Dear Parents,
I have SO much to share… please bear with me! J
In social studies we have been discussing families and their traditions. Thank you for sending back your child’s homework. It’s fun hearing all the special ways the children spend time with their families. One of the common themes across many of the traditions involved gift giving. This week your child lovingly created a special gift to share with you. It’s wrapped and was sent home in your child’s backpack today. It’s more of a decoration, so please don’t really use it…without giving too much away; I’m afraid the paint might chip off it.
I am so pleased at how confident and independent the children are during Writer’s Workshop. This allows me time to meet with the children to discuss writing goals. Here are some of the goals many children have at this point in the year: put spaces between words, end with punctuation, start with an upper case letter, include vowels in words, and use the word wall to spell sight words correctly. I typically pick out just one goal at a time for the kids. Our focus right now is writing so others can read it. We talked about how using vowels in our kindergarten spelling makes words easier to read. We’ll continue to listen hard for these vowels. Kindergarten mostly focuses on just the short vowel sounds, and boy they can be tricky! This week the children were assigned reading partners. When they finish a story, they sit down with their partners to share and revise.
We continue to introduce new Jolly Phonics sounds. Here’s a list of all the sounds we’ve covered over the past few weeks: oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, ng, and v. We are introducing long vowel patterns but do not expect mastery in Kindergarten. As I mentioned above, short vowels are the focus.
Here are the newest sight words we added to the Word Wall: come, here, this, is, and said. I send home flashcards, as they are introduced. Team Literacy teachers focus on these words throughout the week, as well. If your child already can read our kindergarten sight words, their group focuses on different words. That’s the beauty of the Team Literacy model!
We completed our math chapter on size and position. Now we are working on numbers 11-20. There’s one more week of parent volunteers during math centers. We’ve really enjoyed sharing our room with you—thanks so much for your time and help! I’m going to send out a new volunteer note next week. If you are interested in helping with centers starting the last week in January, please fill out the form. Thanks!
This coming week is an exciting one for us! Here’s what you need to know:
1. Monday-Thursday is “Teddy Bear Week” in Kindergarten. Your child should bring a stuffed animal that fits inside his/her backpack to school on these days. Animals can sleep over at school or be sent home each day…please just be sure to return them to school. Many of our math and writing lessons will involve these furry friends. I told the kids they don’t have to bring in a teddy bear. Some kids want to bring in stuffed penguins, monkeys, etc.
2. Gingerbread Houses: The kids are looking forward to decorating milk carton gingerbread houses during centers this week (Tuesday-Thursday). Please send in your candy donation on Monday, so we have all the supplies ready to go. Thanks!
3. Pajama Day is Thursday: Thanks so much for sending in pajamas for our Pajama Drive. I realize we’ve asked for a lot of donations over the past month and appreciate your generosity. Our school goal is to reach 200 pairs of pajamas. Each time a child brings in a pair of pajamas, we fill in a box on our Ten Frame Countdown Board in the hallway. The kids are having fun keeping track of the total. To celebrate the end of the countdown, kindergarten kids and teachers J get to wear pajamas to school on Thursday. That’s going to be a cozy day!
4. Winter Party is Friday: Parents are invited to attend our Winter Party on Friday from 10:50-11:40. This will be a nice way to spend time together before winter break starts.
Phew! I think I highlighted all the important happenings. During this holiday season I am thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful class and supportive parents. I wish you a healthy and happy holiday season. Our winter break will run from December 20-January 4. I’ll look forward to having the kids come back to school on January 5.
Keep in touch,
Becky Clay
I have SO much to share… please bear with me! J
In social studies we have been discussing families and their traditions. Thank you for sending back your child’s homework. It’s fun hearing all the special ways the children spend time with their families. One of the common themes across many of the traditions involved gift giving. This week your child lovingly created a special gift to share with you. It’s wrapped and was sent home in your child’s backpack today. It’s more of a decoration, so please don’t really use it…without giving too much away; I’m afraid the paint might chip off it.
I am so pleased at how confident and independent the children are during Writer’s Workshop. This allows me time to meet with the children to discuss writing goals. Here are some of the goals many children have at this point in the year: put spaces between words, end with punctuation, start with an upper case letter, include vowels in words, and use the word wall to spell sight words correctly. I typically pick out just one goal at a time for the kids. Our focus right now is writing so others can read it. We talked about how using vowels in our kindergarten spelling makes words easier to read. We’ll continue to listen hard for these vowels. Kindergarten mostly focuses on just the short vowel sounds, and boy they can be tricky! This week the children were assigned reading partners. When they finish a story, they sit down with their partners to share and revise.
We continue to introduce new Jolly Phonics sounds. Here’s a list of all the sounds we’ve covered over the past few weeks: oa, ie, ee, or, z, w, ng, and v. We are introducing long vowel patterns but do not expect mastery in Kindergarten. As I mentioned above, short vowels are the focus.
Here are the newest sight words we added to the Word Wall: come, here, this, is, and said. I send home flashcards, as they are introduced. Team Literacy teachers focus on these words throughout the week, as well. If your child already can read our kindergarten sight words, their group focuses on different words. That’s the beauty of the Team Literacy model!
We completed our math chapter on size and position. Now we are working on numbers 11-20. There’s one more week of parent volunteers during math centers. We’ve really enjoyed sharing our room with you—thanks so much for your time and help! I’m going to send out a new volunteer note next week. If you are interested in helping with centers starting the last week in January, please fill out the form. Thanks!
This coming week is an exciting one for us! Here’s what you need to know:
1. Monday-Thursday is “Teddy Bear Week” in Kindergarten. Your child should bring a stuffed animal that fits inside his/her backpack to school on these days. Animals can sleep over at school or be sent home each day…please just be sure to return them to school. Many of our math and writing lessons will involve these furry friends. I told the kids they don’t have to bring in a teddy bear. Some kids want to bring in stuffed penguins, monkeys, etc.
2. Gingerbread Houses: The kids are looking forward to decorating milk carton gingerbread houses during centers this week (Tuesday-Thursday). Please send in your candy donation on Monday, so we have all the supplies ready to go. Thanks!
3. Pajama Day is Thursday: Thanks so much for sending in pajamas for our Pajama Drive. I realize we’ve asked for a lot of donations over the past month and appreciate your generosity. Our school goal is to reach 200 pairs of pajamas. Each time a child brings in a pair of pajamas, we fill in a box on our Ten Frame Countdown Board in the hallway. The kids are having fun keeping track of the total. To celebrate the end of the countdown, kindergarten kids and teachers J get to wear pajamas to school on Thursday. That’s going to be a cozy day!
4. Winter Party is Friday: Parents are invited to attend our Winter Party on Friday from 10:50-11:40. This will be a nice way to spend time together before winter break starts.
Phew! I think I highlighted all the important happenings. During this holiday season I am thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful class and supportive parents. I wish you a healthy and happy holiday season. Our winter break will run from December 20-January 4. I’ll look forward to having the kids come back to school on January 5.
Keep in touch,
Becky Clay