Friday tidbits

Please check your child's folder for our bi-monthly Kindergarten team newsletter.

Safe Hands and body

I have an awesome Kindergarten class who I love dearly this year.  However, one thing our class is having a difficult time with is having safe hands/bodies, keeping our hands to ourselves and using our words (not our bodies) when we need/want something. We have done A LOT of modeling, practicing and role playing this week of how to use our words and I'd appreciate anything you can do to practice and support this at home as well.

A few examples:

*If someone is in our line order spot we stop and say "excuse me" or "can you please move?" rather than pushing our way in or just yelling "move!."

*if someone has a pencil, toy, etc. that we'd really like to have we do not rip it out of their hands.  Instead we use our words to ask, not demand, the object.  If the friend says no, that doesn't mean its then ok to take it from them.  We use something else or continue to use or words or get help from an adult.

A look at our learning this week...

Fundations: we learned the letter name, letter sound and correct letter formation for the following letters:

d-over, around, up, down (not a circle and a stick)

s-over, around, curve

Check your child's Friday Folder for more ways to work on these letters at home.

Shared Reading: we continued to focus on the word wall word is this week.  We learned a new poem called Fall (same name as the poem last week, but different words) and continued reading the big books My Face and My Body.  Both books and the poem featured the word is.  

We also had our first spelling test today!  So exciting!  Please check your child's folder to see how they did.  If they missed a word, please practice that one at home as it will appear on future spelling tests.  

In the Friday Folder is a yellow paper with 50 fun and different ways to help your child practice spelling words at home.  It is important you spend a few minutes each night practicing and not just the night before the weekly text. Every Friday your child brings home an updated word wall list to help you practice.  

Next week's new word wall word:

the

Get a head start and start practicing this weekend!

Daily 5: this week your child started going to 2 Daily 5 centers each day.  Ask your child what centers they went to this week or which ones they like the best and why?

Here are a few, but not all, of the centers they go to if you need help sparking a conversation: Osmo, Whiteboards, Lacing Letters, Pocketchart, rainbow letters.

Math: please check the Friday Folder and the team newsletter to find out what we worked on this week and how to extend their learning at home.

Writing: this week each child received their very own writing folder!  Ask your child about the working and resting sides of their folder.  

We also read the wonderful  story Ish by Peter H. Reynolds. (click on the title to see it on Amazon) It is a book I highly recommend everyone to have at home!  It is a story about a little boy named Ramon.  Ramon LOVES to draw, but that love of drawing is changed in an instant by an unkind word about his drawings.  Luckily his sister helps him realize the value of trying his best and realizing that not everything needs to be "right" or "perfect", that it's ok to be "ish."  In our class ish means that we did our best!  I will never expect children to be perfect, no one is perfect.  But I do expect them to be "ish" and try their best.  That goes for all aspects of their life and not just with drawing/writing.  

At home, please praise your child not only for what they do wonderfully well, but for the moments they are "ish."  To help tie this into writing, encourage them to "say their words slowly and write the sounds they hear."  If they ask you "is this the right way to spell the word?" then just say "did you write all the sounds you hear? Great!" and move on.  It's ok if it isn't the correct adult spelling...."ish" is what we encourage in Kindergarten because it means they did their best!  Moms and dads and teachers won't be around forever telling them how to spell all words correctly and we need to encourage them to be independent and use their letter and letter sound knowledge and try! 

Monday Morning Meetings: don't forget to send your child to school in their BEU attire every Monday!  This is something Dr. Majerus is passionate about...it's so neat looking out at the entire student body on Monday Morning Meeting days and seeing everyone in their gear!  If your child doesn't have BEU attire, try wearing our school colors of blue and green!

October 8-14th is Fire Safety Week.  A firefighter will visit Kindergarten on Monday to kick off this fun week.  We will have activities and lessons throughout the week focusing on fire safety.