Saturday, October 30, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Hi Parents,

Everyone received a Pizza Hut coupon which is valid until November 31st as a reward for completing their October reading requirement.  However, at this young age, I’d prefer to encourage ‘reading for pleasure’. The children are developing their personalities as they involve themselves in an imaginary world.  Books are great at doing this. So, instead of the Book Logs and Report, I’d like you and your child to just have fun together reading and sharing thoughts and feelings about books.

Everyone had a blast on Friday, celebrating Halloween. Many thanks for your generosity and thoughfulness in sharing treats with the children.  A special arigato to Shohtaro and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nunomura, who left goodie bags for everyone before his return trip to Japan 2 weeks ago.  We all miss him and wished he was here to join us in the fun.  We are waiting for  his return  to HMS in about 2 weeks.

Kindly return the Longs green recyclable  bag by Monday, November 1st.  They will come in handy in a few weeks.

Education is not filling a pail but the lighting of a fire.  ~William Butler Yeats




Halloween Fun

Halloween is the one of the best school days since  so many fun things  are planned.  In the morning, grade level games were played on the grassy area.  There were games were teachers too.  Later, we created spider cookies using oreos, licorice,  and other things. Those were yummy. After recess, everyone was excited playing 'Pass the Spider' and 'Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin'.  The best part of the day was dressing up and showing our costumes at the Social Hall to our families and friends.

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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Our Presentation of Learning

Mahalo nui loa to  parents who  attended the first Presentation of Learning.We had so much fun writing and drawing about our Skype buddies in Massachusetts.  Sharing our stories and pictures  to you today made us feel like the song we sang.  It's a world of laughter, a world of tears. It's a world of hopes, and a world of fears.  There's so much that we share that it's time we're aware, it's a small world after all.

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For moms and dads who  weren't able to come, we wish to share this slideshow that K-1 made especially for you.
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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

 Dear Parents,
Tomorrow is Picture Retake Day.  If you wish to have your child retake their individual pictures, complete a picture retake form from the office and return the original picture packet.
Kindly RSVP if you plan to attend our Presentation of Learning on Thursday, October 28th. Your child would love to see you there.
Book Logs and one Book Report are due Thursday, October 28th.  Continue to read to them, or vice versa as this will improve their reading and writing skills.
HMS is celebrating Halloween with a school wide parade on Friday, October 29th at 5:30pm. Your child may bring his/her costume to school or you may bring it when you come in the late afternoon.  My classroom will be available for you to help them change into their delightful, charming, or captivating outfit after 4:45pm.  All children must be dressed and ready to leave my classroom by 5:20pm.  I will be leading them to the parade route.  We will follow the parade route one time, then file back to K-1 classroom, where you  may pick up your child.
Remember to log on to  http://k-1happytalk.blogspot.com/ for all the latest important news about our class. Your child would also enjoy viewing it, so please consider listing it under ‘Favorites’ for easy access for them.

Ciao,
Mrs. Lee


Grandparent's Day

Today was a special day honoring our loving grandparents.  By the looks on their faces, they thoroughly enjoyed our singing and special tribute to them. As  part of the celebration we ate chocolate shortbread cookies compliments of Michael and his family. A special thanks to Saito Sensei who organized this memorable event.

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Halloween Cheerios Counting

Learning to recognize and write the numbers 14, 15, and 16 are fun, especially when we glued Cheerios to pumpkin cutouts. The best part of this activity was eating the extra cereal on our plates.

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Dear Parents,

The children had another opportunity to Skype with our friends in Mrs. Poulin's Kindergarten class in Massachusetts. It was such a wonderful experience for both classes. They showed us some huge pumpkins that they brought back from their field trip to a pumpkin patch earlier that day. And both classes had questions and answers about life in Hawaii and Massachusetts. The children are so spontaneous with their responses. It would make anyone smile.

Later in the day, a streaming video was viewed about the life cycle of a pumpkin from seeds to harvesting. The children were impressed since we don't get to experience the seasons, nor see a pumpkin patch too often.

Several educational websites, as resources for children, are available so we have the opportunity to view and discuss them. Various resources are designed to motivate children to read with phonics, or to learn about various topics in Science , Social Studies, Health, etc. What a wonderful and engaging way to share and absorb new information.

Next Tuesday, October 26th, is Grandparent's Day. Attire is whatever suits their fancy. Headbands, created in class will be worn. The program begins at 8:30am and will be in the Social Hall. Parking is tight, so please make arrangements to arrive early.

