Hello parents!! I hope you all had a fantastic winter break and new year 🙂 I also hope that your last day of this break is filled with relaxation and fun to prep the little ones to get back into the routine!

Heyyooo parents! We did it!!!! 🙂 I wanna start with a BIG THANKYOU for everything y’all have done this past month. Martinstag, then Holiday market, and then the party- I’m so lucky to have such an awesome group of parents!! I could not have done all this without y’all!! I hope you all enjoy your winter break and look forward to coming back refreshed on 6 January!

• Report Cards!! You will find them in the agendas!! Inside your report card envelopes are the reports, personal comments from me and Mrs. Little, as well as ESOL reports if your child is in ESOL! Please sign and return the report card envelope when we return from break! I do not need any of the documents inside the envelope- just the envelope please 🙂  If your child wasn’t here to pick up the report cards I will send them home when we return.
• Bringing Home!! In your kiddos back pack is there orange folder and RED folder. The red folders are unfinished work. They were getting kinda old and crumbly so I am sending them home. They will all get new ones upon return so I don’t need them back 🙂
• Trash to hold on to!! I wanted to give y’all a heads up for our next unit! The summative assessment will be a group project where students will build a monster/robot/creature out of “trash”. Things like cereal boxes, paper rolls , bottles, bottle caps, containers, etc etc. Please start collecting some of these trash items (just in time for Christmas :). DON’T SEND THEM IN THOUGH- y’all saw how cramped my classroom is I can’t start collecting that stuff yet! ALSO: if you happen to receive a lot of tissue paper I would love to collect it from y’all! I’d rather reuse and recycle then it just go to waste! If you are able, please collect your used tissue paper and send it in after the break!
• Gift Bags!! You may have seen our super cute surprise!! In class we crafted 2 ornaments and a card for y’all. I hope you enjoy your present from the kiddos and from me! Y’all deserve so much more 🙂

Well that’s it from me!! I hope y’all have a FANTASTIC break!! If you need to reach me do not hesitate to e-mail and I will get back to you when I am able!!

SOOOO CLOSE TO WINTER BREAK WOOOHOOO!!

We had a great week wrapping up our Unit 3! We learned about how winter holidays are celebrated around the world and compared those to our own holidays experiences! We learned all about how Christmas is celebrated in Germany and kiddos got to share how they celebrate at home. Next week we will be working on a top secret project! I would love to tell you more about it, but you’ll just have to wait and see 🙂

Let’s get into the news!

• Holiday Market!! Again, Thank you to all of you who helped with this event!! The jars look GREAT and the recipes y’all made in them sound sooooo yummy I wanna take them all home 🙂 Our Holiday Market is TONIGHT!!! We will be singing outside (in a covered tent) but the rest of the festivities will be inside the school! You can find me in the GYM at the Kinder table selling our AMAZING jars 🙂
• Holiday Party!! You are ALL invited to our in class Holiday Party! Our amazing room mom’s have planned a fun time for parents and kiddos! It will be Thursday the 19th at 11:45-12:45! Please only 2 parents per student!! My room is VERY small so it’ll already be cramped! I look forward to see all of y’all there and having a fun time to celebrate half the year done!
• Attendance!! Since it is the last week before our winter break PLEASE, PLEASE keep me in the loop of plans for early release or if you don’t intent to send your child in on Friday!! They will be coming home with all their folders and a report card!! While I can’t send the report card home early, I can send the other items early so PLEASE let me know!
• Grades/Report Card!! All the final grades are up and posted on infinite campus and will be reflected on the report card. There will also be personal comments from Unit 2 and Unit 3 so be sure to check those out! If you have concerns/questions about what you see on the grades don’t hesitate to reach out via email. We can also always find time to set up a personal conference 🙂
• Names of Teachers!! I was asked to give out a list of all the teachers that your child sees here in school so here they are:
  • Frau Julia & Frau Christin
  • English= Mrs. Little & Ms. Asia
  • Music= Ms. Taylor
  • Art= Ms. Rivas
  • PE= Mrs. Shepherd & Ms. Beau
  • ESOL(only if your child is in ESOL)= Ms. Isack
  • EIP (only if your child is in EIP)= Mrs. Harkness
  • Principal= Mrs. Severine
  • Executive Director= Mrs. Parker
  • Counselor= Mrs. Johnson
  • ASP= Ms. Denise
  • Nurse= Mrs. Samantha
  • Receptionist= Ms. Aquarius
• Vocab!! Tannenbaum (Christmas Tree), Weihnachten (Christmas), Kerzen (Candles), Advent Kalendar (Advent Calendar), Geschenke (present/gift),  Stiefel (boots), Glocke (bell).

