Awards for Participants:
Elizabeth Ortega
Reagan Kirk
Destiny Meza
Ciana Nicholls
Jonathan Smith
Johnathan Meza
Jack Fitspatrick
Jordan Terrell
Anya Nordquist
Gracie Rebbe
Alexis Kennedy
Mason Burke
Cole Burke

Kindergarten Winners:
1st Place – Claire Kang
2nd Place – Joey Moos
3rd Place – Geneva Smith

Lower Grammar Winners:
1st Place – Skylar Alves
2nd Place – Lauren Kang
3rd Place – Annabeth Koukl

Upper Grammar Winners:
1st Place – Noelle Chapman
2nd Place – Tessa Cocker
3rd Place – Anatoli Erickson

Special thanks to both Nick Moos and Jessica Rebbe for your participation

Praise the Lord!

We are entering a very exciting time of the year.  On Friday, I put two things in your child’s HW folder that I want you to take notice of.  (1)  They created an invitation for someone to come to Grandparents Day on Friday, May 11^th.  It is a small book they created and we want to invite their Grandparent or someone else to accompany them to Kindergarten next Friday. 

(2) We assigned the roles for the “Carnival of the Animals”.  Each child has a small verse (little poem) to memorize in preparation for the end-of-the-year celebration on June 8^th.  Please begin now to help your child memorize it, speak it clearly and project their voice.  Mrs. Blok and I are working together to create a special event for them to participate in that will be a delight for all J  You will also find a CD of the music,Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns. Please enjoy it often between now and June 8^th so that the children are very familiar with each movement of the piece. 

We will continue with the same spelling words as this week, hat – feed.

In His Service,

Selena Meza

We are going to the Camarillo Library this Wednesday, May 2^nd just after lunch with the Kinder Club.  If you want your child to check out a book from the library, please send their library card and the field trip permission form back to class with them on Wednesday.  If you do not want your child to participate, please come and pick them up during the lunch break around 11:45 p.m.

• ·    Reading Envelopes – The box of phonogram lists (e, ou, sh, etc.) and easy readers are waiting for you to choose some new materials for your child.  This is a self-service activity station.  You will pick out the phonogram sounds that your child still needs to work on.
• ·    Doubles +1 - I just introduced the concept of “Doubles +1” to the class on Friday as “next door neighbors”.  These math problems are numbers that are right next door to each other (1+2, 2+3, 3+4, etc.).  This week I will begin to show them how to get the sum… we call them doubles +1 because that is exactly the strategy that we use to discover the answer.  For example, 1+2 is taught by recalling the doubles math fact of 1+1 and then adding one more, 1+1=2, plus one more equals 3.
• ·    Phonograms -  All of the Kinder students have mastered the procedures surrounding the phonograms (OPR, WPR, Spelling Notebooks, Dictation, etc.).  I have been playing “Phonogram Bingo” with them to introduce the last of the 70 phonogram cards and they have been getting it!  So, I have focused our attention on the last of the 70 phonograms during session 6, but we are not expecting 100% mastery by the end of the Kindergarten year.  If your child becomes frustrated by the number of new phonograms during the WPR or if you think that they need to work on other phonograms that they have not yet mastered, please feel free to do so on Monday and Tuesdays.   I posted the “Phonogram Bingo” games that that we have been using in class.  Give it a try.  I included a blank template and you can have your child make their own game using phonograms and/or spelling words to practice at home.
• ·    Spelling Notebook – One we finish the last word “worm” we will go back and review the ones that they have learned this year.  You are welcome to keep going during the summer, the Ayer’s list is posted for your convenience. 
• ·    Fairytale Diorama – Rather than reinventing the wheel, I posted the instructions from another teacher.   Our due date is Wednesday, May 30^th to present their own fairytale diorama in class.
• ·    Nature Study – These are vital lessons and are not optional.  If you have gotten out of the habit, please make an effort these last six weeks to bring these back into your routine and the books back to class by Friday.  These pages are meant for you to read ahead of time.  It would be great if the Kinder Club parents would take advantage of these subjects when you are planning your lessons, stories to read aloud and crafts.

You are invited to attend our first, ever Poetry & Scripture Recitation Contest this upcoming Thursday, May 3^rd during the morning chapel time beginning around 8:45 a.m.  We have several Kinder students who are participating! 

