Important Dates:
Nov.11-15- Friendship Week Nov. 22 - PreK Thanksgiving Party Nov. 25-29 - Thanksgiving Break Hello Scotties! I wanted to take a few minutes to share some important upcoming events with you! We will have a Thanksgiving Party to end our "Sharing and Thanksgiving" Unit. We will have activities for students and parents to walk through and celebrate together! If you are not able to attend, we would love to welcome a grandparent or aunt/uncle to come and support your child at this event. In addition to attending the party, we would love your support in gathering the items to make this party an awesome time! Click HERE to preregister to attend our class thanksgiving party I would love to find a time to have a conference in person or on the phone with every family before winter break. Please choose an available time for a conference on your child's progress in PreKindergarten. CONFERENCE SIGN UP Focus- Letters: T,S,A,I,M,B,O,E ELA: Syllables, Recognizing Rhyming, Math: Counting 1-15, Counting one to one to 6, Regcognizing numbers 0-3, Making numbers to 5 Dramatic Play: Grocery Store, Making Lists Math and Science: Math Small Group work, Shelter, Earth Materials Social Studies: Wants and Needs Read Alouds: Thanksgiving Theme, Friendship, Sharing If you need anything at all, please feel free to contact me via dojo or email Kindest Regards, Lara Cotton
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September Important Dates 12- Open House 5:30 - 7:30 14 - Spring Creek Athletics 16 to 19 - Book Fair 17 - Spirit Night @ Mi Rancho 27 - Character Day Hey Families! Here are a few updates for the week! Tuesday is our library day! Please send your child's books back every Tuesday so they can get a new book to bring home! There is a white plastic bag coming home tomorrow. This bag is your child's library bag! Please keep your books in the bag so they are a bit more protected from lunches, snacks and other things that might be in your child's backpack. Homework Folders- Your child's homework folder came home today! Please sign and return the folder on the blue calendar every day. Your child has a name writing sheet and a dry erase marker to practice every night. There is also a green "Challenge" form that you and your student can work on together! Please sign or color in the square when you have completed that activity with your student. If your student completes the challenges please return the form to have your child pick from treasure! Your child will get a new challenge form every month! ME BAG- Tomorrow your child will bring home a gallon size bag. Please help your child fill it with little things that represent their culture, heritage and favorite things about them. We will be using these next week in our community circles to learn more about each other! Centers! Our centers have changed for our new unit! Our new unit is called, all about me! We will be exploring emotions, 5 senses and naming parts of the body! We are having a heavy focus on writing our name and looking at the first letter in your students name. Dramatic Play- Birthday party Library- retelling Goldilocks and the 3 Bears with puppets along with free reading Sensory- Birthday cake playdough and small parts play for fine motor Construction- Foam blocks, large and small legos, wooden blocks Art/Writing- free explore of crayons and markers Math/Science- Mr.Potatohead matching, 5 senses exploring, ten frame building 1-5 Technology- Counting Birthday Candles game Read Alouds- Pladapus lost, Pete the Cat 4 groovy buttons, 5 senses Thanks for sharing your sweet babies with me everyday! I am really falling in love with them and I already see so much growth! Kindest Regards, Lara Cotton Hey Families!
We have had a wonderful first week! I have enjoyed getting to know your sweet little ones and I have been loving them take in their first week of school! We explored centers, learned new songs and started to build fine motor skills to develop our handwriting! Notes from the first week: WATER BOTTLES: Please send your child with a water bottle! Starting this week we will let them take them out on the playground with us and also have them to access in class. Please only put water in this bottle, as juice or other liquids stain and can be sticky when they spill. SNACKS: Thank you so much for all of your generous donations!!!! I am so happy to be able to provide snack for everyone and let that be one less thing for families to worry about! It make our day run quickly and smoothly when we don't need to dig through backpacks! HW Folders: This week your child will be bringing home a black folder. Please initial the day on the calendar every night and help your child return this to their backpack. This black folder is their responsibility to return to our class bucket every morning! In the HW folder you will find a calendar of homework like practice activities you can do with your child to reinforce their school learning! Please use this folder to send any transportation change notes, doctor notes or any papers for me! In addition to HW activities please read with your child every night! This is such a special time to bond with your child and ask them about their day! SCOTTIE FOLDER: On Wednesdays, we will send home our school folder with our work and other school papers. Please sign and return this every Thursday. This week we will focus on- Unit 1- My School Read Alouds- Bear Feels Scared, Pete the Cat I love my white shoes, Pete the Cat school shoes, ELA- Introducing names, uppercase letters, and letters of the alphabet Science/SS- pledges to the US and Texas Flag, How can you be safe on the playground? Math- counting to 10, making numbers 1-5 Social Skills- Outdoor play, stopping play, personal boundaries Dear Parents,
