February 17-21
Valentine's Day, Dental Health, and USA/ Presidents
Curriculum
*Weather has caused a delay in completing curriculum goals. Some activities are having to be moved to the following week and others prolonged. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Language and Literacy:
- In Letterland, alphabet character studies resume, this week with 'Ll' (Lucy Lamplight) and 'Ff' (Firefighter Fred). We will manipulate these letter sounds at the start, end, and within words. Correct handwriting format will be taught and practiced for both the lowercase and capital 'l' and 'f'.
- Students will read nonfiction and fiction texts about Valentine's Day, the United States of America, and Presidents. They will learn facts about past leaders of our country, US symbols, and complete assignments that reinforce this new knowledge.
- We will complete a few more dental health activities. They examined the teeth missing and present in their mouths making a replica two weeks ago, and now (finally!) they will write two sentences describing what they observed.
- Students will explore adjectives (describing words) about teeth and tooth brushing.
- In their new writing journals, students will write a question in sentence form as their first entry. We will discuss and practice writing the date for journal entries and how to use the parts of the page correctly.
- Sight Words: go and you
Social Studies
- Holidays and Positive Citizenship- Students will understand the cultural celebration of Valentine's Day and be encouraged to act as positive citizens in our classroom (using kind words and actions as well as being a leader in the way one respects self and others).
- The United States will be studied in more detail, by state, as we receive post cards from friends and family.
- Dental Health- positive habits, effects of food/drink on our teeth, change that occurs as we grow.
Math
- Count up to 100 (skipping by tens and by ones) as well as identifying/ reading numbers. Students will write these numbers and be able to read them.
- A Valentine's themed center day will include the following math skills: counting tally marks, writing numbers 0-20, estimate and measure the width of heart shapes with nonstandard units of measure, complete patterns, and order numbers cardinally.
- We will sort and graph results of colored heart candies.
Valentine's Party Friday (2/21)
We will be decorating a box at school for which to receive Valentine cards at our party on Friday, February 21st. We will transform the recycled boxes sent to school last week into artistic creations.
Students will also distribute Valentine cards to both our class AND Mrs. Sparks' class. We ask that your child only sign his/her name to 28 valentine cards (Kindergarten has a new student!), NOT addressing them to individual students. This will make the distribution a much easier and manageable activity during our celebration. Thank you for understanding our request. If you foresee being unable to provide cards for your student, please let me know in advance, and I will send home a set for your child to sign and give out to his/her classmates. Please send your cards to school as soon as possible!
Star of the Week Has Ended
Thank you for helping your child to feel special while he/she was star of the week. Each student had an opportunity to share about his/ her life and feel extra special here at school.
Snack Schedule
February 17- Randall
February 24- Using our Leftovers!
Beginning Tuesday, February 18- Postcard Mapping Project
With the help of you, your loved ones and friends, we would like to complete a mapping project. One of our Kindergarten standards is that a student will be able to create and interpret simple maps. A fun way to teach the students how to read a map and learn how to be connected with places outside of our town and state is to make them feel connected to the map.
We will begin this activity with a large white United States map. This is where we need your help. Our class is hoping to receive postcards or letters from all 50 states! With each postcard or letter we receive, we will color in that state on our enlarged United States map. We will continue to map throughout the month of February and into the start of March.
A copy of a letter (electronic and/or hardcopy) will be sent home for you to send out to your friends and/or family explaining this activity. We are hoping that you will each send this letter to at least 5 people you know. You may print and mail the attached letter, or if it is easier, you may forward it as an email. This will be so much fun for the children. We thank you in advance for your help with this project.
Refer to the USA map in your child’s daily communication folder to help keep track of the States we receive post cards from over the next few weeks. We will check off each state at school so that you can locate and color in the state with your student at home. Ask them to tell you about what they are learning!
Miss Jenny's Kindergarten
"You're off to great places
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So...get on your way!"
-Dr. Seuss: Oh, The Places You'll Go