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 an final 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 h this week.  We have talked about the existence of vowels and what they are but are not expected to have mastered this skill. 

The children continue to look at books during D.E.A.R/quiet rest time.  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 better known as pencil pinch 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.  

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 should show you how many items are in a group of ten, nine, etc.  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 .   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. 

Please remember to send in your child's paper cut out body that was a part of our introduction to measurement.  It should be dressed with a variety of items including wallpaper, buttons, ribbons, etc.  These will be displayed this week as they arrive and next week.   Our deadline is Oct. 29th!

Science

We are continuing our unit on construction.  We have learned some basic information about building a house and created a big book demonstrating our knowledge of the many steps involved as well as the people needed.  We have taken a walk to note local architecture and even had our own artist, Suzanne Payne sketch these homes for the students to match to photos as well as the real homes.  The students then drew these homes remembering the shapes we saw in them  and finally constructed the homes with toothpicks and marshmallows.  Please see their work on the wall in the K wing.  Our Smartboard has been a wonderful tool for this project!   Mr. Gillard of Capeable Bike Shop, and Aiyana's dad, will come with his bike this week to demonstrate how pulleys work.  Please think about discussing pulleys and levers and their uses with your child.  A simple task such as using a screwdriver to open a can of paint lends itself well to this discussion(levers).  Miss Lamb, our intern will begin her unit on bridges later this week.

Spanish 

Our Spanish teacher has incorporated some Fall words into her class. Please help us practice these words in either or both  language. 

Fall Words

Otoño  (fall)

Manzana (apple)

Calabaza (Pumpkin)

Murciélago (Bat)

Thank you to parents and volunteers who have begun working in the classroom.  It really makes a difference in student learning.  If you haven't begun to volunteer, please come in from 10:00 - 11:00 at our center time and help us work!

Please continue to help your child recognize lower case letters.  This can be in a fun way while baking, driving etc.   We are also trying to recognize our numbers!

Thank you,

Kathy Cmaylo

          Literacy Screening   September 2nd and 3rd

          Full day Kindergarten classes will begin on September 4th


Each morning we will have a short snack (healthy, please).  Milk, bottled water and orange juice may be purchased for $.50 a carton.    Hot lunch is $2.25 per day.  Milk is included in the hot lunch.   Milk may also be purchased at lunch time for those bringing a lunch from home.  We have a computerized lunch program where each child has an account.  You may pay for lunches a week, a month or for even the school year in the kitchen.   When your account runs low, the kitchen staff will send home a notice to remind you that your funds are low.  Children do not need to have hot lunch every day.   Lunch for kindergarten will be at 11:15.   Adult lunch will cost $4.00. 

We will have a story and a short rest time after our lunch recess most days.  We are asking that each child bring a beach towel to keep at school for rest time.  We will send them home periodically for a wash and ask that you return them the following Monday.  It is also helpful for children to have a change of clothes here.  Please label all items and put in a zip lock bag. These will be kept in the classroom bathroom to ensure privacy if students need them.  

We share bus duty at the end of the day.  We will need a note from home should your child have a change in their normal afternoon routine.  This prevents tears and anxious moments for your child and for us!
 

There is so much more and we will cover those items at parent orientation.  Bring your questions and concerns.  Enclosed is a list of some items that would be helpful for us to have in the classroom.  We are grateful for any help you can provide.   We are so looking forward to meeting each of you and forming a partnership that will ensure that we all have the best kindergarten year!

Help Please!

Help!  Help!  Help!
 
Here are some items that are needed in our classroom.  No need to label items as they will be community items and we will use them as needed.  We appreciate any donations. 

student size fiskar scissors

watercolors with brushes 

index cards

White and colored card stock

“Funky paper”?.animal prints, marbled, tie dye etc.

two gallon, one gallon, quart and sandwich sized zip lock bags

Washable ink pads in any color

Magnetic letters with red vowels

plain colored pocket folders

magnetic numbers and shapes

Glitter pens or glitter glue

Craft supplies:  acrylic jewels, old buttons, glitter,  etc.

