Kindergarten Newsletter
January 4, 2010
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the New Year! I hope that everyone’s holiday was
pleasant, relaxing and healthy and that you enjoyed family and friends. The
Barney family enjoyed all three sons (as well as a very sweet girl friend!) at
home for the holidays. The break was restful, and I am anxious to start the
New Year with your children.
Kindergarten sees the blossoming of children during the second
semester. The grade level is appropriately named (Child’s Garden)! As I have
said to many of the parents, this is my favorite time in the kindergarten
classroom. This is the time that letters in words suddenly make sense. They
are excited to use their knowledge and show it off and begin to enter the
world of reading and writing for themselves. I will start some new activities
which will be done at home as well as continue with others started in the
fall. It may seem like a lot, but try to establish a routine and enjoy their
new beginnings!
Below is an outline of the many changes in the class. If you are
confused I can go over this with you.
JOURNALING - We journal two times per week. Prior to vacation we used blank
paper. Now we will begin to use lines as we write a few sentences about our
picture. During our journaling time, I encourage the children to use their
“Inventive spellings”.
As I have said before, I do not expect that they spell words conventionally.
Rather, I want the children to listen to all the sounds that they hear and
write the sounds down in the order that they are heard. We stretch out words
in order to hear the sounds. The children were really getting the idea of
this prior to break! Please do not become a crutch for your child by allowing
yourself to spell out every word.
READING LIBRARY – Your child will be bringing home leveled readers daily
Monday-Thursday. They will be placed in a new folder titled “reading folder”.
Inside the folder there is a sheet of paper upon which you will write the
title of the book that you helped your child read. (Do not write this title
on the 100 Book Cub list as the 100 Book Club is reserved for books that you
read to your child.) The children seem to like these books as they can choose
books on their own reading level. It is imperative that you spend some time
with your child each day that these books come home. Reading will come alive
for your child. Please read the explanation given in their new reading folder
for more information.
PHONETIC READERS – Beginning this month, your child will be bringing home
phonetic, short vowel readers to practice at home. We will begin with the
short vowel of “a”. The books will come home on Friday, and your child can
keep it at home and return it the following Monday. The title of these books
may be added to the Reading Library List in their Reading Folder. More
information will follow when your child brings home the first book.
100 BOOK CLUB – Please continue reading books to your child and entering the
titles on the 100 Book Club list. This list is reserved for books that you
read to your child. At the end of the year Mrs. Bock will add the reading
library list, and all the 100 Book Club lists together to get a grand total.
Also, as part of our 100’s Day celebration I will award a certificate to any
child who has read 100 books since the beginning of the year.
WORD RING – Your child will be given a new word each day to glue into a small
spiral bound notebook. We will discuss the word and talk about possible words
that rhyme with it, etc. Your child will keep this at school. A list of 36
sight words will be sent home early in February. These words need to be
mastered by the end of the school year.
MATH - We will continue the topic of number from 0-10, and will be exploring
properties of numbers 1-10 so that they develop a good visual image of
numbers. For example, I will have the children build “pictures of 5 with a
variety of manipulatives. They will come to see that 5 can look like 2+3 or
1+4, etc. At this point I am not interested in paper and pencil math facts.
We are exploring numbers. As you play with your child and his/her toys, keep
this in mind.
· Your child will also be learning to identify 2-digit numbers.
· We will also tell time by the hour.
· We have started to count pennies to make a nickel and 2 nickels to
make a dime.
· We have started skip counting by 5’s to 100, 10’s to 100, and 2’s to
20. Continue to reinforce this at home.
SCIENCE - During the month of January, we will be learning about the
properties of water as we do many different experiments. We will also be
talking about arctic animals such as penguins, puffins, polar bears, walrus,
and seals.
RELIGION -We will be talking about feelings, family as we relate it to Jesus,
and the Holy Family.
OTHER NOTES:
· We are collecting pop tabs in the room. The school also saves
Campbell Soup labels and General Mills Box Top for Education labels. Please
send them in when you can. Thanks.
· Start saving your pennies for PENNY WARS. This is a charitable
fundraiser that is held during Catholic Schools Week. Please keep all
pennies at home until the last week of January. The idea is that pennies
count as positive points, while silver coins can be placed in other team’s
jars as negative points. Kindergarten will be paired with another grade in
this competition. It is a lot of fun for the whole school. Last year over
$2,000 was collected.
· On Tuesday the children at the purple, red and yellow tables may
bring in one toy that they received at Christmas. Wednesday the green and
blue tables may do the same. It should be able to fit in their backpacks.
· The children have been given new crayons and a folder to start the
New Year off right. Please discard the old folder or keep it at home.
· If you have not returned the 100 Book Club reading calendar for
December please do so by tomorrow.
· Crazy Hat Day is Friday so send your child to school with a crazy hat.
· Do not forget to send in the stamped/addressed envelope by Thursday
it should be addressed to someone who may need some cheering up. Return
address should be your home address.
· CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK: We will have an Open House on Sunday January
31, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The primary building will be hosting a
variety of activities that your children can do with the help of a parent.
This will be a great time to visit first grade classes with your child.
This is an excellent time to tell families of incoming kindergarteners to come
and visit the classrooms, meet Mrs. Meyer and Mrs. Barney and learn about our
kindergarten program. Sometimes our best advertisement is through our
parents!!!! If you know of any families that may have a future kindergartener
please let me know so that we may call and invite them. Thanks a bunch!!!
Until Later,
Mrs. Barney