Thank you so much to our parent vounteers on 100's Day. The kids had a lot of fun celebrating being 100 days smarter and they (and me) appreciate you taking time to come in and help. Kindergarten is so much fun!!!!!
Next week we will celebrate Valentine's Day in Kindergarten. On Tuesday, the students should bring in a Valentine for each child in our class. If you child is able to read the names of our friends, they may write names on their cards. If they find this task to be difficult, then they should just write "my friend". It is important that you do not attach any items to the Valentine. Mr. Raczak has stated that any Valentines with food items on them will not be allowed to be passed out. Please respect this rule. We will have a Valentine party in class at the end of the day on Tuesday. I am sure our party volunteers have some fun activities planned.
Next week we will be introduced to the letter H. We will review the jolly phonics sound for this letter, learn the correct formation, and learn our H letter poem. During the week we will read about hermit crabs and horses. When we read books this week, we will be focusing on the beginning, middle, and end of the stories. Students will need to recall details and give an oral summary of the story. After sharing an oral summary, students will be expected to write one statement from each part of the story. We have practiced this a few times, so it should not be too difficult! This is a skill you can work on at home when reading orally to your child. You should have them recall the characters, setting, problem and solution as well as an event from the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
In math we will discuss simple addition/subtraction problems and work on our symbols for number sentences (=,-,+). We wiil continue to learn about the number grid. Please check out the number grid link in the Great Links to Learning section of this blog. It may be difficult at first, but with practice I know everyone will be able to catch on! In the next few weeks we will begin to talk more about money. It is a good time to pull out the coins and have you children practice identifying coins and counting them out.
Beginning Monday your child might be assigned a new flex group and teacher. These new groups will continue to focus on the specific skills that your child needs to develop to become the best reader that they can be. Each flex group will meet 4 times a week and students will be interacting in small groups and reading books at their own reading level. Reading at home is encouraged. Sight words should also be practiced. If your child can read all the sight words, they can begin to write them in isolation or in sentences. Remember to encourage spaces between words, appropriate usage of capital/lower case letters, and end punctuation.
Today your child is bringing home the conference request forms. We are not able to meet with every parent at this time of year. If your child is progressing at an acceptable rate, a conference may not have been requested. Other times conferences are scheduled just to check in and discuss progress. Of course if you have a concern you would like to discuss, we can set up a time to meet. Please send back the conference form quickly if you are meeting with me, so we can be sure to reserve your time.
Enjoy the weekend.
