MRS. ANDREA H. DAVIS
Weekly Newsletter
September 11, 2015
THEME: All About Me
UNIT: My Body
& Family Traditions
Key Measures: Part of personal well-being is knowing my body parts and how they work. Families
have traditions. Not all families are the same.
Dear Parents,
In our classroom we have so many reading, math and writing opportunities, singing,
dancing, academic table games, dramatic play and art projects going on at all times, that I
can only list some of the highlights for you (or this newsletter would be ten pages long).
If you ever want more information on something I’ve mentioned, just send me an e-mail and
I’d be glad to go into more detail with you. We’ve had a wonderfully busy week!
LANGUAGE ARTS
LISTENING: At the Listening center, we used our eyes and ears to enjoy the cute family
book on tape called, The Kissing Hand. We talked about the fact that some families
consist of one parent and one or more children, some families have two parents and some
families have even more. Our class represents all types of families.
SPEAKING: We are working on adjusting our speaking volume to the correct setting;
classroom, hallway, lunchroom, Library (on Mondays…next week!), and playground.
PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND PHONICS: We are developing our fine motor skills as well
as improving our phonemic awareness when we trace over words and pictures of the letter
sounds we are reviewing.
WRITING: The students are practicing writing the whole alphabet using correct letter
formation. Start having your kids write their names with a capital letter first, followed by
all lower case letters. This is a skill assessed on the report card. Encourage your child to
write it correctly the first time.
READING: We read these books: My body, Mr. Chatterbox, Little Miss Chatterbox
(they’re siblings), My Dad the Magnificent, and Mama’s New Job, to name a few.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Cooperative working and playing is a big goal in Kindergarten! Ask your child to tell you
how our Centers work. The idea is to have small groups of children working together for
short periods of time. The groups of kids and the places to work change daily.
MATH
We like to play a group game called Circle Countdown. The children stand in a big circle as
the teacher counts. If we are studying letter sound /f/ the numbers four and five have to
sit down. We keep counting around the circle to 10 until only one person is left standing the winner! I change the format of the game to fit the unit we are doing at the time. If
we are studying letter sound /s/, I would have numbers six and seven sit down. This week
we are playing it based on if we have brothers, or sisters or neither, or both.
SCIENCE
We read the book D.W. is a Picky Eater that talks about the importance of eating good
foods to make our bodies strong. D.W. is Arthur’s little sister. When we graphed how
many brothers and sisters we have, we realized that several students have the same type
of families: some have a sister or two AND a brother or two, some have one or more
brothers, some have one or more sisters. Including me, there are 8 of us who are the
babies of the family. 
ART
VISUAL: The students colored their own body image, right down to the clothes. The body
shapes are hanging in our hallway.
MUSICAL: Ask your child to sing our new song called “Don’t say Ain’t, or your Mama will
faint...”
MOVEMENT: We have several movement records which give us directional clues (left
elbow in) as well as records that make us skip, gallop, tiptoe...
DRAMATIC PLAY: In the tub center we have a small doll family that the children have
enjoyed.
TECHNOLOGY
Besides going to the computer lab once a week (starting Monday), the children have 3
laptops available in the classroom for everyday use. The computer is one of the favorite
centers.
FYI
Look for homework any day of the week. If you don’t finish homework in one day, feel
free to send it back the next day or whenever you are finished. I will always write
RETURN on papers that I want back. Make sure the backpack comes to school empty of
toys and ‘stuff’. The Everyday folder should be looked at by the parent and emptied out
every night. Homework / order forms or notes for the office / lunch money / notes to me
can be sent back in the Everyday folder. One of our morning procedures is to turn in
everything in the Everyday folder. If yesterday’s work is still in there, it can be
confusing. I've received 17 photos for our bulletin board and would like the last 3 as soon
as possible! Cute kids! Snack time is going well. Thanks for sending a small amount of
food – and only send something that your child can open independently.
I hope you all have great weekend! I know you are ALL at very busy stages of life…I
REALLY get it when you don’t always get homework done on time. Late homework is fine
with me, but DO turn it in. FYI – I keep track. Just enjoy your time with your little ones they grow up so fast!!
Fondly, Andrea Davis