Learning & Growing This Week

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we continue to work on tapping out three-letter words when reading and writing. We are also learning about the “bossy” (or silent) e that appears at the end of some words. Students are learning that the bossy e tells the first vowel in the word to say its name. Words such as cape, made, and like have a bossy e. The students thought this was a pretty cool concept to learn—and found calling it the “bossy e” especially funny! 😊

Shared Reading & Spelling: this week, we read two nonfiction Big Books—Taking Care of Chase and The New Forest Path. Both books sparked great conversations as students were able to make personal connections to the texts. Having discussions about books and making connections is an important reading skill that helps deepen comprehension.

Next week's spelling words:

dad

had

Writing Workshop: Since returning from winter break, we have transitioned to new writing paper with more lines to encourage students to add more details to their writing. Our lessons have focused on how to stretch our ideas and include more information in our stories. As part of this work, we are learning about a writing resource called the Story Hand.

Here is a quick explanation of the Story Hand:

1. Heart – Choose a topic that is close to your heart (it’s easier to add details when you care about the topic).

2. Characters (girl and pig) – Tell who is in your story.

3. Setting (barn) – Tell where your story takes place.
   Example: “I went to Target with my mom.”
   This sentence includes both who is in the story and where it took place.

4. 3 Details (1, 2, 3) – Move beyond one sentence by adding details.
   Example: “I went to Target with my mom. I got a new Lego set, my mom bought food, and we got hot chocolate.”

Adding more detail is a skill that takes time, and we will continue working on this throughout the year. 

Math: This week, we continued working on writing numbers and placing numbers in numerical order, but not always starting at 1. This helps build flexibility in math and strengthens students’ number sense, or their understanding of how numbers work and relate to one another. We’ve also been practicing identifying numbers that come before and after a given number.

In addition, students are working on simple addition within 10. One important strategy we are learning is how to hold a number in their head and count on. For example, students play a game using one numeral die and one dot die. They hold the numeral in their head and then count up the dots to find the total. These activities help students move beyond counting everything from the beginning and develop stronger, more efficient math strategies.

Please refer to the family math worksheets in their Friday Folder to help extend their learning at home.  

Lunch with the principal:  yay Madisyn!  She was chosen to have Lunch with the principal on Monday!  She enjoyed a special lunch with Mrs. Isenogle and these kindergarten friends. 

Social Studies:  we learned about Martin Luther King Jr., why he is important, and his special holiday on Monday. We had many meaningful lessons about kindness, equality, friendship, and love—and how we, no matter how small, can make a difference in our world. Your child has a poem and craft coming home in their folder today.  

A reminder that school is not in session on Monday in observances of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. 

A few reminders from The Timberwolf Times

More fun from our week...

Listening to Eric Litwin, the author of the Pete the Cat books, tell us about how he became an author and his books.  This is called a Book Break and it's similar to a Zoom because it's live and students can ask him (or other featured, famous authors) questions!

One of my former kindergarteners, now in 3rd grade, used her Dojo points to come read to our class!  We enjoyed listening to her read an Elephant and Piggie book.

And a couple more cute photos

Happy 2026!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we have officially finished reviewing how to correctly form all uppercase letters A–Z, along with our earlier explicit instruction on lowercase letters a–z that took place during the first trimester.

Now that students have learned proper letter formation, they are expected to form letters correctly at all times, not just during Fundations. Correct letter formation is a lifelong skill, and we emphasize that these habits matter “for the rest of their lives.”

Please help us reinforce this at home. If you notice your child rushing through their work, even something as simple as writing their name, encourage them to slow down. If needed, have them erase and redo their work using correct formation. Accuracy is more important than speed at this stage.

Verbal prompts for correct letter formation have been sent home multiple times throughout the year. If you would like another copy, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

In addition, we work daily on tapping out words to support both reading and writing. Right now, we are focusing on three-letter (CVC) words. This is a critical skill that helps students connect sounds to letters and build strong decoding and spelling habits. I strongly encourage families to use the Fundations Parent Packets, especially the tapping activities, to extend learning at home and help solidify this skill.

I have also posted a couple of short videos on our class Facebook page showing what tapping looks like in the classroom, which may be helpful when practicing at home. 

Optional Weekend Homework: our optional handwriting homework is now focusing on both uppercase and lowercase letter formation. In addition to practicing correct letter formation, each page includes a few pictures at the bottom. Each picture represents a three-letter word that students should tap out and spell—just like we do daily in Fundations.

It is important that this portion of the work is completed by the child. While adults or older siblings may support by reminding students to tap out each sound and slow down, we ask that you do not tell them how to spell the word or do it for them. This productive struggle is how students build strong reading and writing skills.

Thank you for supporting correct habits and helping reinforce these important skills at home!

Shared Reading & Spelling: this week we read several books that featured our new spelling words love and mom.  Something we are working on is NOT capitalizing the m on mom and d on dad.  Dad isn't a spelling word yet, but ties into the same lesson and reasoning as to why.  We have discussed how those are terms we call our parents, but not their proper names, so they start each word with a lowercase letter.  Watch for this at home. 

Next week's new spelling words

by

my

Writing Workshop: we are continuing to work on narrative writing, where students write stories about their own lives (winter break, birthdays, riding bikes, family events, etc.). Students write independently, choosing their own topic and working through what they want to say on their own.

This work goes hand in hand with our Fundations learning. Students are expected to spell Word Wall words correctly and tap or stretch out sounds in other words. At this point in the year, writing should include many sounds in words, not random strings of letters. We have learned all letter sounds in Fundations, and those skills should be clearly showing up in daily writing. Their writing should be more and more legible and readable as the year goes on.

Check out a few of our friends independent writing below, as well as a poster we worked on this week to practice the skill of sounding out words. 

Me and my sister went ice-skating.  It was fun.

Me and my mom and dad went to a place where we saw Santa

was there and I got a sweet candy cane.
(this is page 2 continued from story above!)

Math: this week in math, we worked on ordering numbers 0–10 and explaining how we know where a number belongs in numerical order. Students practiced using math language such as before and after to describe number relationships.

We are also working on being flexible with number order; understanding what numbers come before or after a given number, even when the sequence does not start at 1. This helps build strong number sense and prepares students for more advanced math concepts.

Friday craft: we read the book Winter is Here by Kevin Henkes and made these beautiful snowflakes showing something that we like to do in the winter.  You can see them proudly displayed outside our classroom the next time you are at school.

Makerspace: a Makerspace is a hands-on learning space where students create, build, and problem-solve using a variety of materials. The focus is on creativity, collaboration, and trying new ideas—not on a perfect finished product, but on the learning that happens through the process.

Today they were able to tinker, build and create with the materials you see below.  We look forward to going back next month as well!  

Counselor:  our kindergarteners talked about goal setting. While this connected nicely to the New Year, students also learned that goals can be set anytime, not just in January. We read a Berenstain Bears book about setting goals and discussed ways we can work toward things we want to improve or learn. Each student also completed their own goal-setting paper titled “Dream Big.” Please check your child’s folder for this activity and take a few minutes to talk with them about the goal they chose and how they can work toward it at home and at school.

Yearbook orders DUE TODAY:  the deadline is 11:59 PM tonight.

There will not be a second chance to order, and no extras are ordered. If you choose not to order now and decide later that you would like one, the office sometimes has a waitlist—but this only works if other families ordered extras and later donate them back for resale. This is not guaranteed, so ordering now is the only way to ensure your child receives a yearbook.

Please see the previous email from a few days ago for information on how yearbooks are used at the end of the year to help you decide if you’d like to purchase one.

Order Code: 0290KH 

Order here

More fun from our week