Velcro tape and dots

used/new books with audio tapes

gift card to Book store for classroom books

Wal-mart or Staples gift card for classroom items

9x12 Plastic envelopes with Velcro closure (20)

The kindergarten is more than half way through the Phonics and Friends program.  We are working on hearing the letter sounds in the initial, final and now medial positions.  The children practice these sounds in their word - work and in their writing.  We are asking children to write one letter for every sound they hear in a word.  They have learned that every word has a vowel so we are beginning to see vowels in their work.   Several sight words have been introduced.  Correct spelling of these words is expected in their writing.

In reading we are continuing to work on book handling skills.  The children are learning strategies for figuring out unknown words.  We want the children to be introduced to several strategies before the end of the year.  Presently we are working hard on “does it sound right and does it look right?”   We practice this skill every morning with our morning message.  The children are getting practice with sight words then too.  The children continue to hear good literature from us daily.  We sure do love reading to them and they are beginning to recognize certain authors work.  We practice some reading together in our morning message and in big books?.ones from the Phonics and Friends program and others that we have collected.  Perhaps the most exciting time of the day is our D.E.A.R. time when they “read” all sorts of books, ones they have picked and ones that are assigned to them.  Buddy read is still a highlight of each week for them and for us.   Our Family Read on Friday afternoons is very successful.  The children ask all day when can we read to our families.

Handwriting and fine motor skills are practiced daily.  The correct pencil grip is still very difficult for many children.  Please reinforce the correct grip.  An incorrect grip is very difficult to break.  Handwriting is so much less tiring with a correct grip.

Math

In math we are now counting beyond to 100 by ones, to 100 by tens and skip count to 20.  We continue to reverse count each morning and we are starting at 20!  We are practicing numeral recognition and writing numerals.  We have been introduced to joining math sentences.  We will work with this concept until the end of the year.  The children have also been introduced to all of the coins.   They all could use some extra help with coins.  Money is very difficult for young children because they have very few opportunities to use money in their world.   We have done some work with simple measuring and explored the reason for standard measurement.  Most of our measuring in class has been with non-standard measures.  We continue to revisit pattern and graphing. In February we will have several lessons with graphs and patterns.   This last month weaving was introduced and the children worked hard to get the over/under pattern of weaving.  This month we will start to work with time to the hour.  Again, this is a very difficult concept for K children.  In computer lab we have been working with the EveryDay Math games.  We have worked with Hidden Pennies, Monster Squeeze and Top It.   We will play one more game this week and then on to Milllie’s Math House where our math concepts will be reinforced. 

Science

We have worked with our construction unit in science.  We have learned about gears, pulleys and levers.  We have experimented with several different kinds of building materials and have learned how to make a strong structure.  We have explored several books about construction.   The Construction ABC’s was a favorite.  We have also explored different kinds of construction tools and vehicles.  Our culminating activity will be to build a bird feeder.  Final details are coming.  We hope to have this completed by our February vacation.

Spanish

Hola!  We have worked with Spanish now for several weeks.  We have quite a vocabulary.   The children enjoy Spanish 2-3 times a week.  We are presently about half way through the program.  Each lesson is repeated several times so we are comfortable with the vocabulary.   We can count, say several different types of foods, the names of some animals and can say some simple greetings.  Adios!

News from Mrs. Mildner

We continue to celebrate birthdays and lost teeth in our room.  These children are sure growing up fast!  Almost half our class is six. 

I am excited to hear about the children participating in open gym here at Consolidated and with the Kenneway Family Sunday Outdoor Adventure.   We have several students participating in Mrs. Kingston’s play.  Lots to look forward to!

Upcoming?..day 100?on February 11.  We will have fun with lots of 100 activities!    Then on February 14 we will have a Valentines celebration.  Names will be coming home in this week’s folder.  Every child is expected to send a valentine to each of their classmates.    

Madame Gaby continues with our French weekly.  What a tri-lingual group I have! 

