We had a great week returning from Winter Break. The preschoolers were so excited to see each other. We spent the week focusing on friendship and reviewing classroom rules. A review after break always helps the rest of the year go smoothly.
This week will be doing a study of maps, since the preschoolers have been creating their own for weeks and going on adventures trying to find different items in the classroom. Please help your child create a map of their bedroom, this is there homework for the week. ** If you have any books about maps or maps at your house please consider letting us use them for the next couple of weeks. ** In class, this week we will be making maps of our classroom and using it to go on treasure hunts and we will read many non-fiction books about maps. We will also be doing a shapes math talk to discover the different attributes of each shape. Students will work on sorting lower case letters by tall, small and fall and working on challenging puzzles independently. We have transformed the kitchen area into a doctors office. The preschoolers try out different roles including nurse, doctor and patients. They will be filling out forms and using medical tools to take care of others and our baby dolls. During this time we will also be discussing how we can keep each other healthy with the colder weather. The snow has arrived and we love to play in the snow. Please send your child with snow pants, boots, gloves, warm coats and hats. If you are having a difficult time acquiring these items please let us know as we have some extras. Upcoming events: January 21st- No School January 31st: Raise a glass for Ray: Join us for a night out at The Promontory on Thursday January 31, 2019 from 6-8 pm featuring a performance by We, Unity Candle, Ray parent Nate Bakkum's incredible band! $40 in advance or $45 at the door. Child care (for ages 5+) provided by Hyde Park Neighborhood Club (HPNC) from 5:45-8:30 pm for $20/child + $10/sibling, including dinner and fun! Please note that the day following the event, Friday Feb 1, is a non-attendance day for students. All children must be registered with HPNC by 5 pm on January 31st. February 1st: No School
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Dear Families:
Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a wonderful break. We are excited to get back into the swing of things and begin to explore the children's interests. This week we will review classroom rules and expectations. We will also be talking about friendship. We will review the Wheel of Choices and Bugs and Wishes, discuss how we can be kind to each other, role plays ways we can use our words, and look for students who are being kind throughout the day. During small groups we will be focusing on Math. We will play a game called, "The Dice Movement Game", where students will pick a movement and then roll a dice. They then preform that movement the same amount of times as the dice says. This is a great game to play at home with your kids. We will also be looking at different rules for shapes, such as all triangles have three sides. Upcoming Events: January 21st- No School Have a great week, Ms. Weinberg and Ms. Moore Dear Families:
Thank you to everyone who stayed after school on Tuesday for the Gingerbread Literacy Event in the Cafeteria. The Literacy event was a huge success thanks to your participation!! Also thank you for returning your Gingerbread Homework. Everyone did an amazing job. Check out all the unique Gingerbread Collages on our bulletin board by the sinks. See if you can guess how old everyone is! We will wrap up our Gingerbread Unit this week. The children have been enjoying all the different versions of the stories. They have been learning that we can retell the same story in many different ways by changing the setting of a story and the characters. As we prepare for our Gingerbread Celebration, the children will design and plan how they are going to decorate their cookie. Updates for Next Week: Next Week is Ray Spirit Week! Each day there will be a special clothing day. Monday: Ugly/Beautiful Sweater Day Tuesday- Candy Cane Day- bring one to share with classmates or dress like one! Wednesday-Best Green and/or Red Gear Thursday-Pajama Day Friday-Gingerbread Celebrations Gingerbread Celebration 12/21- 2:00 pm We will need a few volunteers to assist with our Gingerbread Celebration. If you are able to assist us please sign up on the sign-up sheet. Winter Show Performance 12/21- 9:30 am The preschoolers will be performing in the Winter Show. They are going to be singing and dancing to the song “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” with our fourth grade buddies. Please help your student learn the words. The lyrics are printed out for you to take home. Here is the link to the song!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_j05PFxN_M If you will be missing any days before break please let us know ahead of time so we can plan accordingly. Upcoming Events: December 21st- Winter Assembly at 9:30 am and Gingerbread Celebration 2:00 pm December 24th- January 4th- Winter Break- No School Have a great week, Ms. Weinberg and Ms. Moore Updates for Next Week:
Next Week is Ray Spirit Week! Each day there will be a special clothing day. Monday: Ugly/Beautiful Sweater Day Tuesday- Candy Cane Day- bring one to share with classmates or dress like one! Wednesday-Best Green and/or Red Gear Thursday-Pajama Day Friday-Gingerbread Celebrations Gingerbread Celebration We will need a few volunteers to assist with our Gingerbread Celebration. If you are able to assist us please sign up on the sign-up sheet. We will also need sweets to decorate the gingerbread people. We will need:
Winter Show Performance The preschoolers will be performing in the Winter Show. They are going to be singing and dancing to the song “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” with our fourth grade buddies. The preschoolers will need to wear dark (preferably black) bottoms and a white (preferably collared) shirt. Please help your student learn the words. The lyrics are printed out for you to take home. If you will be missing any days before break please let us know ahead of time so we can plan accordingly. Thanks, Ms. Weinberg and Ms. Moore Dear Families:Thank you to our fantastic parent volunteers at the MVOL Scholastic Book Fair this week!!! We hope that you and your child have been enjoying the three new books they received at the book fair this past week. The children were so excited to pick out their three books.