That’s it from me! I hope to see y’all at the Holiday Market and y’all have a great weekend 🙂

Hello Parents!! What a crazy week back after the break!! The countdown to Winter Break has officially started!! First off I just wanted to let y’all know that I just bought a house (literally yesterday!) so I may not be on top of my e-mail this weekend! If you need me for something then please shoot me a text as I will be in the joys of moving and unpacking all weekend!

Anywhoooo this week we jumped into end of the year celebrations!! We focused on 2 German traditions: the advent calendar and Saint Nikolaus! The advent calendar in our class is a huge hit!! So far 6 lucky kiddos have brought home their advent presents from me 🙂 Saint Nikolaus was today!! The tradition is that kiddos all over wash their boots to make them clean and on the night of the 5th they put them outside their house. In the night Nikolaus comes to give the kiddos who have been good small presents. Usually chocolate, nuts, oranges, or small play things. (we very briefly talked about Krampus which is for the kids who have been bad, but I didn’t want to scare them!) In class we crafted little boots and today the kids were excited to find that Nikolaus had come to our school!!! Next week we will talk about how people celebrate Christmas around the world and compare it to their traditions at home!

• Grades!! I will have a new batch of grades in on Monday! Sorry for being late on this but my brain is melting as I type trying to get myself moved into my new place!
• Leaving Early for Break!! As we get closer to break please, please let me know if your child is going to be missing the 20th (our last day of school before break)!! I want to make sure the kiddos have everything they need for their break! 🙂
• Holiday Market!! A HUUUUUUUGE THANKYOU TO ALL OF YOU THAT DONATED JARS, INGREDIENTS, AND YOUR TIME AND EFFORT TO FILL THESE THINGS!!! The jars look awesome and have been sent home for filling! I can’t wait to showcase them at our holiday market next Friday the 13th!! 🙂
• Wish List!! If you are wanting to get a present for me or Frau Christin please check out the wishlist first!! We have run out of laminating pouches!!!
• MobyMax!! Our current math unit doesn’t have very many mobymax related math assignments 🙁 You will see that Mrs. Little has assigned English work though!

That’s it from me everyone!! Wish me luck on my move and I’ll see the kiddos on Monday 🙂

WE MADE IT!!!! Woohoooo~~~ Happy Thanksgiving break y’all 🙂 Hope it’s a fun week filled with yummy food and close family! This week we wrapped up our talks about Thanksgiving and talked about the concept of future to connect with past and present! We discussed what it means to be thankful (and how it’s different from just liking something) and of course we did a handful of crafts to celebrate the holiday! When we come back from break we will talk about how they celebrated thanksgiving and then jump right into end of the year holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, and so forth). On to the news!

• Orange Folders!! Many of you saw I sent them home yesterday! Inside the orange folder there is a packet on the return to school side. This packet is an optional homework packet for students to do over the break. It is filled with fun activities and all the instructions are written in English so that you parents can help them! I told the kiddos that those of them who complete the packet (all 5 pages, colored, and pretty) will get a reward of 2 blue tickets- since it is the first homework I have sent home. The due date for this will be the week immediately after thanksgiving. Please don’t feel like you HAVE to do this especially if you are going away on vacation or something! This is purely something extra to do! If you’re looking for digital activities there are new assignments on MobyMax for both math and English so hopefully there is enough there for y’all to make use of it you are able!
• Holiday Market!! Thank you so much for the jars!!! I don’t need anymore!!!! We have hit 38 jars which is more than enough!! Thank y’all for you generosity! Some of you said you would like to donate some dry ingredients to help out the assembly of the jars! I think the easiest way to do it is to send in things that most recipes will require like flour/sugar/cocoa. Please don’t send more than one container of these items. If you are planning to take home some jars please do not feel like you need to donate these dry ingredients! I think just doing one or the other work out. Thank y’all so much for helping out with this massive undertaking!
• Goodie Bag!! We had a birthday today and there were some pretty awesome treats in there! In order to make sure that 1 it wasn’t lost and 2 that they didn’t rummage through the bag and take something that you as a parent might not want them to play with~ If your kiddos wasn’t here today, I will send the goodie bag home with them next Monday.
• The Giving Tree!! Coming home in the agendas today you will find a flyer for the Giving tree~~ Check out the flyer in the agenda for more information!

