Weeks of December 21, 2015 - January 8, 2016

Kindergarten News 

*There will be an early dismissal on Wednesday, December 23^rd.  Students will be dismissed at 1:00 pm.  **Please note there will be NO BREAKFAST served due to the early dismissal.  (Lunch for Kindergarten will be from 9:30-10:00 and computer class @ 10:20-10:40.)  Students may dress in pajamas for our Polar Express Day -- 12/23!  A holiday snack will be                                    provided!!

            School will be closed from December 24^th through January 3^rd.  We will return to school on Monday, January 4, 2016.  **Take some time over the long holiday to review and practice Phonics and sight words, Handwriting, and Math.  It is also a great time to read together with your child and maybe even take the opportunity to let him/her “show off” his/her reading skills to visiting relatives!! (Also don’t forget to return AR “Book Buddy” recording sheets by Jan. 4^th!  The goal for December is 15 books!)

            The second marking period will be ending by the third week of January and we will continue testing when we return from the holidays.  Students will be asked to identify and write numbers 0-20, count to 100 by 1s and 10s, identify and describe 2 & 3 dimensional shapes, identify capital and lowercase letters and identify their sounds, recognize and produce rhyming words, read high frequency sight words, blend 2, 3, and 4 letter words, identify parts of a book and the roles of the author and illustrator.  Please take some time at home to review these skills and concepts.

            DIBELS testing will be held in January too.  Boys and girls will be tested on First Sound Fluency (FSF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), and Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF).  Students have been practicing at school and also NEED to practice at home.  The recommended goal for FSF for mid-year is 52+, the LNF goal is 52+, the PSF goal is 51+, and NWF is 34+.  Students are timed for 1 minute for each area.  Practice worksheets were sent home at conference time, as well as, monthly letter naming practice pages.

            For Reading we will continue with Unit 3; Watch Me Change.  After the holidays, we will move on to the story, George Washington Visits.  It is a historical fiction story, and we will be discussing how life today is different from life 100s of years ago.  For phonics we will be working with the letters Dd and Kk and their sounds /d/ and /k/.  Watch for your family times newsletter for more details. To reinforce the letter sounds the boys and girls will be presenting dinosaur reports and the boys will get to be “Kings for a Day” one day during the week.   **Dinosaur reports will be presented to the class T-F January 5^th-8^th.  (Details and report papers with dinosaur name will be enclosed in folders on Friday, December 18^th.  Feel free to work on reports before or during the holiday break!!) We will work with the K and C Spelling Rule.  The rule is that we spell the /k/ sound with the letter K when the sound is followed by the letters e, i, and y.  We spell the /k/ sound with the letter C when the sound is followed by the letters a, o, u, and any consonant.  For example:  K before e, i, or y (keg, kid, milky)  C before a, o, u, or any consonant (cat, cot, cup, clip) 

            In Math we will REVIEW and TEST Topic 4: Comparing and Ordering Numbers 0-10.  Next we will be working with Numbers to 20 for Topic 5.  Take some time to practice comparing sets (greater and fewer) and ordering numbers using a number line.

 **Monday, December 21^st will be Day 4-Gym on the special classes schedule.  Students will need sneakers and gym attire for Monday, 12/21.  Monday, January 4^th will be Day 7-Guidance on the special classes schedule and students will need Gym attire and sneakers on Wednesday, January 6^th (1/6).  **(Please note that whenever school is closed due to inclement weather, the rotation schedule is just bumped to the next school day, so students do not miss the scheduled special class for the cancelled day.)

We hope you like all the things we’ve made for the upcoming holidays:  “My Little Ten Point” reindeer, personalized stockings, plates for Santa, and especially our thumbprint reindeer ornaments.  Don’t forget to put out the reindeer food and Cookies for Santa on        Christmas Eve.

                                    Have a safe and happy holiday break—See you next year!