October News
Dear Families,
We are now in the full swing with our pace of kindergarten! There has
been so much growth already in just a bit over 20 days of school. Our
lessons are longer and moving more quickly, as it should be.
In our language arts curriculum, we have been working on story
elements, reading strategies, comprehension questions from a read-aloud,
identifying characters in a story, various story elements, and many story
elements. I have been reading a variety of books, both fiction and nonfiction. We have done several fairy tales such as The Three Billy Goats
Gruff and The Three Bears as well as nursery rhymes. Working on
hearing rhyming words is an important phonemic awareness skill. We
practice with letter flashcards everyday to help our letter recognition as
well as the sounds. Hearing the first sounds in words has been another
focus. Many of the children are working on putting down first, middle and
ending sounds in words. Helping your child at home with letter flashcards
and asking them to tell you the sounds will also help them with writing
workshop.
Speaking of writing workshop, it seems that the children are enjoying it
a lot! We are nearly finished with our narrative unit of the series and will
be next focusing on making our pieces easier to read. Another thing you
can do at home is have them practice telling you about an event they have
had happen to them or something they did, being sure to tell what
happened first, middle and last.
At home, you may also want to help your child to be able to write their
first and last name, beginning with a capital. This will assist them to be more
independent when they need to put it down before we begin a lesson or
activity.
Topic 3 in math is being assessed at this time and we will be starting
Topic 2 later in the week. We do the third unit prior to the second. This
topic will be using math concepts such as 1and 2 more, 1 and 2 fewer,
ordering numbers 0-5, same as, and ordinal numbers through fifth.
Here are the popcorn words to know: I, like, a, and, see.
Focus letters: Ss, Mm, Rr.
This year, I have decided to use Volunteer Spot solely to manage the
parent helper calendar. If you have sent back my paper indicating a
desire to help, you will need to sign up on the website instead. I will not be
creating the calendar myself.
FALL FESTIVAL: This will be on October 30 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. If
you volunteered to donate/help, you will get a call from our parent
organizers. Be sure to sign in at the office if you are helping that day.
The children will have a wonderful day and I want to thank everyone for
making this happen for the class!
Ms. Davey