Have a GREAT thanksgiving break and i can’t wait to see all the kiddos refreshed after a good break 🙂

Only 1 more week until that sweet, sweet Thanksgiving break 🙂 [25-29th]. This week we mixed our past/present topic by talking about the FIRST Thanksgiving! We also focused on the letter T and the word Turkey (Truthahn) Next week we will be focusing on how YOU celebrate Thanksgiving. What you eat, who is there, what is being Thankful (dankbar), etc. We will also be doing a few cute Turkey crafts so keep an eye out for those next week 🙂

• Orange Folders! I wasn’t going to send the orange folders home today, but the kiddos really wanted to so they are coming home!  Please let me know if you intend to be absent at any point next week so I can send all the kiddos stuff home on the appropriate day!!
• Holiday Market!! The Holiday Market is the English track cultural event that the entire school participates in! The event will be on Friday Dec 13th  and our KG class will be doing dessert jars! Please start sending in your 32oz jars ASAP so we can start decorating! I would love at least 20 so that every student can decorate 1 jar. Also, please fill out THIS SURVEY! My idea is that those parents up for the challenge can take home some jars and fill them with their own dessert recipes 🙂 This could be a fun and sweet activity to do with your kiddo! Then send the completed jar back to school so we can get matching labels on all of them and BOOM~ ready for the Holiday Market 🙂
• Food Drive!! On Wednesday I sent home a flyer in the agenda about the school wide food drive all of next week. If you are able to donate those things please send them in on the appropriate day and they will go to a good cause! Here is a digital copy!
• Thanksgiving Break!! Don’t forget we have the entire week of the 18th- 22nd off! Don’t show up on Monday because I won’t be here!! Also~ if your kiddo brings in (or you email me) a few pictures from your thanksgiving I would love to let the kiddos share their Holiday experience with the class when we come back! 🙂
• MobyMax!! There are some new math assignments on Mobymax! We are working on decomposing numbers this unit which is the building blocks of understanding place value. Even if you practice in English the concept can be difficult to wrap their heads around that the 2 in the number 23 actually stands for 20. This is really our ONLY focus in this unit because it really is a HUGE foundation for the rest of their math success. Check out your kiddos grades so far in the math standard: 11-19 decomposing numbers!
• Martinstag Pictures!! Just a reminder to please, please upload your best Martinstag pictures HERE!! I can submit these pictures to the yearbook and for the newsletter. Since I was working the whole event I have 0 pictures!! 🙁
• Amazon List!! The list is updated!! Please let F. Christin know ASAP if you purchase something so that she can remove it 🙂

New Vocab from this week: Turkey- der Truthahn    to be thankful for- dankbar für     Pilgrim- Pilger       Cornucopia- Cornucopia      Pumkin- Kurbis    Apple- Apfel      Gramophone- Grammophon        then- damals     today- heute

That’s it from me for this week! Hope y’all have a great weekend!

TOMORROW IS MARTINSTAG!!

~~ sorry just had to get that out of my system! This week in KG we started looking at the first thanksgiving in connection with the past. Students did coloring activities and our big lesson this week was the bracelet craft! You can find the story we used to make the bracelet’s in their orange folder 🙂 Next week we will continue to look more deeply at the first thanksgiving (more crafting to come) and focus on some Thanksgiving vocab, food, etc.

Onto the news!