Thank you to all the volunteers.  You are so dependable and your help is so appreciated.  I try to tell you how appreciative I am each time you come but I know I get distracted and don’t always say those special words.  I am so glad you like glue, paint and glitter!   You make a daily art projects possible.  Thanks!

News from Mrs. Cmaylo

Upcoming?..day 100?on February 11.  We will have fun with lots of 100 activities!    Then on February 14 we will have a Valentines celebration.  Names will be coming home in this week’s folder.  Every child is expected to send a valentine to each of their classmates.    

Thank you to all the volunteers.  You are so dependable and your help is so appreciated.  I try to tell you how appreciative I am each time you come but I know I get distracted and don’t always say those special words.  I am so glad you like glue, paint and glitter!   You make a daily art projects possible.  Thanks!

Please notice our counting back book on the wall outside our classroom as well as the photo of our marshmallow construction cooperative project!

We will be asking for your help soon with our birdfeeder project.  Declan’s grandfather is gathering and preparing our lumber for this project.  Once we get word the materials are ready, we would like to have many parents to help us!  We are so lucky to have such help!  Thank you.

Please return the paper bag you receive on Friday with your child's work in it.  They could be reused most of the time and we are struggling to keep enough of them handy.  Thanks!

Please dictate a simple sentence to your child and have them write it.  We are working on leaving spaces between words, including a vowel in each word and syllable, and are beginning to place letters correctly on the lines.  Sight words are expected to be spelled correctly increasingly as we learn them.  Please help your child notice which letters they have reversed.  I say, could you make this letter this way?  I then write it in the right direction for them.  Practicing these letters in sand, snow, shaving cream or any other tactile medium will help.

          We will be starting a new reading program this January 25th in our classroom from 2:00 to 2:30.  We call this Family Read.  The objectives are to encourage children to read aloud to adults, to build confident readers, to enhance reading skills and to enjoy reading.
 
          You are welcome to come and listen to us read.  When you come into the classroom we would like you to take a seat.  The children will come to you, read four or five pages and then move on to the next adult.   At 2:30 we will flash the lights as a signal that Family Read is over.  At that time the children are welcome to leave with their parents after having stacked their chairs, cleaned off their tables, and packed their baggy books and folders.   We will have Family Read every Friday afternoon (depending on adult support) until the end of the year. 
 
          Please help your child find and prepare, by practicing, a favorite piece.  They can read any printed material (i.e. song, charts, books, their baggie books, or their own books from home). If your child is not reading yet, as many are not, they will have their baggy books which adults will read to them or with them.  Students will be asked to point to the words with their fingers to help encourage beginning reading skills.
 
          Please let your child know if you or a family member or neighbor is able to attend a day or two before each Family Read.  The children will not be allowed to call to see if you are coming.
 
Remember!  The buses arrive to take the children home at 2:45!  I am dismissing at 2:30 in order to assist you in leaving before the buses block your exit. 

Thank you for taking the time to come and help us learn to love reading!  We hope to see you every Friday till June!  Our class is excited to begin!   
 
 Thank you, 
 
     Kathy Cmaylo
     Loralie Mildner
 

We would like to have a volunteer, parent or a couple of parents to organize and prepare materials to teach the 40 kindergarten students and their teachers how to build a bird feeder or house.  We have a model (ready made) here at school or would be open to new designs.  We are thinking pre-cut, pre-drilled pieces with hooks and wire to hang - a collection of materials per child if you will.  If you are willing to lead this effort, please send in your name and a working date and we will work with you and the children.  Once plans are made we will have a building day and hopefully lots of helpers!

Thank you, Kathy and Loralie

We would like to have a volunteer, parent ot a couple of parents to organize and prepare materials to teach the 40 kindergarten students and their teaachers how to build a bird feeder or hourse  We have a model (ready made) here at school or would be open to a new design.  We are thinking pre-cut, pre-drilled pieces with hooks and wire to hang - a collection of materials per child if you will.  If you are willing to lead this effort please send in your name and a working date and we will work with you and the children.  We are thinking that we will inviter parents to come hammer with us once we know that this is do-able.  Thank you,

Kathy Cmaylo

Loralie Mildner 

Dear MSAD71 Parents, Staff and Members of the Kennebunk High School Student Body,

On Tuesday afternoon, January 8, high school officials were notified of an alleged threat made toward Kennebunk High School. The police were immediately notified and took action. Through deliberations with them, and due to the fact that the suspect was apprehended and detained, we decided to hold school today. We continue to be in constant communication with our police department to monitor the situation and assure student and staff safety.

