Over the Break

Hi all!  We had a GREAT time at our Christmas party making gingerbread cookie "sandwiches" and opening our stockings stuffed with goodies!  Thanks to all who came and/or sent items for the party!  I hope everyone will have a safe, restful, and joyous holiday!!!  School starts back on January 5th!

Important Dates!

Here are a couple of dates to be aware of as we gear up for the holidays:

Friday, Dec. 9-Stocking stuffers for our stockings are due in!
Send your $5 party money if you have not done so.  Gracyn's mom and Kennedy's mom are doing a great job with handling our party plans!


Monday, Dec. 14-Children's Theater trip
Wear your red class t-shirt (a shirt under it is fine as well)

Thursday, Dec. 17-Christmas Party!
Be here at 10:30am if you're helping out! The party will begin at 11:10.

Boosterthon Fun Run

Our class worked so hard during the Fun Run!  We had lots of pledges and ran tons of laps!  It's not too late to turn in donations-please send them in!!!

Thanksgiving Feast!

Our class dressed as Pilgrims for the feast!  Before our feast, we learned about where the Pilgrims came from, why they traveled to America, and what they did when they arrived.  The girls wore bonnets, aprons, and a collar.  The boys wore a collar, hat, and hatchet.  We had a great time tasting some of the food that was serve at the very first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims shared with the Indians a long, long time ago!

Halloween Centers...what fun!!

This week...

November 2-6:
Reading-realism/fantasy, letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, initial sounds, phoneme segmentation (PSF), blending
Math-numerals, one-to-one correspondence, number sense
Science-we will begin our AMSTI unit on Living Things this week!  It's sure to be fun!


**Important Upcoming Events:
Nov. 10-Holiday Lunch (12:00pm) and Parent Night w/ Robert Hudson (6:00pm)
Nov. 11-Veteren's Day Holiday
Nov. 13-Boosterthon Fun Run!!  (Our only school fundraiser this semester)
Nov. 23-27 Thanksgiving Holidays

This week...

October 26-30:
Reading-main idea, letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, initial sounds
Math-numerals, one-to-one correspondence
Science-changes in seasons, holidays

---Thursday is Halloween Centers day!!  Be sure to send in your items by Wednesday and let me know if you can come to run one of the math centers!---

This week...

October 19-23:
Reading-setting, letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, initial sounds
Math-numerals, one-to-one correspondence
Science-changes in seasons
Social Studies-community helpers
**Don't forget to let me know if you can assist with our math-themed Halloween Fun Centers on Thursday, October 29!!!  It is SURE to be loads of fun!!**

This week...

October 12-16:
Reading-compare and contrast (using Venn diagrams), letter recognition, letter sounds, rhyming, initial sounds
Math-numerals, one-to-one correspondence
Science-changes in seasons
Social Studies-community helpers
**Don't forget to let me know if you can assist with our math-themed Halloween Fun Centers on Thursday, October 29!!!**

This week...

October 5-9:
We visit Children's Theater this week to see The Little Red Hen!!  We will do some unit testing for reading as well as review previous weeks' skills;  we will discuss the next unit of reading, which is "Animals live here!".  In math we are making a pumpkin glyph as well as finishing up patterns. We are also talking about community helpers this week!!!

This week...

September 28-October 2:
We are practicing our DIBELS skills of letter naming and initial sounds daily.  We also will focus on classifying and categorizing through our story of the week.  In math we are continuing to work on patterns as well as graphs.  We are learning to name patterns, too (AB, AAB, ABB, ABC, etc.)! We will wrap up our balls and ramps study on Friday ,and parents are invited to view our ramps and roadways on Friday at 12:45pm!!!

This week...

September 21-25:
In reading we will study characters as well as continue working on letters/sounds, rhyming, syllables, and initial sounds.  We will be completing and producing patterns in math, and in science we will continue learning about properties of motion using balls and ramps.  Keep up the good work, Kindergartners!! :)

This week...

September 14-18:
We will be classifying and categorizing in reading as well as practicing rhyming, syllables, and initial sounds.  We also began progress monitoring in DIBELS.  Sorting is our math focus, and in science we will continue our experiments with balls and ramps!  Make sure to turn in your time preference for the DIBELS conferences, parents!
**Picture day is this Wednesday!!**

Math time in Mrs. Simpson's Room!

Here are some pictures of us learning about math manipulatives. This year we will use counting bears, pattern blocks, 3-D shapes, counters, and much more while we learn new math concepts!

This week...

September 8-11:

Reading this week will focus on sequencing events, letter names/sounds, characters, setting, rhyming, and syllables! In math we will learn positional terms (over, on, below, in, out, left, right, etc.). We will also continue our counting practice. Our new science unit begins this week...balls and ramps! We will learn about properties of motion, like speed!! Sound like a busy week, huh? :)

This week...

August 31-September 4:

Our reading focus is on syllables, rhyming, characters, and setting. As always we are practicing letter recognition and letter sounds daily! In math we are building pictures out of combinations of shapes. Our color for the week is RED, so wear red on Friday and send in 3 red magazine pictures. In science we are wrapping up our study of clouds. We are still focusing on rules and directions in social studies. Tuesday is the Title 1/Open House night at 6pm in the HES gym!! I hope to see you there!!! :)

This week...

August 24-28:

We are learning about characters, setting, letters Aa-Ee, and rhyming during reading. We also learned about authors and illustrators. In math we are reviewing shapes as well as colors. Our color for the week is BLUE, so wear blue on Friday and bring in magazine pictures that are blue. Our focus in science is clouds: we are learning about cumulus, stratus, and cirrus clouds. Social studies is focusing on following directions and rules. We are really working hard! Check back soon for pictures from our first day and from math centers!!!

Our first three days...

We had a GREAT first three days of school so far! We have learned how to use our crayons, pencils, glue sticks, and scissors! We've also learned our class rules and procedures...AND we all visited the class Treasure Box! It's easy to see why all 19 students fell asleep at rest time each day! We are off to an excellent start!

Yay for a New Year in Kindergarten!!

I am SO excited to begin the 2009-2010 school year! Kindergarten registration is July 20th from 9-11am and 3-5pm. I hope to see lots of my students then! July 28th and 30th are also registration days for our entire school. Hueytown Elementary is ready to see YOU here for the new school year!

The School Year is Over!

I can't believe our year is through! Our class had a FABULOUS year, and I am so proud of all the progress we made! All of them will be wonderful first graders!!!!! I'll miss them terribly!!!!

As the year winds down...

As this school year comes to a close, I realize how much I am going to miss my students! This class has been such a joy! They are a well behaved, bright, and wonderful group!! We have gone to Children's Theater, Josie's Place farm, and McWane Science Center. We have counted by two's and tied our shoes! We have learned the difference between cumulus clouds and cirrus clouds and ever got to be on TV with a meteorologist! We have truly began a journey of loving to learn, and I hope this is a journey none of students end any time soon!!!! All of them will be successful first graders, and I will miss them all!!!!

Mrs. Simpson's Class

Aren't we a nice looking group?

Hueytown Elementary recently participated in Baskets for Books at a UAB basketball game! Books a Million gave lots of money to the participating schools, with over $5000 going to the winning school--US! Individual classrooms as well as our school library will be getting new books soon thanks to Books a Million!!!