In His Service,

Selena Meza, Kinder Teacher

Fire Safety

We will be discussing and practicing today what to do in case of a fire on campus.  We will practice how to Stop, Drop & Roll if your clothes catch on fire.  This may bring up new conversations at home.  You are welcome to use the attached color page to practice at home. We are committed to keeping our children safe at school. 

Spelling List

Also, we will be studying the same list of spelling words next week as this week (make – let). 

Upcoming outings

There are some interesting outings in our near future.

©       Friday, April 20^th – Moorpark Zoo

o        Carpools will be needed to get everyone to the teaching zoo at Moorpark College.  I will be leading the Kindergarten class during the tour.

©       Tuesday, April 24^th – Children’s Hunger Fund in Sylmar

o        Carpools will be needed to get everyone to the CHF warehouse in Sylmar.  We will be making a donation from BHCA and volunteering from 12:45 – 2:00 ish.  We will get to see Ben’s dad at work!

©       Wednesday, May 2^nd – Adventure Walk to Camarillo Library

o        The Kinder Club Parent (Michelle Kang) and I invited any parents who want to join us to walk over to the Camarillo Library to meet Mary Goldberg, Head Children’s Librarian.  We will be taking a tour of the library, listening to a private storytime, browse in the children’s department, play with the stuffed animals and check out our own book.  If you have not already, please stop by the library on Las Posas (two doors down) and apply for a free Camarillo Library card.  It is an independent library and not part of the Ventura County Library System any longer.

In His Service,

Selena Meza, Kindergarten Teacher

Since we have been so many families have been affected by illness this past week, we are adjusting our lesson plans… 

©       Spelling words are the same ones from last week – your, you, out, time, may, into, him, today, look, did (see spelling_week 1)

©       Word List “ee” link should now be working.

I hope that you are enjoying the fresh air and sun outside.  The nature study is awesome this week.  Just listen J

Selena

Thanks be to God, yesterday alone we learned the grammar of chicken husbandry first hand thanks to Emily Kirk (Ben’s big sister) who brought in a few of her 2 day old chicks.  They reviewed the last 10 nursery rhymes, 21 Rules of This House, Proverbs 10:25, several catechism answers, sang hymns, listened to a homily, counted to 100, identified the first 26 phonograms of the English language and practiced spelling the next five spelling words all before 10:00 a.m.! 

After recess, we started a unit of study on drawing portraits, titled Honoring our Ancestors. Together we practiced drawing six different kinds of faces, which lead into a spontaneous grammar lesson on “alliteration” and a discovery of various spelling rules and phonogram sounds.  It was truly beautiful to watch their faces light up when one child made the observation that the names of the characters “Happy Harriet, Sad Sam, Sly Sid, Embarrassed Emily, etc.” all began with the same letter sounds.  They were running up to the board to find and underline phonograms with laughter and smiles J  I can tell you that that kind of instruction can only occur because together, we have spent the first 16 weeks learning how to receive instruction.  They have learned how to listen, how to restrain their tongues, how to hold a pencil, how to sit in a chair, how to sit on the rug, where to stand and how to hold themselves up, how to train their ear and eyes when learning new sounds and words, how to respectfully ask a question, how to answer a question, how to recite in a cadence with others, in other words, how to be a “disciple”- a learner, a student.  I am so proud of our children, not because of what I have accomplished, but in their willingness to learn.  They have all been so well trained at home to receive instruction and correction.  You are making this look easy! 

Thank you for allowing me the privilege to be called, “Teacher”.

In His Service,

Selena Meza

Kindergarten Teacher

“Children are more willing to do hard things when they know they have achieved something worth doing.”

We have recently turned a corner in Kindergarten at BHCA; all of the children are reading!  Yes, they are all reading at different levels.  This is what we have been working towards.  I wanted to stop for just a moment to acknowledge that we are doing something really hard with our kids.  We requiring more of them than ever before, and it will not be easy, but the rewards will be life changing.  The most exciting and challenging aspect of teaching our own children to read is knowing how much is too much.  I want to make sure that we all understand what our children need over the next 3 years until they are able to read fluently (accurately and with ease) and independently. 