We are thankful for the immediate and thoughtful response by our law enforcement agents in assisting us in keeping our school safe. We assure you that the safety of all will remain our top priority.

Below is the press release that our police have provided us.

Sincerely,

Dr. Thomas Farrell
Superintendent of Schools

Press Release

January 9^th, 2008

Thank you for your support of our classrooms and of us.  It is so appreciated and delightful!  We are truly lucky here at Consolidated.  The gifts , time and efforts you offer make our programs what they are!

Happy New Year to You and Yours!

Please note that Funky Fridays have begun.  Each week the children will be asked to participate in a funky activity for Friday Morning Meeting.  This week the children are to bring stuffed animals.  See red folders for more info.

Please continue your work at home with literacy and math skills.  Counting by ones up and back with a goal of 100 eventually and 50 for now, recognizing the numbers as well as knowing what comes before and after.  In literacy, we are expecting first and last names, letter sounds, recognition of vowels and consonants and beginning understanding that some letters have more than one sound.  Please continue to set your timers and read to/with your child for 20 minutes daily.

Thank you!

Note: Please send your children with snow pants or a second pair of pants and boots every day.  We go out in most weather and they are allowed to play in the snow only with winter wear.  We are also asking for roll-up sleds only, as storage and safety are issues.  If you have extra snow pants or mittens, it would be great to have extras in the classroom.  Thank you.

Science

Our classes finished out human body unit.  We have sent home all our projects and hope you are enjoying our bodies and our five senses posters.  We learned so much about how our bodies worked and how to keep them strong.  In March we will revisit some of these concepts as we explore a unit on wellness.   Now it is on to construction!   Kindergarten students are natural builders and this unit builds on the love of building and the science skills of observation, inquiry, experimentation and sharing results.  Some of the activities involved in this study will be free exploration with materials, building a house, and building with many different materials, levers, pulleys and bridges.  We hope the weather will cooperate and we will get a warm day to explore the architecture of our neighborhood.   It is also our hope to have the children actually construct a small structure such as a bird feeder.   This will be a January project.  If you can assist in any way, please let us know.  We would love to have guest speakers!  

Literacy

We continued working in the Phonics and Friends program and have added several more consonants and one vowel to our repertoire.  We are using these sounds and others we know daily in our writing and our reading.   We have looked intensively at rhyming and most of us have a good command of rhyming words.  It was fun to make all the “at” and “an” words.   Our handwriting has focused on these new letters and on our first and last names.    Many children can now write their last names all on their own.  There is so much pride in this accomplishment.   We have begun to look at syllables and at stretching out words to hear phonemes.   Everyone can hear the first and last sound in short a words and many can hear several medial sounds as well.   This skill will be worked on all year long. 

Children continue to work in leveled readers.  Some of the skills and strategies they are working on include:

• Handling books: front, back, left to right, return sweep
• Noticing and interpreting detail in pictures
• Using a finger to develop one-to-one matching between spoken and written word
• 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
• Self-monitoring—checking one’s reading by using word-by word matching and suing known words as anchors.

The children are continuing to write in their draft books.   They are now “writing:” daily with adult support and all are in their second book.  Although writing is still very much a supported activity, the children are responsible for many initial sounds, the sight words I, a, and to, as well as having appropriate details in their illustrations.  They are learning the skills of authors and illustrators. 

