Week of June 8-12
Hi Parents,
It is hard to believe we are approaching the final week of school. As always, you can find the plans for next week under "Files and Documents". On Tuesday's Zoom meeting, we will be talking about our upcoming summer vacation and playing a fun Disney "would you rather?" game. For the meeting, please have your child bring a sheet of paper with one side marked "A" and one side marked "B". I will ask different summer-themed questions and students will answer by holding up either A or B depending on the question. An example would be would you rather A) swim in the ocean or B) swim in a pool. Students can then respond to the question correctly.
Thank you parents for your cooperation and support as we continued with our distance learning these past few months. Have a wonderful summer!
Mrs. Dance
Week of June 1-5
Hi Parents,
You can find the plans for next week under "Files and Documents". On Tuesday's Zoom meeting, we will be completing a directed drawing for Father's Day to give to our Dads/Grandpas. We will also be joined by Mrs. Machovec, our school librarian. Enjoy your weekend,
Mrs. Dance
Week of May 26-29
Hi Parents,
You can find the plans for next week under "Files and Documents". For tomorrow's Zoom meeting, we will be having a mini-talent show to showcase our talents. Your child will be given 2 minutes maximum to draw, sing, tell jokes, etc. I can't wait to see everyone's talents! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Love,
Mrs. Dance
Week of May 18-22
Hi Parents,
You can find the plans for next week under "Files and Documents". For next week's Zoom meeting, our theme will be "Community Helpers". Your child should come to the meeting dressed up as a career he or she would like to do when they are grown. We will have everyone recite 3 clues describing the job of your choice and we will take turns guessing your career. I'll post on The Hub to everyone today as well. Enjoy your weekend,
Mrs. Dance
Week of May 11-15
Hi Parents, Thank you to everyone who sent notes to me for Teacher Appreciation Week. I enjoyed reading your messages so much!
You can find the plans for next week under "Files and Documents". I'll post on The Hub to everyone today as well. Enjoy your weekend,
Mrs. Dance
Week of May 4-8
Hello Parents, I hope everyone had a great week. You can find next week's plans under the section titled "Files and Documents". I'll also post on The Hub to everyone as well. Please stay safe, keep working hard, and have fun at home. I miss you!
Mrs. Dance
New Student Registration
Hi Parents, this is just a short note that if you know of anyone in the Westridge community that will be a new student to our school, new student registration is now open. You can contact Mrs. Carney at carneykx@pwcs.edu to register for the 2020-2021 school year. This only applies to new students.
Week of April 27-May 1
Hi Parents,
I hope everyone had a safe and healthy week. I've enjoyed the e-mail messages I have received of student work samples. Keep up the great work!
Next week's plans can be found under the section titled "Files and Documents". I'll also post the plans via The Hub to everyone as well.
Keep working hard and have fun at home as well. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Mrs. Dance
Week of April 20-24
Dear Westridge Parents,
We hope this finds you and your family safe, healthy, and
well. We wanted to let you know that beginning next week we will continue our
Distance Learning by sharing a weekly calendar of suggested and optional activities
in our core subject areas each week. You will find a variety of online,
paper/pencil, and game activities for your child to complete if you choose. We
will share these activities with you via The Hub, as well as on our classroom
webpages. Look under "Files and Documents" and you will see the link.
On the first page, you will find a calendar for the week
with activities listed in each subject each day. If you see an “OL” after the
activity, that means it is an online activity. If you see a “WS” after the
activity, that means it is a worksheet (paper) activity. On the subsequent
pages, you will find a page for each of the subjects listing the SOL covered in
the learning for the week. You will also find any links referenced on the
calendar. The YouTube links have been run through a website (safeyoutube.net) that
takes away ads & the ability for a video to play after the one we’ve
recommended. However, you are still able to search Youtube for the links if you
prefer that.
If a paper activity (worksheet) was referenced, you can find
that in our “Distance Learning PDF files” for the week that will be attached to
our Hub post. Again, please pick and choose what you feel is best for your
child. We have integrated many writing opportunities throughout our different
subjects. We will also include two optional STEM/Maker Space projects a week
that provide an additional opportunity for creative, out-of-the-box thinking.
Reading to your child (for enjoyment or learning purposes) is still the most
important thing you can do to keep skills sharp for first grade. Please make
sure to continue reading each day or night with your kindergartener.
Kindergarteners are recommended no more than 60 minutes of
school learning activities each day per Prince William County. Please choose
the ideas that you feel will be most beneficial for your child. Please remember
that all work continues to be a review of standards previously taught, will not
be graded, and is optional. The specialist teachers have additional activities
posted on their personal webpages on the Westridge website so feel free to
check those out if you are interested.
We are here to help you in any capacity you need. Thank you
so much for everything you are doing to support learning at home with your
kindergartener. We are so grateful and proud of all of your efforts. We are so
honored to be part of this Westridge Community with you. Please do not hesitate
to contact us with any questions or concerns. You are all in our hearts every
day!
