Mrs. Hedlund

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NewsFlash NewsFlash Content: <DIV class=Section1> </DIV> <DIV class=Section1> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><v:shapetype id=_x0000_t75 coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" filled="f" stroked="f" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe"><v:stroke joinstyle="miter"></v:stroke><v:formulas><v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></v:f><v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></v:f><v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></v:f></v:formulas><v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"></v:path><o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"></o:lock></v:shapetype><v:shape id=_x0000_i1025 style="WIDTH: 94.5pt; HEIGHT: 117pt; flip: x" type="#_x0000_t75"><v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\PAULAH~1.DDL\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.wmz" o:title=""></v:imagedata></v:shape><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Kindergarten News<o:p></o:p></SPAN></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>January 2010</SPAN></STRONG><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"><BR style="PAGE-BREAK-BEFORE: auto; mso-break-type: section-break" clear=all> </SPAN></STRONG></P> </DIV> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align=center><STRONG><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Dear Parents,</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Happy New Year! Now that our very busy and exciting holidays are behind us, we are ready to begin a new year! We hope that you and your families enjoy a year of good health and happy times.<BR> <o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><U></U></STRONG></P> <H1 class=Section1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><FONT size=3><BR> Martin Luther King Day</FONT></U></H1> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>There will be no school on <STRONG>Monday, January 18th,</STRONG> in honor of Dr. King’s birthday.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <H1 class=Section1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><FONT size=3>Reminders</FONT></U></H1> <UL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0in" type=disc> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">Now that the winter weather is upon us, please remember to send in <STRONG>shoes</STRONG> or <STRONG>slippers</STRONG> with your child on the days that snow boots are worn to school. Or you may choose to send in a pair of shoes, slippers or old sneakers that your child may leave in his/her coatroom cubby.</LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">For safety reasons, children need to wear <STRONG><U>sneakers on Gym days</U></STRONG>, <STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Wednesdays and Fridays!</STRONG> Those who do not may need to be observers on those days to insure their safety.</LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">Please be reminded that children need to bring a <STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">healthy</STRONG> <STRONG>snack and a drink every day</STRONG> to school. We encourage children to try to bring fruits, vegetables, granola bars, yogurt, crackers, cheese, popcorn, pretzels and other healthy types of snacks. Thank you.</LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">White communication envelopes need to be signed and returned to school on Mondays.</LI> <LI class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: list .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1">Please be sure to check your child’s backpack every day for school notices. </LI> </UL> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><o:p> </o:p></P> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><FONT size=3>Curriculum</FONT></U></H1> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN></STRONG>Science discussion topics this month will include: winter and day and night. In Social Studies, we’ll be talking about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and continuing our Second Step social skills program – dealing with various strong feelings.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>In <U>Fundations,</U> our next teaching unit will focus on helping children to hear individual speech sounds in words by tapping out each sound with their fingers. We will start with simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. This strategy will aid in learning to spell words as well. We will use real and nonsense words as part of our practice. Children will be taught to listen to the word and tap out the sounds. They will also look at words and sound them out without tapping each sound. More time will be spent on reading simple sentences using “tap-able” words, sight words and high frequency words, which may or may not be sight words.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Please practice these skills with your children at home and continue to practice having your child read all the “trick”/sight/high-frequency words which we have introduced so far. An up-dated list is attached to this newsletter. Our “trick words for this month<STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> </STRONG>are:<STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> we, play, red, blue, you, little, yellow, black, here, come, one, two, say, day, away.</STRONG> <SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>As children become stronger at sounding out words (decoding), they will be spending more time spelling their own words (encoding) as they try to write stories and label pictures. They are using their growing knowledge of phonics (letter names and sounds) and phonemic awareness (rhyming, blending, matching sounds, segmenting sentences, words and syllables), letter formations, punctuation, spacing and size of letters and words.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">January is the month of assessments! We will be checking children on basic reading and math skills in preparation for report cards in which will be sent home in early February. We will also be evaluating children’s progress in reading “trick”/sight/high frequency words. We will be using Aimsweb to assess letter naming fluency, phoneme segmentation fluency and nonsense word fluency. The latter three are one-minute tests.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">At the end of the month, we will launch Readers’ and Writers’ Workshop in Kindergarten. Our daily literacy block will include a focus lesson, independent reading and writing time and group share. Children will have their own individualized reading bags and writing folders to use! My aide and I will be conferring with children and working with small groups on targeted reading and writing skills and strategies.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">Our <U>Everyday Math </U>activities/skills in January will include: <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>patterning; recording and interpreting data on graphs; # sense; greater and less than; measuring with non-standard units of measure; using playing cards for number sense games; and introduction to probability.<U><o:p></o:p></U></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Since September, we have been learning to “read” the temperature on our window thermometer and on “Weather Bug” and now we are going to start to graph the changing temperatures each day by using colored Unifix cubes. The children are learning vocabulary words such as: </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG>higher, lower, equal, pattern, mercury, temperature, thermometer and range</STRONG> as well as understanding better what causes changes in temperature during the course of a day, week, month and year.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG><U>Handwriting and Pencil Grasp<o:p></o:p></U></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>We are continuing to stress to children how to correctly hold their pencils (and all other writing utensils, as well as scissors) so as to ensure proper fine motor habits.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Please encourage your children to correctly form letters and numbers. If your child is having difficulty writing letters or numbers, you might try writing them with dotted lines or writing them with a highlighter pen for your child to trace over or “boxing” them in to help children see how large or small the letters and numbers should be.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><FONT size=3>Responsive Classroom</FONT></U></H1> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>Our daily Meeting time continues to be fun and a great learning experience. We are seeing good eye contact, polite manners – both verbal and nonverbal – thoughtful questions and comments and a community spirit of sharing, caring and helping. Meeting time offers excellent oral language practice and listening opportunities for children which we know will benefit them as they grow as individuals and as students who will later on be asked to use their language skills for district and state testing programs. (Meeting time also affords us the opportunities for short Math, Science, Social Studies and <st1:City><st1:place>Reading</st1:place></st1:City> practice and review lessons).</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">When issues come up that affect how our class functions as a “family,” we discuss them together and try to figure out ways we can make things go more smoothly. </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in">Please remember to consult the sharing schedule, which is sent home every two weeks, for your child’s turn to be ready for his/her sharing time.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <H1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><U><FONT size=3>Thank You!</FONT></U></H1> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </SPAN>A heartfelt “thank you” goes out to all parents who have contributed to our class celebrations and who have sent in items from our scrounge list. While I do not have time to write a personal thank you note to each of you, please know that I appreciate your generosity.</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><U>Scrounge List<o:p></o:p></U></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">paper towels</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">tissues</P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p> </o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Happy New Year!<o:p></o:p></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><o:p> </o:p></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Paula Hedlund<o:p></o:p></STRONG></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><STRONG style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">Jennifer Gentleman<o:p></o:p></STRONG></P> Email From Name: From Email Address: noreply@TeacherWeb.com The from email address is set to improve delivery rates to your subscribers. 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Mrs. Hedlund

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