Everyday Mathematics

Everyday Mathematics had us exploring several different national math strands.  We spent some time in the geometry area looking at different shapes.  We review the “math” names for these shapes, looked at the number and type of sides and then made some beautiful pictures using the shapes.   Symmetry was another major focus.  The children explored this area using mirrors; single sided and doubled sided, with activity cards.  They figured out very soon how to use a double mirror to make a single piece of pizza into an entire round pizza.   Daily the children reviewed counting and counting on from a numeral other than one.  The children are working in number books.   The children were introduced to the cent sign and practiced using it as they counted pennies and recorded their counts.   Also new to the daily routine is charting our temperature.  After several days of “green” temps, we are now in the “blue”!   Our thermometer is color coded.  Do you think we will have any “purple” days? 

Themes

Our theme for December will be diversity.   We will celebrate our sameness while looking at our differences.  We briefly look at different celebrations held this month.  Our science unit will tie in with this as we look at what homes look like around the world.   This is always a busy month.

Thank-you

We wish to extend a very special thank you to Dr. Stockwell, Dr. Burgess and Mrs. Burgess for all their expertise and sharing during our human body unit. 

We also offer very special thank yous to Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Archer for coordinating our Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast and to all the parents who helped with the delicious food.  The day was very special indeed. 

Thank you to all our daily volunteers.  Our job would be so much harder if you were not here.   

Needs

Scrap wood to build bird feeders for both K classes and six wood glue bottles per class (last Wed. in Jan.)

Velcro dots (both K.’s)

Used Lincoln logs (both K.’s)

Legos (both classes)

buttons (Mrs. Cmaylo)

Magnetic tape (Mrs. Mildner)

Baggies of all sizes – 2 gallon also (Mrs. Cmaylo)

Textured paper for book making (Mrs. Cmaylo)

Rubber bands (Mrs. Mildner)

Used sand box toys for outdoor recess (Mrs. Merrill)

One gift wrapped hard back book you know your child will love-slipped into my mailbox (Mrs. Cmaylo only-I will discover these books in my room just before the holiday break.)

Comments from students in Mrs. Cmaylo’s Class;

It will make you smile.

I can’t close my eyes, the night mirrors will come.

That timer is just like an oven!

 Mrs. Cmaylo, you can take out my braids ‘cause they’re going down the wrong track! 

You have lots of lines on your forehousen.

I am an artist, you know.

I think its time to go home now.

When I was at school tomorrow, my little brother had a fever.

I did that!  I’m smart.

My brain hurts…are you going to call my mom now?

Holy cow!  Look what I builded!

We are doing a good job – both of us.  I  know  ‘cause I know how grown-ups talk.

Are we going outside for fresh air today? 

Do you like school?  I do but it is too long.

I thought you saw me crawling under the table, but did you?

I want to go home now and I don’t want to come back.

Do you know Shawn, the stulodian?

Mrs. Hardy, if its all right with you, I don’t think I’ll work with you anymore.

I looked at the letters and now I can read!

Today night I didn’t sleep too good!

Watching TV makes your tummy fat you know.

I’m going to tell Mrs. Wilcox that I’m available now.

I used to have 102 teeth, but I lost 2 so now I only have  20.

Mrs. Cmaylo, why do you have gray hairs next to your ears?

Will you pretend that’s a L…okay?

My grandmother died so I get to see her in her box at the fudernal place.

Why are you so bossy every day?

When is Mrs. Fresh air coming to school?

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. 22^nd with a check made out to the book order company.  They will not accept cash.  Thank you.

Thank you,

Kathy Cmaylo

Loralie Mildner

The kindergarten classes are having fun looking at our names.  We’ve learned that our names begin with capital or upper case letters and the rest of our letters are lower case.  We’ve spent some time counting and comparing the letters in our names.  We are beginning to recognize our own as well as each others names!

We’ve spent some time working on the with alphabet using different types of letters. The book print g, a and t can be very confusing.  On our “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” work sheets we put capital letters and lower case letters in alphabetical order.  This was quite difficult for some of us.  We talked about different strategies we could use to get the letters in the correct order.  Many times you could hear the low hum of the alphabet song as children chose to sing that as their primary strategy for getting the letters in the correct order.  Ordering the letters will be an activity that we will do many time during our kindergarten year.  

