family Dance in Boeke

11/21/11 1:30 – 2:30 Book Bistro; Scholastic Book Orders Due

11/22/11 2:00 Thanksgiving Prayer Service

12/13/11 FIELD TRIP: Play at Weathervane Theater, Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat

We made cornbread muffins - YUMMY!

2011-11-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

We read our poem Blow, Wind, Blow to each other.

2011-11-13T19:38:00.000-08:00

We voted on our guinea pig's names. Charlotte and Alexa won!

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Reading with our friends

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Ava does a great job leading us in prayer

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Mr. Brodbeck shares Five Litlte Pumpkins

2011-10-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Andrew read Five Little Pumpkins to us

2011-10-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Mackenzie reads Five Little Pumpkins to the class

2011-10-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

What a great Halloween Party!

2011-10-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Learning to tie our shoes

2011-10-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

Creating our own Leaf Man

2011-10-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

Sam on Pet Patrol

2011-10-30T17:26:00.000-07:00

Dietzel Diary Week of October 24, 2011

2011-10-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of October 24, 2011

A BIG thank you to all the parents that helped make our Halloween parade and party such a success. The children had a wonderful time and really enjoyed all the special treats! As difficult as it may seem, please DO NOT send candy to school for your child’s snack. This is a tough time of year between Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we want to continue to encourage healthy choices. Please keep in mind that we go outside for recess each day that it is not raining or below 30 degrees (we even go out when it is snowing). Too often during the Northeast Ohio winter we are forced to stay inside. I would like to get the children out in the fresh air as often as possible. We have had some pretty chilly days already, and when the wind blows it feels even cooler. Please be sure to dress your child appropriately, including hats and mittens. Tuesday is our last day to collect donations for “Change for a Change.” It has been so nice to hear how excited your children get when they add their change to our class jar.

This week’s jobs:

Calendar: Gabe

Weather: Danah

Messengers: Mackenzie & Alec

Paper Distributors: Jada & Lucas

Caboose: Alli & Kevin

Line Leaders: Anna & James

Librarians: Andrew & Danny

Attendance: Gaven

Clean Up: Ava & Tavery

Pet Patrol: Sam

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Alec, Sam, Kevin (very sad that two days this week no one played L)

“I CAN TIE MY SHOE”: Congratulations to Mackenzie, Alli & Ava!! Please be sure to send your child’s shoe to shoe EVERY day so we can practice.

Religion: We have been talking about how important our families are to us and what a great gift God gave us. We also talked about who Father Thomas is and what he does for all of us. We made thank you cards for the priests for this Sunday’s Priesthood Sunday celebration.

Language Arts: We continued working with our friend, Doc, and worked with words that begin and end with the d/d/ sound. We also began blending beginning consonant and vowel sounds to create words. We also worked on reading fluency by using different voices while reading our poem. In addition, we are learning different comprehension strategies.

Math: This week we continued working on counting one-to-one and adding single-digit numbers together. When adding two numbers together we “put the big number in our head, and then add the smaller number to it.” In addition, we are counting by one up to 100, and counting backwards. We worked hard making bat, pumpkin and ghost pyramids by counting backwards.

Social Studies & Science: We learned about how seeds and leaves travel on the wind. We read a great book called Leaf Man, and then made our own leaf man.

COMING UP:

Sat, 10/29 &

Sun, 10/30: 8^th Grade Bake Sale after Masses

Sun, 10/30/11: Priesthood Sunday

Tues, 11/1/11: 8:30 AM All Saints Day Mass

Wed, 11/2/11 &

Thurs, 11/3/11: Conferences. We will be having student-led conferences.

Fri, 11/4/11: NO SCHOOL

Dietzel Diary - Week of October 17, 2011

2011-10-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

Dietzel Diary

News from Kindergarten ~ Saint Paul School

http://kindercubs-saintpaul.blogspot.com

Week of October 17, 2011

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

A BIG thank you to all the parents that joined us at Kingsways Pumpkin Farm. The children had a wonderful time learning about pumpkins and seeing all the animals. A BIG thank you to Mr. Lattimer for the treat bags, too! We had so much fun that we wrote a poem about our day and then made a class book. This week we went to Mass on Friday morning. Everyone did a great job singing, praying, and listening to Father. Mr. Dietzel came in on Friday and helped us carve our pumpkin. We saved the seeds and will be roasting them on Monday. Thank you for continuing to send change in for our school donation drive, Change for a Change. I would encourage you to help your children earn the change, rather than just give them money.

This week’s jobs:

Calendar: James

Weather: Alli

Messengers: Mackenzie & Danny

Paper Distributors: Anna & Alec

Caboose: Jada & Lucas

Line Leaders: Danah & Gabe

Librarians: Andrew & Tavery

Attendance: Sam

Clean Up: Ava & Kevin

Pet Patrol: Gaven

PLAYERS OF THE DAY: Kevin, Alli, James, Lucas, Sam

Religion: We have been learning about how God gave us our five senses. We have also been looking at understanding how we use our senses.

Language Arts: We continued working with the letter /Aa/. We also continued to work with using our imagination and thinking about different types of adventures. We worked with understanding that a sentence is a complete thought that starts with a capital letter and ends with punctuation. In addition, we met a new friend, Doc. Doc is a girl that likes to fix things. We worked with the sound /d/, creating a chart of words. We also worked with recognizing /a/ and /o/ sound found in the middle of words.

Math: This week continued exploring coins by making a list of the characteristics of a penny, and then practiced counting pennies, and made coin rubbings. We have also been working on counting one-to-one and adding single-digit numbers together. When adding two numbers together we “put the big number in our head, and then add the smaller number to it.” In addition, we are doing a great job counting by one up to 100, and counting by 10’s.

Science: We continued to learn about pumpkins. We looked at different types of pumpkins, estimating the number of seeds in our pumpkin, and different ways to use pumpkins.

COMING UP:

Wed, 10/26/11: Market Day pick up 6:30-7:30 PM Boeke Hall

Thurs, 10//27/11: REPORT CARDS

Fri, 10/28/11: 1:15 Halloween Parade/Party. Students should bring their costumes to school to change into.

Sun, 10/30/11: Priesthood Sunday

Thurs, 11/3/11: Conferences. We will be having student-led conferences from 3:00-8:00. More details to follow.

Fri, 11/4/11: NO SCHOOL

Pumpkin Fun -- carving, estimating & counting seeds

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Kingsway Pumpkin Farm!

2011-10-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Fall Nature Drawings

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1st Annual Saint Paul Walk-A-Thon

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Sorting, classifying and learning about seeds

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Allie reading This Ol' Man

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