5/26/17
It's another Aloha Friday and the last time I'll update my blog. What a great movie premier we had this past week! Thank you very much to everyone who helped behind the scenes and also for the effort all of you made to attend. The kids were so proud of their efforts and I loved watching them shine. As we move towards the end of school I want you all to know how much I appreciate each one of you and the contribution you have made to our very special learning community this year. Each student has taught me something and pushed me to be a better teacher and human being. I also want you to know that I am open to improving my craft and my communication skills. I hope that I met your needs as well as that of your student. If there is a specific concern you have or constructive feedback on how I can make things better moving forward, I encourage you to drop me a line or speak to me in person. Like the kids I review and critique often upon reflection.
Show and Tell and Sight Words have reached their conclusion. We will spend much of our time reviewing what we've learned, reflecting on our movie project, engaging in our arcade project as well as listening to our peers present their artist and science projects. Of course don't forget we will also be practicing for our graduation program as well as finishing up our needs and wants unit. And of course we'll throw in a bit about Memorial Day in there too and why we celebrate it.
The baby chicks are growing like weeds. 4 of them have been placed in homes and 4 more are looking for homes. Want to try an urban mini flock of hens? Know someone who might? Please reach out to me if you are interested. I'm hoping to have them placed by Friday so I can discontinue feeding/watering them over the weekend. A big thanks to the Gearhart family for taking them this weekend while I am traveling to a family wedding.
We will also be doing our end of year assessing this week. If your normally volunteer on a certain day and time in the classroom please still come as I will have you pull individual students for our ESGI assessments. We will do pull-outs despite project presentations.
Kindergarten graduation will take place on Monday, June 5th at 5:30pm. A sign up genius went out for the potluck following this past Monday. Looks like we are in need of more food items. Please sign up to bring something to share if you haven't already.
Congratulations to Mya. She is our rockstar this week.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
5/30/17 - Last Project Presentations Begin/Project Reflections Due
5/31/17 - Parent Appreciation Event
5/31/17 - Discovery Arcade - First Run during last block of the day 2:30-3:15pm (parents & siblings are invited to attend)
6/5/17 - Kindergarten Graduation & Luau Pot Luck 5:30pm
6/5/17 - Yearbooks Handed Out
6/5/17 - Discovery Arcade - Second Run during last block of the day 2:30-3:15pm (parents & siblings are invited to attend)
6/6/17 - Last Day of School - Field Day (K-3 will participate 9:30-11:30am)
6/9/17 - Report cards are due from teachers to office.
We will rock it in Kindergarten all the way to the end! As always please reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Miss Lisa
[email protected]
http://www.hpkindergarten.weebly.com
5/19/17
Aloha Friday! My youngest daughter is graduating from High School tomorrow and I have been pondering today how quickly the years have flown by. How is it possible that all of my babies are grown up and creating lives for themselves? My nest is "officially" empty. I remember clearly lying awake when my children were young questioning whether I was doing and teaching them enough. Just when I got the hang of something our season changed and it was time to create a new rhythm in our lives. I think about my Kinder parents who are in the midst of raising their children. It's hard to get perspective when you are in the thick of it isn't it? Just know that eventually the dots all connect and someday you will be sitting where I am. We do the best we can with what we have and together as a community we have done much this year haven't we? Oh my it's mind boggling how much we have all grown. Try going back and looking at that first day of kinder pic and you will be quite amazed. Are you ready for first graders?
I'm excited about the fact that our landscaping crew is putting new sod behind our classroom. Yay! No more dirt or tree roots to trip on. As a community we've really come to love this little back area of ours and I know the kids will enjoy this area once it is complete. With that being said we won't be able to be on this grass while it's getting redone so we will move our AM and PM snack to the turf area in the middle of the campus where we do our whole school announcements. I expect that this will be our area during the remaining part of this school year and if for some reason this Plan B doesn't work out we will use the 1-3 playground.
