Kindergarten Newsletter, October 3

Upcoming Events/Mark your calendars:

• Tuesday, October 7: 8am Mass
• Friday, October 10: Early dismissal, 2pm, no aftercare
• Friday, October 10: Lil cardinals FALL event (early childhood students) from 2-3 in the courtyard. A big thanks to our FSA (family school association) for sponsoring! Be sure to RSVP by today, 10/3! I heard from FSA that the QR code on the flyer is now invalid, so they asked for you to please use this link: https://forms.gle/mWASH9WBtQtjNtk28
• Monday, October 13: No School

What’s Due:

• Hot lunch orders: Order now!
• Lil Cardinals fall event: RSVP by today, 10/3! Please use this https://forms.gle/mWASH9WBtQtjNtk28

 

• Virtus training:  In order to volunteer in our classroom or go on a field trip, you must be VIRTUS TRAINED: https://stcletusschool.com/volunteering/; Please be sure to get this completed!  We’d LOVE to have you in our classroom! 🙂  Please reach out to Ms. Krieger in the office with ANY questions about virtus training: mkrieger@stcletusparish.com .  We LOVE volunteers and are happy to help you with any questions.

This Week:

Field trip: Thank you for turning in the field trip permission slips this week.  We have 5 chaperones, all money has been turned in, and we are set for the trip.  Thank you!

Picture Day: Picture day went well!  The kids all had great smiles and were SO patient.  They each earned a “cardinal dollar” because I was so impressed with how respectful they were while waiting.

House book: Has the traveling “house book” made it to your home yet!?  It’s making its way around the room!  Everyone will have a chance to take it home for a few days before Thanksgiving break.  It will give you a little peek into our kindergarten families’ homes and help your see why our families ROCK!

Drills: We’ve complete all of the required safety drills at school including fire, tornado, lockdown and this week, our final one, the bus evacuation drill. The kids did fine with all of them, and had lots of reassurance that it’s just PRACTICE.

Pep Rally: We attended the pep rally on Friday. It was loud and full of cardinal spirit!  We watched the 8th graders dance, we sang the VICTORY cheer together, and we clapped for all the different cardinal teams!

Baptism: Thanks for sending in those special items!  The kids enjoyed have the spotlight on them.  We also made a church visit on Friday and visited the baptismal font at our church.  We learned that when blessing ourselves with holy water when entering and leaving church, it should remind us of our baptisms!

Language Arts:

• Fundations: We are HALFWAY through introducing our lowercase “letter-keyword-sounds”. Woo hoo! So far, I’ve introduced:

t, top, /t/

b, bat, /b/

f, fun, /f/

n, nut, /n/

  m, man, /m/,

i, itch, /i/

u, up, /u/

c, cat, /c/

o, octopus, /o/

a, apple /a/

g, game, /g/

d, dog, /d/

s, snake, /s/

Fundations reminders: We are ONLY working on LOWERCASE formation right now in Fundations.  Each letter is introduced as “letter-keyword-sound”.   Here is what that sounds like and how the students recite it each day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYhKyXCs7Ug

During Fundations, formation will be explicitly taught for each lower case letter using the following language: Sky line (top), plane line (dashed), “grass line” (under the plane line) and “worm line” (bottom).

• Journal writing: We will continue journal writing next week again focusing on drawing a picture with crayons and labeling with a pencil. I’ll go over these journal entries with you at conferences in November!
• Listening center:  Halloween stories will be out at the listening center!
• Write the room: Our write the rooms are now full sentences!  Students are walking around the room with their clipboards during center time and writing the sentences they see such as, “I see the fan,” or “I see the sun,” etc.  Students are learning that letters make up words and words make up sentences.  They’re learning that we write from left to right.  They’re learning to put spaces in between their words.  They’re getting more letter formation practice, and finally, they’re practicing our “word wall words,” and learning how to spell those words correctly. Write the room also sometimes includes “count the room,” where students must complete different number sense writing activities.
• Poetry journal: We will illustrate a new song in our poetry journals.  It starts like this: “God made flowers, God made trees, God made fishes in the seas….”  See if your child can finish it!
• High frequency words:  I have introduced: the, I, we, go, yes, no, will, to, see, like.  Next week, I will introduce “is”.  we will practice reading and writing these words during centers and calendar time.
• Decodable books:  Next week, the children will be taking their “book folders” home for the first time!  In these folders will be two things–a fluency word practice page and 1-2 decodable books.  Directions will be included in the book folder. To help your beginning reader, I’m going to ask you to practice the fluency page with your child and also help your child practice reading the printable book(s) to at least “3 lucky listeners” (mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, dog, stuffed animal, etc.). I’ll send out an email next week with more information.  We have READERS in our classroom.  SO exciting!

Math:

Next week we will wrap up our first “into Math” workbook, modules (chapters) 1-3! These workbooks will be sent home once complete. Current math skills include:

• Number writing: 1-9 number formation.   Here are our Number Poems so you can support your child at home!
• Ten frame AND Tally mark practice: We are still working on those teen numbers, 11-19.  We talk about these numbers as “a group of ten with ___ ones left over.” We will also continue to use tally marks to represent numbers.
• Counting to 40. We are now practicing counting to 40. At home, please practice counting to 40 (or beyond)!  The goal by the end of kindergarten is to count to 100 (or beyond)!
• Greater than/less than: Students will continue to compare numbers using the < > = symbols. Students will then have to practice READING those number sentences, using the words ‘greater than,’ ‘less than,’ or ‘equal to.’

Religion:

• The PBIS “store” is opening next week in the cafeteria!  Students will be allowed to turn their “cardinal dollars” in for a small prize.  Your child will come home with their money as well. Be sure to look for those dollars and see if your child remembers what he/she did to earn that dollar.  Focus on the words “respectful, responsible and compassionate.”
• We will continue to attend 8am Mass each Tuesday.  Remember, doors open 5 minutes early, at 7:45.
• Next week, it’s all about CREATION! We will pull out the Bible in our classroom for the first time and read the first story of creation together. We will have a new song in our pocket chart all about creation.