Welcome to Mrs. Sparkes K1 Online Classroom

March begins...

Will it come in like a lion or a lamb? 

We will be weather watchers in K-1. 

On Tuesday, March 2nd, we will celebrate Read Across America Day and the birthday of Dr. Seuss. We will be making green eggs and ham and doing Dr. Seuss activities all week.

Bring in Dr. Seuss books to share. (Names on books please.) 

In reading/language arts, we will practice Rr, Pp, Ll and Uu, the sound each makes and the correct way to print the letters.

Try writing some short sentences at home using the letters, sight words and families we have learned. 

Our new words are - go, me, to, do 

Word families: -ug, -um, -up, -ut, -un 

Can you make a  list of words for each family?

We are also practicing comprehension, main idea, comparing and contrasting and opposites. 

We begin our countdown to spring!

Look, Listen and Learn Fair is Thursday, March 4th @6:30. We hope you can attend. There wil be a keynote speaker on Internet Safety.

Please RSVP, ASAP, the snow days really put us behind 

Tomorrow we will have fun with our sink and float predictions, delayed by our snow days.

We have also been trying to eat the colors of the rainbow (fruits and veggies)and you may also have been asked by your child to get up and excercise during commercials. All part of our healthy habits and healthy hearts lessons.

In math we are measuring, balancing , counting, drawing lines, idenifying shorter and longer, counting dimes and telling time.

Family Discussion...We read a beautiful book the other day entiltled, If Jesus Came to Visit Me . The children really loved the book . If Jesus came to your house, what questions would you like to ask him?

We are looking forward to St. Patrick's and St. Joseph's Day, along with the arrival of SPRING! 

FYI... We are planning a special "buddy breakfast" for kindergarten and buddy families. Details very soon. 

Thanks for all you do! 

 January 20th

We are very busy in kindergarten and so excited to celebrate Catholic School's Week at the Bishop's Academy at Holy Family!

We have been discussing:Why our school is special and what we love about our school? You will see it all on display at our Open House on Thursday. 

This week we will focus on winter, snow and all that goes along with this beautiful season. 

We will conduct science experiments with snow and ice, learn about penguins and polar bears, cut snowflakes, make a snowflake snack,learn about Snowflake Bentley, read more Jan Brett and play in the snow.

The children are doing such a nice job and are enjoying writing in their journals. 

Homework: Talk with your child about what makes them "one of a kind", just like a snowflake.

Thanks for all you do, especially the Hooley, and for entrusting your child to the Bishop's Academy at Holy Family. 

Don't forget Hearts for Haiti. 

Happy New  Year! 

It was a busy week here in K-1 and this is just some of what happened. 

We are off to a great "new year" start in kindergarten.  We loved all our presents and appreciate your thoughtfulness.

January class began with discussion about resolutions and goals. Each child chose one to write about for 2010.

We discussed and read the bible story of the Epiphany. We talked about the Three Kings, the Wise Men, the gifts they brought to Jesus and The 12 Days of Christmas.

Next we will learn about God's creation and create a mobile. 

We met Kirby from the credit union and more info will be sent home soon.

We wrote a list of what a snowman needs and then tried to remember all 12 items on our list when the children made their own drawing. We also read many "snowman" books and enjoyed them very much.

We are really working on being a good listener and listening for information 

We are trying to label and write more everyday. We made our January Journals and decorated the cover.

They are very excited to write more, we encourage practice at home. Start with our sight words and word families and then build simple sentences. It should not be frustrating. 

We blended words with short o and reviewed short a and short i. We practiced letters and sounds and words/word families everyday.

New sounds and letters Tt, Oo, Cc, Ff. Words you, are, have, we.

Please try to reinforce at home and read the "little books" together. On the Dot will be home soon.

In math we counted by 10s, practiced dot to dot,used dimes and matched dots and numbers. We played with geo-boards, balance scales and continue to practice estimating, story problems, and patterns. 

We practiced speaking to a group when we shared our "mystery bags" and "show and tell" gifts.(If they forgot they can still bring them in to share.)

Tons of fun playing in the snow !!!!!

What's next in kindergarten?

