We are still in need of notecards.

Homework:

• book summary
• math packet
• nightly reading

I was just told by the PTA that the sock hop will be postponed until spring. Please keep checking the website for updates!

Ms. Aimee

February and March are very busy months! We have lots going on at the school and in our classroom.

Important January Dates:

Valentine’s Day: Tuesday, February 14^th

Open House for New Families: Wednesday, February 15^th (for prospective families only)

100^th Day of School: Thursday, February 16^th

Presidents Day: NO SCHOOL Monday, February 20^{th  ¨}

School Day: Friday, February 24^th

Sandia Science Day: Friday, February 24^th at school

Class Picture Day/ Jump Rope for Heart: Wednesday, February 29^th

Student Led Conferences: ½ day Thursday, March 1^st and Friday, March 2^nd

Science Fair: Wednesday, March 7^th

Spring Break: Monday, March 12^th – Friday, March 16^th

Valentine’s Day: We will be exchanging valentines on Tuesday, February 14^th.  We will celebrate the importance of kindness and friendship. Due to our healthy snack policy, please do not attach any sweets or candy to the valentines. If you have any shoe boxes please bring them in by Monday, February 13^th.  We will be decorating and turning them into valentine mailboxes. We have already collected 11-15!

Sandia Science Day: Sandia Science day will be held at school. Sandia Labs will be bringing interactive science kits for some hands-on learning. We are looking for 2-4 parents that can help guide the booths. Let me know if you can help.

Science Fair: Our school is also holding a school-wide science fair on March 7^th. All students are invited to participate in the fair. Students in grades 2^nd – 6^th are required to participate. Hands-on scientific investigations and experiments are the focus of the fair. If you are interested in entering a science project, your child will be expected to design, test, analyze, and present their project using the scientific method to solve a problem or answer a question. Our class will be conducting a class science project to enter in the fair. Parents will be invited to come see the projects on March 7^th after school until 5pm.

All science projects will be following these guidelines: http://ycjusd.dunlap.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/138946/File/ScienceFairGuide14.pdf?sessionid=12d6f93175909b3ca9c54907c52ce101

Social Studies: We are enjoying our social studies unit on communities, community helpers, and careers. We have had quite a few family members come in and talk about their careers and the students have really enjoyed it! Thank you for those of you who volunteered your time to come speak with us. We will start the student career presentations this upcoming week. Let me know if you have any questions before your student is assigned to present.

Math:  Along with addition and subtraction practice, we will start learning how to count and recognize money this month and continuing through March. We will also be working on symmetry.  One of our main focuses in math is number sense. We want to learn how to look at a number in a variety of ways. Five is not just 5, but also 4+1, 2+3, 5+0 etc. Please continue to use IXL for extra practice and enrichment as you see needed.

Electronic Policy: We have had some students bring electronics to school. If you referrer to the student handbook (policy 4.6) it states that students are not allowed to have any electronic devices at school. This includes, but is not limited to, MP3 players, hand held game systems and cell phones.

Book Orders: Scholastic Book orders will be due February 28^th. The orders should be shipped to us before Spring Break. J

Class Picture Day: Class picture day is Wednesday, February 29^th. Picture order forms will be going home soon.

Student Led Conferences: Conferences will be held half day on March 1^st and all day on March 2^nd. Conference sign-ups will be going home soon. I will be scheduling 30-minute time slots, so both the students and I can discuss their current progress and growth.

Thanks for all your support at home. Let me know if there are any questions or concerns. The students are all growing so much and I appreciate all the hard work you do at home with your child. You can always email me at: jessi@akcs.org.

Jessi Doering and Michelle Baca

RED  Level F: N2, D2, Q4, Q5, R3

ORANGE Level G: L7, C7, C9, C10, K6, K7

GREEN Level H: R6, T6, T8, T9, U3

BLUE Level I: N5, F5, F7, F8, G7

Feb. 15^th- Open House (For prospective families only 4:30-6:30)

Feb. 16^th-NWEA testing

Feb. 17^th- Sock hop

Feb. 20^th- No School (President’s day)

Feb. 23^rd- Blood Drive (in Matthew’s name- relative of and AKCS family)

Feb. 24^th- School Day (Also, Sandia Labs will have science kits throughout the school this day)

Feb. 29^th- School pictures

March 1^st- ½ day, conferences in the afternoon

March 2^nd- Conferences

Sandia Labs Science Day (Friday, Feb. 24^th)- Each class is being asked to provide 4 parents to help make this event a success. I would need 2 parents from 9:00-12:00 and another 2 parents from 12:00-3:00. You would help run a science booth during your time slot. The classes will be visiting the booths throughout the day. If you can work one of these time slots, please email me.

Valentine’s Day- We will have a small valentine’s celebration in our class. It will be about the importance of friendship and kindness. Students can bring in a valentine for everyone in the class. I will send a class list home the week prior with all the student’s names. But please do not attach any candy or sweets to the valentines, because of our healthy snack policy.

Science Fair- The school science fair will be held in March. Our class is submitting a class science fair project. K/1 students have the option of completing their own science fair project or joining with an older sibling(s), but is not required. The class will be working on the class science fair project at the end of February. The website to look at for science fair guidelines is http://ycjusd.dunlap.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/homepagefiles/cms/138946/File/ScienceFairGuide14.pdf?sessionid=12d6f93175909b3ca9c54907c52ce101

Math- I have been amazed at how much the students are learning in math! I have 2 groups of students that finished their units on multiplication and division. They are now beginning to learn about fractions. My other group has finished working on addition. We are now beginning to look at subtraction. I am very proud at how quickly the students are learning these new concepts!

While attending my four-day math training I learned many new things that I am anxious to apply in the classroom. One game that the students have already learned is “fire away”. I encourage you to ask them about it and play with them. This game promotes finger patterns and different ways to look at numbers. For instance, you may say fire away 7 and the students will have to show you seven with their fingers. The possibilities include 5 and 2 and 4 and 3. If they show you one way, ask them to show you another way to make that number.

Literacy- Students are progressing through the reading levels as well as the sight word levels. I will continue having a parent test sight words on Wednesdays as to get more students tested in a week. We are going to be working on thinking more critically about texts. These are questions that make students think about the text but cannot always get the answer straight from the text. Examples: Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from _______ point of view?, What is the story’s theme?, Does the story teach a lesson?, When I read…, It made me wonder about…)

Social Studies- We have started our unit on careers. The essential questions for the unit are: Why do people have jobs?, What benefits does a community receive from jobs?, and What is the difference between a good and a service? I will be having parents speak about their jobs the week of Feb. 6^th-Feb 9^th. Then students will begin their presentations. They will present their research and can come dressed as their profession. Remember this is a student project and should look like a student did the work. The most important piece is that they can communicate their learning! They did great on the space projects and I am excited to see what they do for this unit. In class the students created a 3-D community. We will be talking about how each job is interdependent upon each other.

Writing- Students will begin writing a class book this month! They will be writing rough drafts and final drafts. The book will then be published. Families will be able to purchase this book for their at home library. More information on the class book will come home at a later date.

I would like to take some time to thank the parents that came into the classroom and volunteered while I attended my math training! It was greatly appreciated! I would also like to thank the parents that attended the Stinky Cheese Man field trip! We greatly appreciate all your efforts!

Conferences- Student led conferences are the 1^st and 2^nd of March. Please be looking for a signup sheet in your child’s folder in mid-February.

Have a great February! Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Ms. Aimee and Ms. Donna

February 2012 Newsletter

Mr. Mike