Thank you so much,
The Kindergarten Team
Yearbooks and Moby Max
The last day to order a yearbook is Friday, April 24th. Please let me know if you would like to purchase one.
Mr. Khan e-mailed the teachers another resource that you are free to use on your own time. The site is www.mobymax.com/va1946. This site can be used for all subjects. Please use this unique URL, not just going straight to the Moby Max website because this site is generated specifically for our school. Your child's username is his/her first and last name in all lowercase letters (example: nataliedance). Everyone's password is Room121.
Week of April 13-17
Kindergarten Learning Ideas for the Week of 4/13-4/17
Hi Parents!
I hope your family had a wonderful Spring Break with some time to just relax and be together. Here are some learning ideas & activities for this week of school (April 13-April 17). The county has continued to instruct us to give activities which review topics we’ve already learned at school. Work at home continues to be optional. The following is just a list of suggested activities in our core content areas:
Reading
-CONTINUE READING FOR ENJOYMENT-Continue to read ANY and ALL books as much as possible! These can include the readers that came home or any reading you do with/to your child. This is THE most important thing to continue to do while not at school.
-RAZ-KIDS- Use this for leveled online readers for your child. https://www.kidsa-z.com.
-RETELL STORIES-After reading story, have them retell it to you in detail starting the beginning.
-READING WEBSITES-Use Teach Your Monster to Read, Starfall, or ABCya for more fun reading practice.
Writing
-SNAP WORD SCHOOL-At school, we practiced teaching our stuffed animals our snap words. See if your child can review the first two lists of snap words by teaching them to their stuffed animals. They could “teach” them by writing them on flash cards and showing it to their animal. They could also write them on white boards and show their animals. The first two units of sight words were: me, a, the, I, like, my, look, at, see, here, this, is, it, in, an, and.
-SNAP WORD EGG HUNT-If you have any empty or extra plastic Easter eggs around the house, use a Sharpie and write a snap word on each one. Then hide the eggs (outside or in). When you child finds the egg, have them read the word to you. They could also keep track of the words they find by writing them on a piece of paper (or with sidewalk chalk if they’re working outside).
-BUILD SNAP WORDS-Build snap words with materials they find inside or outside the house. See if they can look around and use materials outside or in the house to make their snap words.
Take & share some pictures of the words they build! Here is an example:
-WRITE ABOUT MABEL Have your child write about what they think Mabel (our phonics elephant) is up to. What do they think she is doing? Where do they think she is? An elephant spa? A safari? At the end of this document are some pictures of what Mabel could possible be doing; they could use one of those for their writing as well! Please share their writings with me!
-SIGHT WORD SONG-listen and spell sight (snap) words with this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIZjrcG9pW0
-WEEKEND REPORT-Have them do another “weekend report.” This was our job every Monday so it’s very familiar to them. Have them brainstorm something they did over the weekend, write about it and draw a picture with labels. Most of the kids were writing at least three sentences each Monday in their journal so see if they can reach that goal. We talk about a sentence for the beginning, a sentence for the middle, and a sentence for the end.
-LALILO-Continue to use LALILO (lalilo.com) for phonics practice.
Math
-COUNTING BY 1’s-Practice counting to 100 by 1’s. Listen to: Let’s Get Fit, Count to 100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TgLtF3PMOc
-COUNTING BY 10’S-Practice counting to 100 by 10’s. Listen to Count 10-100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gmEe0-_ex8
-COUNTING BACKWARDS-Practice counting backwards from 30.
-NUMBER CARDS-have your child cut out the attached number cards. See if they can name and write them all. Then, mix them up and put them back in order. Print out two sets if you’d like and play memory with your child (turn them all over so you can’t see the numbers and match them up).
-COMBINING NUMBER CARDS-Use the number cards and have your child pick two at a time. See if they can combine the numbers and see how much they equal altogether. Use a white board to write the answer.
-JELLY BEAN SORT-If you have any leftover Jelly Beans have your child sort them by color and see which color has the most and which color has the least.
-MATH WEBSITES-Visit our class Happy Numbers and Dreambox pages for more math practice.
Science
-SCIENCE EXPERIMENT: Make a rain cloud in a jar! It’s April which means “April showers bring May flowers!” Make a rain cloud inside your own house. You’ll need: a jar, water, shaving foam (or cream) and blue food coloring.
To perform experiment:
Fill your jar about three quarters full with water from the tap.
Use the shaving foam to create a cloud on top of the water.
Let the foam settle a bit.
Now drop food coloring into the 'cloud'. As your cloud fills up, the food coloring will fall down into the water creating a rain-like effect.
