The Week of December 1 - December 5 Kindergarten Newsletter
I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It is hard to believe that December is upon us already. Our main focus over the next few weeks will be on the birth of Jesus during this holy season. We will do some fun activities also as the month progresses, but our goal is to prepare our hearts for Jesus.
Thank you to everyone who helped make our Thanksgiving Feast so wonderful! The children worked very hard on their costumes as well as learning about the Pilgrims and the Native Americans. As always, I appreciate all the support and help during this busy week. THANK YOU!
The cold weather has arrived! Please send a jacket or a coat as well as gloves, hat, and scarf. It is still very cold for them when they go outside for morning recess. Also, please make sure that all clothing is marked. Thanks.
Homework will be sent home periodically. It will mainly consist of handwriting practice. Please make sure that your child takes the time to form the letters correctly. It is important for them to develop good habits from the start! This week we worked on reviewing some of the lower case letters that we have covered along with some of the more challenging numbers. Please encourage your child to practice these letters at home. Continue to practice writing his/her namely correctly using D'Nealian letters. Thanks for your extra help at home!
This week in reading, the students finished the "S" letterbook. The children are excitedly sounding out words using the short "a" and short "o" sound, such as cat, mat, top, dog, dad, sad, etc. We even used the sight words along with the color words to make sentences that they could read. The children were so excited about this new found ability!!! It is so rewarding to see the excitement in their faces when they see the relationship between the letter sounds and words!! I hope that they shared this with you. Please encourage your child to sound out words with the short "a" or "o" when you are reading together at home. This is the time to foster the joy and excitement of reading. A little practice at home can make a huge difference later on. Please continue to reinforce all the letter sounds (c,o,g,a,d,s). The extra review makes your child feel more confident about sounding out these words. Please continue to review the names of the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and what that letter looks like. A few minutes of practice each evening can make a lot of difference! Also, it is very helpful to review all papers or letterbooks that come home.
The children have begun learning sight words (a, my, the, I, like, go, we,on). I will post the words as we cover them on the website. They will be listed under Flashcards at the top of this page. Just click on flashcards and you can review each word with your child as it is introduced. This is a fun and productive way to have your child show you what he/she has learned! Also, at the bottom of my web page there are some websites that are wonderful for your child. These are interactive and the children will have fun as well as learn!
In math,the children are learning how to properly write the digits 1- 10. This takes a lot of practice!. Please continue to review the proper formation of these numbers at home. Again, reviewing the papers that are sent home may be the extra little step they need! The children are learning to skip count by 2's, 5's, and 10's. I have introduced telling time by the hour, half hour, and in five minute increments up to fifty-five using digital time and analog. They have done a phenominal job on this so early in the school year! Also the children should be counting to 100 and recognizing what each numeral associated with that number looks like. They should also be able to tell what number comes before and after. The children were introduced to the penny, the nickel, and the dime. The children are excited about showing the class (with our magnetic coins) which coins and how many would be used to purchase items at the store. The children may be anxious to count the coins you have around the house! This is great practice!!
In Religion this week we talked about all of God's wonderful gifts to us.
In the afternoon, the children made the pumpkin bars for their feast. They also learned how the Pilgrims made butter. Each pair of children watched their jar of cream turn into whip cream and then butter. They then had the opportunity to taste the butter. The children also finished writing their Thanksgiving booklets. They worked very hard on this. They did a wonderful job of understanding the relationship of letters within words and spaces between words. Also, that capital letters begin a sentence and a punctuation mark ends the sentence. Our study of the Pilgrims and the Native Americans has been a learning experience and hopefully fun for the children!
Once again this year the school students will be given the opportunity to collect gifts for an area in Appalachia. The Kindergarten has been asked to collect toys for children of any age. Half of these toys will be sent to Appalachia, and the other half will go to Whole Kids Outreach. The gifts must be unwrapped. If you choose an electronic game of some type, please remember to include a good supply of batteries. These children would not be able to afford replacement batteries. You may send in the toys now until Dec.5. Thank you in advance for your generosity in making Christmas a joyous time for these underprivileged children. I am always amazed at the kindness of Ascension parents. Thank you!
Please make sure that your child can tie his/her shoes by Christmas. Even if they have velcro shoes, they still need to learn to tie. Also, with the cool weather here, please practice how to zip and button coats and jackets.
A big thank you to our reading moms and dads! The children really enjoy this special time!
December Birthdays
Emma Tucker - December 12
Nicholas Tarnowski - December 20
Adriana Viviano - December 26
Calendar Dates
December 5 - Early Dismissal at 11:45
December 8 - No School Feast of the Immaculate Conception
December 16 - Bookmobile
December 19 - Book reports due
December 19 - Early Dismissal 11:45 for Christmas Break
Kindergarten Christmas party at 10:30.
Jan. 5 - School resumes
Enjoy this very special time of the year with your child. It is always such a privilege to see the wonder of the season through their eyes. I thank you for the wonderful opportunity that I have of being your child's teacher. I truly feel very blessed.
Education Gateways makes no warranty for SchoolNotes.com.
Information on this site is generated by the users. The views
expressed are not necessarily those of Education Gateways or its members, and
Education Gateways is not responsible for user's conduct on SchoolNotes.com.
