Ms.

Vons

Kindergarten
Class
Room 204

November 20

Weekly Newsletter

How does your garden grow?

Inside
We Wrote Poems!
Look for our class poems
featured on page
2
Upcoming Dates
Schedules will be all over
the place with the
upcoming holidays, keep it
straight with the calendar
on page
5

This week the Kindergarteners in Ms. Vons class

explored the school garden and observed changes in the
plants as a result of changes in the season and weather.
We compared the weather data from our last garden
exploration in the beginning of the year to this day and
found that the temperatures have dropped nearly 30
degrees since school began! Students observed that with
the shorter days and colder temperatures most of the
plants are not too happy. We moved dying plants to the
compost pile and dug around to
find our friendly composting
critters: rolly pollies, fungus,
and worms! Our next garden
exploration will be after the
new year, we are all looking

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Page 2

Nov 20

Science
Poems
Poetry inspired by the
senses

Science + Language Arts

Virginia Standards of Learning K.2 Science, K.1a English

Since the start of the school year,

Room 204 has loved poetry. We read
at least 2-3 poems every day. Some
make us sad; others make us laugh
out loud. This month the
Kindergarteners felt inspired to write
their own poems. We integrated
science and language arts to write
poems using our senses to describe
some of our favorite things!

Room 204
Room 204

Page 3

Room 204 is a pattern-making machine!

!"!"!"!"!"!"

Virginia Standard of Learning: Math K.16

We love making patterns! The students of room 204 make
patterns with everything: letters, fall leaves, numbers, shapes,
and even foods! We sorted the healthy treats at our Halloween
party and made patterns from them. See if your student can
show you a pattern at home. Get creative The sky is the
limit when it comes to patterns!

Vocabulary
Boosters
Try one of these 5 simple ways to
boost vital vocabulary outside of
school:
1. Read. Even if your child is a
strong reader, read to and with
them.
2. Use rich vocabulary; dont
dumb down language for kids.
3. Build a word window! We
have a word wall at school, you
can make a word window with
words you are learning at
home.
4. Make a word jar. Find words
in the dictionary and add to a
jar, pull out a word and make a
sentence with it
5. Play vocabulary games. At
dinner one person can pick a
word and everyone else comes
up with synonyms for it, the
winner with the most synonyms
picks the next word.
From http://www.scholastic.com/
parents/blogs/scholastic-parents-raisereader/vocabulary-vital

Page 4

Nov 20

Continued from page 1

forward to what we will find! Here are some of the student

observations from our late autumn garden exploration:
Sarah M. drew the big tree
in the garden and predicted
what it will look like in
winter and spring using her
knowledge of the seasons

Anthony used cut outs of

paper to represent the
different colors of fall leaves
in the garden.

Jada used watercolor

pencils (a Room 204
favorite!) to draw the huge
pumpkin that is left in the
garden.

Compost
Critters
We love our garden bugs!
Critters like worms and
beetles (and many more are
so small we cant see them
without the help of powerful
microscopes) are our helpers
in the garden. Compost
critters munch up the dead
matter from our food and
garden scraps and make it
into nutritious soil. They
are natures recyclers!
Can you identify (name)
these critters?
1

Josiah is working on a
seasons wheel, he will fill
out the other two sections
for winter and spring as
they come along.

Answers: 1. Earthworm,
2. Land snail, 3. Mite.

This is a graph of the

temperature over the month of
September. The class records
the temperature each school
day and uses the data for
science, math, and writing.

Room 204
Room 204

Page 5

Important upcoming dates:

Students will be out of school 11/25-11/27 for Thanksgiving and 12/21-1/2 for Winter
Break

November Birthdays
Jonah November 23
Kamari November 24
December Birthdays
Giana December 2
Paul December 6
Charlie December 7
Renee December 13
5

Thank you!
Big thanks to those who have come in and read to the class. We
absolutely LOVE having visitors. If you are interested in coming
in to help out, lead an activity, read a book, or just spend some
time with the class, please contact Ms. Von via phone or email.

Class 204

Contact Info for

Ms. Von
school phone:
888-234-4432

Nov 20

Calling all Chaperones!

We are heading to the VMFA for an
afternoon on December19. If you are
interested in coming along as a chaperone,
contact Ms. Von for more information. Wed
love to have you!

e-mail:
msvon@classroom.net

Visit our class website:

www. Room204UpToDate.com