We are on Show & Tell Week B and our sight words are: into, time, has and the bonus word is summer. Our red carpet movie premier is Wednesday night and we are all traveling to the CSN Horn Theater on Thursday afternoon for the Cinderella performance. I've heard tell that some of the props are out of this world. Can't wait to see all of the students shine and all of my students to be blown away.
By this point you should be finishing up the last independent project and have already signed up for your student to have a project presentation time slot. These projects will be presented when we return from the Memorial Day holiday.
The kindness crew is looking for donations to help Rwandan refugees get established in our city. Please take a look at the kindness crew tab after Sunday 5/22/17 to see what items we are seeking. And if you signed up to bring items for the Movie Premiere please bring those in on Monday 5/22/17. Finally I will be sending out a sign up genius for our Graduation event over the weekend as well. Geesh! It's a crazy time of year isn't it?
This week our academic work will be focusing on the following:
Math - Subtraction continued; Wacky Wednesday Word Problems and decomposing numbers to 10.
Reading: Long vowel sounds and Quiz, Quiz Trade
Main Lesson: Movie premier wrap ups, Writing a letter to future kindergarteners
Social Studies: Jobs and We perform jobs to earn money
Project: Big Buddy/Little Buddy arcade game building and arcade operations details (look for more on this soon); finishing touches on movie
Learning & Thinking Centers will include:
Free Painting
Kinder Morning Work (this will vary weekly)
ELA Skill Review
Math Skill Review
Pokemon Roll & Cover
Congratulations to Preston. He is our rockstar this week.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
5/23/17 - Storybook Challenge Luncheon & Celebration 11:55am
5/24/17 - Kinder Movie Red Carpet Night 5:30pm
5/25/17 - DCS Mesa Vista Campus presents Cinderella at CSN Horn Theater 2pm Matinee - Whole School Field Trip
5/26/17 - Hillpointe Talent Show 6pm
5/30/17 - Last Project Presentations Begin/Project Reflections Due
5/31/17 - Parent Appreciation Event (more details to follow)
5/31/17 - Discovery Arcade - First Run during last block of the day (parents & siblings are invited to attend)
6/5/17 - Kindergarten Graduation & Luau Pot Luck 5:30pm
6/5/17 - Yearbooks Handed Out
6/5/17 - Discovery Arcade - Second Run during last block of the day (parents & siblings are invited to attend)
6/6/17 - Last Day of School - Field Day (K-3 will participate 9:30-11:30am)
As you can see we continue rock it in Kindergarten! As always please reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Miss Lisa
[email protected]
http://www.hpkindergarten.weebly.com
5/12/17
What a glorious day it is outside and how I appreciate the ability I've had to work in my classroom all day tidying up and planning for the next few weeks. This time of year is always crazy busy and I'm trying to squeeze in as much learning as I can while staying flexible to opportunities that present themselves. I appreciate the time to order our kindergarten world as does the control freak/recovering perfectionist in me. I hope you are also enjoying the day and remember to do a little bit of work on the kids final independent learning project today. A sign up genius will go out for project presentations over the weekend.
Thanks to everyone who participated in our Mommy Spa event. Hoping you enjoyed it and felt loved and pampered. I have received positive feedback from the kids and of course would love parent feedback. Is it a keeper? How could we make it better? Your input is always appreciated. I also really enjoyed the K-3 Dance on Thursday and saw some kindergarten moves I hadn't experienced before. Dancing brings out so much joy and I am reminded that we should dance more often in our lives.
We are on Show & Tell Week A and are going to revisit the same sight words as we didn't really cover them well last week. There was so much going on and our schedule a bit out of sorts. We are on operation chick hatch countdown and expect chicks to hatch Sunday/Monday. It's a very exciting time in our classroom and we are waiting with baited breath. I will be in daily over the weekend to check the humidity on the incubator and see if any pipping is happening. At least this year I remembered to take the egg turner out of the incubator. Last year I forgot and a poor little chick hatched itself out in spite of this and then got stuck in the turner. It survived but it was quite traumatic for all involved.
