Crew News January 26th, 2024

  Announcements 

Leading The Beat: Next Wednesday, our Crew will be leading the all-school meeting that we call The Beat from 9-9:30. (Parents and families welcome!) Students will be sharing a song they learned with Ms. Liesl and our ABC Book of Crew that was made with Ms. Staci. Additionally, several volunteers signed up for speaking roles to share our learning from expedition about integrity and Crew. 

Here is a link to our script. Please practice these words to become familiar and eventually memorize parts by next Wednesday. Also help your child to know who speaks before them, so that they get used to the order. Don't worry- we will be practicing a lot in class too! Thanks for your support! We are excited.

Scholastic Book Clubs: 

Class Order Due Date: 02/5/24
Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/YCRBR
Shop Digital Flyers for Our Grade with Your Child: https://clubs.scholastic.com/kindergarten
Class Code: YCRBR
Place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout). These are great for Valentine's or Easter gifts. I can put them in backpacks or I am happy to be more discreet to pass them to you at an alterative time to be given as gifts. Just send me a quick email if that is your preference. :)

Repeated for Reference

Valentine's Day Card Exchange: Valentine's Day is less than a month away! At REMS and in the spirit of Crew, please make valentines for everyone in our crew. Homemade is encouraged but store-bought is great too. No candy or food please. Small trinkets or crafts are okay. A list of first names can be found HERE, which has the names of students and staff members (optional).  My suggestion is to begin having your child write out 2-3 names each day, rather than a large chunk right before. Your child should also bring a box to school on that day, approximately shoebox size with access to drop in valentines, and his or her name clearly displayed. What a great, authentic opportunity for writing and practicing handwriting! This is another experience that brings our crew close together. Please let me know if you have other questions! We will celebrate on February 14th.

*Please make a Valentine Card for your child's 4th grade buddy.
*Please note: do not send extra gifts, treats, or candies for buddies. There have been a lot of hurt feelings in the past from some buddies giving gifts and other not getting any- so we strongly ask that only cards are exchanged.

Rug Washing Sign Up: Now updated for Second Semester. Thank you and don't forget to log your volunteeer hours into Track It Forward. 
Second Semester Rug Washing Sign Up

Calendar

Jan 31st: Ms. Lauren's Crew leads The Beat 9-9:30

Feb 7th: Cereal Box Challenge- please send in a cereal box before

Feb 14th:  Valentine's Day

Feb 16th: No School (Professional Development Day)

Feb 19th: No School (President's Day)

Mar 30: Save the Date: REMS Annual Auction

Crew Highlights: 

*Phonics: Our focus was on the letter U. New sight words included big & with. Here is our Updated Phonics List. Next Assessment was moved from this week to next week.

*Reading: We have been exploring a new kind of reading: How To Text. Students have noticed that there are a list of things you need, there are step in order, it uses words like first, next, then, last,  and it tells you how to do something.

*Writing: We have continued to work on pattern books. Students picked things/people/places they love and wrote "I love ____" booklets. At the end of each writing workshop, students are self reflecting and rating their own writing to celebrate and set goals each time they write. 

Math: Students were thrilled to bring home their volume 1 math journals on Tuesday. As a math warm up, I did an exercise with math facts 0-5. I noticed several having trouble with correctly reading the plus and minus sign and remembering which sign was which. I am asking that you practice at home with flashcards. This extra repetition will really strengthen foundational skills, as now we are moving in a Unit about numbers 6-10. I sent home copies of flashcards in Take Home Folders, but here is a link if you need it: 

0-5 Math Facts Addition & Subtraction

Expedition: On Thursday, students were getting more clues about our next expedition. Their first challenge was to move a ball. Easy! The second challenge was to move a ball without touching it. Several were stumped at first, but then began to blow on it! I asked them to reflect as scientists who experiment multiple times, how did it work if you gave a soft breath? Short hard breath? Long hard breath? Breath towards the top of ball? Middle of Ball? And so one. These were great clues to our next science expedition.

Then on Friday, the great reveal! The topic of this expedition is called MOVE IT! It is a study of force and motion. We will be working as scientists to solve challenges about force and learning about simple machines. Stay tuned!

