In case you can't tell, we're both pretty excited... ;) Happy Sunday Room 4 Families!
I could not be more thrilled to introduce you to the fabulous Ms. Lopez. We found out on Friday that Ms. Lopez will be stepping in as our Room 4 long-term substitute teacher in January 2017.
Last year Ms. Lopez was the teacher assistant in Room 4 and I could not have been luckier to have worked with her as my classroom aide. This year she has been supporting the students at Reed School by providing small group instruction in Math Club, teaching whole class lessons in the STEAM Lab, and providing yard duty supervision at snack and lunch. The students already know and love Ms. Lopez from her morning smiles and hugs at the front gate and her admirable skills on the kickball field at lunch recess.
For the past few months I have agonized over leaving my Room 4 kiddos at the end of December. I adore them and have absolutely loved our (nearly) 80 days of kindergarten together. I could not be more thrilled that these amazing kids will get to enjoy the first few months of 2017 under the loving care and guidance of Ms. Lopez. My heart is full and I cannot wait to see the wonderful things they will do together. For those of you who already know Ms. Lopez, please be sure to welcome her (back) to the Room 4 family if you see her on campus. For those of you who do not know Ms. Lopez, please do not hesitate to introduce yourself if you see her at the front gate...and more importantly, don't be surprised if she grabs you and gives you one of her famous Ms. Lopez hugs. ;) Cheers to a wonderful end to 2016 and an unbelievable beginning to 2017 in Room 4!
And in case you didn't get a chance to read the email announcement from Dr. Niesyn, here it is:
I could not be more thrilled to introduce you to the fabulous Ms. Lopez. We found out on Friday that Ms. Lopez will be stepping in as our Room 4 long-term substitute teacher in January 2017.
Last year Ms. Lopez was the teacher assistant in Room 4 and I could not have been luckier to have worked with her as my classroom aide. This year she has been supporting the students at Reed School by providing small group instruction in Math Club, teaching whole class lessons in the STEAM Lab, and providing yard duty supervision at snack and lunch. The students already know and love Ms. Lopez from her morning smiles and hugs at the front gate and her admirable skills on the kickball field at lunch recess.
For the past few months I have agonized over leaving my Room 4 kiddos at the end of December. I adore them and have absolutely loved our (nearly) 80 days of kindergarten together. I could not be more thrilled that these amazing kids will get to enjoy the first few months of 2017 under the loving care and guidance of Ms. Lopez. My heart is full and I cannot wait to see the wonderful things they will do together. For those of you who already know Ms. Lopez, please be sure to welcome her (back) to the Room 4 family if you see her on campus. For those of you who do not know Ms. Lopez, please do not hesitate to introduce yourself if you see her at the front gate...and more importantly, don't be surprised if she grabs you and gives you one of her famous Ms. Lopez hugs. ;) Cheers to a wonderful end to 2016 and an unbelievable beginning to 2017 in Room 4!
And in case you didn't get a chance to read the email announcement from Dr. Niesyn, here it is:
Dear Room 4 Families,
It is with absolute delight that I share with you that our own Ms. Cristina Lopez will be stepping in for Mrs. Bowe during her maternity leave. This is Ms. Lopez’s third year at Reed School. During her first two years Ms. Lopez worked as an instructional aide in kindergarten, first, and second grades. This year Ms. Lopez supports students in Math Club and the STEAM lab. Friends and families also know Ms. Lopez as the friendly face at the front gate each morning. Cristina has been actively completing the coursework required for this position and we are lucky to have her. Please help me give a warm Room 4 welcome to Ms. Cristina Lopez.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mary Niesyn
It is with absolute delight that I share with you that our own Ms. Cristina Lopez will be stepping in for Mrs. Bowe during her maternity leave. This is Ms. Lopez’s third year at Reed School. During her first two years Ms. Lopez worked as an instructional aide in kindergarten, first, and second grades. This year Ms. Lopez supports students in Math Club and the STEAM lab. Friends and families also know Ms. Lopez as the friendly face at the front gate each morning. Cristina has been actively completing the coursework required for this position and we are lucky to have her. Please help me give a warm Room 4 welcome to Ms. Cristina Lopez.
