Maillet's Kindergarten Newsletter
Week Of January 5th
Highlights from last week....
Before vacation, we were working on the following areas:
In Phonics, we learned the sight words "you" and "and", please practice these words at home. This week we practiced recognizing beginning and ending sounds, rhyming words, writing words using letter sounds, tapping out words and sounding out nonsense words. We have been playing all sorts of games to help reinforce these skills in the classroom. I sent home a set of flashcards for you to practice over vacation, I hope that your children were able to practice.
In Reader's Workshop, we learned a strategy of using multiple clues when we come to a tricky word. A strategy that good readers use is to think about what we read. When we sound out the letters in the word and the word we say doesn't make sense or sound right, we will learn that we need to stop and do some reading work. We need to ask ourselves, "Does that make sense?", "Does that sound right?" and "Do the letters match?"
In Math, we continued our unit on measurement. Our focus this week was on weight. We used our balance scales and compared weight by using the words "heavier" and "lighter". The children loved using the scales on their own to practice this skill.
In Social Studies, we learned about how different people celebrate holidays in December and how they relate to light. This week we discussed Christmas and discussed the light of giving.
In our Second Step program, we continued to learn about our own feelings.
We read several fun books about Christmas. During these read alouds we practiced some of our strategies that we are learning in our retelling unit. We really focused on the story elements of fictional text. We talked about the character, setting, problem and solution to the stories that were read. One of our favorite read alouds was The Polar Express. We boarded the train and listened to the story as I read it. We stopped throughout the story to discuss the story elements. It was a blast!
HOLIDAY CONCERT
A peek at our learning this week....
In Phonics, we will review the words we have learned up until this point, please practice the new set of words that I sent out last week to practice at home. This week we will really practice recognizing beginning and ending sounds, rhyming words, writing words using letter sounds, tapping out words and sounding out nonsense words. I will be focusing on a skill a day and reinforce the skill by playing games. The kids LOVE the games and they do not even realize that they are LEARNING during the games!!
In Reader's Workshop, we will continue with the strategy of using multiple clues when we come to a tricky word. A strategy that good readers use is to think about what we read. When we sound out the letters in the word and the word we say doesn't make sense or sound right, we will learn that we need to stop and do some reading work. We need to ask ourselves, "Does that make sense?", "Does that sound right?" and "Do the letters match?" Because this is a newly introduced skill, we will be working on this skill for a few weeks before we can move on. If your child masters this skill before we move on, I will work with them independently to challenge them at their level.
In Math, we will finish our unit on measurement. Our focus this week will be on volume. We will compare volume by using more than, less than, or same as by pouring. We will explore conservation of volume by pouring and we will compare using same as with units. We will use the end of the week to review and will start our mid module assessment next week.
In Science, we will be studying the states of matter: solid, liquid and gas.
In Social Studies, we will learn about where we are on the map. We will read some books and also create our own book on where we live.
In our Second Step program, we will continue to learn about our own feelings.
We will read several books from Jan Brett and discuss the story elements, such as character, setting, problem and solution. We will also use her books to help us understand prediction by using the pictures in the margins of her book.
More information
Many parents are asking what the class needs for supplies. We could use some Clorox Wipes and paper towels. Thank you in advance.
FLASHCARDS
Please practice letters and sounds with your child nightly! Thank you!
Sanders Street School
Email: vmaillet@arrsd.org
Website: www.arrsd.org
Location: 314 Sanders Street, Athol, MA, United States
Phone: 978-249-2410