A highlight from our week was doing a drum circle with our K-3 crews. One goal of this drum circle was to prepare the students for the all-school drum circle that we will have at the end of the year. 

Two teachers led the circle: Ms. Mikaela from first grade and myself. Ms. Julie from second grade was our Beat Keeper (cowbell). :) Drumming is such a special tradition that we have at our school.

Our Crew did an outstanding job! When reflecting afterward, some expressed some nervousness but most shared that it made them feel happy and like CREW! Hopefully you got to hear all about it.

Another highlight of our week was our time with 4th grade buddies on Friday.

They were excited to share about their about their time on Winter voyage.

It was fun to listen into their conversations about cross county skiing and what they learned about the science of snow. 

Happy Birthday Rebecca!

Happy Birthday Delaney!

Happy Birthday Lucy!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! 

See you Monday.

~Ms. Lauren

Crew News January 19th, 2024

 Announcements 

Valentine's Day Card Exchange: Valentine's Day is less than a month away! At REMS and in the spirit of Crew, please make valentines for everyone in our crew. Homemade is encouraged but store-bought is great too. No candy or food please. Small trinkets or crafts are okay. A list of first names can be found HERE, which has the names of students and staff members (optional).  My suggestion is to begin having your child write out 2-3 names each day, rather than a large chunk right before. Your child should also bring a box to school on that day, approximately shoebox size with access to drop in valentines, and his or her name clearly displayed. What a great, authentic opportunity for writing and practicing handwriting! This is another experience that brings our crew close together. Please let me know if you have other questions! We will celebrate on February 14th.

*Please make a Valentine Card for your child's 4th grade buddy.
*Please note: do not send extra gifts, treats, or candies for buddies. There have been a lot of hurt feelings in the past from some buddies giving gifts and other not getting any- so we strongly ask that only cards are exchanged.

Rug Washing Sign Up: Now updated for Second Semester. Thank you and don't forget to log your volunteeer hours into Track It Forward. 
Second Semester Rug Washing Sign Up

Cereal Box Challenge- Service

Ms. Sami's 4th grade Crew is continuing the tradition of the cereal box challenge for their BEAT. The cereal box challenge is a fun, worldwide challenge that represents a domino effect of cereal boxes and supports local food banks. Check out the videos from 2022 and 2023. This year, Ms. Sami's crew plans to spell out WE ARE CREW with the boxes. Ms. Sami's Crew is asking each student and staff member to bring in at least one unopened box of cereal before February 7th. Thank you!

From the Office: 

Please have your students refrain from wearing their heelys at school. The variety of surfaces we have at REMS are a recipe for unexpected falls and injuries. Athletic, closed toed shoes are recommended.

Car line Reminders: 

• Unload/load students on the right side of the street onto the sidewalk. 

• If you are dropping students off, please use the car line or park and walk them to the crosswalk. Avoid dropping students off in handicap spots or in the middle of the parking lot. 

• Use crosswalks. 

• Cell phone free please! 

• Stay in your car in the car line.  A staff member will assist your student with loading and unloading. 

• Pull all the way up in the line to ensure efficiency. 

• If you have made arrangements for someone new to pick up your child, ensure they are on the Emergency Contact list and let your child's teacher know. 

• Drop off and pick up students on time. 

Calendar

Jan 31st: Ms. Lauren's Crew leads The Beat 9-9:30

Feb 7th: Cereal Box Challenge

Feb 14th:  Valentine's Day

Feb 16th: No School (Professional Development Day)

Feb 19th: No School (President's Day)

Mar 30: Save the Date: REMS Annual Auction

Crew Highlights: 

Here is a quick summary of our week:

*Phonics: Our focus was on the letter B. New sight words included you & and. Here is our Updated Phonics List. Next Assessment will be at the end of next week.

*Writing: Students have been working on creating Pattern Books, which we define as having words that repeat. Additionally, our crew wrote "Have Fun on Voyage" notes to our 4th grade buddies who leave for their winter voyage next week.

*Math: This math unit is working on addition and subtraction within 5. Students need to be able to look at the picture model to see if something is being added or taken away.

