January 29 - February 2
Kindergarten Parent Weekly Guide
This Week's Happenings:
Starting Wednesday, January 31st, will have our first Targeted Grade Level Groups! This time will be called S.M.A.R.T. time (Students Moving Around Teachers). Each teacher will work with a specific reading level and children will receive specialized remedial, on level, or enrichment lessons.
Students will be assigned to a group taught by one of the kindergarten teachers. Using the data from the mClass testing report that you received last week, we will have 2 days per week of 30 minute, targeted instruction to address your child's specific needs. Students will drop their backpacks at their homeroom on Wednesdays & Thursdays & head straight to their S.M.A.R.T. teacher. Teachers will have activities out for students to work with starting at 7:30. Official instruction will begin promptly after morning announcements. Please make extra efforts to avoid being tardy on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Thanks!!
We look forward to watching them grow.
Upcoming Events
February 2 Boosterthon Begins! - Your child will bring home an explanation packet. Please log on that first day even if they do not have pledges. They receive a prize just for setting up their account and watching the character building videos! See the Powell Publisher for more information.
February 9 Boosterthon Fun Run- We hope you can come join us to cheer on your little runner! Run time for kindergarten will be 9:10-10:05.
February 13 Valentine Box Book Report Due- See directions below.
February 14 Valentine's Day Party- Early in the day, students will pass out valentines to friends. At the end of the day, they will have a treat and open their valentines boxes. This will be a student-only event.
February 16-19 Student Holiday
March 1- Kindergarten Rodeo Day- (weather permitting) More information coming from your Homeroom mom later in the month.
MORE DETAILS! VALENTINES BOX AND BOOK REPORT PRESENTATION
This year, we have fallen in LOVE with books! Your child may choose a book and create a valentines box that represents the book's setting, characters, or theme. Your child will also create a book report to accompany the box. They will present the report on the day of the party.
(See attachment below for printable copy. This will also be sent home in your child's PAWS folder this week)
Reminders:
- Make sure that the opening is large enough to fit large valentine's cards or candy. It is a good idea to make sure that the lid can be removed easily, in case valentines do not fit through opening. Please use an adult sized shoe box. The child sized boxes don't hold all of the cards and treats.
- Each child will need to bring their decorated box and Book Report by Tuesday, February 13.
- ALSO, each student will bring 20 UNADDRESSED valentines. Have your child sign the valentines with their OWN name only.
- Please send these cards in a bag or baggie SEPARATELY from their boxes.
Thank you for your help and support!
The Lorax
Clifford The Big Red Dog
Penguins, Penguins Everywhere!
Reminders from Your Teacher
Students need a water bottle AND a snack daily!
If the temperature is above 40 degrees, we go outside! Please make sure that all coats are labeled with your child's name.
Please see the Kindergarten Handbook below regarding do's and don'ts for birthday celebrations.
Language Arts
Writing:
Student authors set goals to make stories easier to read. These goals may include one of the following:
- Spacing/ writing neatly
- Spelling word wall words correctly (purple sight words)
- Capital letters at the beginning of the sentence, with all other letters lower case
- Punctuation at the end of each sentence
- Stories include a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
- Adding details to a story to make it more interesting
Reading:
Targeted skills will be addressed during S.M.A.R.T. time, as well as, daily work in the classroom.
At this time, most students can:
- rapidly identify all capital and lower case letters by name
- fluently read all 35 purple words and work on the rainbow words.
- practice blending 3 letter real and nonsense words to read. Examples: rat, cap, top, poj, mep, lup...
If your child struggles with the above, help at home, in addition to class time and intervention time, is very beneficial. If you need suggestions for your child, please feel free to contact your child's teacher!
What fun we had at our 100th Day celebration! We loved seeing all the creative t-shirts and the cutest little old ladies and gentlemen!
We continue our numeration unit, counting orally to 100, and using manipulatives to add and subtract numbers to 10.
What is Numeration?
Students will correctly identify numbers 0-20, write the numbers using correct formation, and count a set of objects to at least 20. At this time, we will be focusing on teen numbers (11-20)
Science and Social Studies
In Science, we will begin our unit on Day & Night.
In Social Studies, we will celebrate Groundhog Day and start our unit on American Presidents and Patriots.