The children have been loving all the different versions of the Gingerbread Man. This week we will focus on reading Gingerbread stories with different main characters. We will compare these stories and find out what is the same and what is different. In conjunction with our Gingerbread study, I am excited to invite pre-k through 2nd grade to a very first MVOL Family Literacy Night. This will occur Tuesday, December 11th from 4-5 pm in the school cafeteria. This night will have a Gingerbread Theme to it. We are planning to have Gingerbread themed activities for the students and parents to do together. There will be activities for all 4 grades. There will also be parent literacy tip sheets and a fun, delicious Gingerbread Cookie activity. We will also be having our Gingerbread Celebration on Friday December 21st. We will start the day participating in the all school winter assembly performing the Walking in a Winter Wonderland with our 4th grade buddies and the day will culminate with decorating our own Gingerbread cookies! More information and a sign-up sheet for volunteers and decorating supplies will be up soon! Upcoming Events: December 11th- Gingerbread Literacy Evening- 4-5 in the school cafeteria. December 21st- Winter Assembly at 9:30 and Gingerbread Celebration!! December 24th- January 4th- Winter Break- No School Have a great week, Ms. Anna & Ms. Smith Dear Families:
As we move into the month of December, we have a couple of exciting and busy weeks ahead! The children are all excited to start our Gingerbread Study! We will be spending the month of December reading different versions of the Gingerbread Man. During this time we will be looking at the characters, settings and different problems the gingerbread man encounters. We will start our study by reading The Gingerbread Boy by: Paul Galdone, The Gingerbread Man by: Jim Aylesworth and The Gingerbread Boy by: Richard Egielski. We are also participating in an awesome program (My Very Own Library…MVOL) where all the students at Ray School will receive 10 free books from Scholastic Book Fair. The children will receive 3 free books next week. We are in need of volunteers to assist us in taking the children down to select 3 books. If you are able to assist us please let us know. In conjunction with our Gingerbread study, I am excited to invite pre-k through 2nd grade to a very first MVOL Family Literacy Night. This will occur Tuesday, December 11th from 4-5 pm in the school cafeteria. This night will have a Gingerbread Theme to it. There will be Gingerbread themed activities for the students and parents to do together. There will be activities for all 4 grades. There will also be parent literacy tip sheets and a fun, delicious Gingerbread Cookie activity. I have a Donor Choose grant to help us replace our broken boom box. Please consider making a donation or passing it along to your friends and families. Help us get a new Boom Box here. Upcoming Events: We hope everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving break with their families. We are looking forward to four full weeks of class before winter break!
