Friday May 31, 2013

We had a GREAT FRIDAY!!! 
The kids were excellent today and we just had a fun day!
This morning we worked on our May writing and then had our final sing a long with the entire Kindergarten! Next we had two center rotations and then a read aloud before heading to lunch!
Following lunch we worked with Mrs. Lord's class on a birdhouse craft! We will finish them and send home Monday or Tuesday!
We also worked on a special gift for the end of the year!
We finished the day with art where we watched a video!
Kindergarten scrapbooks are going home today!
I want to thank Mrs. Oneal and the parent volunteers for all their hard work on these. It takes A LOT of work to put these together and they turned out amazing!
If you have time this weekend I encourage you to have your child write a Thank you card to Mrs. Oneal. Encourage your children to thank Mrs. Oneal for all her hard work throughout the year and for the memory book! 
I am heading North for some camping this week so am hoping the rain holds out! I hope you all enjoy the weekend with your children!
Only 3 days left!
Remember to send a labeled water bottle with your child on Monday for field day!!!
Have a GREAT weekend!!!
Joshua Schultz

Wednesday In class
Thursday In class
Math Centers

DIBELS Breakdown!

PSF - Phoneme segmentation fluency is sound segments for example FAN the child says F/A/N - say all the sounds. Students need 40 correct in a minute to be on target.

FSF - First sound fluency is beginning sounds for words. For example MAN the child says /mmm/ or /ma/ This was not tested for End of Year, however in Middle of Year students needed 30 correct in a minute to be on target.

TRC - Text and reading comprehension. The students read a short book to me and then I ask them questions about reading. B is proficient which means they are on target and C is above target.

NWF - Nonsense word fluency is asking for students to say all the sounds in nonsense words. For example SOG S/O/G Student need 28 correct in a minute to be on target.

LNF - Letter naming fluency. Students read a list of mixed upper case and lower case letters. There is no benchmark for this but all students did very well on this. 

WR - Sight word list. Students read a list of words. There is no benchmark for this, but all students did very well on this. They should have been able to identify all in first list which was 23 words. Anything after that is exceeding expectations

Everyone in my class did an Excellent job testing! I believe their scores reflect the hard work they have put into their first full year of Elementary school! 

These scores reflect students ability to tap out new words and quickly identify ones they already know. The score also gives us a good idea of where they are at with their reading level. The letter score for TRC reflects the reading scale A-Z. When looking at leveled readers the back has a letter that tells you how difficult the book is. Students should be able to read any leveled book up to the letter they scored on their own. I encourage you to maybe look online and purchase some books at their level, but also books up to two levels above their score. If your child had a C I would be sure to have C books available, but also D and E for reading with you. These books will challenge them to tap out new words and use strategies to expand their vocabulary. Please remember to ask questions following reading to see how your child is comprehending. Comprehension skills are so important. It may also be helpful to pause and discuss the story at several different times while reading! It is so important to challenge the kids at this age as it is incredible how they pick up new things so quickly. Please try and read 20 minutes everyday this summer as it will put them ahead of the pack for First Grade!!! The extra work will pay off in the long run!!!

Please email me at anytime throughout the summer if you have any questions or concerns. I am going to put together a packet or worksheets that will be available on this blog for summer work. 1st grade workbooks would also be a great tool to work on throughout the summer! I would encourage pausing for a bit of school at different times throughout the summer day! A little time in the morning, afternoon, and evening is a great way to get the 40 minute time in but just split it up so it is not overwhelming. Just 30-40 minutes a day will be a HUGE benefit!

