December 10th - Newsletter Updates

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Mon. Dec. 17th—Delayed Start

-Wed. Dec 19th—Wear Your Christmas Sweater

-Thurs., Dec 20th—1/2 Day & Christmas Party

-Fri., Dec 21st—1/2 Day, Sing-a-long, Pajama Day & Pizza Party from Pizza Hut!!

CHRISTMAS GIFT EXCHANGE: 

For our class Christmas party we are planning to have a gift exchange. We are asking that girls bring a gift for a girl and boys bring a gift for a boy. Please select a gift that is between $3.00-$5.00 and send it to school wrapped and labeled with who it is FROM (To: a girl; From: Mrs. Brinks).

CHRISTMAS CONCERT:

Just a reminder that you can view and/or share the video on Facebook through the Rambler Review.  The kids love watching it, seeing themselves on stage, and singing along:)

WELCOME PEPPERMINT:

One of Santa’s elves, Peppermint, will be joining our classroom this week to help us count down to Christmas and to also keep an eye on our behavior as Christmas approaches. She adds a little extra excitement and fun, as well as an incentive to make good choices:) Several of the students have mentioned having elves at home, which means double the fun!

SIGHTWORD FLASHCARDS:

At conferences, I handed out the first set of sightword flashcards for you to work on at home. We’ve introduced all of those in class and are working on the next set, so I’ll be sending those home with your child on Monday.  Please cut them apart and add them to your other cards for a new challenge. We will learn 51 sightwords this year in Kindergarten!

READING: 

This week our class will be focusing on different jobs that people have in the community. Children will read stories and learn about the tools and equipment that workers use. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—equipment & uniform—Brainstorm some different kinds of workers in your community. Encourage your child to tell about the equipment each worker uses and the uniform they wear.

· Sightwords—you & on—Take turns spelling out sightwords with your finger on each others arm or back. The students do this while waiting in line at school and they love it!

· Category Words—jobs—Play a game called “Guess the worker.” Give your child clues about what a worker does and act it out and see if they can guess the job.

· Phonics—Letter Oo

· Beanie Baby Strategies—This week we will use Chunky Monkey to help us read and write words with the ot, op, & og chunks. We will introduce Dot the Giraffe who helps us with our Fluency and Voice as we read by looking at the punctuation clues. We will also introduce Flippy the Dolphin who reminds us that when we come to tricky word we can ‘flip’ the vowel sound (long or short sound) to figure out the word.

WRITING: 

This week we will continue to learn about pattern books and practice writing our own pattern books about the things we like. We will complete a class book about things we see using the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? as inspiration. We will complete a journal page about a Christmas tree, as we work on sounding out our words, writing the sounds we hear, and putting spaces between our words.

MATH: 

This week we will work on the ‘tricky teen’ numbers as we work on identifying the numbers, and building them using 20 frames. We will also experiment with building hexagons using combinations of smaller shapes (introduction to fractions).

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

We will continue our unit on Motion as we conduct a bowling experiment using force. Our dramatic play area has been transformed into a Bakery Shop so students can get some hands-on practice with making holiday treats & goodies with playdough:)