On Thursday, May 25th we will have a whole campus field trip to the CSN Cheyenne Campus Horn Theater to see the Mesa Vista Campus' production of Cinderella. Field Trip Permits are going home on Monday and are due back by Thursday the 18th. This will allow us to ensure that all students have rides and a bus is rented if needed. Your assistance return this as soon as possible is greatly appreciated.
And then of course on the 24th we have our Ultimate Fairy Tale Red Carpet event. This event starts at 5:30pm and will run an hour or so. We are looking forward to showing our movie off and are so grateful for the help editing we've had from 2 8th grade students. Please have your students dress their best.
We are also practicing our graduation program daily at this point. You might hear the kids singing our practicing poems that you haven't heard before. The Lei's and tassels have arrived and I'm excited to show these to the kids on Monday.
This week our academic work will be focusing on the following:
Math - Subtraction continued and Wacky Word problems
Reading: Oliver Jeffers author study continues -
Main Lesson: chick observations, rhyming words and celebrity autobiography writing for our movie premier
Social Studies: Needs vs. Wants - What exactly does that mean?
Project: Big Buddy/Little Buddy arcade game building and arcade operations details (look for more on this soon); finishing touches on movie and kinder students will view and review/critique rough cut
Learning & Thinking Centers will include:
Deal and Subtract
Kinder Morning Work (this will vary weekly)
100 Charte Mystery Picture
What to Wear - Color and Read Book
Magnetic Sight Words
Congratulations to Betsy She is our rockstar this week.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
5/18/17 - 3-5 Dance 3:45pm-5:00pm
5/19/17 - 6-8 Dance 4:00-6:00pm
5/19/17 - DCS Disneyland Trip K-8
5/24/17 - Kinder Movie Red Carpet Night 5:30pm
5/25/17 - DCS Mesa Vista Campus presents Cinderella at CSN Horn Theater 2pm Matinee - Whole School Field Trip
5/26/17 - Kinder Team presents reflection on Movie Making project at 1pm Staff Meeting
5/30/17 - Last Project Presentations Begin/Project Reflections Due
5/31/17 - Parent Appreciation Event (more details to follow)
6/5/17 - Kindergarten Graduation & Luau Pot Luck 5:30pm
6/6/17 - Last Day of School
As you can see we continue rock it in Kindergarten! As always please reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Miss Lisa
[email protected]
http://www.hpkindergarten.weebly.com
5/7/17
I hope you all enjoyed the carnival. I spent my weekend helping my mom move into a senior apartment. It was tiring to say the least but I am grateful that she is settled in a new home that will meet her needs both physically and financially. It was also an opportunity to see how we are alike and how we are different and gave me much food for thought in terms of areas of my personality that I would like to soften and/or refine.
This week is Show & Tell week B. Sight words are make, like, him and the bonus word is graduation. Don't forget that our "Mommy" Spa event is this Wednesday the 10th from 10:20am to lunch time. This will be followed by lunch with a loved one and we welcome all to join their students for a picnic lunch. There will also be a surprise show for all 3 of our mom's to be: Mrs. Kettleson, Mrs. Haddad and Mrs. Condemi. Each will have a table on the 1-3 playground if you would like to leave a gift and/or give words of advice about parenting. All 3 are expecting baby boy's.
Mrs. Kettleson sent out an email this weekend with the RFP to reconstitute our board. I can't stress enough how important it is to share this with members of your community outside of DCS. In the past, the authority has recommended that our board have at least 1 member with real estate experience, 1 member with legal experience and 1 member with financial experience and 1 member with Human Resources experience. They are looking for leaders in the greater Las Vegas valley community who can give effective feedback and oversight of our school community. I know I have shared this information with a friend who is a CPA and also at church in the hopes that someone is looking to serve and add a position like this to their resume.