Library Books: All Books due May 20- One CLASS winner per grade level with 100% return will be entered into a drawing to win one FREE book per student! (6.00 & below) at BOGO book fair Drawing will be done 9:00am on 5/20 Please start sending in those library books! Celebrating our students: We are taking the last few days of kinder to give each student a day to celebrate them and their growth and how special they are! We are taking a community circle and saying a special memory or something they like about that friend! Its so fun to watch our kids love on each other and remember fun things they have done together! This person is the helper for the rest of the day. The last week or two I have some fun activities planned so we can come together as a class and love on each other and celebrate all of the hard work they have done in kinder. Some of the activities have food. If you would rather your child not participate in these activities please let me know. Field Day: If you did not order a field day shirt, please wear a light blue shirt or another Mahaffey shirt on field day. Graduation: We are so excited to celebrate the culmination of kindergarten! We are asking for juice box donations to help with our celebration reception! If you wouldn’t mind sending a pack please let me know. 😊 Talent Show Info: Talent Show Auditions Auditions will be on May 20, 2019. There will be a panel of judges and the talent show will be on May 30. Both the auditions, and the performance will be during the school day. Students may sign up to audition for a maximum of 2 acts, one must be a group performance. Students will be notified by Friday May 24, 2019. Any questions can be directed to Lisa Kelley [email protected] DEADLINE to submit application to audition is WEDNESDAY May 15. NO late applications will be accepted. Important Upcoming Dates
Love, Mrs.Cotton From PTO-
Just thought I'd give a quick run down about what our Fall Scottie Social Fundraiser entails. We are so excited about our upcoming event, which is VERY QUICKLY approaching, so after visiting with a few parents, we thought it would be a good idea to fill any holes or explain a little about our FUNDRAISER! Yep, that's right. Fundraiser. -no cookie dough sales -no door to door sales from your PTO Mahaffey.... ....instead just a great evening of -Games -Dancing -Silent auction -Food -Fun with our Mahaffey community, family & friends We will have lots of -Carnival & Field Day types of games -Dunking booth -Silent Auction -Delicious BBQ plates, Grilled Cheese sandwiches, Nachos & Tikiz shaved ice SnoCones (all food available for purchase) And Thank YOU teachers for signing up to "work" a shift!! I promise your kids will LOVE seeing you!! The $15 wristband <fundraiser> purchase gives our kiddos all access to games & bounce houses. They also have a chance to win prizes! Teachers, trust me, we know there is a lot we are asking for right now from our families.... -Membership dues -Box Tops -Wristband purchase orders -helping with Coins for Caring -upcoming Spirit Night participation.... ....but please know that the proceeds we make from these events all go directly back to your grade levels and classrooms! We are excited about the opportunity provided to help raise funds for the grade level Literacy Libraries, so cool for our kiddos! Thank you so very much for helping spread the word to your students & parents about our PTO events. The Reminds, Dojos, Tweets, emails, websites, flyers are all great ways to help communicate. Please help share our news!! Opportunities to bid on Silent Auctions should be lots of fun. Scottie Social is Friday, November 3rd, 5-8pm located outside in the back courtyard and field of the school, Silent Auction held in the cafeteria. Thank y'all for your support!! We hope this info helps out all of our new families, teachers and those who were unable to attend last year, or those who just didn't know HOW MUCH FUN the Scottie Social can be!!! Greetings Families!
Its going to be a great week! - We have a new computer program that is coming home on Wednesday! STRIDE Academy is a great website where your child can practice math, reading, and science skills anytime at home. We will be using this in class as well. Your child's login will be coming home tomorrow. -Your first scholastic book order forms are coming home TODAY. There will be a flyer attached explaining the program and things to look for when ordering your child books for their home library! There are lots of books for $1. Books make excellent Christmas presents! *wink, wink* :-) -Report Cards are coming home Friday. If you have any questions or would like to conference about your child's progress drop me a note! Here are our learning targets. Weekly Targets Language Arts- I can identify lower case and uppercase letters. I can practice and review my sounds we have learned so far. Reader's Workshop- I can practice reading to self. I can practice reading just right books. I can blend sounds. I can segment sounds. I can identify rhyming and non rhyming pairs. I can identify characters in a story. I can identify the setting of stories. Writer's Workshop- I can write and draw to tell what I am thinking on my paper. I can increase my stamina by staying focused on writing. Math- I can generate a set using concrete and pictorial models that represents a number that is more than,less than,and equal to a given number up to 10 Science/SS- I can observe, describe, and record how weather changes in each season. I can identify events that have repeating patterns including the four seasons. Upcoming Events- 10/20 SNAP Parties 10/19 Cotton's Vision and hearing screenings 10/25 Spring Creek BBQ Fundraiser Night 5-9pm Make sure your reading and practicing your sight words every night! Hey Parents!
I hope you are having a fabulous week! Here are our weekly targets for learning! Weekly Targets Language Arts- I can identify lower case and uppercase letters. I can name, make, and identify the sounds for /N/ and /D/ Reader's Workshop- I can practice reading to self. I can practice reading just right books. I can blend sounds. I can segment sounds. I can identify rhyming and non rhyming pairs. Writer's Workshop- I can write and draw to tell what I am thinking on my paper. I can add labels to help the readers understand what I am writing. Math-I can read,write and represent whole numbers from 0 to 10 Science/SS- I can explore what happens between magnets and objects. I can identify rules that provide order security and safety. Make sure your reading and practicing your sight words every night! Dates to Remember- 10/11 Picture Day 10/12 Firetruck visits kinder 10/13 School Holiday 10/16 School Holiday 10/17 Vision and hearing screenings Love, Mrs.Cotton Helpful Kindergarten Tips!
