Upcoming Events/Mark your calendars:
- Tuesday, September 17: 8AM Mass (doors open at 7:45)
- Wednesday, September 18: PBIS kickoff assembly
- Friday, September 20: Please bring in a small container of your child’s favorite fruit, washed and ready to be served. Please see the religion section below for more information.
What’s Due?
- Seesaw: New “boom cards” have been posted in SEESAW. Please log in and check your messages. If you need helping logging in, please send me an email and I will resent the password page. The “boom cards” are self-checking practice and will give you a quick overview of the skills your child is working on in school. It’s meant to be done with your child so you can see HOW your child is learning. It’s fun to watch to watch your child’s thinking/strategies! It’s not meant to be a lot of screen time, but rather a way to keep you connected with what we’re learning.
- House pages: 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 had a fun time talking about all the fun we had at Fall Fest. Thank you for your support!
- We went to 8AM Mass for the first time on Tuesday. The kids did great!
- All students finished the iREADY reading diagnostic test and I hope to have all students finish the math diagnostic by early next week. For new families, i-Ready is an online program that consists of two parts: the Diagnostic and Personalized Instruction. We are currently taking the reading (completed) and math diagnostic. The i-Ready Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment that adjusts its questions to suit your student’s needs. It is taken three times a year–fall, winter and spring. Each item a student sees is individualized based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions. The purpose of this is not to give your student a score or grade, but instead to determine how best to support your student’s learning. Once both diagnostics (reading and math) are completed, children are then put on a “learning path” with lessons and assessments that give me weekly data so that I can personalize and differentiate their learning throughout the school year during centers/ small group and one on one time. We spend 30 minutes on reading and 30 minutes on math per week with the goal of passing 2 lessons in each per week.
Next Week:
Language Arts: Fundations: I have introduced:
- T, top, /t/,
- B , bat, /b/
- F, fun, /f/
- M, man, /m/
- N, nut, /n/
At home:
High Frequency words: I have introduced: NO, GO, THE, YES, WE, TO; we are learning how to read and spell these words. AT HOME: Please keep the word wall I sent home on Friday in a safe place. These are words I want the children to be able to spell and read. These words have been placed on the “word wall” in our classroom. When we start daily journaling in November, the word wall will become very useful to our beginning writers!
Name writing: We will continue to focus on name writing; students are being pulled for 1 on 1 help from Mrs. Zontos in the mornings and at rest if they need additional help. Just like with number writing, we place a lot of emphasis on correct letter formation. This will really help us once we get into writing words and sentences. AT HOME: Please use the name writing packet that I sent home to help your child practice his/her name.
Shared writing: We have started shared writing. Students follow along as we fill in in missing words or letters on chart paper to create a story about each child following this format: My name is___, I am __ years old, I like ___, I do not like ____.
Write the Room: We’ve started one of my favorite centers, “write the room.” It’s one of my favorites because it covers so many skills, but it so age appropriate as it encourages kids to be moving about the room, standing, sitting, on the floor….just the kind of movement our young ones need! 🙂 Currently, students are writing the labels around the classroom, “the (flag, sun, sink, hooks, etc.)” At this point, the purpose is understanding letters make up words and to provide practice with letter writing/fine motor practice. Writing on the floor is a GREAT fine motor strengthening activity as it helps to increase shoulder stability, helps some support their core, and also forces students to keep their elbows still and only use their wrists to write which is good for kids who still try to move their whole arm while writing. Next week, the labels will change to a full sentences. For example: “I see the ____”. The goals eventually expand to include learning how to write high frequency words and eventually be able to read the whole sentence.
Math: We will continue MODULE (or chapter) 2 which is representing numbers to 5 with a written numeral. We are also currently working on:
- Tally marks: We are representing numbers using tally marks. We are now working on tallying 1-20. 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 1-20 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 and 4. Next week, we will continue to work on 1, 2, 3, 4 and will add on 5 and 6. At home: Click HERE for number poems (scroll down to page 34) and begin to practice 1-6.
- 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. I love doing this in the car….they’re trapped! 🙂 Have your child count. Then go back and forth–you say 1, your child says 2…see how high you can get. Practicing this at home is SO helpful and an easy one to do in the car, while laying in bed, while taking a bath, etc.
- We have started to use the >,<, = signs to compare numbers.
- Representing numbers 1-20 on a ten or double ten frame. For example, below, we would talk about how it’s “one group of ten with 4 ones left over.” We would point to the full ten frame and say, “how many is in here?” The response would hopefully be, “TEN!” Then I would say, “let’s count on from 10!” The children would then say, “11, 12, 13, 14.” There are 14 counters on the double ten frame! I have some practice boom cards on SEESAW or feel free to AT HOME: print one double ten frame and practice using any small manipulatives (bingo chips, m and ms, cheerios, etc.) https://stcletusschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TenFrameWorkmatsFREEBIE.pdf
Religion:
- Next week, we will introduce PBIS which is “positive behavior in school”. As a school, we focus on the three character traits: BE RESPECTFUL, BE RESPONSIBLE, BE COMPASSIONATE. On Wednesday, students will attend the PBIS kick-off assembly. Students will be told that we will be focusing on the first trait, “be respectful.” Each time a student is caught being respectful, he/she will earn a ticket. These tickets will be collected and saved. Eventually they will be able to purchase something at our PBIS store! Once all traits are discussed, we will transition to earning tickets that are then collected in a tub and pulled for prizes once every 2 weeks.
- “I am special to my friends.” We feel God’s love through our families and also our FRIENDS. On Friday, September 20, we will make a “friendship fruit salad” together. I will be asking each student to bring in washed, cut up, ready to serve fruit. This will NOT be enough for the whole class, but rather just a small container of the favorite fruit (strawberries, oranges, blueberries, mango, pineapple, raspberries, blackberries). We will take each of the small containers, combine them and make one big, colorful friendship fruit salad! We will then make a tally graph to see which was the favorite fruit.