We are going to work on our Soda Bottle flower holders this week and are in need of potting soil to use in our bottles. Can anyone donate some for this project on Thursday this week? Also we are adding days onto our big buddy/little buddy meetings to help the kids accomplish their goals of building and holding an arcade for our school. Here are the supplies we are still in need of for this event:
More duct tape
Lolipops
Bags of tootsie rolls
PVC pipe
Paint for decoration
Paper towel rolls
Glittery tape
Medium size ball
Tickets
Bean Bags
Water balloons
Ping pong balls
String of lights
Dum Dums
Coffee container lid
Styrofoam
Any stickers
8 water bottles
This week our academic work will be focusing on the following:
Math - counting and writing our numbers to 100 and backwards by 1s and decomposing #s to 10.
Reading: Oliver Jeffers author study continues - range of reading and level of text complexity: beginning, middle & end; designing our own sweaters
Main Lesson: prefixes.suffixes, counting & writing to 100, wacky Wednesday word problems, rhyming words.
Science: Garden: Build our own Soda Bottle Planters
Project: Big Buddy/Little Buddy arcade game building, Celebrity Autobiography Writing
Learning & Thinking Centers will include:
Pool Noodle Sight Words
Kinder Morning Work (this will vary weekly)
Stacker Cups - Build to 100
Dot to Dot Butterfly and Color
Chick Life Cycle Activity
Congratulations to Olivia T. She is our rockstar this week.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
5/10/17 - "Mommy" Spa Day (K-3 Event) starts 10:20am
5/10/17 - Lunch with a loved one/tortise habitat adoption
5/11/17 - K-3 Dance 3:45pm-4:30pm
5/18/17 - 3-5 Dance 3:45pm-5:00pm
5/19/17 - 6-8 Dance 4:00-6:00pm
5/19/17 - DCS Disneyland Trip K-8
5/24/17 - Kinder Movie Red Carpet Night 5:30pm
5/25/17 - DCS Mesa Vista Campus presents Cinderella at CSN Horn Theater 2pm Matinee - Whole School Field Trip
5/26/17 - Kinder Team presents reflection on Movie Making project at 1pm Staff Meeting
5/30/17 - Last Project Presentations Begin/Project Reflections Due\
5/31/17 - Parent Appreciation Event (more details to follow)
6/5/17 - Kindergarten Graduation & Luau Pot Luck 5:30pm
6/6/17 - Last Day of School
As you can see we continue rock it in Kindergarten! As always please reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Miss Lisa
[email protected]
http://www.hpkindergarten.weebly.com
4/29/17
How did it get to be May already? There is a chill in the air today and I've had to ask myself if it's really spring but then I look at our garden and how it has taken off and I know that it is in fact spring. Spring is always a fickle time in the desert isn't it? We had a great last forest school adventure on the mountain yesterday. We found real bones, engaged in a nature scavenger hunt, had a mud cooking station and build a fort among other things. I think I even saw some tree climbing. I can't think of a better day to be on the mountain and am so grateful for all of the parents that helped make it happen. We have an amazing community and I am reminded of that on an on-going basis.
We are on Show and Tell Week A and our sight words are: some, her, would and the bonus word is mother.
Our eggs went into the incubator this past week and other than a minor glitch we are on chick count down. All of our caterpillars have also morphed and we are counting the days until we have painted lady butterflies hatching that we can observe before releasing. Don't forget the praying mantis eggs too. They don't do much but we are hopeful we'll see something coming out soon. Our movie filming went better than expected and we continue to film this week. And FINALLY we are ready to start building our Big Buddy/Little Buddy arcade games.
And of course let's not forget about graduation. Kindergarteners will start to practice this upcoming week. This is normally a time of much uncertainty for the kids as they wrap their brain around leaving kindergarten and moving to first grade. They are excited and scared all at the same time. We've been talking much and remembering how nervous they were before they started Kindergarten and how it's been so much better than they expected. We also talk about how if they stayed in kindergarten they would become bored because their brains have become strong and it's getting harder for me to tricky sticky them. You can help them by giving them a consistent rhythm and having lots of special snuggle times to talk and chat about this upcoming transition.