20 reading

10 Math

10 Writing

Joshua Schultz

Wednesday May 29, 2013

We had a GREAT day today! The kids were the best they have been in about a week so that was nice!!!
This morning we worked on a adding doubles worksheet! They all did a great job with this! I asked them to write a sentence and draw an illustration on the back when finished!
We had two center rotations this morning before heading to the computer lab where we worked on Odyssey ABC and 123.
Following computer lab we had language arts. Today we worked on a reading comprehension worksheet. We spent a lot of time discussing the importance of underlining and reading the questions before reading. We also read and re-read the story. We then went to lunch and came back to answer the questions after lunch. This was important because it highlighted the importance of underlining. We went 30 minutes between reading the story and answering the questions, but the underlined parts helped us answer the questions quickly without re reading the entire story! The kids did a GREAT JOB with this!!!
Following this we had ten minutes of silent reading. The kids picked a book and spent the entire ten minutes looking at it and reading it silently!
Following silent reading we had a hot pencils math assessment!
During math today we had Centers! We have five centers and the kids went to two centers today! We will finish up the centers tomorrow and Friday! We are focusing on addition and subtraction, and story problem creation and solving!!
Following math we had recess outside and snack time!
We got new seats today!!! I switched the tables around and the kids each got a new seat for the end of the school year!!!
For science today we started our focus on Birds! We discussed what birds do and how they look. We completed a sequencing activity and then took a nature walk to look and listen for birds!
We finished the day with a reward recess! I am proud of their behavior today!!! I know it is tough at the end of the year, but they did a GREAT JOB!!!!
Hard to believe we only have five days left of Kindergarten!!!!
Have a great evening!!
Joshua Schultz

Friday May 24, 2013

Thank you all for the flowers this morning!! The kids were so excited to bring them in!
Morning work this morning we colored a flag and discussed the American Flag. We watched a video that showed the flag throughout the years.
We then had our morning board time and sing a long with the rest of Kindergarten!
We had two center rotations today to finish out the week! Following centers we listened to two books on tape! Next was lunch
Following lunch we listened to several non fiction books from the IDOE Summer Reading webpage!
In Math today we discussed in depth the addition and subtraction boxes. This took some time, but the kids all seemed to understand. We solved all the addition and subtraction problems together.
Next we worked on some subtraction skills and strategies.
We finished our day with recess and a discussion about Memorial Day. We discussed why we celebrate Memorial Day and listened to a book all about the Holiday. Each of the kids got their own American flag to take home and show on Memorial Day!!!

We finished our day with Art!

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! Please remind your children of the true meaning for Memorial Day and to honor all American Veterans who have defended Freedom over the years!!!!

Happy Memorial Day!

Joshua Schultz

Friday Activities!

May 23, 2013

We had a GREAT THURSDAY!!!
This morning we read in the pit quietly for morning work! Then we went to the Library!
Following Library we had two center rotations.
Following centers we had our morning board time. We had some good discussion during out sentence correction time!
Next was lunch
We came back and had some read aloud time before heading to gym.
After gym we had math. Today we had a three minute math test and then worked on a math worksheet that had addition and subtraction problems on it. The challenge today was the format of the question. They did a great job with this but it took some time!
Following recess we had a special activity that Mrs. Hanna, and Mrs. Shepard prepared for our class. We got to make our own ice cream!!! The kids had a BLAST doing this and it turned out great for everyone!!!
Following this time we had read in the pit time while some finished their math sheets from earlier!

Looking forward to a GREAT FRIDAY!!

Have a great evening!

Joshua Schultz

Wednesday May 22, 2013

We had a good day today, a little talkative in the afternoon!
In the morning we worked on place value and counting to 100. This morning work went well and I was very impressed with all the kids during this time!
Next we had our morning board time and then went to computer lab! Today we worked on Odyssey 123!
During language arts we talked about rhyming words and word families OG and OAD. We had some good discussion during this time and the kids independently sorted the words!
Next was lunch!
When we returned from lunch we finished our Language arts worksheet!
We had some science time where we finished our Magic School Bus "Gets Planted" video!
I demonstrated the Indiana Department of Education online summer reading program. We listened to a couple of books to show the kids how it worked! The were excited about finding one about Jackie Robinson!
In Math we had our 3 minute math test and then worked on a graphing sheet. We discussed the parts of a graph and worked together to complete this worksheet. It was a challenging sheet for the kids, but I like to introduce challenging topics to them! They did a great job!!!
We had outside recess and came in a little early because of the rain!
To finish our day we watched Pocahontas! We discussed how this movie is realistic fiction. We explained to them that some of the characters in the movie were in fact real people, but the story line is not exactly how things played out for Pocahontas.

