Welcome Back!

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving break!

The kiddos loved telling me about what they did and their snow day fun!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: this week we learned the letters z and qu.  We learned that q is a scaredy cat and always needs u by his side. Ask your child what is special about the letter q and they should be able to tell you that same thing!  They think it's pretty funny!

Please use the following verbal prompts:

z: across, slant down, across

qu: over, around dow...n, curve back (q) down, curve up, down (u)

We have now learned the name, sound and correct letter formation for all 26 letters of the alphabet!

Shared Reading: this week we had two new spelling words. Now that we are into the spelling word routine we will have two words a week, rather than one.  To help us practice our new words, you and an, we read the poem "Happy Birthday" and the big books You and I and Jump On.

Writing Workshop: we are goal setting at writing time.  Check out our goal chart below.  I am talking with each child one-on-one and we are deciding together what they think they can improve on when writing.  Once we pick a goal from the chart, their name will be written on a post-it and placed next to that goal.  Once they have mastered that goal, we can pick a new goal.  

Ask your child what their goal is.  I haven't gotten around to every child yet, so some might not have a goal yet, but they will by the end of next week!

Math: this week we learned a new game called "Roll and Record."  This game helps us with number ID and correct number formation when writing.  We also learned a fun online game called "Number Line Squeeze."  A more detailed note about this is in their Friday Folder.  This is an Every Day math game they can also access at home through the CPS portal.  Every Day math is the name of our math curriculum.  The handout you picked up at parent teacher conferences explained how to access the CPS portal at home.  

Science: we wrapped up our weather science unit this week!  The kids sure loved learning about weather, how to dress for the weather, making weather predictions, etc.  

Service Learning: this week the kiddos in Kindergarten have been learning what Service Learning means and how Beulah Ralph is special because we are they only elementary school in Columbia that focuses on Service Learning.  They have watched videos from the past two years of Service Learning projects those past Kindergartners did and we have been reading books about helping others. They learned that the Kindergarteners two years ago helped Monarch Butterflies.  They learned the Kindergartners last year helped a school in Texas devastated by the hurricane.  The next step is to take this new information they have learned and decide, as a Kindergarten group, what we want our Service Learning project to be this year.  The kids get a say just as much as the teachers.  

Holidays: every year at this time it is fun to talk about the different holidays that will be celebrated.  Today we learned about Hanukkah and tied this in with our Friday craft.  We made torn paper Menorah's.  We learned that Hanukkah lasts for 8 days and begins on Monday.  We learned they light a Menorah each day of Hanukkah and that Menorah is a fancy name for a candle holder.  We learned the candle that lights each of the 8 candles is called a shammash.  We learned blue is a color of Hanukkah. We learned they like to play a game with a dreidel, which is similar to a top.  We learned they like to eat latkes, which are potato pancakes and might taste like hash browns or french fries.  We learned they like to be with family and friends and exchange gifts, sing songs and read stories on Hanukkah.  Ask your child what they learned today!