Progress reports went home on Wednesday. Please be sure to turn in a receipt indicating you received yours. I get brownie points if all of my parents turn in a receipt and you know the gold star girl in me loves this! :-). Also I'm still looking for someone to help coordinate the kindergarten luau potluck following our graduation ceremonies. Please reach out if you can help with this.
This week our academic work will be focusing on the following:
Math - Continued subtraction practice, counting to 100 and backwards by 1s and decomposing #s to 10.
Reading: Oliver Jeffers author study continues - making inferences about characters & using context clues
Main Lesson: Prefixes and Suffixes, Informational Writing
Science: Weather/Operations Chick Hatch and Butterfly Life Cycle continue
Social Studies: What does a good citizen do?
Project: Movie Filming continues, Big Buddy/Little Buddy arcade game building
Learning & Thinking Centers will include:
Very Hungry Caterpillar Letter Game
Kinder Morning Work (this will vary weekly)
Spring Chick Making Center
Pool Noodle Math
Butterfly Life Cycle Book - Color, Cut, Staple & Buddy Read
The K-3 team will be honoring special women in our lives with a "Mommy Spa" on Wednesday May 10, 2017 from 10:20am until lunch. This will be followed with a lunch with a loved one celebration. For those of you that don't perhaps have a "mommy" in the house (or picture) the kids are welcome to invite a grandma, auntie, neighbor or another special woman. Each classroom will have a spa station set up and students and their special guest will rotate from room to room. It should be a lot of fun and I hope you'll mark your calendar as you won't want to miss it.
I found out last week that I am unable to be at the carnival on Friday May 5th to help run our booth. My step daughter is walking her associate degree graduation from Dixie College that day and I have to be in Utah for this family event. I'm looking for several parents that will already be at the carnival who can tag team for me to ensure that the kids are supervised and have a "go-to" if they need help with something. We do have students signed up to help with the booth already. If you can help with this will you let me know via email? I'd really appreciate it. And of course don't forget that this week leading up to the carnival we have a spirit week. I've listed the days below in our "Important Dates" section.
Congratulations to Olivia M. She is our rockstar this week.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
5/1/17 - Dress like a Hippie/May Day
5/2/17 - Dress in your favorite color head to toe
5/3/17 - 80's flashback
5/4/17 - Superhero day
5/5/17 - DCS Annual Carnival - Super Hero Theme 4pm-7pm
5/10/17 - "Mommy" Spa Day (K-3 Event) starts 10:20am
5/19/17 - DCS Disneyland Trip K-8
5/24/17 - Kinder Movie Red Carpet Night 5:30pm
5/25/17 - DCS Mesa Vista Campus presents Cinderella at CSN Horn Theater
5/26/17 - Kinder Team presents reflection on Movie Making project at 1pm Staff Meeting
5/30/17 - Last Project Presentations Begin/Project Reflections Due
6/5/17 - Kindergarten Graduation & Luau Pot Luck 5:30pm
6/6/17 - Last Day of School
As you can see we continue rock it in Kindergarten! As always please reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Miss Lisa
[email protected]
http://www.hpkindergarten.weebly.com
4/21/17
Happy Friday! As I sit in our classroom after a little spring cleaning I see that we are busy growing our brains. There are movie props galore! Arcade games and materials to make games everywhere, fertile chicken eggs waiting to go into the incubator on Monday, painted lady caterpillars that have doubled in size in one week, praying mantis egg sacks to observe and plants growing in our garden. My but spring is a busy time of year in Kindergarten! Thanks for all of the well wishes after I went down with an unexpected stomach bug on Tuesday night. I appreciate your flexibility as well. I am feeling better and have no doubt that by early next week I'll be good as new. There is a nasty stomach bug going around so if for any reason your child shows signs of illness please do keep them at home. I have wiped down our classroom and am hopeful that I've nipped any germs in our room in the bud.
