Wow!! Week number four has come and gone!! We are working hard on lots of new skills in our kindergarten adventure. We have introduced 6 letters Mm, Ss, Rr, Tt, Pp and Cc. We will only introduce the letter Aa next week and take a day or two to review during this short week. Remember NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY!!
We are also working on numbers 0-5. We are writing, recognizing and counting. We are also working on one-to-one correspondence with each number (counting out that many objects for each number). Writing our names and cutting are the other two motor skills we are working on. You child should be bringing home a name paper that we do everyday in class. Please take a look at it-if they are making progress and it is becoming readable YEA! If not I really need you to do some extra work on it at home. With less than 3 hours per day I just can't get them all the practice they need at school. Fun ideas to do at home would be using shaving cream on the table (it cleans at the same time) or pudding on a plate or cookie sheet. Using the sidewalk chalk or water and paint brushes on the sidewalk or driveway. Sticks or fingers in the sand or dirt. All of these are more fun than paper and give them an opportunity to write a little larger while getting the motion of the letters down and building their muscles. Cutting is also an issue for lots of the children. Some are really struggling-I realize that scissors are scary instruments in the hands of children, but we really need to get them able to cut. If you don't have safety or kid friendly scissors at your house and you are noticing your child may be struggling, I have a few extra pairs of scissors that I would loan out so they can get some extra practice in at home.
For the most part our behavior has settled down and we are doing a pretty good job. I have also has several parents ask about the color of the stars or stickers and I re-read the information I sent home and it is a bit confusing so I hope this might clear it all up. If they come home with a star or sticker whatever the color or shape or whatever, it means they had a great day! No warnings and they did just what they were supposed to do. If they come home with their box colored in either green, yellow or red. That means we had a issue-and extra warning-talking or not following directions or something. Green means 1 extra warning, yellow means 2 and red means 2 or more. Some things like hitting and dangerous or mean things might skip green and yellow and go right to red. A green may not have an explanation, but usually if they have a yellow or a red I will write an note, either in the square or on the back. If for some reason I don't please feel free to e-mail or call me to find out what might have happened. Every once in a while-as you in the afternoon have already noticed-we run out of time and I might not get to stickers at the end of class. I usually will try to do an e-mail to let you know what happened and then I put two stickers in the next day. Again if you ever have questions about behavior please contact me.
A few reminders Scholastic Book Orders were due today-I didn't get any brochure orders-there are several online orders. I will give you until Tuesday to send in the brochure or go online and get the books ordered. Again there are several in each brochure that are less than a dollar and Scholastic matches dollar for dollar with free books in our classroom!
Grandparents day is coming up next Friday. We are doing a breakfast. Grandparents or adopted grandparents-aunts, uncles who ever the child might want to invite that lives near is welcome to come have breakfast at school on Friday morning. They will be talking pictures and then rooms will be open for a quick visit. PM kindergartners are welcome to attend with their grandparents as well. They will just go home after breakfast and come back at our regular school start time.
Thank you for remembering to send snack on your assigned day. I have forgotten to send the snack bag several times and you all remember to send it in anyway. It is much appreciated and the children do enjoy sharing snacks each day.
I do appreciate all your support and hard work from home. You all have a great group of kindergarten children and I enjoy being their teacher. Thanks for being willing to trust me with them every day!!
Progress Reports will come home next Friday. Keep in mind that this is the beginning of Kindergarten and they are not expected to know all these things yet, so don't panic over what looks like low scores. The Report Card system used by the district is not Kindergarten friendly, but is what we are asked to use anyway. We will have parent/teacher conferences in October and we will sit down and discuss your child individually.
I hope everyone has a great long weekend and I will see you all on Tuesday morning!!
