An Important Message from Dr. Shibler

Re: Message to Elected State Officials Regarding All-Day Everyday Kindergarten

During last Thursday’s Grassroots meeting, we were advised that, in addition to contacting our local state legislators and the Governor, we should also communicate our concerns regarding all-day everyday kindergarten with the chairs of the State House and Senate Appropriations Committees. They are:
House Appropriations Chair
Rep George Cushingberry, Jr.
gcushingberry@house.mi.gov

Senate Appropriations Chair
Sen Ron Jelinek
senrjelinek@senate.michigan.gov


Dear Representative George Cushingberry, Jr. OR Senator Ron Jelinek:
During Michigan’s current financial crisis, I urge you to call for a moratorium on the implementation of all-day everyday "early fives" kindergarten programs for the 2009-10 school year and all-day everyday kindergarten programs for the 2010-11 school year.
When state revenues are not currently sufficient to adequately fund public schools, why require new programs which will add a significant financial burden to our public schools?
Again, I ask that you repeal this proposed policy change until the State of Michigan has recovered from this economic crisis and opportunities are provided for debate on the issue.
Thank you,
______________


If you have not sent a message to the Governor or your state representative or senator regarding this issue, please consider sending a similar email to them. You can find their contact information at www.rockfordschools.org


Thank you,
Mike Shibler

Happy Valentine's Day!

It’s amazes me how quickly time is going by. Next Friday, we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day. The children may bring in their decorated boxes anytime this week. If you need a box, I brought some extras that the children may take home. Another option if you don’t have a box is to decorate a gift bag. Our party will be starting at 2:30 and go until the end of the day. . Please feel free to come in and join us! Thank you ahead of time if you donated items for the party or the Valentine kits that we put together for the children at the hospital. A huge thanks to our awesome room moms, Kendra Cook and Molly Duimstra for all of their hard work preparing and planning
Language Arts: We have been working on adding more details and examples in our writing. You may hear your child say that they are zooming in on details and writing a seed story. We are also using are awesome new Versatile kits thanks to the generosity of the REF and our fabulous PTO! During small group instruction and read aloud, we are reviewing and practicing the use of our comprehension strategies.
Social Studies: We continue learning many new things about Michigan. I can’t believe the amazing history that surrounds us. The children enjoyed listening to a Henry A. Lotoszinski, executive secretary of the Mackinac Bridge Authority. Math: We have been learning about division, parentheses, patterns, square products, and have learned some new and exciting math games in unit 7. The children are doing very well with this. I will say...I’ve never had a class move so quickly through the multiplication timed tests. Keep doing what your doing!
Spelling: We will have a test next Friday in the morning, but will not have a test the week of mid-winter break.


Dates to Remember

February 2009

13 Valentine parties for all classes
14 Mid Winter Break. No School
15 Mid Winter Break. No School

March 2009

14 Carnival
15 Rockford Expo
16 Parent TeacherConferences in evening. Full day of school.
31 Parent Teacher Conferences in evening. Full day of school.
April 2009

1 Noon Dismissal. Parent Teacher Conferences.
2 No School
3 No School
6 - 10 No School, Spring Break.
13 School resumes.

Paul Bunyan

The children have been working on a reader's theatre about Paul Bunyan. We decided to have one of the groups preform for our book buddies Friday afternoon. What a wonderful day!

New pictures from our class

Wednesday morning was exciting. We went to see The Tale of Despereaux at Celebration Cinema. Thank you again to all of the parents who went with us. The children did a great job and we loved comparing the movie and the book.

On Friday we enjoyed listening to Michigan stories and learning fun facts!

February is Almost Here!

I hope that you are all enjoying our cold and snowy weather. We had a great start to our week, celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. We then enjoyed the extremely historic Presidential inauguration on Tuesday morning. What an exciting time in U.S. history! Wednesday we had a wonderful field trip to Celebration Cinema to watch The Tale of Despereaux. The children had a great time and what a well behaved group. We spent the afternoon doing activities that helped us compare and contrast the book and the movie. Today we were fortunate enough to have an assembly with the Michigan author Kevin Kameraad. It was so exciting to hear his informational songs and poems about Michigan. Also we loved it because it goes so well with our current social studies curriculum!

Language Arts: Our main focus has been about getting our thoughts down in our first draft and then going back and checking our work. We practiced revising short paragraphs to make them more interesting to the reader. I’m trying to stress that even though writing may be done correctly, it is crucial to go back and revise to make it your BEST writing. Editing and revision can be difficult, but is something that the children will continue to work on.

Math: We are in the middle of unit 6 learning a lot about geometry. We continue to review our multiplication facts and have been taking timed tests.

Social Studies: We have been learning about Michigan and about it’s history. We will learn many interesting and fun facts about Michigan throughout the year.


Dates To Remember

February 2009
2 Family Night Pando @ 5 pm
13 Valentine parties for all classes
19 Mid Winter Break. No School
20 Mid Winter Break. No School
March 2009
14 Carnival
21 Rockford Expo
30 Parent Teacher Conferences in evening. Full day of school
31 Parent Teacher Conferences in evening. Full day of school
April 2009
1 Noon Dismissal. Parent Teacher Conferences.
2 No School
3 No School
6 - 10 No School. Spring Break.
13 School resumes

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a happy and healthy holiday break home with their families. It was so great to come back and hear about all of the exciting things that everyone did over the break.
Math: We have been focusing on decimals and fractions. The children are also very thrilled about starting our timed multiplication tests.
Language Arts: We have just started a story in our anthologies about Chinese New year called, “ Chin Chiang and the Dragon’s Dance”. We have been working on creating good leads to stories. We discussed how important it is becuase it helps grab the attention of the reader.
Science: We are finishing working on Simple machines and will be taking the test next week.
Social Studies: We are looking forward to learning about Michigan history for the remainder of the school year.
Computer Lab: The children had a fun time playing math baseball and race car math on the website, www.funbrain.com

Thank you again for all of the kind gifts are cards at the holidays. Your generosity is greatly appreciated!

Your Children Working Hard

Just thought that I would share a few pictures that I took of the children working the week right before Christmas. Enjoy, we'll see you Monday!