Sincerely,
Dr. Mary Niesyn
Hour of Code!
This week Room 4 joined the Reed School community and students around the world to participate in the Hour of Code.
"The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. This grassroots campaign is supported by over 400 partners and 200,000 educators worldwide. Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path."
Each morning this week we began our day learning about what it means to be a programmer and what it means to write code. Here are some of the apps we worked with this week and/or will continue working on in the weeks to come. (Feel free to download and try these apps at home!)
"The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. This grassroots campaign is supported by over 400 partners and 200,000 educators worldwide. Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path."
Each morning this week we began our day learning about what it means to be a programmer and what it means to write code. Here are some of the apps we worked with this week and/or will continue working on in the weeks to come. (Feel free to download and try these apps at home!)
Kodable | Lightbot | The Foos | Scratch Jr. |
THANK YOU to all of the parents who came in on Friday morning for a little rainy day morning reading/coding . We LOVED reading books with our Room 4 moms and dads, and had a blast showing off our coding skills to our parents. If you weren't able to make it last week, feel free to stop by this week on Friday morning (12/16) from 8:25-8:45!
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Morning Work Stations
Even with the holidays right around the corner, we are still making leaps and bounds in our learning. In morning stations this week we continued to work on CVC words and hearing/recording the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words. I am so proud of these little writers!
We also worked on mixing and fixing sentences. The students were given 5-7 word cards and worked to put them back together in a sentence that made sense. Try this at home by writing a sentence on a piece of paper, cutting up each word, and challenging your reader to put it back together! (We learned how to use the capital letter and the period as clues for the first and last words in the sentence!)
We continued playing one of our favorite math games - BUMP - with our friends during morning stations and worked on adding two dice together. This is a great game to play at home with your child - here's a link with some quick directions!
We continued to work on our sight words this week by finding them in a new poem we learned - The Cute Little Snowman. We also illustrated the poem to practice "visualizing," an important reading comprehension skill! Ask your child to read this poem to you at home!
Last, but not least, we worked with Mrs. Masino to create beautiful winter trees using tempera paints, oil pastels, and construction paper. We are slowly but surely turning Room 4 into a winter wonderland!
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Community Time
Last week Room 4 had a chance to perform our morning song at our whole school Community Time. We love starting our day with this song in the morning once a week and did a fabulous job sharing our song and video with the school! Watch your child sing along to this song at home :)
More Gingerbread Fun!
This week we continued reading and comparing Gingerbread stories - here are a few more stories we read this week:
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We were surprised to find out that in most of the stories we read last week the gingerbread boy got eaten at the end! We were relieved to find out this week that there are several gingerbread stories in which the gingerbread boy, girl, or baby survives. :)
On Friday we took the gingerbread boy's fate into our own hands and planned out how we would devour a gingerbread cookie if we had the chance. The students mapped out their first, second, third, fourth, and fifth bites...then we followed our map and enjoyed eating our gingerbread boy limb by limb. ;) Check out the pictures below to see just how excited we were to eat our cookies!
On Friday we took the gingerbread boy's fate into our own hands and planned out how we would devour a gingerbread cookie if we had the chance. The students mapped out their first, second, third, fourth, and fifth bites...then we followed our map and enjoyed eating our gingerbread boy limb by limb. ;) Check out the pictures below to see just how excited we were to eat our cookies!
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With only nine days of school left before the winter break, these last few days of December will be bittersweet for me. Although I am thrilled to embark upon this new journey in motherhood, I am also struggling with saying goodbye to my other 22 kids. But as I said in the beginning of this post, thank goodness I know they are in the best, most capable, and most loving hands with my favorite Ms. Lopez.
I know that this year the winter break starts late, so if you have plans to travel before the 22nd, please send me an email ahead of time, as I would love to give one last giant hug to your kiddo before they head off for the holiday break. Thanks for checking in this week and hope to see you before the end of 2016! - Mrs. Bowe
I know that this year the winter break starts late, so if you have plans to travel before the 22nd, please send me an email ahead of time, as I would love to give one last giant hug to your kiddo before they head off for the holiday break. Thanks for checking in this week and hope to see you before the end of 2016! - Mrs. Bowe