Upcoming Events/Mark your calendars:
- 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
- Monday, September 9: No School
- Tuesday, September 10: 8am Mass; we will begin to attend 8am Mass EVERY TUESDAY starting September 10! Please note, doors will open at 7:45am (5 minutes early). This will allow us to get unpacked, use the bathroom and get matched up with our 8th grade buddies…all (hopefully!) before 8am! 🙂
What’s Due?
- Survey: 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– over the ear, 3.5 mm jack headphones are great!
- Seesaw: Get logged in to SEESAW. Please see the password page that was sent home. If you need an extra copy, please reach out!
- 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:
Your patience with the changes in arrival and pick-up was SO appreciated. I hope all the kids are able to make it over to the fest this weekend! When 8th graders are asked about their favorite St. Cletus memory, Fall Fest is always at the top. The kids have so much fun running around with their friends!
Next Week:
Language Arts: Fundations: I have introduced T, top, /t/, B , bat, /b/ and F, fun, /f/ . All letters and sounds are introduced as “letter name, picture, then sound”. Lines in FUNDATIONS are identified “sky line” (top) “plane line” (middle/dashed) “grass line” (bottom) and “worm line”. Please take a moment to watch a bit of the following video so you understand the name–picture–sound format and then this video can always be used to help your child review. 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! Talk to your child at the dinner table–ask open ended questions (not “did you have gym today?” but rather, “what did you do in gym class today?”). All of these things will be so helpful to your child’s reading/language/writing development!
High Frequency words: I have introduced: NO, GO, THE, YES; we are learning how to read and spell these words. AT HOME: look for these words in books! “Do you see the word “go” on this page?” Ask your child to use magnetic letters to make these words. 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 are focusing on writing our names with ONE capital letter and we are also working on using the lines. Next week, I will send home a name writing packet. You may use these to practice at home and have your child bring in complete pages for a sticker. Please help your child correctly write his/name keeping in mind where the pencil should start for each letter. Every letter (except the “special e”) should start either at the sky line or plane line.
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 ____.
Math: We started 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.
- 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:
- We will begin our 2nd unit, “I am special to my family!” We feel God’s love through our families. We will discuss this and continue to sing our pocket chart song, “I am Special.”
- 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.