Upcoming Events/mark your calendars:
- Thursday, September 21: Grandfriends Mass and reception
- Friday, September 22: No School, professional development for teachers
What’s due?
- Hot lunch orders: don’t forget to submit any hot lunch orders!
- Grandfriends permission slip: https://stcletusschool.com/grandfriends/
- Seesaw: NEW boom cards were posted to Seesaw this past week. Be sure to check those out by logging in to SEESAW and checking the MESSAGES. That’s where I send the boom cards. I am able to see who is viewing the messages so if you haven’t done so within the next few days, I will reach out to see if you need helping logging in.
- House Page: Last week you received a “house page.” Please cover the house page with pictures, words, stickers that represent your family (see picture below). What makes your family so sweet? We will be putting these house pages together and then it will become a traveling book. Each child will have a chance to take it home so you can learn a little bit more about our kindergarten families. Please do not use any 3D embellishments as this will be going through the laminator. You will get the house page back at the end of the year, but again, it will be laminated. Also, please make sure you decorate THE SIDE WITH YOUR CHILD’S NAME (so the chimneys are all on the same side when we turn it into a book). 🙂
This Week:
- We had a fire drill with the LG Fire Department present. The kids did well! It certainly isn’t a pleasant sound, but everyone remained calm and followed our fire drill procedures: stop what you’re doing, get in line (don’t worry about line order), stay quiet and follow the teacher outside.
- We will continue to focus a lot on letter and number formation. It makes it much easier to dive into math and reading skills when they know how to form their letters and numbers. Explicit letter and number formation practice will continue next week.
Next Week:
- We finished up both the math and reading iready “diagnostic” tests. Next week, the kids will begin their “learning paths”. The star of each child’s learning path is based off the diagnostic score. The weekly data allows me to see what I need to focus on with your child.
Language Arts:
- SuperKids: We will finish up “O” for Oswald” and will move on to G for “Golly”. Please refer to the packet that was sent home on Friday which explains Superkids and our word wall words.
- I have introduced the following word wall words: do, we, the…next week: no, yes.…review all; we will practice with magnetic letters, mapping them, writing them in salt and more!
- We have started “write the room.” This is a center that will change throughout the year. It’s a great center because the kids have to walk around and write different things that are posted around the room. Not only does it keep them moving, but it’s also great for them to have a chance to write on their clipboards on the floor–great for fine motor development.
- Name writing: the kids are working hard on using one capital letter and the rest lower case.
- Phonemic awareness: this is about 5-10 minute ORAL practice of phonics skills. For example, we practice repeating rhyming, isolating the beginning sounds in words, counting up words in a sentence, “punching out” the end sounds in words, etc. It’s a short but very important part of our day. Phonemic awareness is a big indicator of reading success.
- Starting next week, we will begin journaling about 2-3 times a week. By November, we will shift to daily journaling.
- We will begin “shared writing”. This is where we create stories together and the children help fill in missing letters or words. The format is My name is ____. I am ___ years old. I like ______. I do not like _____. Each child will have a chance to share the pen with the teacher and create a story. We will focus on letters vs. words vs. sentences, left to right reading, high frequency words and ‘writing the sounds we hear’ for unknown words.
- What can you do at home? Read, read, read–every night! When reading, have your child point out our current word wall words “do, we, the”; Ask your child to practice writing his/her name using ONE capital letter and the rest lower case.
Math:
Chapter 2, Go Math: Comparing numbers to 5
- Tally marks: tallying numbers up 10 remembering to “make a bundle with 5” and “circle groups of ten”.
- Number formation: We will practice forming numbers 1-10 using poems. These poems were sent home this past week. We have been practicing numbers 1-4. Next week we will focus on 5 and 6. We will practice them on whiteboards, on the smartboard, in salt and more.
- Counting to 20: We are practicing counting to 20 and are being extra careful with “13, 14, 15”
- Ten frames: representing numbers 1-10 on a ten frame. We have introduced the “double ten frame” and are starting to show numbers 1-15. We are learning that numbers 11-19 are, ” 1 group of ten with ___ ones left over”
- Comparing numbers 1-15 and naming them as less than, greater than or equal to.
- What can you do at home? practice counting 1-30, practice writing 1, 2, 3, 4, looking for proper formation using our number poems. Use crayons, markers, chalk, gel pens. The writing tool doesn’t matter, just practice the formation!
Religion:
“I am special to my family.” We feel God’s love through our families. Families show love for one another by helping each other and doing fun things together. Jesus belonged to a family too! We call His family the “holy family”. We will make a church visit to see the holy family in our church.
We will begin to attend 8am Mass on Tuesday, September 19th. Doors will open at 7:45, 5 minutes early. Please try to make this your “early day” for morning arrival. The kids will empty backpacks, sign in, use the bathroom and then we will get matched up with buddies before heading to church….all by 8am :). The earlier your child arrives, the better! 🙂