*Reading: Our new reading unit is called Technology at Home and School. Our mentor text shares a lot of information about how technology has changed over time. This lends perfectly to comparing and contrasting. Ask your child an interesting fact learned this week. Perhaps discuss how technology has changed since your childhood to present.

*Expedition: Students worked as scientists to conduct a sink or float experiment. We used the scientific method to form a question, make predictions, do the experiement, record observations, and make conclusions. Also, the crew talked about how scientists use: eyes for making observations, feet for investigating the world, a curious mind for asking questions, tools to help gather data, and hands to test a hypothesis.

We used items from the classroom to conduct our experiment.

I loved seeing their surprised faces to seeing the apple float!

Check out Seesaw for pictures of your child doing the sink/float experiments!

Have a wonderful weekend, 

~Ms. Lauren

Crew News January 12th, 2024

 Announcements 

Snow Gear- A big thank you for sending snow gear in this week, including outside boots and inside shoes. I truly appreciate it! Also, I've noticed how much more quickly and independently students have been getting their gear on and off- Bravo! 

Calendar

Jan 15th: No School; Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Jan 31st: Ms. Lauren's Crew leads The Beat 9-9:30

Crew Highlights: 

Expedition Update!

(Reminder- expeditions are what we call our social studies and science units.)

Last semester, our focus was on social studies with our WE ARE CREW expedition.

We just revealed in our next expedition, we will be focusing on SCIENCE.

The first place to start was brainstorming "what do we think we know about scientists?" Then we watched a video and read a book to learn more. 

This chart shows their thinking and learning.

Next we began working as scientists. At 12:50pm, I collected some snow from our outside playground and slushy blacktop. I asked what questions do you have? They had many! But we decided to focus on: how fast will the snow melt? What will it look like? Students made predictions that ranged from 1 hour to 4 months for the cup of snow to melt. Also, some predicted the water would be clear and others predicted that it would be very dirty.

At 1:50

And at 3:45! 

Students noticed all the dirt (and woodchip- ha!) in the water. 

Some concluded that maybe they should stop eating the snow from the playground (yes please!). It was a great example of using the scientific method from start to finish! We will be doing another experiment before we reveal the official topic of our new science expedition.

In writing, we launched a unit on Pattern Blocks. We read an example, and students began writing their own 3 page pattern book, using one of the suggested sentence starters.

In phonics, we are easing back into the swing of things, and we took some time to review and practice the sight words that we have covered so far. 

Here is our list for reference.

In reading, we have been reviewing a variety of skills with our read alouds including: identifying the author, illustrator, & title on the cover; retelling the events of the plot in order; comparing/contrasting characters across two texts; and using opposites to help us better understand word meanings. Then students took a Benchmark Assessment to practice these higher level skills indpendently.

In math, we have been working on Subtraction Within 5. Students used manipulatives, pictures, and even play-doh to model subtraction problems. I try to use a variety of language to talk about subtraction, so that they are familar with the words "take away," "minus," "subtract," and "difference."

On Tuesday, we had outdoor teambuilding with Mr. Cody. The theme of each game was using integrity. In one game, they were passing different sized balls using elbows only, and in another game, students had to alternate with running and freezing to accomplish a goal. Our crew did GREAT and used their integrity! 

Check Seesaw for pictures of passing the ball with elbows.

Running and then freezing (standing still) to capture the ball.

On Wednesday, Mr. Doug hosted our school cup-stacking tournament. It was incredible to see students of all grades (even 2 Kindies!) race against each other, until there was the last one standing as our school champion! It was truly inspiring to see the participants give each other high fives or fist bumps after each match, celebrating that each person tried their best. With perseverance, anyone can master this skill! 

With 4th grade buddies, students set goals and New Years Resolutions.

 There were a page of choices, 

and it was fun to see which ones they selected as their resolutions.

These will come home in Take Home Folders.

In preparation for our upcoming holiday, we spent some time talking about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact. It is very inspiring to hear kindergartners talking about friendship and treating everyone with kindness and respect!

Happy Birthday Tommy!

Happy Birthday Harry!

And just like that, it is 2024!

Stay warm this weekend! 

See you Tuesday,

Ms. Lauren