April 29th to May 3rd

Kindergarten News-March 29thnd-May 3rd To begin this week we will be learning about a new digraph, the “digraph oo”. The children are taught that when two letters come together to make one sound it is called a digraph. We will learn that diagraph oo makes two different sounds – oo like in tooth and oo as in hook.  This week we will also learn about a new long vowel rule that we refer to in kindergarten as “sneaky e”. The rule is when a vowel is followed by a consonant and a silent “e”, the vowel is long: code the vowel with a macron, and cross out the silent “e”. Some examples are: hope, name, rule and theme.  Please prepare your child for testing for the report cards by reviewing all of the areas that we tested them on in the last three report cards. Also keep working on the words that your child will be required to write in ten minutes.  For Reading we will begin “This is the Way We go to School”. Its genre is fiction, and the comprehension skill is drawing conclusions. The social studies component concentrates on learning about towns and country sides, and we will learn about mountains and valleys.   We worked on our “wood and paper” unit in science today. Some of the goals of this unit are that the students observe the properties of wood and paper, comparing how they are alike and different, and how they can use what they have learned to create new things. We used sandpaper to change wood into sawdust.  In Math we will be working on money, counting by 2’s 5’s and 10’s, identifying geometric solids, addition and subtraction, and identifying and making symmetrical designs.  Orientation for new students will be held on May 31st in the afternoon. Field trip- May 23th Carnival- May 24th Graduation-May 28th Monday, March29th is Day 2.

April 22nd - 26th, 2013

Kindergarten News- - Tuesday April 22nd will be day # 2  This week, we will be focusing on the two sounds of digraph “th”. It makes a voiced (vibrating) sound as in feather and unvoiced sound as in thimble. Watch the daily worksheets to see the differences in the two sounds. The children already are aware of this digraph and use it frequently in their kid writing. We try to stick our tongue out to make these sounds.  Thursday ,April 25th there will be a supplement to the Republican Herald newspaper that will have our children’s responses to “What I want to be When I Grow Up”. Every kindergarten class at NSE participated in this.  You may have noticed that we are practicing for our “end of the year testing” on our phonic worksheets. The children are given 10 minutes to write as many words as they can as part of their kindergarten testing. The Reading teachers give the test in the cafeteria because there are no words to copy from, and we will be there to help. I am trying to teach “word families” like “at, it, ed, ug, etc to make it easy for the children to be successful on this test. Practice this at home. A tentative date for Diebels testing will be April 29th. This will be the last time this year for this test.  Thursday morning April 25th I will be visiting the Child Development Center in Ft. Springs to meet the girls and boys who will be attending kindergarten next year. This is a transitioning tool that we, in cooperation with child development, use to help the student feel more comfortable about coming to kindergarten next year. The children will be attending a show in the gym called “Brain show Mania”. It is a show with questions and contestants in a game show format.  In Math we will work on identifying and making symmetrical designs, counting pennies to pay for items that together cost less than 30 cents and writing numerals through 30 to label sets. Please review the pages that come home in your child’s folder daily.  Monday, April 22nd is Earth Day. Discuss the environment, and how to keep our planet clean. Dates to remember: Fieldtrip- May 23rd Carnival- May 24th Kindergarten graduation- May 28th (evening)

April 15th-19th

Kindergarten News - Monday April 15th to April 19th This week in Phonics we are learning about the diagraph “sh”. A diagraph is when two letters come together to make one sound. We code digraphs by drawing a line under them. This reminds the children that the two letters only make one sound. Monday April 22nd will begin diebels testing with the Reading department, and very soon we will begin getting the testing started for the last report card. The reading department retests all of the children at the end of the year.  They are tested on letter identification, sounds, and the students have to give a word that begins with each letter of the alphabet.  A sentence will be dictated, and the children will have to write it. This is done one word at a time.  They will be given 10 minutes to write as many words as they can think of, and that’s why you are seeing us working on word families. I have had children in past years write more than 100 words. This you can practice all of these things at home, the more use to doing this, the easier it is for them the day of the test.  Next week we will be working on identifying and matching equivalent sets and identifying doubles by using dominoes. Please continue to practice money at home. The children are expected to know the name of a penny, nickel, dime and quarter and the value of each coin.  We are beginning unit 5-4 in Reading. This weeks’ story is “The Little Engine that Could”: its genre is” classic fantasy” and the comprehension skills is “plot”. Most of the children will be familiar with this book and its author Watty Piper, pen name of Mabel C. Bragg. Monday April 15th will be day # 2 on the school rotation and we will have music class. We are beginning to practice the songs for our kindergarten graduation.

April 8th-12th

Kindergarten New- April -8th-12th  This week, since we have covered all of the letters of the alphabet, we will now be working on final digraph ck. The rule is that when the/k/ sound comes at the end of a word, and there is a short vowel before it, you use the diagraph “ck”. Examples: black , duck, lock  Keep practicing with your child to help them write as many words as they can in ten minutes so that they will be successful on the end of the year test.  The wedding of Q and u went very well. We had a lovely ceremony, and we feasted on wedding cake and punch. The children had a wonderful time blowing wedding bubbles outside, and we dance at the reception. All the parts for our wedding were randomly chosen by picking the children’s names from a hat so that it would be fair.  Reading-We are introducing the story Messenger, Messenger . This book will expand the concept of transportation from the past stories by learning about the kinds of transportation that help people do their jobs.  We will start a science journal just like Jack used in the Magic tree house books, for our unit “Animals Two by Two”.  Report cards should be signed and returned as soon as possible. In Math we will continue to work on money, graphing, and problem solving. We will be covering designs using tangrams and exploring slides, turns and flips. Please review the pages that come home in your child’s folder daily. The children are doing a wonderful job with their kidwriting. You might see some papers coming home that the children are doing at learning centers while I am kidwriting with another group. All of the learning center activities revolve around things that we introduce in class, and are an extension of their learning. Kindergarten graduation pictures went very well, and it is hard to believe that we are at this point in your child’s kindergarten year. Thanks to the wonderful homeroom moms that helped out with the graduation pictures! Monday, April 8th is day # 2 and we have music class. Enjoy the warmer weather this weekend!!!!!!