Teacher: Mrs. Linda Cox
Degree: Elementary Education
From: Western Illinois University
11 years teaching experience
1 year teaching at St. Mary School
Illinois State Teaching Certification: Standard Elementary Teaching
Type 03 and 09

To e-mail Mrs. Cox, please click on the link below.
lcox@stmaryschooldekalb.com

Kinder-News

It is so hard to believe the end of the year is approaching! Here are a few updates:

Kindergarten Graduation

Graduation day will be on Wednesday, May 28th. It will take place in the cafeteria at 1:00. This is a regular full day of school and the last day of kindergarten attendance. Since this is such a special event, the children may wear dress clothes. Uniforms do not need to be worn. Keep in mind that the children will be going out to recess on that day (we do remind them to "take it easy outside"). And of course, parents and grandparents, etc. are encouraged to attend! Refreshments will be served following the ceremony.

Egg-citing Classroom Visitors

We are very excited to announce some very special additions to our classroom - 26 chicken eggs and 10 caterpillars (I'm sure you've heard!). We've had our caterpillars for about a week now and we're learning some interesting caterpillar/butterfly facts! The children love it! We are anxiously awaiting the chrysalis stage of their development. The eggs just arrived yesterday – so we are going to have to practice our ability to be "patient" while waiting for their development! The total process takes about 3 weeks. We will be learning a lot of interesting information about them as well. So as you can see our classroom is "full of life" in so many ways!!!!

Journal Party

We will be having our "journal party" toward the end of the month, so please send any forgotten journals back to school so your child will have their whole set to look at. It will be amazing to see how far they've come in their writing ability from the first month of the school year to the last! The whole set will be yours to keep once we've had our party.

Kindergarten Portfolios

Your child will also be bringing home a Kindergarten Portfolio which includes various samples of work, art projects, etc. that we have accomplished throughout the year. We thought this would be any easy way to keep some of their kindergarten memories all in one binder! There should be some extra empty sleeves in the back that could be used for anything you've decided to keep that is already at home. I hope you enjoy it!!

Baggie Books

The kids have been enjoying taking home books to read on their own! Again, if the book that is brought home is too difficult do not get discouraged – just read it to your child! They may not be able to read every book they pick out to take home! It is truly amazing to see the progress that is being made! If your child has not been bringing home any baggie books it may be that a book has not been returned to school. Please be sure to send them back to school the next day after reading it.

Scholastic Book Order:

The final book order will be due back to school by May 7th. Checks can be made out to Scholastic.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Your children are really growing in many ways. I hope you are seeing their progress as much as I am! They are a wonderful group of children – you should be VERY proud!!!!

Linda Cox

BASIC KINDERGARTEN INFORMATION

Behavior Cards:
We have begun our classroom management procedure. Each child has a pocket with four colored cards: green, yellow, orange and pink. If your child's green card is showing, then he/she is having a great day! If on yellow, your child has received a warning about a particular behavior. If the card is then switched to orange he/she loses 5 minutes of recess time. And, if the card is changed to pink, 10 minutes is taken away. A call will be made to the parent if a card is switched to pink. A monthly calendar will be stapled inside of your child's green "home folder" to keep track of the cards (e.g. a green star on the calendar indicates that your child stayed on "green" all day). If a card is flipped, the number of cards flipped will be indicated. At the end of the week, any child who has stayed on green all week or has had only one card flipped will be allowed to take a small prize from our "prize box"!

Library:
Please make sure your child's library book is brought back to school each week so a new one can be checked out. We've talked about keeping our library books in a special place at home so we can keep track of them! I will let you know soon about our library day.

Lunches/Milk:
Please make sure your child is bringing only items that can be easily opened on his/her own at lunch time. Milk will automatically come with all hot lunches ordered. A separate milk order must be placed through the office each month for milk if your child brings a sack lunch to school. This is done only on a monthly basis. Please make sure "Cox" and "K-A" are indicated on the hot lunch and milk orders each month!

P.E.:
Our gym class is on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons. A pair of gym shoes should be left at school for gym class.

Music:
Music class is on Monday afternoons.

Spanish:
Our Spanish teacher, Mrs. Mayer, comes into our class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons! They love it!

Computers:
The children are very fortunate to go to our wonderful computer lab every Thursday and Friday afternoon!

Snacks:
Thanks to everyone who has brought in a snack for our snack time. Please send in snacks that are fairly healthy and that can be easily served and eaten. We have 24 students in our class (12 boys, 12 girls).

Water:
A filled water bottle may be brought in for drinks throughout the day. If possible, it would be best to bring in an insulated one that does not sweat. We do take a couple of bathroom/drink breaks during the day, but it may help to have additional drinks, especially on very hot/humid days!!

Scholastic Book Orders:
Every month (or two!) your child will bring home a book order from Scholastic. This is a great way to purchase books for your child at an affordable price! Mrs.Olson has generously volunteered to be the "book order mom". She will be compiling the order and mailing it off every month! Thank you, Mrs. Olson!!!!

Shoe Tying:
Please help your child at home with this skill! The children love to help each other with this, but it will be great once everyone has it mastered!

Alpha Tale Books:
Your child will be bringing home the first mini alpha tales booklet – Seal's Silly Sandwich. The paper folder is to store them in at home. We will be reading one story for each letter of the alphabet. The mini books are for you to enjoy with your child at home! Eventually they will be able to join in on some of the words and phrases in the books. This is very exciting for them! Look for the first booklet next week.

Home Connection Folder
Your child will bring home a folder everyday with any notes, work, etc. that needs to be sent home. Likewise, you will use this folder to send anything back to school. Please make sure you check the folder each night.

“King/Queen” for a Day
For the first few weeks of school, to help us get acquainted with one another, I will draw a name each day and that child will be the “king” or “queen” for the day. That child and his/her name will be the focus of several language activities and he/she will also get to be “interviewed” by the class. It will be a fun way to get to know each other!

Show & Tell
Your child will be given a special day each week that he/she is allowed to bring in something to share from home. I do ask that you help your child come up with 2-3 things to tell about the item. This can be a valuable oral language experience! More information on this will come home when we start Show & Tell.

Snacks
We will have a short period of time for a quick snack in the morning. Each student is asked to bring in a snack for the whole class. When the snack tub is empty, I will ask for more snacks to be sent to school. Please send in something that is fairly neat and healthy – pretzels, popcorn, granola bars, crackers, fruit, cheese, etc. (preferably not anything too sugary!) If your child has particular nutritional restrictions please let me know.

Change of Clothes
It would be very helpful to send an extra set of clothes to school in case of any mishaps! This could just be an old t-shirt, sweats and socks. These would be kept in their individual lockers if needed.