April 3rd-April 7th, 2023
Weekly News in Kindergarten
Kindergarten Champs
Happy April!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our Newsletter. There is a lot of important information. We have included a copy of our Kindergarten daily schedule and April special schedule. Please see below for important information.
If you have any questions, concerns, please reach out to your teacher.
Love,
Your Prestwick Kindergarten Team
MAP Tests
Dear Parents,
Your child will be taking our final round of MAP on April 4th (Reading) and April 6th (Math). This end of year information helps us to measure progress for all students, plan instruction and set building and grade level goals for the 23-24 school year. It is important that we get the most accurate data possible. Below is some information on MAP and some ways you can help!
What you should now about MAP
- MAP stands for Measure of Academic Performance.
- It measures growth and grade level proficiency.
- Our Campus Improvement Plan is linked directly to ALL students making growth. It states that AT LEAST 60% of our students campus wide will meet their end of year MAP goal in reading and Math.
- You cannot "study" for MAP but your child's teacher has been preparing him/her all year based on his/her academic levels.
- Students will only get 50% of the questions correct. The test levels up or down based on answers until it finds your child's academic level. Students will NOT know the answer to all the questions presented so that we can gather information about how to instruct them next.
- Each MAP test should take about 40-60 minutes. The test is NOT timed. Children can have more or less time then the suggested 40-60 minutes.
How you can help
- Encourage your child through notes, words of affirmation and hugs!
- Make sure he/she gets a good night's sleep each night before test day.
- Make sure your child eats a full and healthy breakfast! (no sugar)
- Send her/him to school with a healthy snack and a water bottle.
- Remind them to slow down and take his/her time! It is impossible to get accurate scores when students just "click" through the test.
- Ask him/her what their goal is? Each child has been tracking his/her own data all year long.
- Ask him/her what skills he/she has been working on to prepare him/her?
- Remind him/her to take as many breaks as he/she needs to refocus.
- If your student receives testing accommodations encourage him/her to use them!
This is an opportunity for us to really show what students have learned this year. It is also a chance for teachers to celebrate their efforts and hard work. #prestwickproud
Healthy Snacks!
PLEASE REMEMBER TO PACK YOUR CHILD A HEALTHY AND MESS FREE SNACK EACH DAY.
Did you know that a snack at the right time between meals can prevent major hunger pangs and gives a child an energy boost to keep him or her studying and playing hard at school?
Specials S'more
What is your child learning this week?
Phonics: In Phonics this week students will continue working on blending phonemes into words, by using different interactive strategies, as well as reviewing how to identify and distinguish the middle/medial vowel sound. Students this week will learn new concepts where they will learn about the long a and long i vowel sounds, in the past we only learned the short vowel sounds. The new sight words this week that students will add to their sight word vocabulary are: know, out, same and take. Ways to help at home: Although long vowel sounds are typically easier for kids to learn, we normally teach short vowels first. Why is that? It takes two vowels to make a long sound, and this can be tricky for kids to understand at first. To get started with long vowel sounds, we begin teaching the silent e. It’s important for kids to understand that every vowel will change its sound when a silent e is put after the CVC form of a word. For instance, if you put an e after the CVC word tap, the word changes to tape, and the vowel sound produced changes.
Grammar : In Grammar, we will be reviewing nouns: places and things. The students should be able to pick out nouns and put them in a complete sentence. We will also be covering verbs in the present tense. For example: jump, run, walk.
Reading: Our amazing readers will be exploring different poems and nursery rhymes this week. They will be learning about rhythm and rhyme by using their bodies to move to the beat of the it. Our story this week is Kindergarten Kids which features several different fun poems. We will be covering several skills such as inferencing and visualization. Our new vocabulary words are: clue, mistake, puzzled We will end the week with a Poetry Cafe and the students will be able to present their poems in a fun way. Happy reading!
Writing- In writing students will continue to write and learn about various types of poems. The two poem structures of the week are Haiku and free verse. By now students will have practiced writing acrostic poems, shape poems and haiku poems. If you want to help support at home you can expose your child to various types of poems just by reading some poems to them. They will also need to know how to clap syllables in order to write Haikus. On Thursday, students will get a chance to showcase their poetry collection by participating in a poetry cafe.
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Math- Students focus on identifying measurable attributes of objects, including length, capacity, and weight. Through repeated direct comparison opportunities, students develop an understanding of conservation (the length, capacity, or weight of an object does not change when the orientation of the object changes). Comparative language is used to describe the differences of the attributes between two objects. Students develop appropriate vocabulary for describing the differences for a specific measurable attribute versus a general term such as bigger. In Kindergarten, the focus of measurement is on direct comparisons using descriptive language rather than quantity. These direct comparisons begin to provide the foundational understanding that measurement involves a comparison of a measurable attribute of an object to a quantity of units of measurement. Ways to help at home: When teaching measurement in kindergarten, help kids understand basic measurement vocabulary and concepts. Weight, height, length … these are just a few essential measurement words of which kids begin to understand the meaning. They also start to compare, order, and sort items based on these ideas.Make measuring fun by using different items to measure with. Instead of getting a ruler and measuring how long their pencil is, give kids marbles and have them figure out how many marbles long the pencil is. You can also use candy, cubes, blocks, or any other fun math manipulatives you might have!
Social studies Students will begin a new unit on basic human needs (food, water and shelter). Since the students already have this concept mastered, we will dive into the specific wants vs. needs. Students will have to think about how needs and wants pop up in everyday life such as with grocery shopping.
Science: In Science we will continue learning the Plants needs and learning in detail why soil and space is important for plants to grow successfully. Student will complete an experiment with soil, where students will observe in small groups what happens to soil when you add water to it. We will discuss how water is important for growth and also how to not water too much. Students will also discuss how parts of a plant represent different foods that we eat. For example: nuts have a hard shell like a seed. Ways to help students at home: Sensory bins are already a popular activity to explore students’ hand-eye coordination and creative thinking. Using dirt and found natural objects is a great way to include a little environmental awareness in sensory play. Add toy bugs for an added dose of realism.
Reminders
.Reminder about transportation changes time call the office @ 972.947.9450 by 2:00pm
As the weather gets cooler, please make sure your child has the appropriate warmer clothes in their backpack.
Having Lunch with Your Child-We have been asked to remind y'all that if you come have lunch with your child, the high tops at the back of the cafeteria or the picnic tables outside are the designated spots for y'all to eat together! You can only eat lunch with your child, they can't invite anyone else to eat with you. Enjoy your time together!
- Please bring library books back on designated days: Alter- Thursdays, Bounkhong- Tuesdays, Fillebrown- Mondays, Rushing- Wednesdays
- Girls- Please wear shorts under your dress/skirts.
- Please wear tennis shoes on your PE days.
- Please SIGN and have your child return their daily folder every day. Also, it's important to bring water bottles and snack everyday. NO JUICE PLEASE!!
- Don't forget to bring guided reading book bags everyday once your child receives them.
- Please read 15 minutes every night with them.
- Please check and clear their take home folder every night.
- Please make sure that your kiddos are wearing their athletic shoes (or bringing them to change into) when their class is scheduled to go to PE. We want to keep everyone safe when they are participating in physical activities.
Important Dates:
4/3-PreK and K Roundup Opens (share with neighbors)
4/4-EOY Reading MAP
4/4-Grades Posted Progress Report #7
4/6-EOY Math MAP
4/14-PTA Fun Run During Specials
4/19-PTA Meeting/Paint Night
The Kinder Team
Email: prestwick@leisd.ws
Website: https://www.littleelmisd.net/Page/7379
Phone: 972.947.9450
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1702395546826675