To foster a life-long love of reading, children need to spend time with books in three ways:

(1)   – Being read to from books above their reading level to increase speaking vocabulary.  We all have an easier time reading hard words that we are used to hearing and saying.  This is why I ask you to encourage your child to interrupt you when you are reading good literature (i.e. fairy tales and fables) when they do not understand a word.  This is how you increase their vocabulary naturally over time.

(2)   – Reading easy books below level in order to master common words.  Reading easy books and re-reading books they have mastered already increases their speed, accuracy and confidence.  This should be the type of reading that they spend the most time on.

(3)   – Reading books at a comfortable level to gently increase the child’s reading ability over time.  It is slow and arduous work to decode unfamiliar words in the books that they are given.  Break it up into two or more periods of time, rather than reading to a frustration level for a longer period of time.  Stop the reading before it becomes exasperating and switch to something else.  We don’t want to “boil them in their mother’s milk” meaning that that which is meant to be nourishing and enjoyable, should never become painful.  Students need to read in short stints, books that are at their level in order to stretch their ability.

How does this all work again?

Beginning this week, you will find some extra resources available to you in our classroom.  I will continue to assess your child’s knowledge of the phonograms previously introduced in class and you will find it in your child’s HW folder on Fridays.  Based on their mastery of phonograms and spelling rules, I will select a story that your child will read to fluency with you at home until they are reading to move on to the next story.  Fluency is loosely defined as reading a story accurately (correct pronunciation) and with ease (no more than 2 – 3 mistakes).   When your child has “mastered” a story and is able to read it fluently to you or another family member, then write the word “mastered” on the comments section next to that story on the chart on the front of the reading envelope in your child’s HW folder.

You will also find two new resources to help you as you coach your child in reading at various levels:

(1)   Reading Fluency Word Cards- these are lists of words that are organized by phonogram.  Find the phonogram assessment (page with colorful dots) in your child’s HW folder.  The ones that your child has stamped are the ones that they recognized with mastery.  The ones that are left white are the ones that they still need to practice with you at home the following week.  You are invited to find the word lists that correspond with the phonograms that your child has not yet mastered and take them home with you and record which ones your child reads through on the cover page on the outside of your child’s reading envelope.  You may also print out a copy of the ones that apply to your child at home from Word Mastery, by Florence Akin (first printed in 1911, now available for free on public domain). You will find a PDF at http://donpotter.net/pdf_files/word_mastery_typed.pdf

(2)   Easy Readers – We have a plethora of easy readers available for parents to use both in our classroom and online for you to choose from.  You are welcome to purchase your own, borrow from our classroom library or print your own from several websites listed below.

a.       Free printable easy readers – you may have register, but it is free.

                                                               i.      http://www.marriottmd.com/sam/index.html

                                                             ii.      http://www.progressivephonics.com

b.      Paid Membership for printable readers

                                                               i.      http://www.learninga-z.com/

c.       Classroom Library Contains Readers (in case you want to purchase your own):

                                                               i.      Phonics Museum – Veritas Press

                                                             ii.      Itty Bitty Phonics Readers – Creative Teaching Press

                                                            iii.      K12 Phonics Works

                                                           iv.      Hooked on Phonics

                                                             v.      Scholastic Readers

                                                           vi.      Abeka Basic Phonics Readers

Thank you to both Ruth Barone and Jennifer Blok who have worked tirelessly to help prepare these materials for us to use.

In His Service,

Selena Meza, Kindergarten Teacher

Thank you to Amy who took the time to type up all of the words that our children will be learning to write and read over the next several years.  You can use both of these documents together with your child’s Spelling Notebook to help them learn the words that I introduce in class each week.  Please check the Spelling Notebook each Monday for red letters and coach your child to make the necessary corrections.  Second, you will have them do a practice dictation (kind of like a pre-test) so that you can see which words from last week and this week that they still need to work on.  Finally, use the attachments to select activities that you want your child to do during the week to learn those words.  your child will complete a spelling dictation each week in class.  You will find these instructions referred to on the revised assignment sheet in your child’s HW folder today.

In His Service,

Selena Meza

Kindergarten Teacher

Spelling Practice Suggestions 

Ayers Word List