In January we will focus on journals, snow, penguins, polar bears, our five senses, author Jan Brett, science experiments with snow and ice, making snowflakes, weather watching, making predictions and learning about Martin Luther King Jr.. Just to name a few. 

Catholic Schools Week (Jan. 25-29)will be here soon and special activities will highlight each day. More info soon.

Kindergarten will receive their first report card this month so we will be assessing skills in the next few weeks. 

The Hooley (Feb.6th) is our major fundraiser and BA@HF would appreciate the support of all our families. More information will be sent home soon, if you have any questions, please ask.

The fabulous K-1 Hooley Basket will have a Valentine's Day theme. 

There are many ways to help and "The Hooley" is great fun! 

Outside play:

Monday and Fridays we will try to play outside (weather permitting). Please send snowpants and extra socks on those days.

Everyday your child should have boots, mittens and a hat, just in case we take a walk.

Extra snowpants, etc. may be left in school but please label all clothing.

In closing... 

Thanks for all you do to support us and your child. We couldn't do it without you!

Thank you for entrusting your child to the Bishop's Academy at Holy Family. 

Mrs. Sparkes and Mrs. Papa 

December is here. It will be a very busy time both in school and at home.

Our goal is to keep the routine as normal as possible, that being said, there will be lots of fun and secret projects included.

We have "Little Shoppers" next Wednesday. We will shop first thing in the morning. Remember to send in the form, money and gift tags and the helpers will do the rest.

Christmas Concert onThursday,12/10.Children should wear their "Sunday Best" and arrive in our classroom no later than 6:30. For first timers, it is very crowded so get there early.

You may pick up your child after the concert in the church. We will sit together as a class after we perform. 

Don't forget about the wonderful Breakfast with Santa on December 12th. Make your reservations soon!

We are finishing up Unit 2 in our reading and are learning about time and pennies in math. Practice at home would be helpful.

Our next sight word is - said. Next letter is -Tt.

We are learning about Needs and Wants, a good time of year to stress need not want!

In religion, we are discussing Advent and preparing our hearts for Christmas. As a family make a list of "Gifts from the Heart" and bring it in to share. Also,any family Chistmas traditions you would like to tell us about?

Children may also bring in Christmas books to share.  

FYI

On December 18th it will be Polar Express Day, We have not told the children yet so please keep it under your hat for now. Details soon.

Also, our party will be on Tuesday, December 22nd. The last day of school is the 23rd.

The children in our class will not have a gift exchange. We will have a school wide "kindergarten dress down service project" (details soon)and the school "Hat and Mitten Tree." 

Thanks for all you do and for entrusting your child to the Bishop's Academy at Holy Family. 

Mrs. Sparkes and Mrs. Papa 

K-1 News to Note. Happy November! 

We are not quite sure where October went but we had lots of fun in K-1.

The class enjoyed making Gak, milkshakes, spider snacks and noodles. They are discovering there is "science" all around us.

We became "experts" on pumpkins and will do activities with our buddies this week. Our list of spider facts is growing and we had fun spinning a web with yarn to practice our facts. 

We enjoyed many Halloween books. Learned some Halloween songs and finger plays, I hope you have been hearing them at home. 

In Math we continue to explore with our manipulatives. We are practicing - one to one, making sets, ways to count accurately, recognizing and ordering numbers 1-10. ordinal position, shapes and their attributes and patterns and pattern blocks. 

The class made sandwiches for the homeless again on Wednesday. We are praying a decade of the Rosary each day. If your child has a rosary to bring they may, if not we have extras. (Might be a possible Christmas gift.) 

In Ela/Reading we began our next unit. The next letters to focus on for sounds and printing are Mm, Dd, Ss. We will continue to blend words with short a with s, d, and m. Dad, Sam. When you are reading ask your child questions about beginning middle and end. 

Thanks for all you do, your support is greatly appreciated. 

 Thank you for entrusting your child to the Bishop's Academy at Holy Family. 

I hope you will check the website often for information.

If you have any questions or concerns please let us know.

Mrs. Sparkes and Mrs. Papa 

P.S. The children continue to do wonderful job!!