We are on Show and Tell Week B and we will be reviewing sight words this week. We begin filming our movie this week with the use of some loaned flip cameras and iPads. Hopefully we'll have a few student peer mentors but if you want to assist during filming you can plan to show up Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30-1:45pmish. Don't worry just come if you are free and want to participate and I will gladly put you to work in some way. Since the kids will be doing all of the filming I expect it to be quite chaotic. But the best learning happens right on the edge of chaos right?
This week we also have our K-2 writing prompt on Wednesday. We are working on persuasive writing and our theme will be the best part of me. I have plans to work this into our main lesson for the first 3 days of the week which should help the kids succeed without too much falling apart or tears. The kids started new seminars this past week. This is the last cycle of seminars for the year and will take us through to the end of May. And finally we have our final Friday school day this Friday, April 28, 2017. We will be up on the mountain at Kyle Canyon picnic area for our final forest school day. This is also the day that Mrs. Kettleson will present our school improvement plan to the Charter School Authority. If you don't plan on attending the meeting I would encourage you to send an email to all 7 Charter School Authority Board Members. Their emails are public information and can be found at http://charterschools.nv.gov/About/Contact_Us/. Tell them what Discovery Charter School means to you, how you came to be here, how your child(ren)'s experiences here have impacted them, their learning and your family. Also tell them that you are a proponent of school choice and encourage them to vote to keep our school open.
This week our academic work will be focusing on the following:
Math - addition/subtraction review
Reading: Oliver Jeffers author study continues
Main Lesson: Persuasive Writing
Science: Weather/Operations Chick Hatch and Butterfly Life Cycle Begin
Social Studies: Good Citizenship & Needs vs. Wants
Project: Movie Filming begins
Learning & Thinking Centers will include:
Earth Day Painting
Kinder Morning Work (this will vary weekly)
In the Garden Emergent Reader - color and buddy read
Addition & Subtraction cups
Weather Syllables
Congratulations to Casey! She is our Rock Star of the Week.
Our school wide Spring Carnival is right around the corner. Kindergarten is running a magnetic fishing game. I will send out a sign-up genius over the weekend so kids can sign up to run our booth. Please sign your student up for a 30 minute time slot if you plan to attend. Also the kids brainstormed raffle basket ideas and voted and we've chosen to do a science themed basket. Please donate what you are able to help ensure your basket is full and interesting. Think like Ms. Frizzle: goggles, test tubes, lab coats, experiments, science tools, etc. I've already donated a weather lab that should help make it interesting. Your help is greatly appreciated. These items needs to be sent in by Wednesday May 3, 2017.
Andrea Argondizzo has agreed to help coordinate our Red Carpet Movie Night so expect a sign up genius to be coming from her in the next week or so. I'm also looking for a party planner for our June Kindergarten graduation party. If that person is you and you enjoy party planning please reach out to me.
IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
4/22/17 - DCS Cheer Competition
4/24/17 - Filming begins on The Ultimate Fairy Tale
4/24/17 - Written Progress Reports Go Home
4/16/17 - K-2 Writing Prompt
4/28/16 - Forest School
4/28/17 - Charter School Authority Meeting - Votes on DCS Status
5/5/17 - DCS Annual Carnival - Super Hero Theme
5/19/17 - DCS Disneyland Trip K-8
5/24/17 - Kinder Movie Red Carpet Night
5/25/17 - DCS Mesa Vista Campus presents Cinderella at CSN Horn Theater
5/26/17 - Kinder Team presents reflection on Movie Making project at 1pm Staff Meeting
5/30/17 - Last Project Presentations Begin/Project Reflections Due
6/5/17 - Kindergarten Graduation - details TBA closer to date
6/6/17 - Last Day of School
As you can see we continue rock it in Kindergarten! As always please reach out to me with any questions or concerns.
Best,
Miss Lisa
[email protected]
http://www.hpkindergarten.weebly.com