During the movie we had the opportunity to try some Cheese Curds! As many of you know I have deep Wisconsin roots and I was up there over the weekend so I brought back some cheese curds for the kids! They LOVED them!! It was fun to see some of the be cautious about trying them, but once they did most of them really liked them and wanted more!!!

Looking forward to a GREAT Thursday!!!
Joshua Schultz

SUMMER READING!!!!!!!

I am so excited about this awesome recourse the State of Indiana Department of Education will be providing this summer! 
This FREE reading program is amazing and will provide the opportunity for children to read by themselves or be read to! There are books on all genres and non fiction and fiction choices! Non Fiction is big in Common CORE so I encourage a lot of non fiction reading! I hope that you will use this throughout the summer! 10-15 minutes each day would be a great way for kids to read while online which can be exciting for them!
The Link will take you to the Indiana Department of Education website and it will give you the username and password to log in!!!
Check it out and save this link for summer reading!!!
Summer reading link!!

Tuesday May 21, 2013

We had a GREAT Tuesday!!!!
This morning the kids wrote five sentences of their own choice! It is fun to read what things they are writing about and it is even better to see their spelling of sight words and use of punctuation and capital letters improve! When they finished with the sentences they read in the pit!
Following our morning board time we had a comprehension skills worksheet! We had some good discussion through this reading and the kids did a great job answering the questions and explaining their answers. Critical thinking is very important!!
Next we had two center rotations!
Following centers we worked on Fact and Opinion! The kids did a GREAT job with this! We reviewed what a fact was and what an opinion was. This was a good discussion! We worked on our worksheet together and discussed each question and answer. We completed this after lunch!
Next we had our math time! Today we had three minute math and I am so impressed with how many passed today! It is great to see the kids mastering addition and subtraction! Next we discussed groupings of ten to help count correctly. We discussed why it might help to circle groups of ten and then add. We completed some sample problems together and then the kids worked independently on a worksheet activity. They ALL did an awesome job with this!! We finished our math time working on graphing. We discussed the purpose for the bar graph and how to read it. The kids then worked interdependently on the graph worksheet. They ALL did a great job with this activity! We will continue to discuss graphs throughout the week!
Next we had recess and snack
We finished our day with a Magic School Bus video about seeds!
The kids had art at the end of the day with Mrs. Oneal!

Only ten more days left until first grade!
Thank you to all who brought snacks for me today! I really appreciate it!

Please remember that Thursday the kids will go to the Library and the book fair. If you would like to send money with your child Thursday will be the day for it. You may also want to specify that they spend money on books if that is what you want. There are erasers and some other things that the kids often want to spend money on, but if you only want them to spend it on a book please write a note with the money you send in on Thursday. If you send it in a envelope with their red folders I will be sure they get it before heading to the Library. 
Have a great evening!
Joshua Schultz
Tuesdays activities!

Monday May 20, 2013

We had a busy Monday back at school!
This morning we had a coloring sheet with even and odd numbers. It is important for the kids to remember that odd numbers end with 0,2,4,6, or 8. Even numbers end with 1,3,5,7, or 9.
Following the morning work we had our morning board time!
In Fundations today we used our personal whiteboards to think of words using different blends. We had some good discussion during this time. Following that we completed a short reading and questions. The kids are doing an awesome job with the comprehension paragraphs!
Today we had two center rotations!
Following centers we worked on Fact and Opinion. We refreshed what we learned on Friday and used those skills to discuss and debate fact and opinion  We completed the worksheet together as a class and discussed each statement as being fact or opinion.
Next we had lunch and finished our worksheet after lunch!
We had music and movement in the gym today! The kids are excited to be done with play practice so they can get back to their normal gym schedule!
Following gym today we took a nature walk to see how the trees have changed since budding their leaves. We discussed the difference between oak trees and maple trees. We also discussed pine and cedar trees! We enjoyed out walk through the prairie and woods!

