October
Dear Parents,
The following is a summary of what we will work on in the coming weeks as well as a few notes about what we have done. Please feel free to chat with us about any of these notes.
Literacy
The kindergarten has continued to explore consonants with the Phonics and Friends program. The children are looking at consonant sounds in the initial position. While we focus on one letter each week, we continue to work on all consonant sounds as they arise in our conversation or writing. The children are very focused on letters and are finding similarities in words continually. The letters we have worked on so far are m, s, f and t this week.
For reading we have worked with some of the Phonics and Friends big books as a whole group activity. The children continue to look at books during D.E.A.R . During whole group and individual work, we are focusing on general book skills. Some of the skills we are working on include:
· Handling books---front, back left to right and return sweep.
· Noticing and interpreting detail in pictures.
· Using a finger to develop one-to-one matching between spoken and written words.
· Noticing some features of letters and words.
· Locating familiar and new words.
· Remembering and using language patterns.
· Using knowledge of spoken language to determine if something “sounds right”.
· Predicting what makes sense.
The children participate in handwriting or a fine motor activity that enhances handwriting each day. Please continue to reinforce that correct hand grip and that letters start at the top. It is so hard to break bad handwriting habits.
Several times a week the children participate in whole group writing and individual writing. During this time many of the reading skills are reinforced as well. We look at sight word vocabulary and the writing mechanics of very simple sentences.
We sure have enjoyed reading several books by Eric Carle. In art, Mrs. Wendell, is teaching the children to make colored papers just like Eric Carle does in his books. We have explored several other books about fall, too.
Math
In math we are now counting beyond 25 and reverse counting from 13. We are practicing strategies for counting groups of objects. The children were introduced to the penny and really know its value. Pattern blocks were introduced and after several days of exploration, the children extended patterns and later created their own pattern. We spent several days looking for patterns in our world and created a collage of patterns we found in magazines. Other materials have been introduced through exploration time. Without a sufficient time to explore materials freely, the children will have a difficult time following a specific set of instructions.
Science
We finished our work with the monarch butterfly and will complete an assessment this week. We know the children know the life cycle very well. We have learned a song that describes the life cycle, read several books on the life cycle, have patterned the life cycle and done some creative movement to the life cycle.
Dr. Stockwell was the introductory lesson to our new science unit….the human body. Her life size skeleton was very exciting. We will work in this area for several weeks looking at our five senses and our body systems. We will be looking at ourselves and examining how much we have changed. If you have not sent in a baby picture, please do so soon.
Spanish
Our Spanish kit has arrived. Thank you so much to the KCPTA and the Educational Foundation of the Kennebunks. Spanish starts this week. Ask about Bobby and Maria. Our vocabulary is; Hola, me llamo, adios, hasta luego, muy bien.
News From Mrs. Mildner
We welcomed Thomas Hutchins to our class. We waited patiently for 23 days for him to arrive. We are really excited that he is here.
We celebrated three birthdays in September and of course, changed our birthday graph in the hall. Happy Birthday wishes went out to Jack Tushin, Claudia Kenneway and Nathan Emmons.
I am starting to contact parents to volunteer in our classroom. It takes some time to set up the schedule and volunteers will be starting during the next few weeks, a few at a time.
News from Mrs. Cmaylo
We have learned several new games and will be using them to help us have fun learning our letter sounds, words that rhyme and sight words.
Thank you to parents and volunteers who have begun working in the classroom. It really makes a difference in student learning.
We have begun weekly Monday afternoon meetings with our “Big Buddies” from Mr. Chapman’s class. We made a cooperative book about ourselves last week and had a recess together the week before! So much fun.
Please continue to help your child recognize lower case letters. This can be in a fun way while baking, driving etc.
If ordering from the book club, please return the attached book order by Oct. 22nd with a check made out to the book order company. They will not accept cash. Thank you.
Thank you,
Kathy Cmaylo
Loralie Mildner