Chloe
Student of the Month - November

Philip
Student of the Month - September

Ms. Faller

SchoolPicture0910.jpg
SchoolPicture0910.jpg 2009-10-26

The CTE 3rd Annual Wild West Carnival will be this Friday from 5-9pm! See you there!!

Thank you to Kameren's parents for all of their hard work in putting together our booth! It looks GREAT!!

Chaffee Trail's Reading Goal for 2009-2010 is 75,000 books!! If we reach this goal Mrs. Walker has agreed to be buried in the sand up to her chin!! The top reader from each class will be able to help bury her! Reminder: when you are reading with your child every night, don't forget to record the titles on their book log! Both books that you read to them AND books that they read to you, family/, friends or alone count! When you complete the log (25 books), send it to school and another log will be sent home. If you are able to print off a copy of the book log at home from our website (HOMEWORK tab under FILES), please let me know!!

The zoo field trip yesterday was a blast. If you chaperoned and have pictures, please burn them onto a CD to share!! Today we had a great day filled with fun fall activities. We participated in or watched the Book Character Parade in the AM. Even Ms. Faller dressed up as Pippi Longstocking! We also did fun Fall activities. We made a bat for the letter B and learned a poem about 5 Little Bats. We also learned a song to help up spell the word HALLOWEEN. We learned how to read a new book: 'Pumpkin, Pumpkin, What do you see?' which reviewed our color words. We made cool halloween hats decorated with foamy halloween stickers. We made a pumpkin puppet. We read a book about pumpkins and then wrote about what our pumpkin would look like! We used our color and shape words to help us in our writing. The best activity of the day was when we cut open a pumpkin and stuck our hand inside! It felt slimy and goey! We grabbed a handful of 'pumpkin guts' and counted the seeds that we pulled out! We also discussed the properties of the pumpkin: shape, size, color, what it feels like, smells like, etc. Some of us had never touched the inside of a pumpkin before! It sure was icky-feeling! We ran out of time, so we will continue our fall activities with a candy-corn counting and sorting activity on Monday. Have a fun and safe Halloween! Please remember candy is not allowed as part of your child's lunch or extended day snack! See you Monday morning!

Our trip to the zoo today was a blast! We saw many animals, learned about them, and even were able to touch a few of them! Check out the pictures on the PICTURES page. Thank you to:

Kaelie's mom and grandmother
Hunter's grandfather
Philip's mom
Dana's dad

for chaperoning the trip! If you have any pictures that you took of the trip, PLEASE email or burn them to a CD for me so that I can add them to the site and use them for our end-of-the-year slideshow!! THANK YOU!

Tomorrow we will do fun Fall/Halloween activities and participate in/watch our Book Character Parade! Have a great and safe Halloween!

Next Friday, Oct. 30 will be Book Character Day! Your child can dress up as their favorite book character. This can be their Halloween costume, however, they will need a book to carry with them in the parade that relates to their costume.

We are also planning on doing some fun Halloween/Fall activities that day. If anyone is able to donate any of the following items, please let me know.  Thank you for your support! It is VERY much appreciated!


We will be in need of:

a large bag of regular candy corn
a large bag of chocolate candy corn (also called Indian Corn) (brown top)
a large bag of caramel (light brown top)  or candy apple candy corn (red top)

We had a terrific day at school with our teddy bears! We did many activities with them. Ask your child to tell you all about it! Pictures from today's activities can be found on the PICTURES page. Check them out!

**Pictures have also been added from Science (seasons/5 senses activities), 3 Little Pigs Field Trip, Math - Pattern fun!

We had a great time going to JCA to see the 3 Little Pigs. It was lots of fun and we even got to meet the characters! We have been working on retelling in class. Please have your child retell the story of the 3 Little Pigs to you at home.

We are in need of the following items. If you are able to donate any of the following items, it would be a greatly appreciated:

sidewalk chalk
small items for the Treasure Box (old Happy Meal toys, etc.)

Thursday morning, Mrs. Miller our media specialist read THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR to all of the kindergarten classes.  Go to this link to see the pictures:

Riverdeep is now available for your child to access at home, the library, or any location with internet access! It is a software suite that includes lots of fun and educational games. The kids have lots of fun while learning!

