October 4, 2011
Dear Parents,
Thank you to all who were able to attend our Open House last Thursday. We had almost 100% attendance! We hope you learned a lot about what we do in kindergarten. Your children were so happy and enthusiastic about sharing with you.
A special thank you to all parents who were able to sign up for some volunteer positions. We have parents who will be coming in for our one on one Emergent Reader program, and 4 parents who will work with small groups during Math time on Fridays to do some cooking, and especially measuring with students as they prepare treats for all of us.
We have had 2 birthdays, so far! Thanks to parents for sending in special treats. We do have a student with an egg allergy and it will be important to consider that when sending in future treats. Whenever we have a birthday we create a birthday book for that child with wishes for them. It’s fun and good reading practice, also! This helps us practice reading each others’ names, an important skill and we discuss the things the students like in order to create special pages in our book for them.
Thank you for supporting our Project Inside Out fundraiser. The children and I appreciate everything you do for us to help make our school a special place for learning and having awesome experiences. Please try to attend our PTO Bingo Night on Friday, October 14, 2011 @ 5:00 p.m. (It is so fun and worth eating dinner at school.)
Mr. Pecor, our P.E. teacher, tells me that we have some good soccer players in our kindergarten. I’ve watched the children practicing their skills both inside and outside and they are having a great time. (Lots of laughter, exercise, and fun games!)
We have been working hard learning the names of letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. We apply what we have learned and brainstorm words that begin with those sounds. We form the letters as best as we can, and finally, we read an alphabet book of words and sentences that begin with the letter we have been studying.
We have added the letters Ff and Nn to our daily Literacy work. We will work on a new letter almost every other day. Your child should know the name of these letters, the picture word that goes with them, and the sound that the letter makes by heart. Everything we are able to read is stored in our Book Browser, a special container each student has to store books we are able to read. If your child is reading at a higher level, she/he also is reading and storing those books in their browsers, too. We read this selection of books over and over, until we can read them fluently, and with confidence. As you see some of these come home in your child’s home folder, please encourage your child to read these to you and save them for future reading. We need to practice reading a lot!
Today, you will find the letters of the alphabet printed on our 3 line format. The top line is called, “the Hat line”. The middle, dotted line is called, “the Belt line,” and the bottom line is called, “the Foot line.” We refer to these lines when we are beginning to write a letter. We looked at how the letters in our names are positioned on these lines and tried our best to write them, accurately. I have sent home this format so that you can support your child when she/he writes.
Miss Joyce, our Foster Grandparent volunteer is able to be with us 3 days per week. She works one on one with the children to implement the Home Reading program. We are now established with this routine and are ready for parent volunteers to help us with this, too. As our reading skills grow, children will be reading more challenging books and will want to share them with you. Thanks for your support ahead of time, whether you are able to come to school or if you are reading with your child at home.
We use special pointers to “Read the Room” and we read numbers, letters, and words while moving freely about the room.
We have two new room parents, Nini Fenton, Ava’s mom, and Trisha DiFonzo, Marvin’s mom. They may be calling you for donations of goodies planned for one of our holiday parties, soon.
We continue writing our numbers in Math. Many of the children need help with their pencil grip. Holding pencils, markers, and crayons correctly, with a three point grip, will make writing easier. If you see your child holding her/his marker incorrectly, gently show how we hold our writing tools. We continue our work with 2 part patterns and exploration with pattern block designs. Many of our new math skills are acquired through games. We learned how to play, “Roll and Record” with dice and “Spin A Number.” Soon we’ll play “Spin A Number 11-20.”
We learned how to use colored pencils in Art a couple of weeks ago so we will use them to create an illustration of our homes. We read a charming book that you may have also enjoyed, A House for Hermit Crab, by my favorite children’s author and illustrator, Eric Carle. We will make these into a quilt so that we can enjoy the diversity of homes that we live in.
Sometimes you’ll see your child writing his/her name in upper case letters, sometimes, in lower case letters, and sometimes in both forms! This is normal. We gradually ask children to use an upper case letter only for the beginning of the name and lower case letters for the rest of the name as your child becomes ready.
Our classes have been working on tying our shoes, too. We have set a goal of being able to tie our shoes by Thanksgiving. Please help us all succeed by practicing with your child at home.
Here is a list of “How To” skills that we practice regularly:
*how to ride the bus safely
*how to pack and unpack our backpacks safely
*how to line up and walk down the hall safely
*how to pick up and care for our classroom materials safely and carefully
*how to use scissors safely and how to cut properly, as well as how to carry them safely.
*how to use “helpful” words and how not to use “hurtful” words
*how to play fairly
*how to be speak kindly and apologize, even when we bump or hurt someone accidentally
*how to choose an activity from our book browsers during Reading
*how to get our mouths ready to read and our pointer fingers ready to read underneath the letter or word.
*how to make sure our reading mouths and our fingers work together and match word for word
Some special reminders:
Please dress your child appropriately, for the weather. Our playground can be very windy and cold.
Library books must come back to school in a plastic bag to protect the books. If you can’t find the bag Mrs. Kadish, our librarian, has provided, please use a plastic grocery bag. Tuesday is library day. If your child forgets the library book, and brings it back to school on Wednesday, I am able to give them time to exchange their books for new ones. Thanks.
Our school district also has a website that contains valuable information on regular happenings at all the schools, a school calendar, etc.
This will be my last newsletter that I will send home in your child’s home folder. Please go to the Colchester School District website, click on Porters Point School
If your family does not have access to a computer, please drop me a note and I will be sure that I print a newsletter and send it home.
Have a wonderful week, everyone!
As always,
Diane
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