Week of September 17-21, 2012

Kindergarten News 

                  ~ This week we will be learning the letter Hh as in hat, hippo, and horse.  As part of our study with the letter Hh we will have a “Hat Day” on Friday, September 21^st.  **Students are asked to wear a favorite hat, a funny hat, or even a homemade hat.  (You can be creative with this if you want!  Students will be able to wear the hat all day—we do just ask that students do not share hats.) Show and Tell will be with items that begin with the /h/ sound.  Check your schedule and start hunting!  **PLEASE NOTE, sight word flash cards will be sent home daily in the plastic sleeve of your child’s folder.  Please return Ziploc bag to the folder after practicing, so new words can be added at school throughout the year.

            ~ Our Reading story this week will be Miss Bindergarten Takes a Field Trip with Kindergarten.  Watch for your Family Times newsletter to come home on Monday.  Review the high frequency words: I, am, the, my, name, love and little and practice letter recognition for the letters Aa-Zz.  We will be talking about People in Communities and will be learning how to classify and categorize.

            ~In Math we will be counting to 10 with one-to-one correspondence, work with pattern blocks to create and cover designs, and sort objects by color.  Students should continue to practice writing numbers 0-9 and sing the number writing verse for each number.  We will explore the shapes; circle and rectangle, will identify and order numbers 1-5, identify a missing number and identify most and fewest on a graph.  Please review the lessons sent home daily!!!  Please take some time to review the daily practice pages that your child brings home in his/her KEEP side of the communication folder.

            ~ We have been practicing writing our first names.  Please watch your child as he/she is writing.  Be sure to check if letters are beginning at the top, not the bottom and also guide him/her to use the lines when forming letters.  Capital letters should only be used at the beginning of names!

            ~We have begun talking about Bullying in our classroom and school.  In the upcoming weeks we will be using some storybooks and short videos to introduce bullying and will be discussing our school and classroom rules.

            ~Our Kindergarten class has begun a science unit called Trees.  We will be observing and comparing trees in and around the school.  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 tree 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!!!

            ~ ATTENTION:  There will be another Fall Festival Planning meeting on Thursday, Sept. 20^th @ 6:30 pm in the pavilion behind the Elementary School & big-kids playground.  All who would like to help with the preparations and planning are invited and encouraged to attend. (The more parent/grandparent volunteers, the more activities @ the Fall Festival)   The Fall Festival will be held at the school on Thursday, Oct. 11^th.  **Each student is asked to bring in $3.00 to help pay for the supplies needed for the festival.  Please send money in an envelope with your child’s name, teacher, and FALL FESTIVAL labeled on it.  **JUST A REMINDER:  Clearances must be on file in the office to help at the Fall Festival, but anyone can help with the preparations and planning!!!

            ~Students have been doing a terrific job with completing HOMEWORK and bringing it back to school on time.  Thank you to the parents for all your cooperation and support with homework!!

            ~Parents please check folders daily and remove all “KEEP” items.  It becomes difficult to handle folders with too many papers inside (both for the students and teachers).  Thanks!!

            ~ Monday, Sept. 17^th will be Day 5 on our special classes’ schedule.  **Boys and girls will need sneakers for gym class on Day 2, Wednesday, September 19^th.