We then had our regular recess time with the rest of Kindergarten!
After recess we came in and enjoyed our snack!
Next came math! Today we were busy in math! We had a hot pencils 3 minute test to start things out. Next we worked in our May Math Journals! After that we discussed subtraction skills and completed a subtraction worksheet. We talked about putting the larger number in your head and then pulling out the smaller number by counting to it. The kids enjoyed this and I hope it will help them in their subtraction skills!
Following our subtraction activities we worked on grouping tens. We will spend all week discussing this. Students struggle with taking time to count and circle the groups of then but they need to understand that making the groups will help them have less mistakes in their addition and subtraction of larger numbers!
We finished the day with a discussion of how things have changed outside since spring first began in March!
We had a great Monday back at school!! This is our last full week of school! 11 days until First Grade!!!!
Please continue to read, work on writing, and math skills each night with your children!!!
Have a great evening!!
Joshua Schultz
Today's in class activities!

Friday May 17, 2013

We had an AMAZING FRIDAY!!!
The kids were awesome today!!!!
What a great program they put on for you all last night! The kids were proud of all their hard work and we were all so proud of their performance!!!
This morning we worked on our little books! They are enjoying the opportunity they have to write their own books! We will share them on Monday!
We had a video for our sing along time and then had two center rotations!
We had a reward recess before heading to lunch!
Following lunch we finished our Jackie Robinson book and discussed it! It was a great read aloud lesson!

Next we had some math time! We discussed groupings of ten today! Next we discussed graphing and introduced a lesson on context clues! We had A LOT of good discussion during this time!! I am so excited about these kids ability to discuss and be willing to attempt to answer new things in front of the whole class! Next we went outside for a reward for a great performance last night of Popsicle's! The kids enjoyed this and then had recess time!
Following recess we had ten minutes of silent reading and then a Fact and Opinion activity! The kids WERE GREAT during this time and again their ability to discuss and willingness to share their responses is awesome! We had a great discussion about the difference between facts and opinions! I encourage you to carry on this lesson in everyday conversation with your children. It is important for them to know the difference especially in advertising and news stories!
We finished our day with Art and a special birthday snack from Ryann S! Happy Birthday!
Hope you all have A GREAT WEEKEND!!!!
Joshua Schultz

Wednesday May 15, 2013

We had another GREAT day!!!
This morning we discussed more about Jackie Robinson and we started making our own books! The kids get to write about whatever they want and share with the class when they are finished! I am excited to start this with the kids as it gets them writing and allows them to be creative! They love it!

We had our DOL this morning and the kids did a GREAT job identifying what was wrong with these sentences! I am really pushing spelling on basic sight words and the kids did not miss a mistake in the two sentences!!

We had computer lab this morning where we worked on Odyssey ABC! We earned 15 minutes of free time because we did such a good job in the morning!
Following computer lab we had Math pentathlon! Our final of the year! The kids enjoyed this time each month!
We had play practice following lunch. I am looking forward to tomorrow nights performance! The kids will get their tshirts tomorrow!
We then had snack and recess!
Following recess we stayed outside and discussed onomatopoeia's! We sat and listened for sounds and wrote what they sounded like! This was very fun and the kids really got into it! We discussed all kinda of onomatopoeia's!  We then came inside and wrote a poem!

To finish the day we had our PHM exercise video!

