Thank you for your understanding and good wishes during my recovery from my concussion. It was great to be back in the classroom on Thursday and Friday mornings. I will continue to work half days this week and will leave school at noon. Most of our classroom instruction occurs in the morning, so this means that your children will receive the majority of their teaching from me. In the afternoon, things are a little more low-key and their guest teacher will give them "choice time", share a read-aloud, bring them to specials, get them ready for recess and prepare them for dismissal. I was unable to spend a lot of time looking at the computer and some of my memory has not returned yet. So, if you sent me an email and I did not respond, please send me a reminder or re-send your message. Thank you very much!
Literacy: We are working with our second unit in the Houghton Mifflin reading curriculum. We have focused on the sounds of the letters: /c/, /s/, /r/ and /m/. We are listening for those sounds at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of words. We are also learning about writing those letters.
Sight words are frequently used words. Many sight words do not follow phonics rules. Our goal is for the 37 - 40 kindergarten sight words to be words that the children don't need to sound out; they will just "know" these words. The sight words we have worked with so far are:
I a am can see like and (just introduced) Your child's first and last names
Please review these letters and sounds with your children and help them use and recognize these sight words. Most of the children are able to write these words with a little support. They can write sentences using these words (ex. I can see a ________.) Many children are forgetting to follow the pattern of "word-space-word-space" when writing a sentence and are squishing their words together. This is a common problem. When asking your child to write a sentence have them do the following:
1. Think of the words you want to write.
2. Say the sentence out loud. (Writers must be able to say their words before they can write their words.)
3. If your child is struggling with leaving spaces between words, help them to count out the number of words they will be writing. Then, please write a line for each word they want to write leaving a space between each line. Have your child say their sentence again out loud, pointing to each line when they say a new word.
4. Write the words. If your child is writing a word that s/he doesn't know, encourage your child to write the sounds s/he hears. If they get the first and last sound in a word, that is a cause for celebration at this point in the kindergarten year. A word doesn't need to be spelled dictionary perfect for it to be a great effort.
5. Have them read their sentence to you. Have them read it to someone else (or a dog or a cat or a stuffed animal). Writing is challenging and puts together lots of different skills. It needs to be celebrated!
In our classroom the children know that during writing time, they need to get to work and will not receive any teacher support for the first five minutes. It is really important for children to gain confidence in their own problem solving abilities and give them a chance to puzzle things through. When your child is writing at home, feel free to follow the same rule. Once your child has said their sentence and you've provided the lines (if necessary), give them a few minutes to work independently just like at school.
Math: We have been counting, learning to recognize the numbers from 1 - 20 and exploring shapes.
At home, here are some ideas for supporting math skills:
1. Count a pile of objects. Count a circle of objects. The last number said tells us how many things we just counted. This activity helps with counting and is a great chance to figure out ways to organize objects so that the children can count them efficiently. Eventually, we will group objects into groups of five and ten to make the counting even faster.
2. Have your child identify numbers everywhere! The gas pump, the grocery store, playing cards, TV channels, digital clocks, etc. Knowing numbers in different fonts and seeing their importance in our world is important.
3. Write numbers. Paper is great. Writing in a little shaving cream smeared on the side of the bathtub or shower is fun. Place a very thin layer of sand or salt on the bottom of a cake pan or plate and let your child write numbers (or letters) in that with their finger. If your child moves quickly, have them put a piece of paper on top of a piece of sandpaper and use a crayon for writing. The resistance provided by the crayon and the sandpaper will help to slow down their hand and make their hand move more purposefully.
4. Shapes. We are looking at shapes in all kinds of places. It would helpful if you can help your child point out shapes in two and three dimensions. Cereal boxes have rectangles on all six sides. Cans have circles at the top and the bottom. Door knobs are circles. Some doors have panels that are squares and rectangles but the door itself is a rectangle. Those yummy slices of pie or cake are often triangles on the top and bottom but rectangles on the sides. We are working with the following shapes: square, rectangle, circle, triangle, rhombus (diamond-shape) and trapezoid.
Winter Clothes: The chilly weather has meant that children are wearing hats, gloves, jackets, etc. Snowsuits and boots won't be far away. PLEASE help your child learn to get their warm clothing on independently. They need to learn to push or pull sleeves right side out, zip their zippers and put on their own gloves. We can't lose instructional time getting twenty children dressed. Therefore, many children are using up their brief recess time waiting for an adult to help them get dressed. Getting outside is important and the best way for them to get their outdoor play time is if they can get ready independently.
Below is a link to a video designed to teach how to zip a zipper. It's a very simple video and is nice because you can pause it while your child tries each step. It was developed by a school for the blind, but is great information for all children learning to zip and un-zip.
Learning to Zip
Assessments: Our kindergarten assessment window has begun. Your child may mention that they worked with me or another teacher on letters, sounds and sight words. We are busily assessing and getting data prepared for the December report cards.
Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast: The kindergarten classes will have their annual feast on Thursday, November 15 from 9:45 - 10:30 (approximately) in the K-4 cafeteria. The children get seated with children from other classes and are dressed as either Pilgrims or Native Americans. Each class will be contributing snacks related to foods from the first feast (popcorn, goldfish, cornbread, etc.) We will then dance the "Turkey Tango". We do not need adult volunteers, but if you wish to stop in to the cafeteria during that time, you are welcome to join us. A reminder if you do stop in, some of our students are not allowed to have pictures posted on the internet. We ask that you do not post pictures of other children on Facebook or You Tube.
Below is a link to the song we use for the Turkey Tango. We haven't taught the dance to the students yet, but if they would like to watch children from a different school do it, it might be fun. We do our dance the same way.
Turkey Tango
Coming Events:
Monday, November 12: Library today. Please remember those library books.
Tuesday, November 13: Art today. Ms. Rapke will be teaching a lesson on friends.
Wednesday, November 14: PE today. Please remember to wear sneakers.
Thursday, November 15: Music today. Kindergarten Thanksgiving "Feast" from 9:45 - 10:30.
Friday, November 16: PE today. Please remember to wear sneakers.
Monday, November 19 - Friday, November 23: NO SCHOOL
Monday, November 26: School re-opens. It will be a library day.