Learn more about clouds at: https://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-clouds.htm
Social Studies
-MAKE A COVID-19 TIME CAPSULE-We are living through history right now! One day it will be hard to remember just how this time felt to us. Attached this week are pages to make a time capsule with the family. You may want to make it a family project and do a page or two a day each day. Here is a video on BrainPop about the coronavirus:https://www.brainpop.com/health/diseasesinjuriesandconditions/coronavirus/. (Note-this video is from BrainPop, not Brain Pop Jr. as we usually use. I would recommend previewing the video prior to showing it to your child to make sure it will be informative to your child and won’t add to any anxiety they may be feeling about this situation-you know them best!)
Again, these are just suggested and optional activities. Do not feel as if you need to complete them all! Pick the ones your child will like best. The county is recommending only about an hour a day of learning for kindergarten students. Please do not feel as if all the learning in one day needs to be completed in one sitting. Please continue to offer your child multiple opportunities to play each day. Physical activity of at least 30 minutes recommended as well-running around the yard or doing some GoNoodle brain breaks if it’s rainy! You continue to do an awesome job-I am so proud of all of our students AND our parents!
P.S. Mabel pictures are on the next page!
Week of March 30-April 3
Next week is Spring Break for PWCPS. If you look under "Useful Links" and "Files and Documents", you will find plenty of resources for optional learning for your child (no activities are expected or required). The following are a few suggestions for you for additional learning if you want (again, this is totally optional):
Reading: Read ANY (and ALL) books as much as possible! These can include the books I sent home with your child before break or any reading books that you have at home. This is THE most important thing you can do while your child is not in school.
Writing: Have your child do a “weekend report.” This was our job every Monday so it’s very familiar
to them. Have them brainstorm something
they did over the weekend, write about it and draw a picture with labels. Most of the kids were writing at least three
sentences each Monday in their journal so see if they can reach that goal. We talk about a sentence for the beginning, a
sentence for the middle, and a sentence for the end.
Math: Give
your child a pile of coins. Have them
sort the coins into piles. See if they
can tell you the names of the coins and values.
Have them count a bunch of the same kind of coin to 100 (100 pennies, 10
dimes, 20 nickels, 4 quarters). During calendar time, we were working on adding
mixed values together. For a challenge, see if they can add the amounts of
different coins together.
Science: Go on a nature walk and observe/draw a picture of the changes they see in spring. According to the forecast, it looks like its supposed to be nice next week!
Social Studies: We were learning about Famous Americans (George Washington and Abraham Lincoln). If you check our brainpopjr.com, you can learn about many famous Americans this way. The school username is westridgeel and the password is pop.
Please
find time for your child to PLAY!! So
much learning happens for our children during play. Have them build with legos, create with paper
and markers, build a fort, sing a song. Have a dance party, take a hike together,
bake or cook food together. Blow
bubbles, ride bikes, draw with chalk, jump rope. Play a board game together. At my house, we made houses out of toothpicks and mini marshmallows and are planning to bake cookies together next week.
I'll be on break for next week, but am happy to answer any questions you may have beginning on April 13th.
Mrs. Dance
Underneath Useful Links, I have posted a new link from PWCS regarding home learning in Kindergarten. If interested, you can find the link under "Useful Links" to your left.
Hi Everyone,
Please check out the following video of our Westridge Virtual Parade. This features several Westridge staff members saying that we love and miss you. Here is the link:
Link: https://flipgrid.com/wresparade
Password: WRESparade
Enjoy, Mrs. Dance
Week of March 23-27, 2020
Just a quick update for now...in the Files and Documents tab on the left, I have added a pacing guide that includes all the subjects taught (including phonics) in a calendar form starting from the beginning of the year until our last week, March 9-13. This will make it easier for you to see what SOL standards we have covered so far this year. Stay tuned for more information as it comes in! Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
Miss you very much,
Mrs. Dance
Week of March 16-20
Wow! What a week!! I hope that everyone is staying safe and healthy during this extended break from school. I am trying to stay busy by continuing to run in the morning , read to my sons, and take some long walks in nature.
While there is no requirement to be doing any work with your child right now, below are some resources you might find helpful while you try to occupy their days. Please check the pwcs webpage (pwcs.edu) for updates as to what the next few weeks will look like.
Starfall.com - games and practice in all academic areas
https://www.starfall.com
Raz-Kids - leveled readers with comprehension questions
https://www.kidsa-z.com
Abcya - games and practice in all academic areas
https://www.abcya.com
Brainpop - videos and quizzes in all academic areas
https://www.brainpopjr.com
username: westridgeel password: pop
Under Files and Documents, I've also uploaded our pacing guides for Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. Additionally. I've also included Kindergarten snap (sight) words for Units 1-5, as well as the suggested Extended Learning packet that was sent home with your child on Friday.
I will be checking my e-mail often and updating all of you via The Hub, so please let me know if you have any questions and I'll be happy to help.
My days are certainly not the same without seeing your children. Please give them a big hug from me and tell them that I miss them SO much!
Mrs. Dance