*Click on the WEBSITES tab
-Click the link entitled RIVERDEEP

LOGIN: Username: firstlastname142
      Password: birthmonth+date

ex: If your birthday is March 25, your password is 0325

This week I will be sending home our first Scholastic Book Club flier. If you are interested in ordering books for your child: choose the books, go to scholastic.com/bookclubs (the link is on the websites tab), fill out the order, and pay with a credit card. This is a convenient way to get books for your child and it helps earn free books for our classroom.

Username: Faller
Password: chaffeetrail

New pictures have been added to the September 2009 album. Check them out!
Progress Reports will go home Friday! Please sign and return the bottom section.

Check out the video explaining why we collect 'Pop Tops' at school! (located on the PICTURES page under VIDEOS!)

Help us raise money for our school programs and our library by bringing your paper recycling to school. You will notice the green and yellow recycling bin in our parking lot. Bring your junk mail, magazines, catalogs, newspapers, office, and school papers to the recycling bin, and we receive funds based on the weight of the paper collected each week!  Tell your neighbors and friends; they are welcome to use our recycling bin, too. Thanks so much for helping your school, your community, and your environment.

*Cardboard, food boxes,  textbooks/hardcover books, phone books, wrapping paper, tissue paper, and sticky notes are not accepted

You are cordially invited to attend
Chaffee Trail Elementary’s
Flag Raising and Reading Kickoff

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
8:30 a.m.

Color Guard:  American Legion, Lakeshore Post #137

Guest Speaker:  Todd Fordham (formerly of the
Jacksonville Jaguars)

Open House at Chaffee Trail Elementary is Thursday, September 3rd at 6:30pm.  There will be a PTA meeting at 6:00pm in the cafeteria.

We have been busy establishing rituals and routines.  The children are learning quickly about unpacking their backpack in the morning and packing it up again in the afternoon, raising their hand, walking in a line, sharing/being a good friend, things good readers and listeners do, how to use pictures to help tell a story, drawing a story and labeling everything in your picture, how to use the math manipulatives, "Letter/Sound songs", how to conduct a fire drill, The Pledge of Allegiance and many other things.  Now you know why your child comes home so tired!

Take advantage of the FREE online services provided by the county:
Houghton Mifflin EduServices (read books online, answer questions, ideas to incorporate more literacy activities during your daily routine)

http://www.eduplace.com/eservices/
LOGIN: amyfallerclass
PASSWORD: student

Click on Leveled Books.

Right now, your child will be reading Level A books (wordless books or few words).

*See the WEBSITES tab for more details.

~Don't forget to check out the CURRICULUM tab for information on what we are working on in class and ways to help your child at home!

We had a great first day of Kindergarten at Chaffee Trail Elementary School! We started the day with our Good Morning song, the calendar, and learning a little about each other. We read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and then went on a tour of the school and hunted for all of the letters of the alphabet! Then we came back to the classroom and stuck them on the coconut tree--just like in the book! Later on we had a special Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Treat (Rice Krispie treats made out of Alphabits cereal)! We read books, explored with math manipulatives, counted, sang our ABCs, and many other activities. We also are practicing our rituals and routines and learning to be good listeners! We are excited about the fun year ahead!

*Reminders*
-Please send in your child's school supplies if you have not done so already!
-Make sure that your child wears their transportation tag every day to/from school for the first few weeks to help make sure that they get home the correct way! If you will be picking up your child a different way, please write a note in their agenda.
-Check your child's Homework folder and agenda EVERY night. Their behavior grade will be written in their agenda.

GREAT NEW LITERACY INTERNET RESOURCE!

Our Houghton Mifflin Reading Curriculum now has wonderful new online resources for students, teachers, and families! Students can read books online or have them read to them. They can search through a variety of genres and levels, as well as read the books that I have sorted into categories. There is a great Families area of the site, which offers useful tips and ideas to help your child grow as a reader. Check it out! Information for this site will also be under the WEBSITES tab of this website.   www.eduplace.com/eservices  
Username: amyfallerclass
Password: student

I added tabs to better organize the website.

*CALENDER tab: The resource schedule is now posted on the calendar so you can check when your child has PE (wear sneakers!) or library (bring your book!).

*CURRICULUM tab: You will see what we are working on this week. There are also helpful hints to help you work with your child at home and the list of sight words.

*PICTURES: You are now able to download and print full quality photos from home. When viewing a picture, click on the 'Download this picture' link which is on the right.

*WEBSITES: A list of my favorite sites and helpful resources. These include the CTE website, CTE library website, Art Talk with Mrs. Woodlief, Kindergarten Virtual Backpack, and Riverdeep. There is also the login information for Riverdeep.