Kindergarten

Class News

 ***Please read with your child for 10 minutes every day.

*Dress code:  Please check the handbook.  The children need to wear regulation shoes and socks. Please check the rules about jewelry.

*Arrival procedure on inclement weather days:  The children enter the building through the main entrance and wait in the hall in a single line for the teacher.  The line is formed outside the first grade classroom (Mrs. Ward's room).

*Recommended sleep time for 5 year-old children: 10-13 hours of sleep, including naps

Recommended sleep time for 6 year-old children: 9-12 hours

(This information is based on recommendations made by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)

*Life skills:  The children should be able to take care of their needs in the bathroom.  

*School uniforms:  Please stop by the school to tell the ladies in the office if your child needs a component of the uniform.  We have previously-owned items that may be taken home.

Gym class:    The children need to come to school dressed in the regulation gym uniform and sneakers.  If your child does not yet have the regulation gym uniform, please have your little one wear the every-day uniform with sneakers.

Please check OptionC once in a while for a general description of what we're working on in the kindergarten.

Please remember to send an absence note upon the return to school of your child.  The note should state the date of and reason for the absence.

*Late arrivals- Please report to the office. Please do not go straight to the classroom.

*Soft pretzels are sold every Thursday.  The cost is 50 cents.

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Specials schedule:

Gym- Wednesday

Computer class- Wednesday

Science lab- Thursday

Music class- Thursday

Digital art class- Thursday

Prayer schedule:  We go to church every Tuesday morning at approximately 9:00.

Thank you, dear parents, for your generosity to the kindergarten class for St. Valentine's Day.  We have so many treats that it wasn't possible to have passed out everything today.  I will continue to distribute the treats next week.

(The children are reminded that the reception of treats/prizes is contingent upon hard work and good behavior.)

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*Letters: Mm, Tt, Ff, Aa, Bb, Ss, Pp, Ii, Hh, Zz, Dd, Oo, Nn, Cc*, Ll, Gg**, Rr, Uu

(soft c- cereal, celery, city.../hard c- cow, cat, corn...)

(soft g- giant, gem.../hard g- go, gate, gift...)

Name each capital and lowercase letter.  Make the sound of each letter.  Think of 2 or 3 words that begin with each letter. Be able to write each letter if someone else makes the sound.

*Phonemic awareness exercise: Say each sound of a word.  Have your child blend the sounds to say the word.

Example:  m-a-p=map     w-i-g=wig

*Short u sound:  m-u-g=mug   h-u-g=hug   b-u-g=bug   t-u-g=tug   h-u-m=hum   g-u-m=gum    dr-u-m=drum   s-u-m=sum  r-u-n=run   f-u-n=fun

 b-u-n=bun  

*Life skills:  The children need to practice tying their shoes.  The children are reminded to practice good table manners during lunch.

*Sight words:  I, the, like, and, a, see, we, to, is, come, me, my, you, with, this, for, how, now

Look for these words when reading with your child.

*The children are learning to use words to answer questions, not shake heads (yes, no, I don't know; Excuse me, I didn't hear you).

*Counting and comparing numbers:

Set out a certain amount of objects.  Set out another set that shows more than the first set.  Set out another set that shows less than the first set.  Be able to show an amount that is equal to the amount in the first set.

*Rhyming words:  The ability to recognize rhyming words is a basic building block for reading readiness.

Example:   Look at a picture of a house. Look at the mouse and the hat.  What rhymes with house? (mouse)

Can you think of a word that rhymes with ______________?

*Numbers:  Be able to name 0-30.  What number comes right before ___?

What number comes right after ____?

*The children are learning to take care of their personal possessions- crayons, pencils, sweaters, etc.  The children are reminded every day to take their sweaters, lunch boxes, umbrellas at dismissal time.

*Please continue to remind your children to be good listeners.  Miss Andrea reminded the entire student body that the children are to obey all classroom and school rules.  They have to listen to their teachers, classroom aides, lunch aides.  The children are learning that it is important to listen carefully when directions are given.  

*Addition and subtraction:  Examples-

a.  The penguin has 2 ice cream cones.  The seal comes over to visit and brings 2 more ice cream cones.  How many ice cream cones do the friends have altogether?  Mental math- Fingers can be used to figure out the sum.

Using pencil and paper- Draw 2 circles in the top row.  Draw 2 more circles in the bottom row.  Count all of the circles.  Equation- 2+2=4.

b.  The cat has 4 balls of yarn.  One yarn ball rolls away and is lost.  How many yarn balls are left?  Mental math- Hold up 4 fingers. Put down one finger and count the ones that are still up.  Pencil and paper- Draw 4 circles. Cross out one circle.  How many circles are left?  Equation- 4-1=3.

*Science: The children are learning to categorize animals.  They are learning about mammals, insects, reptiles, birds, amphibians, fish.

*We are reviewing names of 2 dimensional shapes.  We are learning to name -and recognize 3 dimensional shapes: cube, cylinder, pyramid, sphere, cone.

*Fun with books:  We are working on the following words- title, author, illustrator.  The children are learning to point under each word as they read.  We read from left to right/top to bottom.

*Phonemic awareness: Can you identify the last sound of a word? (The sound we hear at the end.)

  *Short o words:

h-o-p=hop   m-o-p=mop   t-o-p=top   n-o-t=not   g-o-t=got   d-o-t=dot   l-o-g=log   d-o-g=dog...

*The children are learning how to work with pictographs.  A tally is a line that is drawn for every object that is counted.

*Option C has been updated.

*We are working on ordinal numbers/counting.  Look at a series of pictures or objects.  Find the one that is first, second, third.....  Look at a series of objects.  Which one is third?  Start at the beginning at count 1st, 2nd, 3rd, stop counting.

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Homework- Week of Feb. 10; due- Feb. 14

*Dismissal on Feb. 14 will be at 11:45.  Sleeping bags will be packed up on the 13th or 14th.

School will be closed on Feb. 17.

1. Consonants blends worksheet

Optional: Spell each word.

2. Math: Addition worksheet

Draw dots for each addend to figure out the sum.

3.  Please read together for a few minutes each evening.