• MARTINSTAG!! So nice I mentioned it twice! haha But for real I am BEYOND EXCITED for tomorrow!! Our awesome festival starts at 4:30 and the Kinder performance will start at 5!! Make sure your kiddo is ready and dressed in their boots/jackets! PLEASE PLEASE TAKE PICTURES!!! I will be busy working the whole event and wont get much of a chance so I am depending on y’all!! Pictures of the kiddos, of the event in General, videos of performances ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING!! Please upload all your pictures and videos here!
• Year Book!! I hope y’all saw the email but it is time to order your yearbooks!! Kindergarten is a precious year and the pictures in the yearbook are the fall picture day pictures as well as pictures taken candid throughout the year! 🙂 Also to let y’all know if you wait to buy your yearbook come January the price will go up (though I do not know the price)
• Library Books!! I am sure most of you have seen that the kiddos have come home with books from out now opened library!! Students are allowed to have books for a maximum of two weeks before they will be considered late and you will be charged with a late fee! I have been trying to write in the agenda when a student checks out a book and when they have returned it. Our first visit to the library ALL the kiddos checked out a book and the due date for that visit is 11 November. Please check the agenda to see if your child has an outstanding book from the library 🙂
• Turkey Feathers!! Don’t forget to return those feathers!! (More like paper cutouts but still) We would like to build out turkey this MONDAY!! I’ve gotten a few back already but not enough!! 🙂
• Holiday Market Event!! I know, I know. Martinstag isn’t even over and we are talking about ANOTHER event?! Yes. The English track hosts a Holiday Market event where every homeroom class creates something to sell to help raise funds just for the English track! We have decided that we will be selling cake mix in jars! I tell you this now because I am hoping to collect jars for the process! We are in need of 32 oz jars! So don’t throw those pickle jars away!! I will send more info about specifics to our room moms after Martinstag 🙂

That’s it from me! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend and I can’t wait to see y’all at Martinstag!!!

We finished October!! Book Character Dress up Day was a HIT! Pictures will be uploaded soon to the drive that we have from in class! THIS WEEK we started on Unit 3: Where we are in place and time. We learned about the concepts of the past (die Vergangenheit) and the present (die Gegenwart) [see the bottom of the blog post for all the new vocab we learned!] Next week we will start really learning about the past with a focus on Thanksgiving and how the first Thanksgiving was celebrated!

• Door Turkey!! In the orange folders you will see a Turkey feather! This is a fun at home project for you and your kiddos! Please decorate the feather how ever you’d like (glitter, stickers, drawings, painting) I just ask that you don’t change the shape of the feather (no cutting or gluing ears on it or anything) The deadline for this project is 11. November! This gives you over a week to find some time for this fun activity!
• MARTINSTAG!! YES IT IS ONLY A WEEK AWAY!!!! It’s not to late to sign up to bring items here! OR volunteer: here! I can’t tell you how excited the class is! We are practicing our song daily (please send in your poncho/rain jacket/ boots so we can practice in them)!! I will be sending home the kiddos lanterns Friday the 8th so if you don’t plan to be here that day please let me know so that I can send it home earlier for you! Also we are still in need of a few TABLES like those folding plastic tables so if you have one you are willing to let us borrow for the event please let me know and sign up there! I can’t wait for NOV 9th to get here!!! Our performance is the first one that happens for the event so if you are planning to come please be there when the event starts! I’ll send out the exact time of the program asap.
• Grades!! check up on infinite campus for the new batch of grades we started on for Unit 3 🙂
• Cough Drops!! Now that we are hitting some colder weather, I like to keep a stash of cough drops on hand for kiddos that may have a lingering cough. If you’d like to donate a pack to class I’d appreciate it. Also let me know if your child should be excluded from this or if there are any concerns!
• Yellow Ticket Party!! Our class won the yellow ticket party today!! That means that here in the near future (an upcoming Friday) we will be having an awesome movie viewing party!! With provided snacks we will watch a movie (start to finish in English) to reward the class for being so awesome!
• Blue Ticket Rewards!! I had a lot of questions from the kiddos about what they can do with their blue tickets so I wanted to hand that info to y’all again so that you could talk to them about what they can do with those blue tickets! The first option is to throw them in the grade level lottery every Friday- winners get to pick something from the school store. The second is to collect them (at least 15) to purchase a prize from Mrs. Johnson’s cart (they can do this once a month). The last option is to use their blue tickets for in class rewards. You can find the full list here.

