Weekly Peep Report

Happy Friday, Kindergarten Families! 

The Peeps have had a very busy week of learning this week, and now it's time for me to tell you all about it! This is our first official Kindergarten Weekly Report of the year. The format will be the same each week. I will discuss each curricular subject area, give you some ideas of how to help your child's learning at home, and also let you know about items in our folders and upcoming events. Please be sure to scan through the whole email, so that you don't miss anything important. Thank you so much for taking the time to stay informed. It makes all the difference!

Kindergarten Weekly Report, August 28, 2015

In Binders Today:
You'll see the word list for first quarter words. Please don't worry about this, especially if your child doesn't know all of the words yet. We will focus on one word a week. Our word this week was "the." We talked about how a word is made of letters, and we found "the" in the books that we've read.

Reading Logs look great! Please be sure to set a goal with your child, if you haven't done so already. Several of the children were excited to earn their first "10" sticker for reading 10 books. Those are on a special page. (If you're not there yet, that's OK!)

ABC's and 123's: 

Reading: We have been focusing on a different letter each day. We notice how that letter is made (lines, slides, curves), and explore how other letters are similar and different. We have been finding letters in the books that we read together, too! Each day we read some "old favorite" big books, and add "new favorites." Our "old favorite" book is used for teaching points. It's always easier to learn from a story when you are very familiar with it first. That's why it's wonderful to read the same books over and over again at home. Each time you read a favorite story with your child, he/she can notice something new. Some of the books we have enjoyed this week are The Wheels on the Bus, The Little School Bus, and The Meanies. 

Math: We've been counting, graphing, and sorting by color. We've talked about other ways to sort, too. Did you know that cleaning up is really all about sorting? When you can group items that go together, cleaning up is a snap! At home, encourage your child to take a big part in cleaning up after playtime. See how he/she can put like objects together: all Legos go together, all action figures go together, all of the little pieces for play sets go together, etc. Being able to clean up after yourself is a big kindergarten responsibility!

We love graphing. This week, we've done a "yes" and "no" graph each day. We've seen how many friends have letter A in their names, and continued with letter B, C, and D. Today, we discovered that 10 people like broccoli, and 8 friends do not. When we graph, we count the results and determine which is more, which is less, or if the two columns are equal. 

Social Studies: At Long School, we have rules. This week in our Social Studies lessons we have learned that we have rules to (1) keep us safe, (2) help us learn, and (3) make things fair. We have been working hard to learn the rules and routines. We're busy working together on a "School Rules" book. 

Fine Motor Practice: We've been working hard on holding a pencil, crayon, or marker correctly with our "pincher fingers." At home, you can help by watching your child's grip, and correcting when necessary. See the image below:

Strong finger muscles are very important! We've been using PlayDoh each morning to warm our fingers up. We can roll out snakes, use our pincher fingers to make small balls, and then put our wrists on the table and use our index finger to smash the balls (while keeping our wrist on the table), Playground equipment helps make our fingers strong, too! Monkey bars are fantastic for building hand strength. At home, encourage your child to use PlayDoh or clay inside, and to climb and play outside! Those are wonderful things to do for developing good handwriting! We've been using our scissors to cut, too. We can turn squares into circles by cutting off the corners of the paper! With our scissors, we've made some terrific school buses!

Writing Workshop: We started our Writer's Workshop lessons this week! The Peeps thought of a true story that happened in their lives, and used words and/or pictures to tell about it. I was so proud of the stories and pictures that the children have shared! Those stories are here in our writing folders, and we'll collect them for a while before they come home at the end of our narrative unit. At this point in the year, our "writing" is primarily drawing. That's OK! The important thing is for the children to think of an idea in advance and draw that idea. That is a lot different than just making a picture. Writers think of their ideas, and then write! That's what we're learning in writing. Think, then write or draw. 

So you see, I'm not kidding when I say we've been busy! Be sure to catch up on sleep this weekend. We've got another wonderful week in store next week!

A Peek at Next Week: 

*Be sure to look at our Block Time schedule on the sidebar to know what days we'll need tennis shoes for P.E.

Monday: C Day

Tuesday: D Day

Wednesday: E Day

Thursday: A Day

Friday: B Day Bus Driver Day

Please feel free to contact me anytime with questions or concerns. Enjoy your weekend!