February Newsletter
Mrs. Butler's Busy Beavers
Themes and Skills
Reading/Social Studies/Science
Weather
Feelings
Group Research on Baby Animals
Pet Pals
Science Wood Kit
Sight Words
she, was, for, have, of, they
Math
Measurement
Addition
Subtraction
Mixed addition and Subtraction
Writing/Language Arts
Nouns
Verbs
Adding and substituting sounds to make new CVC words
Writing complete sentences
Things to Know
- Your child will need to decorate a box or bag to use as their mailbox on Valentine’s Day. Please be sure their mailbox is clearly labeled with their name and has a large enough opening for their cards (many cards are large and some contain candy so they will need a large opening). We would like to have all mailboxes turned in by Thursday, February 11th.
- We would like to reinforce the importance of reading to your child nightly. After reading ask your child who, what, when, where and why questions about the story. You can also have your child make predictions as you read to enhance the learning experience.
- Due to extremely cold weather, please be sure your child has a coat every day.
- The faculty here at Blackman Elementary has put together some learning videos to help you work with your child at home. You can access the Sparks Learning Channel through the following link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjQp5lyXWfkubPpNuA9Pt3g/videos
Homework
Please continue to practice the letter grid for letter and sound fluency. At this point in the year, students should be able to read/say 40-50 letters/sounds in 1 minute. Daily practice will help build fluency. If your child has moved on to the Phoneme Segmentation grid or Non Sense Word Grid, please have your child practice reading their grid each night as well to build fluency.
Please do not send any notes to me or money in the red homework folder.
Parent tips to support kindergarten math learning fun at home (Dreambox Learning)
Give your child plenty of opportunities to count
- Play number games during everyday activities, such as counting the number of steps, the number of trucks you see while driving, or counting the number of items going in the laundry.
- Read the calendar, and determine the number of days until an upcoming event.
- Young children can count the number of items that you bought at the store. If you buy multiples of 1 item (such as 10 cans of cat food), practice counting by 2’s, 3’s, or higher numbers
- Have your child count the change needed to pay for an item.
- Watch your child play to understand her mathematical knowledge. When your child counts, does she touch each object once? Is his voice in sync with his tag?
- Have your child distribute cookies or toys to family members, with each person getting an equal number
Help your child recognize shapes and size relationships
- At the grocery store, ask your child to find items that are triangles, circles, rectangles, and other shapes.
- Ask your child to recognize or stack the groceries you bought by container shape or organize by size.
- Organize a scavenger hunt where your child has to find objects of different shapes
- Make snowflakes using symmetry. Fold a square piece of paper in half diagonally to make a triangle, then fold in half 2 more times. Cut out small diamond or circular shapes from the edges, and then unfold it. Experiment with different numbers of folds and shapes.
Find ways to collect and organize information
- Look around the house to find groups of 2 objects, like pairs of gloves or socks. Look for groups of 3’s, 4’s, and on up to 10’s.
- Have your child help sort the laundry by various categories — by color, or by whom an item belongs to.
- Take measurements for a project around the house.
- Using paper of different colors, make a paper chain with paper strips and tape. Encourage your child to create patterns by repeating colors and numbers of rings in a regular order. This can be done in connection with reading the calendar and counting down days to a special event.
- Collect objects in nature— leaves, rocks, shells and the like. When you get home, sort them by color, size, or type. How many different categories can you find? How many objects are in more than 1 category?
Help your child develop reasoning skills
- Help your child think about the permanence of a set. Put 6 pennies in a row, and then change the arrangement. Ask “did the quantity change?”
- Kindergartners love repetition and patterning, which fosters mathematical thinking. Clapping patterns help your child discover sequences and predict what comes next.
Some family games that use kindergarten math skills:
- Many card games require counting and score keeping.
- Dice games and dominos help kids learn to quickly recognize groups of dots from 2 to 12.
- Play board games that involve counting squares, such as Chutes and Ladders.
- Tic Tac Toe and Connect Four build recognition of rows of 3 and 4 counters.
- Tangrams
- Mancala