February 3rd-7th

  Kindergarten news                 February 3rd^th-February 7th

                                                                                                                                                        

*Letter Ee and it’s sounds as in elephant and equal will be our focus in Phonics next week.   Keep practicing the use of the “K” and “C” spelling rule.

*In math, we will be working on identifying numbers up to 20, identifying before, after, and between, and liquid measurement.

*  Our new book for this week is “Seeds”.  The genre is informational text and the comprehension skill is drawing conclusions. The children enjoyed learning about the life cycle of butterflies and they love looking at their baby pictures that I have displayed in the hall outside of our classroom.  I plan on putting thir pictures in their memory books, if that’s not ok just let me know and I will return them now to you.

*Thursday, February 13^th will be our Valentine party.  Anyone who is on the homeroom parent list can help at the party.  I will provide the time of the party as soon as possible.Please let me know if you will be attending.  The children can bring a valentine card  for  each student in our class.  It is good practice to have your child sign(print) their name on each valentine, and I will provide you with a class list of names to put on the envelopes.  A good activity is to have your child address the envelopes themselves(with your help).  This can take a long time so try to work on a few a day until completed.  Don’t forget to include all the students in the class so no one has hurt feelings.   If you are writing the names please print them so that the children can read them.  Remember that we have 3 Josephs and three Kaitlyns(each is spelled differently) .

 

*Next Tuesday weather permitting, will be the 100^th day.  Plan to have your child bring 100 of something to school , and it should be small enough to place on an 8 by 10 graph containing 100 blocks.  Your child can dress up to look like they are 100 years old on this day, but this is an optional activity.

 

*February is National Children’s dental Health Month.  Please encourage your child to brush his/her teeth at least twice a day and to practice good dental health habits.  A tooth brush chart is coming home with your child for this month.  If he/she returns it at the end of the month they will get a treat.

 

I am returning your child’s report card today and you may keep it.  Keep in mind that  each report card period gets increasingly harder due to more subject matter taught.  Also for your child to earn a  “ 4 “ they must be able to  master the skill with out assistance.  I am sending home a copy of the memory word list that I use to test them for the section of the rubric that covers the common core standard CC.1.1.K.D that states : Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skill in decoding words.  The bullet states: Student can read common high frequency words by sight.  The weekly wordlists also are included in this part of the evaluation. 

 

Wordlist # 10 should be in your child’s folder today and the children did a nice job reading the words on wordlist # 9.  Monday will be day # 3 and we will have computer class .

  

Jan.27th-31st

                                                                    Kindergarten News- January 27^th-31st

Next week after we finish the letter Z we will be learning the letter “C” with a /k/ sound as in cat and candy.  We will learn the K and C Spelling rule.  The rule is that we spell the /K/ sound with the letter “k” when the sound is followed by the letters e, I, and y.  We spell the /k/ sound with the letter c when the sound is followed by the letters a, o, and u and any consonant.  For example:

K before e, i, or y                                                            C before a, o, u, or any consonant

Keg       kid    milky                                                             cat    cot     cup    clip

Friday will be show and tell for the letter “C”.

Wordlist # 9 will be tested this week and wordlist # 10 will come home in the communication folder.

Reading- We will continue the book “See How we grow”.  Its genre is “biography” and the comprehension skill emphasized is “cause and effect”.  I did a bulletin board revolved around this book.  I put your child’s baby picture on the front of a card, and on the inside put their school age picture, and then compared how the children are growing and changing.  The other kindergarten children had fun guessing who the children were on their baby pictures.  Early next week we will begin the story “Farfallina and Marcell”. 

Math- We have begun topic # 7 which concentrates on addition.  They will learn the vocabulary words join, plus sign, sum add and addition sentence.

Report cards will be distributed on Monday January 27^th.  Please sign and return it in the original envelope as soon as possible.  Remember that this is an assessment on the common core standards that must be met by the end of your child’s kindergarten year.  I am sending home the rubric so that you can see any areas that you child needs to improve.  Please make sure the rubrix is returned also.

Reminders and dates:

100^th Day- The 100^th day of school is just 7 days away!!!  Please practice counting to 100, and don’t forget to send a bagged collection of 100 items to school on Wednesday February 4^nd.  If you want your child to share their collection with the class, please let me know.  The children can dress like they are 100 years old.  This is not next week, but I wanted to let you know ahead of time so you can prepare.

The Valentine’s Day party will be held on Monday, Feb.13^th. Please make sure that everyone in the class is included when sending valentine cards.  I will send a list next week with the children’s names to help you do these.    

Monday will be day # 3 on the school rotation and we will have computer class.

Have a great weekend!!!!!

January 20th-24th

                                                                                                              Jan.-20^th to the 24^th

           Monday January 20^th is a teacher in-service day, and Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday observance so there will be no school for the students.                          

^{Next week in Phonics we will be learning the consonant letter “Z” as in zebra and zoo.}  

Reading-We will begin the book “Farfallina”” which is classified as “animal fantasy.  The children will be learning about plot in the lessons this week.  One of the common core standards for kindergarten requires that the students learn about setting, characters, and plot for any story.

Science- We will learn about animal behavior, and how things change as they grow.  The characters in this story are a caterpillar and a goose.

Math- We will have the topic #6 test next week, and then move on to topic # 7.  The common core standards covered in this unit revolve around addition and subtraction.  We will be using objects, fingers, mental images, and drawings to name a few, and we will be solving addition and subtraction word problems.

 Tuesday will be Day # 5A, and we will have music class.

Report cards will tentatively be distributed on Friday, January 24rd, 2014.  They are on an e-schoolbook template and are standard based. Remember that this report card is not your typical report card based on grades.  We use a scoring rubric which has the standards that are expected to be met at the end of kindergarten.  The goal is to score a 3 which means that they have mastered the standard.  If they have a 2 or a 1 it just means they have to keep working hard to achieve mastery by the end of kindergarten.  Some of the standards are not taught during each marking period and will have an NA which just means we it wasn’t covered this time.  I am sending the rubric home for you to see what your child needs to work on, and you can also see what they will be expected to do by the end of kindergarten.  It never hurts to look ahead to give your child a head start!!  Please return the report card (signed) and the rubric as soon as possible. 

 Have fun working on the United States project on this long weekend.  It is a fun and educational way to learn about some of the states in our country. Oral report activities are also part of the common core standards required for kindergarten. You can go on You-tube and find some cute songs about the fifty states. Thanks to all the parents who are helping “prepare” the children for their first oral report. 

Have an “utterly” great weekend!!!!                                                          Mrs. Bernosky