Upcoming Events/Mark your calendars:
- Monday, September 2: NO school, Labor Day
- Friday, September 6: Early Dismissal, 2:00
- FALL FEST BEGINS Thursday, September 5th!!! Always a favorite for the kids…and grown-ups! 🙂 Click the link to see all the fun that’s happening! https://www.stcletusparish.com/fallfest
What’s Due?
- Please make sure you turn in the “what’s the buzz on your child” handout (in your open house packet)! Thanks to all that have already turned in.
- Headphones: please turn in your child’s headphones within the next week or so– over the ear, 3.5 mm jack headphones are great!
- House pages: Your child came home with a house page on Friday. Please cover the house page with pictures, words, stickers, etc. that describe your family. Show us why your family rocks! These pages will be laminated and put together to make a traveling class book. Please turn in these house pages by Friday, September 20th. See below for an example.
This Week:
- We met our 8th grade buddies and attended our first Mass with them on Friday! The kids did SO well. It was a longer Mass and I was so proud of how they did considering it was our first time going together. When we came back we turned on the disco ball and did a little dance to celebrate our prayerful behavior in church.
- We got to check out the playground and that included the new pebble box! We’re always looking for ways to add on to our outside play area and this was one thing we added this summer. The kids are really enjoying being outside with friends. Be sure to check out the pictures page to see them in action!
- I started beginning of the year assessments and should wrap those up by early next week! This allows me to see the skills students are coming in with and what we need to focus on! Students were assessed on:
1.) Recognizing letters in their name
2.) Letter recognition-upper and lower case
3.) Letter sounds
4.) Counting by 1s
5.) Number recognition 1-20
6.) Pencil and scissor grip
7.) Writing numbers 1-10
8.) First name writing
9.) Naming 2D shapes
10.) Naming colors
Next Week:
Language Arts: We started our FUNDATIONS phonics program. Lowercase letters are introduced first with explicit formation instruction using paper that identifies the lines as “sky line” (top) “plane line” (middle/dashed) “grass line” (bottom) and “worm line”. This week, I introduced /t/. Each letter will be practiced in the “letter name-picture-sound” format as shown in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwcWjH9cumc
_1.jpg)
At home: please find ways to help your child practice their letter sound relationships. Have magnetic letters available to them on the fridge, dishwasher, etc. While eating dinner…”b-b-broccoli…what does that start with?” While driving in the car, “s-s-sun…what does that begin with?” Sing the alphabet each night. Ask your child to name letters in books. READ every night!!!
Math: We started our new math series which has workbooks divided into “modules” (chapters). We are on Module 1 which is called “represent numbers to 5 with objects”. Below are the skills we are working on. Please note the ways you help support your child’s learning at home!
- Tally marks: We are representing numbers using tally marks. So far we are tallying 0-10. We say, “1, 2, 3, 4 5 makes a bundle!” Then we make a finger space before continuing with “6, 7, 8, 9, 10…circle it up!” We ALWAYS circle groups of ten in kindergarten! At home: using any writing utensil (pencil, marker, chalk, dry erase marker), give your child a number from 1-10 and ask your child to show you tally marks for that number.
- Number formation: We focus A LOT on number formation at the beginning of the school year. It’s important to get this down because once we start doing adding and subtracting, it will be much less frustrating if your child knows how to form the different numbers. This week, we worked on 1, 2, 3. Next week, we will continue to work on 1, 2, 3 and will add on 4 and 5. At home: Click HERE for number poems and begin to practice 1, 2, 3, then 1-5.
- Counting 1-20; At home: Practice counting by 1s from 1-20. Many have mastered this, so go on from there! The end goal for kindergarten is to count to 100 by 1s.
- Representing numbers 1-10 on a ten frame. For example, show me the number 6 (see below) or we do the opposite where we show counters on a ten frame and they have to say the number. After next week, we will focus more on those tricky teen numbers!
Religion:
- We will begin our first unit, “I am Special” next week!
- We are working hard to show kindness and empathy in our classroom. Each time we do that, we are showing we are God’s superstars! The children are very proud to earn their stickers.