Mrs.

Donzes
Newsletter
(2014-2015)

January 23, 2015

Important Dates
Jan. 26: Chuck E Cheese Night(Alpine location only)
Jan. 27: Late Start day-school
starts at 10:40.
Feb. 11: PTO meeting 7:00 Library
Feb. 13: Valentine Party 2:353:20 A class list will be sent home
next week so your child can
address their valentines.
Feb. 16-17: No School, MidWinter Break/Prof. Develop Day
Feb. 20: Popcorn day
Feb. 23: Corner Bar Fundraiser
night

Special Schedule:
Monday: MUSIC
Tuesday: PE
Wednesday: COMPUTER LAB
& LIBRARY Try to have books all
returned by Tuesday so your child knows they
can check out another book on Wednesday.)

Thursday: ART
Friday: P.E.

Look what we are doing in class:

We had a great week and I am looking
forward to next week! The kids learned
that animals migrate, hibernate or adapt in
winter. We spent a few days reading a
small book about this and learned about
what some animals do. This generated
more questions and the kids want to look
through other animal books to find out
what other animals do in winter. We have
a chart in room to display the names or
pictures of animals as they find new
information.
We are finishing writing Realistic Fiction stories, and
will begin Opinion stories the first week in February.
The kids worked in small groups to think, write and
illustrate the stories. They did a great job working
together as teams. Note: Look for a small paper in
your childs folder next week asking for a small 5 -piece
collection to come to school for a few days. We will
use it for writing.
Finally we will be learning about Penguins and other
animals that love snow, ice and the cold temperatures.
I will be doing a lot of assessing the next 2 weeks. I
cant wait to see their progress!

I want you to know how compassionate, kind, understanding, and patient your children are towards each
other in our class, and at Belmont. We are like a family in our room and I am very proud of them. They are
working very hard in all contents areas, and they tell me they are, getting smarter every day.

Mrs. Kim Donze

Email address: kdonze@rockfordschools.org
Blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com (Check out the site and the pictures.)
Office Phone #: 616-863-6362, Classroom phone #: 616-863-6363 ext. 4721

Word Wall Words:

Any word with an * next to it, means it
does not follow a rule for sounding out.

Jan. 26-30
think, *walk, cold, *off,
before
Feb. 2-6 play, *again, fly,
round, never
Feb. 9-13 eat, may, *been,
*who, myself
Feb. 18-20 stop, much,
try, today, keep

Our Focus Lessons:

Math: We have been having a lot of fun in math this past

week. We had our first timed test. The kids did great!
Then I realized that they need to do these problems in 2
minutes. (Not 3 minutes like I allowed them) I will tell
them about my mistake next time. (This will be our new
goal.) I will call this our practice. They were surprised
how well they did and liked them.
We started Counting Collections Friday afternoon. The
kids did a great job. I took a lot of pictures. I will post
these on the blog: kimdonzeclassroom.blogspot.com They
grouped the objects in 10s, and then re-grouped them
together to make 100s etc. Some groups counted way into
the 100s! It made sense to the kids because we spent time
learning about place value, and used base-10 blocks last
week as we looked closely at numbers. We used a place
value mat to show our counts today: flats (hundreds), longs
(tens) and cubes (ones).

Social Studies:

The kids really loved the biographies about Martin

Luther King Jr. and the other books I read that reinforced kindness
towards others. One of their favorites was:

Each Kindness by

Jacqueline Woodson

Belmonts Best
Mrs. Thelen will invite these kids
to eat their lunch with her
during the week of:

Word Study: We have not done

small group word study lately, but
as a class we will do work with
blends. The kids will listen, look
for and write the following blends
in words: st, pl, tr, gl, tw, gr, sl, sw,
fr, pr, dr, and fl.

Jan. 26: Isaiah Poe

Feb. 2: Ellsie Ritsema

Needs:

Many children are out of glue sticks,

and most of my extra supply is also
gone. If you are at the store and can
get some for your child that would be
appreciated.

I would also love to get some more

Lysol wipes for our room. We clean the
desks at least 2 times a week and we
are running short of them.

Feb. 11: Lucas Walker

Feb. 16: Enya Stevens
PTO has purchased a book for
each child again this year and
they will receive it at lunch on
their special day.

Thanks!