Ms. Lauren's Kindie Crew 23-24: Crew News February 23rd, 2024

Announcements

Overnight Voyage Chaperones Needed: This is the time of year when Ms. Bethany and I look ahead to our Voyage (overnight experience) at Camp Elim in Woodland Park on Wednesday, May 15th to Thursday, May 16th. This is a wonderful and culminating Crew Experience for our crew! Please note that our Day of Rest will be Friday, May 17th (which means no school for kindergarten on this day). We need parent chaperones for this Voyage. If you would like to be a chaperone please email me and I will put your name on a Potential Chaperone List. Also, please let me know if you would be willing to drive yourself or students. If we have more chaperones than we need, we put names in a hat and draw out names. We will confirm chaperones before Spring Break.

Spring Climbing Next Week: Our crew will climb in PE next week. The number of climbs the children can do is really contingent on the number of volunteers. Thanks to those who have signed up to help support our crew. We could still use more volunteers so our kids can enjoy their PE time climbing! If you are trained to belay and can help out, please sign up ASAP! Please make sure your child wears comfy clothes (non-restrictive is best) and close-toed shoes. At this time we only have 2 volunteers on one of the days!

Fieldwork to the Skatepark on 2/27: On Tuesday, we plan to take the Crew across the street to the Skatepark for Expedition. We will be putting all we have learned so far about force, motion, inclined planes, and wheels & axles into practice! Most families filled out a permission slip at the beginning of the year called the REMS Perimeter Permission Form, but I will reach out to you if you still need to complete it. We plan to be there from 9:45-10:30 on Tuesday. We have asked students to bring two items from home to experiment with: one that will roll well and one they want to test out. We look forward to sharing our learning with you!

Winter Hike on 3/1- We will be going on a winter hike on Friday, March 1st. Our hike will be along Plum Creek Trail from the Meadows trailhead to Festival Park. I have the following chaperones confirmed to join us: Eliza, Kari, Jason, Zach, Bryan, and Robin. We will be looking at the weather and determining what to wear & bring next week. I will email you an updated daypack list then. Please note: ALL students will need to bring a lunch from home.

Crayon and Marker Recycling: This week, we learned that Ms. Bethany's Crew is doing a service learning project called the Crayon Initiative. They are collecting broken or old crayons to donate to an organization that will use these to make new crayons for children in hospitals. Please feel free to send in your old crayons! There is a box outside Ms. Bethany's classroom.

This inspired our crew to want to collect dried out markers. We have placed a box outside our door. Feel free to send in your dried our markers from home. We will see how many markers we can save from the landfill from now until the end of the year!

Crew Pictures: On March 25th, we will be taking our Crew Picture. This is the first day back after Spring Break. Picture order forms went home in Take Home Folders today. You are welcome to return these ahead of time or send them in on picture day.

REMS Auction, Save the Date!
When - Saturday, March 30th
Theme - Red, White, and READ
Where - the Philip and Jerry Library (in Castle Rock)
Time 6 - 10:30 pm
We'll have food and drinks to enjoy while you bid on awesome items and experiences in the Silent & Live Auctions including Teacher Time, Crew Art, theme baskets & more!
Enjoy this adults-only event to visit with other Renaissance parents and our teachers and staff.
Early bird prices area available now! Buy your tickets today!

Teacher Time: At the auction, one of the favorite items to bid on is "Teacher Time." All staff offer a range of fun activities or outtings. This year, Ms. Martha and I will be doing breakfast at Kneaders with two lucky student winners! This is such a fun way to support our school and have special quality time with kids. :)

Crew Art: Also check out the beautiful Crew art that was created with Ms. Staci! Each member of our Crew made a pinch pot and stamped a leaf, just for the beautiful sunflower. This will be up for auction!

Lost & Found: Our Lost & Found is overflowing, so now is a great time to collect any misplaced items. The Lost & Found gets donated during Spring Break- so be sure to check soon!

Scholastic Book Clubs:

Class Order Due Date: 02/28/24 (it is a quick turnaround so that books will arrive before Spring Break if you are interested).

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. :)
Place an order of $25 or more and you can pick a FREE $5 book (use code READS at checkout). These are great for birthday 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. :)

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

News from Our Crews: Thanks for staying informed with Ms. Trena's weekly newsletter. Check it out here: News from our Crews- There is couple pictures from Community Reading featured!

Calendar

Week of Feb 26th: Climbing 2:45-3:35pm: sign up here to belay

Feb 27: Fieldwork to Skatepark

Mar 1: Winter Hike (No Community Reading)

Mar 11-22: Spring Break

Mar 25: Crew Picture

Mar 30: REMS Annual Parent Auction Get your Tickets

Crew Highlights:

In phonics, we have been working on the letters "e" and "g." New sight words include: for, no, jump, & one. Students have been doing a lot of work with word families. For example with the -ip family, it is easy to make lip, zip, rip, tip, sip, and so on. Each day, students will practice making words on their whiteboards, including sight words, word families, and sounding out CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words. It is exciting to see their growth, and how students are growing in comfort with sounding out words. Here is our Updated Phonics List.

In reading, the title of this unit is Stories with a Message. We have read The Boy Who Fed His People, which has the theme of small acts of kindness can have a big impact, and we read The Legend of the Cocoi, which has the theme of how hard work makes a big difference. Themes can be tricky to grasp, so this is a great one to practice at home with familiar texts.

In writing, we have launched a Personal Narrative Unit. Through looking at the mentor text Fireflies, students noticed that these are true stories that have a beginning, middle, and end. Students chose a story from their life to write across a 3 page booklet. We are starting with telling a partner (using 3 fingers to practice saying the beginning, middle, and end), then doing a quick sketch on each page, then adding words to the story, and then going back to fill in the pictures with details and color. Help your child brainstorm at home some fun memories that would be exciting to write about. Or even on the weekend, when something happens, prompt them with "you should write about this!"

In math, we finished Compose Shapes and have begun Compose and Decompose 10. We have been using 10 frames and counters to make number partners for 10 (1 & 9, 2 & 8, 3 & 7, 4 & 6, 5 & 5). There is a great activity in the Family Letter that suggests using 10 pennies to shake & count the tails/heads. Then say, for. example, 8 and 2 makes ten.

Our expedition is called Move It! We have learned about push and pull. Now we are learning about different Simple Machines. We started with learning about inclined planes, and now we are learning about levers. Students have done an excellent job learning about many different types of levers. Last week, students enjoyed making a catapult with 4th grade buddies, made of popsicle sticks and a plastic spoon.

This week, students have been given a Lego Challenge to make a seesaw. I posted pictures on Seesaw to show the final product.

Today we did a Seesaw Challenge: How many students does it take to lift a teacher? :) Students predicted that it would take all of our Crew and probably Ms. Bethany's Crew too. It took four!

Picture Alert!

Thank you again for your support at home to create thoughtful cards! Valentine's Day is such a highlight in Kindergarten, and I certainly acknowledge and appreciate your help in making this day special. Also, I hope you enjoyed the beautiful heart art!

Here are some pictures from when 4th grade buddies came to exchange Vday cards. Look at all those smiles!!!

This week, 4th grade buddies shared with us their learning about Colorado state history, state symbols, and a song from their upcoming musical which will be performed at The Beat in a few weeks.

Click here to see a video of Kindies & 4th Grade Buddies singing!