                    Reading

The children listened to books about the start of school.  We moved on to  books about friends and friendship.  Some we have read include Frog and Toad are Friends, Ten, Nine, Eight, Big Al, Jessica, Julius the Baby of the World, Owen, Sheila Rae the Brave,Chester’s Way, A Weekend with Wendell, Chrysanthemum and When Sophie Gets Really Really Angry.  The message in these books helped us understand our classroom rules and the rules of KCS. Then we moved on to the alphabet books.

The children looked at friendship books, alphabet books and also made some independent choices during D.E.A.R.  (Drop Everything and Read).  

Writing

The children are either drawing and writing a few words to tell about their pictures or dictating their first “story” in their draft books.  Draft books are where the children practice writing skills.  We will start out working in these two to three times a week and by the end of the year the children will be writing independently every day.  We will collect all the writings and will send everything home at the end of the year in a portfolio.

Handwriting

The children have practiced the basic writing strokes.  We are working hard to get a proper pencil grip.  When you see your child writing at home please reinforce the proper hand grip.  As we start the phonics program the children will be practicing specific letters each week.

Everyday Math

We started our Everyday Math work with our calendar routines.  We are writing numbers on a growing number line, graphing how old we are and tallying the weather each day, looking at patterns (on our clothing and elsewhere) and learning the language of days of the week and passage of time.  In addition to our routines we have explored many different math materials in the room; pattern blocks, Legos, Unifix cubes, buttons and the money.  Different tools for measuring were introduced and each child was measured.  We wonder how much we will grow this year.

Notes From Mrs. Mildner

Folders are due on Monday,

Don’t forget those baby pictures!

Help!  We need a monarch caterpillar!

Book orders have been sent and will be here in a week to 10 days.

Please label jackets etc. with your child’s name.  Many look alike!

The children are getting more and more independent each day.  We have started using cross-out lists and moving from center to center independently.  It will take some time before we are proficient at moving and being responsible for our daily jobs.

Notes From Mrs. Cmaylo

Folders are due daily

Don’t forget those baby pictures!

Help!  We need a monarch caterpillar!

Book orders have been sent and will be here in a week to 10 days. Mrs. Archer is our book order mom and room mother.  She will call for needed classroom party items or begin the phone tree calling.

Students staff in their center for the whole work time and move the following day.

Please label jackets etc. with your child’s name.  Many look alike!

Thank you for your help with healthy snacks!  We cheer for fresh fruit and vegetables every day!

We have made two new class books!  What we are Afraid of…and Ten, Nine, Eight…Please help your child count up and back daily.

We sing a directional song; Horizontal, Vertical, Diagonal daily, please use this language with your child. 

We pledge the flag and our earth.

We can sing the insect song: Head Thorax, Abdomen

Upcoming

Formal Phonics work!

Growth and Change---ourselves and butterflies

Our Body Study- a visit from Dr. Stockwell

Field Trip to Rachel Carson---date to be announced

Come see our Pride of the Port primary bulletin board.  It is spectacular!  We are, indeed, the pride of the Port!

Thank you for the supplies you have shared!  We love the support! 

Kindergarten Monthly Themes

September: friendship, growing and changing (ourselves, life cycle of monarch butterfly), author studies-Eric Carle and Kevin Henkes

October:  My Body (five senses), Fall Season, Fire Safety (field trip Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, visit by firefighters.

November and December:  Diversity, Construction

January:  Winter season, animals (habitat), Author –Jan Brett (visit  by the Chewonki Foundation or David Sparks with live owls.

February:  Animals and Habitat continues, 100 Day of school, Author Study-Robert Munch, visit by puppeteer Martha Dana

March: Health , Author Study – Dr. Suess, visit by York Community College

April:  Dirt, sand and water

May: Plant life, spring season, estuary (field trip to Parsons Beach estuary), visit by author Laura Rankin

June: Ocean/tide pools (field trip to Kennebunk Beach with seventh graders to explore tidal pools)