Kindergarten Newsletter
~We have finished our second week of school and the students are adjusting very well! We also learned to recognize and write the letter “L” this week. The students liked showing their “L” items from home for show and-tell and they really enjoyed our Luau Party on Friday!!! We have begun to practice writing our first names correctly. Try to watch your child while he/she is writing to see that letters are being formed properly and from the top down. We will start using the behavior calendar at the back of your child’s communication folder beginning Monday, Sept. 13th. Check the calendar daily to see what “kind” of day your child had at school. (An explanation of the calendar is in the Keep side of the folder.)
~Our Phonics letter for this week is “Oo” as in octopus. The show-and-tell schedule for the letter “Oo” will be the same as this past week. New “brown bags” are in your child’s folder. The letter Oo is a vowel and has 2 sounds. We will focus on the short sound, but will also introduce the long sound that “says its own name”.
~We will start Reading with the story, The Little School Bus this week. Watch for your Family Times newsletter to come home with details about our upcoming story and skills we will be working on in Reading. Please review the Amazing words, the ordinal numbers first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth, letter recognition of letters Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, and Ee, the story element “character”, and the high frequency words I and am.
~In Math we will continue to work with counting bears, pattern blocks, and linking cubes. We will also practice counting to 5 with 1:1 correspondence, creating an AB color pattern, identifying most and fewest on a graph, and using positional words and phrases: over, under, on top of, behind, in back of, in front of, beside, inside, and outside. Students should practice writing the numbers from 0-9 while singing the number writing verses on their practice pages. Our first math assessment will be identifying the 4 basic shapes; circle, square, triangle, and rectangle. Take some time over the weekend to review them at home.
~Our Kindergarten class has begun a science unit called Trees. We have been observing and comparing the trees in and around the schoolyard. We have adopted a maple tree as our “class tree” to watch throughout the seasons. We’ve been learning about the tree parts; roots, trunk, branches, and leaves. **Your child may come home with lots of information and questions about trees and their parts. You can join in the tree study by taking your child for walks in your neighborhood to observe trees and to compare how they are alike and how they are different. See which trees lose their leaves in the fall and which keep them all year? Look closely at the leaves. Do the trees have buds, flowers, fruit, or seeds? You might notice things about trees that you never thought about before!!!
~On Wednesday our class will meet their 4th grade Reading Buddies from Ms. Burda’s homeroom for the first time! Boys and girls will be matched up with 4th graders to listen to stories and eventually practice their own reading skills. Be sure to ask your child about his/her buddy.
~On Thursday, September 16th all students will attend a program in the gym about Tourette’s syndrome. Please be sure to ask your child about the program and what he/she learned!
~The School-wide Book Fair will also take place in the Large Group Instruction Room next week, September 13-17. Information is enclosed in your child’s folder. **Parents will be able to shop and/or browse with their child on Monday night from 4-6:30 p.m. if interested. Kindergarten will be shopping in school on Thursday, September 16th. (Monday, September 20th will be a make-up day as needed.)
Monday, Sept. 13th will be Day 2 on your child’s special class schedule. **Students will need sneakers and gym attire for Tuesday, September 14th.
Thank you for all of your cooperation!!!
Mrs. Potts
