Hello, Families!
Welcome to the second week of Kindergarten. If your child was tuckered out on Thursday- they are in the majority. Plenty of sleep will help us tackle all the great learning we have in store.
Our theme this week is Sharing. Our primary read aloud will be Share, Big Bear, Share- a delightful book that I discovered this summer on the shelves of the local library. It is about a bear who misunderstands what others are saying, but by the end he learns to pay attention to others and remembers to share with his friends.
Last week, we got to know our first Tribble- Mutual Respect. He helps us remember to treat others the way we want to be treated and to be kind. This week, we will meet the next Tribble- Attentive Listening. The tale of Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen will kick off our discussion of what it means to be an attentive listener.
One of our focuses at the beginning of the year is developing and firming up our Alphabet Knowledge. We have some groovy "animal friends" that help us learn the sounds and names of our letters. (Zoo Phonics) Each animal has a name and motion that help us solidify the sounds and letter names. After we've worked with them a bit, they will be added to your child's binder. Singing and acting out their song is a great "reading homework" activity.
Word awareness is another important skill we are working on developing. This skill is important to reading and writing. When your child is reading their poems and books, it is important that they are noticing that words have spaces between them. Encourage them to point to or "poke" at each word as they reread. When we write sentences we plan them out across our fingers.
In math, we are working on reading, writing, and counting out amounts.
Community Calendars will be filled out, starting this week. Our Kindergartners are busy learning a bunch of routines and expectations. Please keep in mind, that this is a process. I will contact you if any choices/behaviors are of a great concern- otherwise, we are using them as learning opportunities within the school setting.
I had a training this Friday about the MAPS testing that our students will be taking in the winter. One of the concerns about the standardized assessment for Kindergartners, is that many of them are not very experienced with using a computer mouse. This is the tool that they will be using when they take this test. To get the most accurate picture of their reading knowledge, it will help for them to have some experience using a mouse beforehand. We will do some center work at school using a mouse, however you may want to provide your child with additional mouse experience at home. Games that require "dragging and dropping" would be especially beneficial.
If you are looking for some extra reading material, I came across this great article about mindset: https://www.nwea.org/blog/2017/starting-school-year-off-mindset-lesson-three-year-old/ It's worth the quick read as it has a valuable message for us as parents.
Picture Day is Monday. Forms came home in binders- however, you may also order online at the site: mylifetouch.com
HOMEWORK
When logging in to IXL, please make sure that you are using the updated login provided by Mr. Kelly- otherwise your child's work will not be reported to my teacher account.
Reading: 10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in the binder, and working on alphabet sounds and letter names.
Math:
Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes.
Monday- B.1 Learn to count to 5
Tuesday - B.2 Count to 5
Wednesday- B.3 Count using stickers - up to 5
Thursday- B.4 Count on ten frames - up to 5
Skills can be revisited and repeated to increase your child's automaticity.
Optional math extension: Count small objects with your child. Have them move each object as it is counted. Have them count as high as they can. Some ideas for objects are cereal, pennies, tiny toys (Shopkins or Hot Wheels or LEGO pieces or whatever your child has a bunch of).
Please make sure your child got to decorate their binder cover page as well.
