Chinese New Year and a Sock Celebration!

This week at Reece Academy we celebrated Chinese New Year! The students learned about the Chinese new year and ended the week with a grand celebration!

This year in the Chinese calendar was the year of the horse!

Students created hats and dressed in Chinese attire to celebrate this happy time!

We learned several Chinese words, listened to the Drama Company, watched the Dance Troupe and heard songs from the violin students!

Selected students were also lucky enough this week to attend a field trip to the Aldine FFA live stock show at the M.O.C. building. Joanita, Samantha, Braylon and Elijah Yancy were invited from our class to attend!

The students were introduced to a new workstation this week- A sorting station! This week we sorted shapes! We sorted 2-D, flat, shapes and 3-D shapes. 

If your child has already mastered the names of the 8 basic shapes (square, circle, rectangle, oval, triangle, rhombus, star, heart) go ahead and start working on 3-D shapes!

In kindergarten students are tested on the following 3-D shapes!

We ended our week with a surprise for the students- A surprise party for all their hard work during our sock drive! Before Christmas break we came in second place in the school sock drive and on Friday our students enjoyed ice cream, a scavenger hunt and a special treat to show that their hard work was really appreciated!

I hope your little one enjoyed their surprise!

We have some very busy weeks coming up with our 100th day of school, Valentines Day and Black History month!

 In Homework folders this week you will find a letter requesting a food item for our 100th day of school- I appreciate your help in providing the specific item that is assigned to your child however if you are unable to provide it please check the appropriate box and return the slip so I can purchase it myself!

As always, thank you for your support and participation with your child's education!

-Mrs. Richardson

P.S.- I am curious to see how many of our families are visiting our website. So here is a little experiment! If you have read this page send a note with your child (just a little piece of paper) with the word "website" written on it in their Friday Folder, Homework Folder or backpack. I will collect all "entries" and send a special thank you home this Friday! Also if you have and comments, or suggestions for things that you would like to see on here you can comment below or add that to your little piece of paper!

I hope you enjoyed your "Ice Day"!

I hope you enjoyed your "Ice Day"! You all must have slept with your PJ's inside out to make it happen!

We began the week with a reminder as to why we had Monday off. The students helped each other to talk about similarities and differences in people. For a hands on experiment we examined a brown egg and a white egg.

The students and I talked about Martin Luther King Jr.'s belief that we are all created equal and no matter what you may see on the outside we are all the same on the inside!

This week in class we also had a very special surprise. The students were told that I was bringing a special surprise to school and their only hint was that it is alive.

All day on Tuesday they guessed what the surprise might be.

Mason thought it might be a turtle.

Braylon thought it might be a lizard.

Serenity thought it might be a bunny.

And Salvador thought it might be a giraffe!

Wednesday finally came, and while I was out of the classroom presenting a staff development to other teachers for most of the day, we were able to meet our new friend!

He was not what anyone of our friends guessed.....instead it was a fish!

After we meet and described our new pet, we came up with a list of possible names. After we generated our list we voted on our favorite name. We decided to name our fish Blueberry!

Zariyah was lucky enough to feed our fish on the day we meet him!

We also began practicing our new sight words for the 3rd 9 weeks.

 They are listed below!

are        your
for      come
you      that
this     green
do      into
and     white
what      they
little      want
said      on
here     find
was

When we get back to school on Monday we will officially begin the TPRI testing and continue with all the fun things we have to do!

Parents: I have not told the students but this Friday I will be having a little "winter party" for them to celebrate their efforts in the sock drive. If you would like to send in any simple treats or funds for the party please feel free! I will be purchasing ice cream for all of the students :)

-Mrs. Richardson

Hello 2014

I hope you and your family have enjoyed this extended weekend! 

This past week we spent A LOT of time testing. Kindergarten students took benchmark tests in Math, Social Studies, Science and Language Arts. Students also had their reading levels checked and were tested for report cards....whew!

This upcoming week students will continue to be tested for report cards and Kinder students will take the TPRI test for a mid year screening.

In the mists of all of these tests we are still working hard! This week the students learned about MLK Jr., magnets and finally earned a very special workstation!

This week I was finally ready to put out our Wii in the classroom. This station quickly becomes one of the students favorites as it goes along with their fascination with electronics! If you have a Wii at home I highly recommend the following games (which are the ones we use in class!).

This week I also was able to go around and spend extra time with the students and their writing as we collected writing samples. Below is a great explanation of the different stages of writing that we see at this grade level. 

It is important to remember that writing is a progression and each child progresses at their own pace. 

Below are some of the samples that I collected this week!

Stage 1-Random letters with no letter-sound association

Stage 3-"I went to Hawaii"

Stage 5- "I went to the Zoo."

Stage 3- "I kiss mom"

Stage 5- "I have a Superman toy."

Stage 5- "I went to a restaurant."

Stage 1-Random letters with no letter-sound association

Stage 5- "My mom let me jump in the mud."

Stage 4- "I want to buy some food to eat."

Stage 4- "My Guinea (pig) is black and brown and white."

Stage 6- "This is my horse. Her name is Sam. I love Sam."

Stage 5- "I sing with my mom."

Stage 5- "I wish that (I) can eat candy at school."

Stage 5- "This is a tree that has magic."

I'd like to leave you with some WONDERFUL news......I am excited to announce that we will have another teacher joining us in Room #12!

Ms. Myrie came to visit us this week and to meet our wonderful class. Ms. Myrie is a graduate student at Houston Baptist University and will be teaching with me from mid March through early May.

We are very excited for her return to room #12 in March!

-Mrs. Richardson