This week we will be continuing to discuss All About Me with a focus on our families. We will be reading books by Todd Parr and learning about him as an author and an illustrator. Students will be creating Todd Parr Self-Portraits. This means that they will be using bright colors to create their faces and multi-colored paper to make their hair. In addition, we will be working on making a chart about who is in a family, make makes a family and what families do together. We will also be spending time this week focusing on sorting different objects and describing the attributes that we used to sort by. Students will have an opportunity to share their All About Me bags. Ms. Weinberg shared her "Me" bag already and Ms. Moore will be next. Pay attention, to when its your child's turn! They will get a clear backpack to bring items to school. Have a great week, Ms. Weinberg and Ms. Moore We had a very successful first full week together! We are getting acquainted with one another and having a great time practicing solving social problems. This upcoming week and the short week of Thanksgiving we will continue going over routines and working together to create classroom rules.
Going forward, the only toys from home that can come to school are stuffed animals for nap time. Otherwise we ask for your assistance in keeping home toys at home and school toys at school. We will have opportunities for Show and tell and that would be an appropriate time to bring toys from home. Starting on Thursday, we will have mailboxes with the students names. Please check it regularly for student artwork and handouts. I have two donors choose grant open. Please consider making a small donation to help fund materials for our classroom! As the weather gets cooler please be sure to dress your child appropriately. In addition, please check your child’s extra clothes in their cubby to make sure they are weather appropriate for the changing weather. Being that the days are shorter and the weather is cooler outside time will start to become limited. Chicago Public Schools has a great alternative site for parents and kids and to access. BookFlix is an online animated book library that is free for our school for the rest of the year. Here is the information: What is BookFlix? BookFlix supports early literacy development through animated storybooks. This digital platform provides an engaging library of paired fiction and nonfiction ebooks along with supporting literacy activities. How do I Access BookFlix? Your school has a unique username and password that can be used anywhere! To access your account, follow the steps below: • STEP 1: Access BookFlix at: http://bookflix.scholastic.com • STEP 2: Enter username and password. The username and password is the same and is case sensitive o Username:eceray o Password: eceray • STEP 3: Happy Reading! Upcoming events:
I am so excited to be returning to the classroom after my maternity leave! I can't wait to get to know all of the new students and reconnecting with our returning students. We had a great field trip on November 1st! We had wonderful weather which always make the trip to Eden's Place Nature Center more fun! Next week, we will be working to great a strong classroom community. We will be learning more about each one of our friends by introducing the All About Me Bag. Each student will get a chance to bring home a "Me" bag and share a little bit about themselves with the class. We will work on getting to know you graphs, self portraits and how to solve social problems. November 14th is parent-teacher conferences. I will have only been back for less than two weeks when we re scheduled to meet. Therefore, I will be holding a meet and greet event. There will be two times available; 12:30 and 4:30. I will put a sign up sheet so I know how many people to except at each event. At these times you will be able to see the classroom, find out some more about me, learn a little bit more about the curriculum and our goals for the rest of the school year. If you would still like a chance to meet individually with me I will offer conferences after both sessions. Kindergarten Lottery Information As many of you know Chicago Public Schools uses a lottery system for parents to apply to schools outside of their “attendance or neighborhood school” (your “neighborhood” school is zoned by your address. To find out what your neighborhood school is visit: http://go.cps.edu/how-to-apply/elementary-school and scroll down to How it Works and click the search button). If you would like for your child to attend Ray Elementary for kindergarten but you live outside the “neighborhood boundaries” you MUST apply through the lottery application process. Also if you would like to apply for any other school “neighborhood school or a Magnet School (math/science, Montessori or Humanities), Magnet Cluster School (technology, world language, fine performing arts) or Selective Enrollment School (Academic Centers, Gifted Centers, or Classical) you MUST apply as well. The application process has begun! You should go https://go.cps.edu/ to learn all about the process. To begin the process you must create an account. Please go to: https://cps.schoolmint.net/signup in order to create an account and start the process. Log on to the new application site go.cps.edu to get started. We are highly suggesting you start the process now. Chances to get your selected school are higher if you apply early. ***Important Dates for the application process: October 2018–Application Period Begins December 2018- Application Period Ends April 2019- Notification Letters Released Breakfast and Lunch are provided by the school. You may bring your own breakfast or lunch if you would like to.
Please consider donating snack for the class of 21 students. It's a long day and we want to ensure the students have enough to eat. Thank you, Becky Weinberg |
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