Continue to work on writing, math, and reading each and every night!!!
Enjoy the weather!!!
Joshua Schultz

Tuesday May 14, 2013

We have had a busy two days here in Kindergarten! The Kindergarten program for Thursday evening is really coming together! It is fun to watch them get so excited for their parts!
This morning we had fifth graders come in and lead our class in exercises! We will be doing this all week!!

We have been reading a book about Jackie Robinson and discussing it whenever we have time! It is great to hear what the kids are retaining as we read! We have talked a lot about how some people in our country were treated unfairly. It is great to expose the kids to nonfiction readings and important historical events that have changed our country for the better! When the 42 movie comes out on DVD is might be a great movie for the kids to watch with the family this summer!
We worked a lot with Story Elements today through several different readings. We broke down characters, setting, main idea, and theme. It is important to ask higher level critical thinking questions when reading and discussing readings! The kids have great thoughts!
We have had two center rotations each day! The groups that have been reading with me have done an awesome job! They are sounding out words and comprehending what they are reading!
We have been focusing on simple addition this week in math.
We ended our day with Art!
Today was healthy snack day here at school! Mrs. Duffield provided some delicious strawberries, Cary's Hockenhull provided us with apples and I provided grapes and bananas! The snack was delicious and we discussed why fruits and vegetables are a good choice while deciding things to snack.

Following our snack time we discussed the importance of compost and how all of these items will break down to soil and fertilizer! We discussed how organic things such as leaves, fruits, vegetables, and sticks will eventually break down into dirt and become fertilized soil! I will be taking this bag of peels and leftovers to put into my compost at home! The kids may pressure you into creating a compost bin at home =)

Please continue to read, work on writing, and simple math skills at home! 
15 Days until Summer Vacation!!!
Have a great evening!
Joshua Schultz

Friday May 10, 2013

We are FINISHED with Dibels testing!!!!! 
We all did a GREAT JOB and I am very happy with our scores!!
This morning we worked on practicing identifying the larger number worksheet!
We then watched a movie with the entire Kindergarten so we could celebrate the end of Dibels testing! I finished my testing during this time!
Following the movie we had centers time! We had one rotation this morning.
Following lunch we worked on our Mothers Day Cards (I hope I am right this week!!!)
Next we had our Kindergarten play practice! The program is really coming together!
After practice we had Fairy Tale Time! I had Mrs. Lords class during this time!
We ended the day with our final center rotation for the week and a read aloud with Mrs. Peaks class!

I am so relieved the our Dibels testing is done and am so happy with how the kids did!

I am sending home our tomato plants with the kids today! Please wait and plant it outside next week sometime. We are supposed to have  frost on Sunday evening! The kids are very proud of these and I hope they will be able to observe them throughout the Summer and Fall! We started these from seeds and have been observing their growth! If you do not have a garden you could plant them in a large flower pot! The need full sun and regular watering! Hope they will produce some tomatoes for the kids to try this fall!!

In the red folders is a Mothers Day card for all you awesome Mothers!!! The picture was taken on May 3rd in the front of the school!!! Hope you enjoy the cards and pictures!!!

Please continue reading with children, working on sentence writing, and math skills!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!!! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!
Joshua Schultz 

Tuesday May 7, 2013

We had another busy day today!
This morning for morning work we had a thinking and writing worksheet. The kids had to think of things they have done on rainy days and then write about it. It is great to have the kids thinking and expressing their thoughts in writing!
We completed our morning board and worked on vowel sounds during Fundations.
We had two center rotations today and then went outside for free time because of I step testing so we would not disrupt the testing!
My class had lunch in the yard outside! We had a great time! This was a reward the kids earned! It was fun to sit outside and enjoy our lunch on such a great day!

Following lunch we practiced our lines for the play

We had practice fort he Kindergarten program.

During Math we took a 3 minute math test, worked on our May math books, discussed number words and missing number.

We went outside for science and observed our tomato plants and then took a short nature hike! We talked about oak trees, maple trees, red bud trees, cedar trees, and ground plants. It was a great time!

