Kindergarten Newsletter
Welcome To Kindergarten!!!
Mrs. Howington
Mrs. Mora
Mrs. Moulden
Mrs. Rakow
September 2012
Kindergarten News
Contents
Kindergarten News
1
Snack
1
Upcoming Events
1
Reading
2
Writing
2
Math
2
Science & Social Studies
3
Suggestions for Success
3
Looking Ahead
3
Reminder
4
We are off to a great start in
kindergarten this year! It has been a
busy few weeks as children learned
classroom routines, TMES expectations,
and curriculum material. The first four
weeks of school are always tiring and
challenging for kindergarten students.
We are amazed at the progress each
child has made as they transitioned
from the summer months to the full and
rigorous days of school. We look forward
to working with you and your child
during this exciting school year.
Meredith Howington
Please feel free to contact us if you
have additional questions or concerns.
Thank You!
Meredith_R_Howington@mcpsmd.org
Janice Moulden
Janice_L_Moulden@mcpsmd.org
Naveena Mora
Naveena_M_Mora@mcpsmd.org
Sharon Rakow
Sharon_P_Rakow@mcpsmd.org
The Kindergarten Team
Snack
Please be sure to send your child to school
with a snack EVERYDAY. Listed below are a
few reminders and things to consider when
packing your child’s snack.
 Label your child’s snack with their name
and the word snack, i.e. “Sarah’s snack”
 Please keep their snack separate from
their lunch box.
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Upcoming Events
 If your child is buying lunch, please do
not put their snack in a lunch box.
September 3- No School
September 12- Back To School Night
 Please send only one snack/ a
reasonable amount of food for your
child. Snack last approximately ten
minutes in each class before students
have to put away/ throw away their
remaining snack. Please take this into
consideration when you are deciding
how much snack to pack for your child.
September 17- No School: Rosh
Hashanah
September 26- No School: Yom Kippur
September 28- Early Release Day:
Grading and Reporting
Thank you for taking the time to make these
accommodations when packing your child’s
snack. This helps us to keep snack time and
classroom disruptions to a minimum in order
to maximize instructional time.
Kindergarten Newsletter
Page 2 of 4
Curriculum Information
Reading
Our main lesson focus for the month of
September is identifying characters and
setting in various read aloud books. We
will also introduce parts of a story:
beginning, middle, and end. During the
month of October we will focus on
identifying signs and symbols in
nonfiction text. During this month we
will also be focusing on safety, such as:
fire safety, car and bus safety.
review these words with your child
when reading at home. The easier your
child can identify these words the easier
reading independently will be for them.
Word Work: we will introduce the
following sight words: a, I, see, me,
like, look, at, can. Please frequently
“Tell me and I
forget. Teach me
and I remember.
Involve me and I
learn."
-Benjamin
Franklin
Writing
During the month of September we will
focus on adding details to drawings. We
will begin word stretching, slowly
sounding out words so students can hear
as many sounds as possible, writing
down the sounds they hear.
Our focus for October will be writing
notes: thank you notes, reminder notes
and friendly notes. We will identify the
parts of a note. While writing we will
practice our handwriting and word
stretching. In addition we will start to
discuss using spaces between words.
Math
The Unit 1 kindergarten material
consists of positional words, sorting,
graphing, tallying, and patterning. In
September the following positional
words are being introduced: above,
below, top, middle, bottom, before,
after, and between. Please review and
encourage your child to use these words
when describing an object’s location.
We have been sorting objects by color,
size, shape, and other distinguishing
features.
When your child has homework involving
writing, please encourage them to
stretch the sounds and write what they
hear. It is developmentally appropriate
for them to use this word stretching
technique and only have a few letter
sounds at this point in the year. Please
encourage them to word stretch rather
than spell the word correctly for your
child. The more confident your child
becomes with word stretching the more
independent they will become during
writing.
This month we will make tally marks
when counting objects or responses to a
question. As we continue to use this
skill, students will begin to graph
information.
Towards the middle of October we will
begin our focus on patterning. Students
will be able to create and identify
patterns. We will also continue to focus
on counting and writing numbers 0-20.
Students who are able and ready to
count further will be encouraged to do
so.
Kindergarten Newsletter
Social Studies & Science
Social Studies focus during the month of September:
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Roles of school staff
Classroom rights and responsibilities
Social skills
Classroom rights and responsibilities
Reasons for classroom rules
Family rights and responsibilities
U.S. Symbols
During the month of October we will focus on symbols associated with the United
States.
Science focuses during the month of September:
 Weather observations and routines
 Weather impact on daily activities
 Weather attributes
 Types of clouds
 Rain
 Wind
Suggestions for Success

Spend a few minutes each week reviewing alphabet letters and word wall
words so your child begins to readily recognize all letters and word wall
words. Search for letters/words in books and magazines and use them to
write sentences.
Have your child practice tying their own shoes and zipping their own
jacket.
Have your child practice writing their name with only 1 capital letter and
all the rest of the letters lowercase.
Have your child practice cutting with their thumb up and using their
opposite hand to rotate the paper.
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Looking Ahead:
October Dates to Remember
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October 8- Open House-Columbus Day
Page 3 of 4
Kindergarten Newsletter
Page 4 of 4
Parent/ Teacher Conferences
Thurgood Marshall ES
12260 McDonald Chapel Drive
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Phone:
(301)-670-8282
Parent teacher conferences will take place on
November 12th and 13th. Students will be released
early, at 1:00pm on these school days. You will
have an opportunity to schedule your conference
time with your child’s teacher during back-toschool night. We will send out reminders in
advance. If for any reason you are unable to
attend back-to-school night, please contact your
child’s teacher to set up a conference time.
We’re on the Web!
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd
.org/schools/thurgoodmarshalles/
“Children are likely to grow
up to what you believe in
them."
-Lady Bird Johnson