Kindergarten,
Ms. Kristina Maiers
“To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love, For it is in giving that we receive. . .”
~ from The Prayer of Saint Francis
Greetings & welcome to Holy Cross Catholic School!
Your child will be in my Kindergarten class! I really appreciate that you want to partner with us in educating your child and look forward to working with you during the upcoming school year. I am so happy to begin my third year at HCCS with this wonderful, caring community.
I would like to tell you about myself. My name is Kristina Maiers and I am originally from northern California where I attended Sacred Heart in Saratoga. My family moved to Boulder, CO in 1999 and I returned there after college graduation in 2010. I received my BA in Early Childhood Education from the University of Arizona in Tucson. I have been teaching for 7 years and this will be my 4th year teaching Kindergarten. I have previously taught 2nd grade and Preschool, so I have a great sense of where my Kindergarten students are coming from at the start and where they need to go by the end of the year. I am eager to help your child learn and try their best to succeed. In the classroom, I plan to engage, support, and challenge individual students and to help strengthen their skills in each academic area.
This is my third year living in Portland, OR. I am enjoying exploring this beautiful state by hiking, camping, and skiing. Last summer I traveled abroad throughout Europe and really enjoyed the seafood & tapas in northern Spain and sunset kayaking Croatia. In my spare time I enjoy reading, yoga, and watching movies.
Learning Corner:
Religion- God Loves Us
Math- Ready Math & iReady
Literacy- Journeys Common Core whole group, grammar & writing, and small group lessons each day
Core Knowledge Language Arts phonics & early reading skills
Science- Building Blocks: Weather & Sky, Push, Pull, Go, and Living Things & Their Needs
Social Studies- Harcourt & supplemental materials
Health- Called to Protect, Second Step Social Emotional learning
Specials: Music, Library, Computer, P.E., Art
Service Corner:
The Kindergarten class visits the elderly at Assumption Village several times throughout the year. We perform songs in costume at Halloween, sing Christmas Carols in December, and spring songs about baby animals and our Mother Mary in April/May.
We also participate in school-wide food pantry projects and making prayer cards/ bookmarks for parishoners.
Faith Formation:
Please join us for weekly Mass on Fridays at 8:30am.
Our Bible quote for this school year is "Great is our Lord, vast in power, with wisdom beyond measure." Psalm 147:5
Important Dates
May 22- Spring Concert & Arts Fair
June 5th- Kindergarten and 7th Grade field trip to the Oregon Zoo 10am-2pm
June 11- End of Year Ceremony 2-3pm in the school hall
June 14- Last day of school, noon dismissal
Summer Prep
I recommend continuing to practice reading & math skills over the summer. Create a schedule to go to the local library once a week and check out early reader books. A routine of reading aloud to mom and/or dad before bed is a great way to keep practicing sight words and decoding.
Get a simple addition & subtraction summer workbook to keep your mind fresh with numbers. Some good old fashioned board games that are good to play for counting and identifying numbers are: Candy Land, Chutes & Ladders, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Monopoly Junior, and Sorry!
For those that enjoy creative writing (or could use some work on it) starting a summer journal could be fun; write the date and a sentence or two about what you did that day, that weekend, or even a whole story about a family trip/ vacation. Don't forget to add a drawing or picture to go with it!
Some websites to use:
time4learning.com
abcya.com
starfall.com
readingrockets.org
storylineonline.net
storynory.com
readtomelv.com
splashmath.com
funbrain.com
mathblaster.com
hoodamath.com
mathgametime.com
coolmath-games.com
seussville.com
pbs.org
discoverykids.com
Some apps to use:
Epic!
Sight Words List
Spelling Bug
Sky Fish Phonics
Sentence Maker
Sight Words by Touch Photo
Little Stars Word Wizard
ABC Letter Tracing
Sight Words List
Khan Academy
BuzzMath
10 Frame Fill
Thinking Blocks
Quick Math Jr.
Native Numbers
Number Math
Our class on Hat Day! Fall 2018