On Friday, October 29th,  the Kindergarten  students are encouraged to dress in orange and black. The Student Council has a game planned for class representatives  in the morning.  After morning recess, K-1 celebrates Halloween with games and a cookie creation activity.  At the end of the day, each child will be  given a 'Longs' recyclable bag with his/her name tag  filled with goodie bags from their classmates. We hope that they don't eat all the goodies by the time you pick them up from school!

These 'Longs' recyclable bags will be used throughout the year for special holiday goodie bag  treasures, so kindly have your child return the bag to me on Monday, November 1st. Thank you.

Please note:
Monday, October 25th - Fire Safety  Guide Pledge due.  Please discuss fire safety with your child. Return the last page of the Fire Safety Guide, signed by you and your child.

Wednesday, October 27th - Picture Retake Day.  Please complete a Picture Retake Form (from the office) and return the pictures taken, before or on Wednesday.

Thursday, October 28th - Book Log and 1(one) Book Report due. Your child should reflect on one book s/he read. Drawing and coloring a picture of a character, setting or anything about that book, then writing freely about that picture would be a perfect  voice with a choice.

Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way.
-- George Evans


Much aloha,
Mrs. Lee

Performance Plus

School is so much fun.  There are so many activities to work on but so little time.
The story Where the Wild Things Are  was a hit especially when we created our own monster using  paint instead of markers on white paper.  Paintbrushes and washable paint are the best because it is so messy.
We can't seem to get enough of the iTouches .  Typically we use it about 10-15 minutes  twice a week. All the apps  are fun and helps us learn. Some of the titles are '4 Letter Words', 'F_ish', 'Shapes', and 'ABSea Creatures'. Other apps haven't been used yet, but we need to get familiar with a few of them first.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Hi Parents,
The days have just been whizzing by.  Before we know it, Christmas will soon be  here. All the children have been busy having fun and learning through group and individual hands-on projects, etc.

We started a 'Weather and Seasons' Science Unit.  The children started to explore the  types of weather, such as: windy, rainy, snowy, and sunny.  We had discussions about activities that they would do and clothing they would need to wear for each kind of weather.  They shared their wish for snow on Oahu, but alas, the only islands that would experience the white stuff are the Big Island or Maui.  The art activity today was to create a scene they'd enjoy when it was a sunny day.  The results were fabulous.

The students will begin counting, recognizing and  writing numbers 10-30.  Counting forward and backward on a number line is another learning concept that must be mastered and applied to real-life situations. You could ask your child to count or write the number of cars, people, toys, etc.  to practice  the skill of counting.


 I know many of you might be concerned since there isn't any blue Japanese folder in their Homework Folder. But..... there will no Japanese homework this weekend, October 14-17.


Shohtaro returned to Japan until mid November. We hope him well while he attends an International School  in Tokyo.

                           

Monday, October 11, 2010

K-1 Happy Talk

Many thanks to:
>Mrs. Nagamine for creating and updating the Family Contact list.
>Families who donated books to the class from the Book Fair
>Everyone who submitted the Halloween RSVP  and the Grandparent's Day Program
>Mimi Paule and family who will donate 2- 5 pound pumpkins for our pumpkin seed counting activity.

Just a few reminders for the upcoming weeks:
> My Bedroom Map  - due Wednesday, October 13
> Fire Safety Booklet - due Monday, October 25- Please discuss and submit only the last page
> Book Log and 1 Book Report - due Thursday, October 28

Saturday, October 9, 2010

iPod Touch Fun

We had such a super surprise the other day. Many iPod Touches, which is the most popular game player in the world, were brought out for us. There were 10 iPod Touches so some of us shared and others got one for themselves to use. We played two games so far. One was building 4 letter words and the other one was matching the shapes. I wish I had one to use at home. Maybe I'll put it on my Wish List for Santa.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Kids Vote Rally

The entire school was involved in a Kids Vote Rally in the Social Hall. Special guests such as David Chang and Mrs. Vasquez, who are running for the House of Representatives and Ms. Lyla Berg, the founder of Kids Vote Hawaii, were invited to our morning assembly to talk about the importance of voting. Our HMS student body learned that voting is our responsiblilty and will become a habit since we are the leaders of tomorrow. We must wait till we're 18 years old to do that, but that is only a few years from now. The most fun was singing the Kids Vote song to the tune of 'Y.M.C.A'. There were many news teams from KHON and Hawaii News Now tv stations who visited, took videos of us, and spoke to some of the Student Council officers. I hope I see myself on television tonight.
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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Our Storybird - The Eyeball Story

We were giggling so much when we created our Storybird, which is a short story with pictures that we all made together online. We decided to pick a monster theme, so different monster images were chosen. Our friends added ideas for the story and in a wink, our story was ready to be published. It would be nice if we could read this together. There are more published Storybirds from other children that we can read and share together.

The Eyeball Story on Storybird