February 2020
Dear Families, Hello and happy February! We have been working hard here in Room 1, and February will be a busy month! ELA We continue to build our knowledge of “Trick Words”, and have been incorporating these into our Daily 5 routines. We have also been working hard to segment and blend individual phonemes in words. Finally, we will continue to practice important reading strategies such as: using the picture, getting our mouths ready (saying the first sound), thinking about what makes sense (using context clues), and thinking about what looks right and sounds right. Because “sound it out” is not always the most successful and reliable strategy for decoding unknown words, children need multiple strategies when they encounter a word that requires decoding. Try some of these additional strategies at home! Math We continue to develop understating of addition and subtraction as well as ways that the two operations are connected with one another. This month we will finish our unit on teen numbers and begin to discuss place value. During these units we will use base 10 tools and ten frames to help children to understand the connection between teen numbers and the concept of “ten and some more” Special events On Monday 2/10 we will celebrate the 100th day of school! We will do a lot of fun and exciting activities related to the number 100. In addition, we will use this special day as a way to reinforce skip counting by 10’s, a skill we’ve already begun to practice here in Room 1! Friday 2/14 is Valentine’s Day! We will have a special celebration in our classroom. If you wish, you may help your child to prepare Valentine cards for his/ her classmates. This is optional, but if your child does bring cards, please be sure that there is one for every child. Also, please remember that food items are strictly prohibited. Any Valentines that contain food items will be sent home. I will send home a list of students’ names. Be on the lookout for these in folders! Reminders Please send your child with winter clothes each day. Though there may not snow on the ground, our playground is quite muddy. In order to prevent the tracking of mud into our classroom (and creating mud pies on the floor that often doubles as a workspace) I ask that every child have boots and shoes to change into in order to play on the playground. Children without proper footwear must play on the sidewalk. Thank you very much for all of your help and support! Have a wonderful month! Sincerely, Mrs. Doyle and Mrs. Bazilchuk
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Room 1 News
January 2020Dear Families, I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season, and that 2020 brings you much joy and happiness. December was such a busy month here in Room 1! Thank you all for taking time out of your busy holiday schedules to attend Family Snowman Festival. It was a wonderful occasion that I’m sure all of the children will remember for years to come! Room 1 loves visitors! If you have anything that you would like to share with our class (a special tradition, an important holiday, an exciting event), or if you haven’t yet had a chance to be a Royal Reader, we would be excited to have you! Please email me to schedule a time to visit and share with us! Also, if you are interested in sharing special events but are unable to come to school, I will gladly share photographs or short videos on our interactive whiteboard! In the past, children have shared Lego creations, family weddings, new babies, lots of lost teeth, new puppies, and new fish! These kinds of events are so special to young children and it means so much to share them with their friends and classmates. Email those pictures and videos my way! ELA We have now covered all of the letters of the alphabet! We continue to review letter names and sounds daily. We will also spend some time working on sound discrimination for sounds that are similar or frequently confused, such as y and w, m and n and all short vowel sounds. This month we will focus much attention on proper strokes and letter formation. I have begun to encourage students to use lowercase letters in their writing, particularly when writing their names. This is an important skill that can easily be reinforced at home. We will continue to increase word wall word knowledge with such words as can, go, to, do, he, me, is, and, be, and was. Finally, we will study and enjoy books by Jan Brett, author of The Mitten, The Hat, The Gingerbread Baby, and many other wonderful titles. Math We continue to develop an understanding of addition and subtraction through the use of manipualtives and pictures. We will spend some time talking about the ways in which these two operations are connected, seeing the ways in which parts are joined to create wholes and vice versa. Instruction encourages flexible thinking, the application of a math strategies as a variety of math tools. We also continue our work with number sense, understating of quantity, counting from numbers greater than 1, number recognition, and place value. Science/ Social Studies We have begun our unit on Winter Survival, and the children have been excited to learn about the different ways animals instinctually respond to the changing temperatures. We will also spend some time discussing Martin Luther King Jr. and the important social changes that he helped to create in our country. Finally, we will discuss Lunar new year this month. Reminders
If you would like to make a donation to our classroom, the following items would be appreciated:
November News
Room 1 Dear Families, I hope that you all had a very safe and happy Halloween! The children enjoyed our costume parade through the school. A special thanks to Ashley Burke and Jen Stark who helped with our party! It was a great success! This month: ELA We have been hard at working learning letters and sounds! We have already covered letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, M, N, O, R, S, T & U! We continue to practice writing and recognizing these letters as well as identifying words that begin with these sounds. We have also begun to learn some sight or “trick” words. These are words that cannot be sounded out, but must be identified by sight. So far we have learned: a, I, and the. We will soon learn can, to, and do. These words are great to practice at home. Help your kindergartener be a “word detective” and find these words in books as you read together! We will continue to work on phonemic awareness (the sound of language) skills such as rhyming, initial sound segmentation, and syllable segmentation. Math We have been hard at work counting collections of objects of 10 or more in our Counting Museum! Children have learned important counting strategies such as: touch and slide away, work slowly and carefully, stay organized, and say one number for each object. Some children have also begun to stat at a number greater than 1 and count on! We have been focusing on the proper formation, directionality, and motor pattern for number up to 10. Social Studies/ Science On Tuesday 11/12 we will have a visit from Mr. Doyle in preparation for Veteran’s Day! My husband is a veteran of the United States Navy, and he will share some photographs and other interesting artifacts form his time in the service. In preparation for Thanksgiving, we will discuss the history of the holiday, as well as the many traditions involved in its celebration. On Wednesday 11/27 the two classrooms will participate in a morning of fun activities and a “Friendship Feast”. We continue our study of weather. It certainly has been a very interesting fall with plenty of wind and rain! Our weather watchers have learned a lot! Reminders