Snack- I strongly encourage your child to bring a NUTRITIOUS snack daily. We are a NUT FREE classroom. We may have students with severe allergies and we want to make sure all students are safe. A few healthy snack options are: fresh or dried fruit, cheese and crackers, pretzels, snap peas, carrots, celery, beef jerky, ect. Read labels carefully to make sure you are not sending peanuts or tree nuts as an ingredient. Do not allow your student to bring cookies or candy for snack. We have snack in our class to refuel our bodies for learning. In addition, I encourage your child to keep a water bottle at in their cubby to hydrate throughout the day. Please make sure that water bottles are properly sealed. Only water will be allowed in class water bottles. Extra clothes- Since kindergarten is an adjustment for some students please send some extra clothes (name labeled in a gallon size bag) just in case an accident occurs. These will stay in the backpack all year as a “backup.” Also, our air conditioning is efficient! Your child is welcome to bring a sweater to keep at school and wear as needed throughout the school day (label all items with their first and last name). First week arrival- Parents will be allowed to walk their student to the door of their classroom for the first week ONLY. After the first week student will be directed by Mahaffey stuff to their classrooms. Lunch- if your student is buying lunch, please make sure to send lunch money in a ziplock bag labeled with your students’ name. Money needs to be collected by the cafeteria before the class day begins. If your student has money when they come to class, I send them with a friend to deposit it into their account so nothing gets lost. :) Newsletter-I send an email about once a week updating you on things going on at school and in our classroom, this email will also link to our class blog for pictures and other information. If you would like both parents, or other caregivers included in the email please make sure to email Mrs.Cotton so they can be included in the list. Website- I will be updating my website frequently. You will find important information, pictures, and student resources. Our class website is www.cottonskinders.weebly.com Hello friends!Its a new school year and I am soooooo excited to have a brand new group of kinders! This is my most favorite time of year! Since I will be on maternity leave until the first week of October, I wanted to take a minute to introduce you to my long term sub Mrs.McCarthy! Here is a letter from her! <3 I am so excited she has decided to be my sub! I am very excited to get to know your children through her and my class visits to prepare me for when I am back in October!
Hello Mrs. Cotton’s Kinder Parents, My name is Megan McCarthy and I will be Mrs. Cotton’s Sub while she is out enjoying her precious baby girl. Let me start off by introducing myself. I am a mother of 3 kids. I have a 7th grader at Krimmel, a 5th grader at Mahaffey and I to have a little one starting Kinder this year. I also have 4 fur babies. I grew up in Spring and graduated from Spring High. I then went on to graduate from Sam Houston State University with an Agriculture Education degree. After graduation, I got married and had my first baby and decided to stay home. Then after baby number 2 I decided I wanted to teach elementary so that’s what I did. I am a certified EC-4th grade teacher. I taught for 5 years before deciding to stay home with baby number 3. I taught 1st grade for two years, 2nd grade for 1 year and Kindergarten for 2 years. I plan on going back to work full time but wanted to spend this year subbing so I could still enjoy my little ones first year of school. I assure you that your child is in good hands. Not only will I teach them the basics they need to know for kinder, but I will teach them how to love learning. Mrs. Cotton and I have similar teaching styles and I will try to do a lot of what she does so when she comes back the transition is seamless! Parent and teacher communication is very important so I will keep a good line of communication with you. I encourage you to email me if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to working with your child and helping them get a good start in their first year of school. Megan McCarthy [email protected] Hello All!
I hope you had a restful break! We are ready to hit the ground running tomorrow! I plan on doing a review of our class rules and procedures and doing some share time about all of the fun things that happened over the holidays! I have some fun news! My husband and I are expecting our first baby due this summer!!! On Christmas Eve we found out its a LITTLE GIRL!We are over the moon excited to meet her! I am planning on telling my students very quickly tomorrow morning as there isn't much hiding that it looks like I had one too many christmas cookies! If you wish, feel free to discuss this with your child tonight or tomorrow morning! I know that it can be a hard subject for some kiddos to grasp! I am going to read a book and tell them that I have a text to self connection!!! I am hoping for a fun little activity to get our new year started! Our Weekly Focus: In addition to our focus, we will be DRA testing reading levels and middle of the year MAP testing this week. I will be sending a google form to sign up for middle of the year conferences once we have all the results of our testing. Writing: Writing Stories ELA: Rhyme, Blending, Alliteration - CVC (a) - Predicting and Inferencing Math: 2-D shapes Science: Day and Night, Objects in the Sky Homework packets will be going home tomorrow! THIS IS THE MOST EXCITING TIME OF THE YEAR FOR ME!!! Students make so much growth in reading between now and spring break!! Keep reading with your kiddos! They are going to blow us out of the water with how much they grow this year! Kindest Regards, Lara Cotton Kindergarten Teacher Mahaffey Elementary www.cottonskinders.weebly.com |