Saturday, September 10, 2011

Week of September 12-16, 2011

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. **THE LUAU IS BEING RESCHEDULED FOR NEXT FRIDAY, SEPT. 16th. Students may dress for the luau next Friday.

**We will start using the behavior calendar at the back of your child’s communication folder beginning Monday, Sept. 12th. Check the calendar daily to see what “kind” of day your child had at school. (An explanation of the calendar will be in the Keep side of the folder on Monday.)

~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 started 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 Thursdays our class meets with their 4th grade Reading Buddies from Mrs. Liem’s homeroom. Boys and girls have been 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.

~The School-wide Book Fair will also take place in the Large Group Instruction Room next week, September 12-16. Information is enclosed in your child’s folder. **Parents will be able to shop and/or browse with their child on Monday night from 4-7:00 p.m. if interested. Our class will be shopping in school on Wednesday, September 14th. (**Please note that the Book Fair is in addition to the Firefly and SeeSaw order form sent home for our class (due by Sept. 27th). Try not to mix up your order and/or money.)

~ There will be a PTO meeting on Monday, Sept. 12th in the cafeteria beginning at 6:30. All are invited and encouraged to attend.

Monday, Sept. 12th will be Day 4 (not 5) due to the day off on Thursday, 9/8) on your child’s special class schedule. **Students will need sneakers and gym attire for Thursday, September 15th.

Thank you for all of your cooperation!!!

Mrs. Potts