Weekly Peep Report

Happy Friday, Kindergarten Families!

It's hard to believe that there are only a few days left of the first half of Kindergarten! I see so much progress...even in the few weeks since progress reports went out. It's obvious that you're working hard at home reinforcing our learning at school. Thank you so much!

During these next few days, please do the best you can (on school nights) to stick to your usual family routine. We've had much more trouble this week following directions, listening the first time directions are given, and keeping hands to ourselves. The unseasonably warm weather has made us extra energetic, too!

This Wednesday is Polar Express Day! Your child can wear comfortable pajamas. We will be doing Polar Express themed lessons in math and reading, and watching the movie during an extra-special long rest and recharge time. Be sure your child wears tennis shoes to school for recess time. It's just fine to send slippers and a stuffed animal in backpacks for rest time. 

Kindergarten Weekly Report

December 11, 2015

ABC's and 123's

Reading and Writing
Our focus this week during reading and writing has been on vowel sounds. We've been singing the "Vowel Sound Samba." Several of the reading groups have been working on race car blending, where we use a race car to help us as we put sounds together in words that have a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pattern ("cat," "pin," "rug"). 

We're trying hard to put vowels in our words when we write stories. We stretch words out and write a letter for each sound that we hear. It takes lots of concentration during Writer's Workshop! I'm very proud of the effort that I'm seeing from the boys and girls! Many of them have completed two stories already since Thanksgiving!

Keep working on sight words at home to be sure that they are automatic. We need to know these words as soon as we see them. There are 24 words from the first semester: 

First quarter: the, see, I, a, can, is, the, he, she, look, at, me, my
                               Second quarter: like, am, and, of, we, said, it, here, you, up, to

Please keep reading at home as often as you can. Point out sight words when you see them.

We've had lots of fun reading different versions of the Gingerbread Man. We've learned about quotation marks, characters, and making predictions. Sometimes the gingerbread character gets eaten by a tricky fox! Other times, he survives! (It was so much fun to read a version that the children didn't know...they would hold their hands to their mouths, worried about the fate of the gingerbread man!)

Math:
We're getting very good at counting! Most of the children can count to at least fifty with few errors. Please continue to practice with your child at home...repetition is the key! We're working with a hundreds chart at school to learn to recognize those big numbers that we can count to. It's easy when you go one at a time in order, but when skipping around, it's very challenging! Most of the children have yet to discover the patterns that are in a hundreds chart. The numbers repeat in a very predictable way, but recognizing numbers beyond 20 can take a while to master. We will be working on this next week, and reinforcing throughout the rest of the year. Our purpose in kindergarten at this time is to introduce the hundreds chart to the children, work on orally counting to 100 (50 at this point in the year), and learn to recognize numbers from 1-20 even when they're mixed up. We've also been working hard on filling in missing numbers from 1-20. We're using the number chart to help with this. 

​A Peek at Next Week:
Monday: D Day (P.E.) 
Tuesday: E Day (Library/Technology)
Wednesday: A Day (Art) POLAR EXPRESS DAY (wear pajamas)
Thursday: B Day (Music) Holiday Party 2:00-3:00

Friday: No School for Students

Have a wonderful weekend!