The kids finished the day in art!

Please work on reviewing missing number skills tonight. Will be testing that tomorrow for Mclass!

Have a great evening!

Joshua Schultz

Mclass Review Packet

What a great Monday back at school today!
We had a very busy day once again, and this week will continue to be a little crazy due to our Mclass testing schedule!
I will start testing tomorrow. We will test on counting to 100 in under a minute. Please work with your children tonight on this skill so it is fresh in their minds! Remind them not to skip any numbers!
This morning our morning work as to write 3 sentences about what you did over the weekend. It is great to see the kids be able to come up with original thoughts for their writing. They also are doing a great job using punctuation and capital letters when needed! I did not help with spelling and encouraged them to use the skills we have learned in Fundations to sound out and spell out their words. 
Following morning work we completed our morning board calender time.
Next we had Fundations! Today we discussed blends CH and SH. We really spent time discussing how different the sounds are and how we can identify a CH and SH when spelling. 
Next we had two center rotations. My reading groups did a GREAT job reading both books!
During our Language Arts time we worked on a reading comprehension sheet. The kids are doing a very good job with these and more and more are volunteering to read out loud each day which is great for confidence! 
We finished the reading comprehension sheet after lunch and had our play practice! Things are really coming together for the play!
We had math in the afternoon. We took a three minute math test and I had 18 students pass today! It is great to see so many passing each day! After the three minute math we had a calender worksheet that was very challenging but we worked through it together. I want the kids to really understand what the days of the month mean and how we can break down days and weeks and months! We had some good discussion during this time! 
We had recess outside today! What great weather!
Following recess we went back outside to do some addition and subtraction problems using sidewalk chalk! The kids enjoyed doing this and we also squeezed in some sight word spelling practice with the sidewalk chalk!
We finished our day in science where we took a nature hike in the woods and prairie  We discussed different plants, trees, and animals that we saw! I think it is great to expose the kids to nature and for them to really just walk and watch how nature works! It was a great time! 

We then came inside to do our bean observation! The seeds sprouted and we discussed why that happened! All seeds need is soil, water, sun, and air to grow! The kids brought these home today! I encourage you to keep this "experiment" going and maybe try planting one of the sprouted seeds as well as keeping one in the bag to keep growing. The kids were very excited about this and I think it may be beneficial for them to continue with their observations at home! Kids need to explore and test things on their own and this is a great way to work their observation skills!
Please work on Mclass packets this evening, review and discuss the skills being tested. Focus on counting to 100 as fast as they can tonight! Will test tomorrow so please be sure kids get a great night of sleep and a good breakfast!!!
Have a great afternoon!!
Joshua Schultz
Monday in class activities!
Mclass review!

May 3, 2013

Happy Friday!
We had a VERY BUSY day today! We worked on a craft for Mothers Day that took a long time to complete!
We also had play practice today that took up a lot of time!
This morning we completed a math worksheet for morning work and then started on our Mothers Day craft. We then had centers and read aloud before heading to lunch.
Following lunch we had our play practice and then worked more on our Mothers Day craft. We then had recess and more time to finish our activity.
We finished the day with art.

Mclass Practice

Please practice MATH this weekend! Mclass testing is next week!!!

Have a good weekend!!!

Joshua Schulttz

We had an awesome day in Kindergarten today!!!!
Will be keeping this short as I have an appointment to get to this afternoon!
I have attached today's lesson plans and activities!
I want you to all focus on Math skills with your children specifically Number identification 0-100, Missing number 0-20, Counting to 100 in a minute, and identifying the larger number out of two numbers. 

I will be sending home some practice sheets for you to work with them over the weekend. This is very important as the end of the year Mclass testing is coming up. We will continue to review in class each day!

This has been a great week and the kids are doing a great job with all their work in the classroom!
Have a great evening! Enjoy the weather!
Joshua Schultz
Wednesday Activities!