Baby Wipes Paper Towels Clorox Wipes Hand Sanitizer Google Eyes Kindergarten October News
We are off to a great start of the school year! The children have settled into the routines of our room and made new friends. Playdates are a wonderful way to foster preexisting friendships as well as to encourage new friendships! Our school’s friendship book will be published soon. Stayed tuned for an update from the PTO! ELA (English Language Arts): Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear sounds in language, is a very important pre-reading skill. We will work on phonemic awareness in a variety of ways here in our classroom. We will listen to and generate rhyming words. The children will also listen to and count the number of spoken words in a sentence. Finally, will practice isolating the initial sound in words. Print awareness is another important pre-reading skill that we will continue to target this month. It can be difficult for young children to discriminate between letters and words when they see them in print. We have been practicing this skill through shared reading and songs as well as through the creation of mini-books with predictable text. This is a great skill to practice with your children at home! We have begun our phonics program, entitled Fundations. I will periodically send home information regarding what we are currently learning in class. Please take the time to look it over and practice with your child whenever possible. This practice can include generating words that begin with the letters we study each week, finding the letters that we study in environmental print or in books, or practicing the formation of each week’s letters. Finally, the children have begun to write using their journals. I encourage the children to draw and write about their lives and the things that are important to them. Through this journaling, we have explored the idea that illustrations match and support the text. In the words of our classroom, “the words and the pictures go together!” Students are encouraged to label their drawings with words generated through “kid spelling”, a method that encourages children to listen to the words and record the sounds they hear. At this time in the year some children may only hear the first sound, some may hear first and last sound, others may hear first, middle, and last, while still others may be able to write several words or sentences! Math: We have worked on subatizing, an important early math skill. This is the ability to look at a small collection of objects (generally between 1 and 6) and know the amount without counting. We have practiced this skill with many games and activities including dice, dot cards, and fingers. We will begin to explore the number chain and ordering numbers based on their “next door neighbors”. These activities help children to develop an internal or mental number line that can support more advanced math skill such addition and subtraction. Science We have begun our first unit, Fall! We will become weather watchers and discuss the ways plants and animals get ready in Fall. Halloween will be here very soon! I will send a separate newsletter with information regarding Halloween celebrations! Reminders: The weather is changing! Please encourage your child to dress in layers so that he/ she will be comfortable as the temperature fluctuates throughout his/ her school day. Also, please clearly label all sweatshirts, sweaters, and other outerwear. Finally, please be sure to send any utensils that your child may need for his/ her snack. Wish list: We are running low on some supplies. I would gladly accept donations of:
Welcome to Kindergarten! I hope you had a great summer and are excited as I am to start this new adventure in your child’s life. This is my 20th year of teaching, and I cannot imagine doing anything else. I love what I do! Our school year is off to a great start so far! We have been working hard to learn each other’s names, build routines, and know our way around our classroom and school. It’s a lot of work to get used to a new place! Some children may feel very tired or even sad in the beginning of the year. Don’t be alarmed! Often these feelings are just “growing pains”, and they will subside. However, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me with concerns. I am here to help your child feel safe and cared for! Play dates are a great way for your child to make new friends or to stay connected with old friends. Our school’s Friendship Booklet (coming soon!) will have contact information for each child. Arrival and dismissal The busses arrive at approximately 8:45 each morning. Kindergarten begins dismissal at 2:55. We escort the children out each day to ensure safety. School Supplies Backpacks Should be brought to school everyday. Most notices are sent home daily in your child’s Home Folder. This is your way to send notes to us; please be sure to tell your children if there is a note in his/ her folder. Please check backpacks regularly. Snack: We request that you please pack two snacks and two drinks daily. We try to encourage healthy snacks such as fruit, crackers and cheese, goldfish, and pretzels. Snack time lasts approximately 10 minutes so please plan accordingly. Rest Time: We will have a short rest/quiet time after lunch each day. Please send in a thin, small beach towel in with their name marked clearly on it to use during this time. It will be kept in the classroom in a cubby all week and will be sent home on Fridays to be washed. Please do not send in pillows or blankets. We do not have the room to store them. Lunch: Lunch will be supervised by our teacher assistants and lunch aides. If your child will be buying lunch you have the option to prepay monthly by sending in a check, signing up online, or your child can bring $2.75 on a daily basis. If you choose to send money daily please place it in a Ziploc bag with your child’s name on it. We would appreciate it if you would preview the daily menu with your child. This will help our lunch routine run smoothly. If your child will be bringing a bag lunch, please make sure it is marked and packed separately from snack. If you would like them to purchase milk at lunch, it is available for 50 cents. Wish list If you would like to make a donation to our classroom, I would gladly accept: · baby wipes · antibacterial hand gel · paper towels · small paper cups · Lysol table wipes · Washable markers Has your child told you about our Morning Meetings? Each day we being by greeting each other, sharing things about ourselves, taking part in a group activity, and sharing a Morning Message. This 15-20 minute routine integrates academic skills and social skills. It helps us to build a caring, connected, and supportive community of learners. Check out this video of Morning Meetings in a school in Rhode Island. Ask your child about today's Morning Meeting! Are back-to-school jitters an issue in your house? A new school year can be anxiety-inducing for children at any age. The article below has some great suggestions for families.
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