Hope everyone has a nice chilly weekend!! 😀

Vocab from the week:

The past: die Vergangenheit

The present: die Gegenwart

clothing: Kleider

Pilgrim: Pilgrim

car: Auto

horse: Pferd

House: Haus

Tent: Zelt

A long time ago…: vor langer Zeit

Today: heute

UNIT 2 IS DONE!! Woot woot~~

This week we focused on our summative assessment which was combing all that we learned into a lap book project! They painted day and night skies, built houses/trees/cars from paper shapes, sorting day/night active animals, AND sorting out activities by putting them in order on day and night!! It was a LOT of work but the kiddos tackled it head on and the finished product is great! I will send home the lap book next week after I make copies of it and get all the grades I need from it! NEXT WEEK we start Unit 3: Where we are in place and time. This unit focuses on past/present/future and we look at those ideas through the lens of Holidays and how we celebrate! We will look at Thanksgiving as well as end of the year holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, Diwali, Kwanzaa, and New Year celebrations! I am hoping to learn about which/how your family celebrates these holiday’s through the kiddos sharing their ideas! This Unit is a LOT of fun and I can’t wait to jump into it with the kiddos!

• Grades!! I will be putting in the last of the Unit 2 grades hopefully this weekend. You will see 3 grades in total for those standards we worked on Unit 2. Then starting next week there will be new standards for Unit 3. Don’t hesitate to ask me about how this works!
• Pictures!! They are coming home today in the orange folders! If you didn’t order pictures you will still be receiving a proof and a link to how you can order them!
• Martinstag SAT NOV 9th!! It’s so close!!! We have been decorating our lanterns for the event!! They look so cute!! The kiddos will be bringing them home the Friday the 8. Nov so that they may have them for Martinstag! Please send in your rain boots and jackets 4. Nov (Monday) so that we can start practicing our performance in them!! They are singing the song all the way through now so we’re ready to add the performance aspects!!
• Mobymox!! Since we are at the end of the unit, this is a great time to check clever/mobymax for the last remaining math assignments from me. We are moving on from shapes and will be learning about 10s and a basic intro into place value so if you have time this weekend go ahead and finish up those last few assignments!
• Book Character Day!! Thursday the 31st please send your kiddos dressed up as a book character (yes comic book characters count!). Please avoid masks, weapons, etc (if your kiddos ninja costume comes with a plastic sword, please leave it out that kind of thing). Extra points if they bring in the book to match the character!! We will be doing a parade in the morning (i’ll get the time to you asap) and parents are invited to come and see us walk through the parking lot in our costumes! Please, please no candy, cupcakes, edible items as presents for the class.

OK I can’t think of anything else right now. I wish y’all a great weekend!! The countdown to Halloween is ON!

Hello parents,

I hope we all survived conference week. It was surely interesting for me (and the kids!) to be without Frau Julia for 3 days. I had to listen to a lot of “But Frau Julia says/does….” during that time 😊

Thank you all who came to the conferences. We hope Frau Julia could answer all your questions. Feel free to email her if anything stayed unclear. On Monday, Frau Julia will send out an email with the conference form that were filled out during your conferences so you have them for your records.

If you haven’t done so yet, please send back the signed envelope with your child’s agenda as soon as possible. The report cards are for you to keep. 

Because we had a rather short week with very short days our main focus was on reviewing what we learned the past weeks. We reviewed shapes in 2D and 3D as well as position words (uber, unter, vor, hinter, zwischen, in, …) We will not send home orange folders this week since there is not much in there because of the very short days. However, we will send home an Igel picture we made from fall leaves.
Next week, we will have our summative assessments for unit 2 and start crafting our lanterns for the Martinstag Parade. Thank you again for all the donations to our lantern project!

This week we also practiced further our Martinstag song “Herbst”, which we will sing during the Martinstag Celebration. So far, all your kiddos are fluent in the first part and refrain of the song. It gives us goosebumps to listen to them singing in German so fluently! I will post a video of them on the google drive later today. Here is the link to our song if you like to play it at home as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=533aBgtbeRo

Please make sure your kid has rain boots and a poncho ready. We will have them wear those during the performance on November 9.

Also, since the weather got so much cooler, please make sure to send a sweater or jacket to school. Some days are pretty cold in the morning and during recess. Please label it with your child’s name.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Frau Christin