Newsletter Updates for the Week of January 9th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Monday, Jan. 16th—Delayed Start

-Thursday, Jan. 19th—1/2 Day—Dismissal @ 11:55

-Friday, Jan. 20th—1/2 Day & Sledding Party???

-Friday, January 27th—Report Cards Home & Homecoming Game

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Mya Bronkema. Mya loves to swim and enjoys playing baby dolls with her sisters and grandmas.  She likes to eat chicken, popcorn, donuts, & veggies and her favorite movie is My Little Pony. This year she aspires to improve her ballet skills and learn how to read, which she is well on her way to accomplishing! Mya is a writer! She spends a lot of her free choice time with her friends at the writing table working on lists and books. Congratulations to Mya on being our Student of the Week!

SLEDDING PARTY:

We are tentatively planning our annual sledding party for Friday, January 20th, but I am NOT telling the students until it gets closer in case the weather doesn’t cooperate:)  We will go outside around 10:45, sled for a half hour with the other Kindergarten classes, and then come back inside for hot chocolate before going home @ 11:55. I am looking for a couple of parents, or grandparents, who would be willing to come in around 10:30 and help. I could use a couple people willing to go outside and push kids down the hill AND at least 1 person to stay inside and prepare our hot chocolate. Please let me know if you are willing and available to help out!

READING:

This week our class will be focusing on plants and what they need in order to grow, such as water, food, and air; we will read several stories about gardens. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—require & plant—Talk about things that living things (like plants) need/require in order to live and grow.

· Sightwords—my & at—Encourage your child to say sentences using the words my and at. Record the sentences on paper and leave a blank where the words show be. Then have your child write the words in each space.

· Category Words—size words—Take turns describing things according to size and/or practice sorting household items according to size.

· Phonics—Hh—Play a rhyming game. For example, say, what word starts with h and rhymes with pen? (hen). Provide clues as needed.

· Comprehension: character, setting, & events—Have your child think of a favorite story. Then ask questions about the main characters, where the story takes place, and what events happen at the beginning, middle, and end of the story.

· Beanie Baby Strategies—This week we will introduce a new comprehension strategy— Repair Bear. Repair Bear reminds us to stop while we are reading and check to see if we are understanding what we are reading. If not, we need to go back and reread.

WRITING: 

We will finish up our see-saw pattern books and take some time to conference with a peer, edit, & revise before taking turns in the ‘author’s chair.’ We will work on following directions as we ‘Draw a Rhyme Snowman’ together and discuss the importance of details and punctuation.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will be reading some narrative stories about snowmen. We will also read several informational texts related to freedom and equality in anticipation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day next week.

MATH:

This week we will be reviewing 2D shapes and begin learning about 3D/solid shapes (cube, sphere, cone, rectangular prism, etc). We will also continue to work on writing and building teen numbers using ten frames, and base 10 blocks.