January 11, 2025

WHAT A BUSY WEEK

We certainly jumped right into the second semester! The students did a wonderful job transitioning back to school after the long break. We spent time reviewing our CHAMPS strategies, along with classroom and school rules and expectations, and the students truly stepped up.  In math we worked on building number sense to 20 by sequencing numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least. We also identified numbers that come before and after a given number. We practiced counting from 1 to 100 by 1s and 10s and backwards from 20 to 1. In literacy, students have been hard at work tapping out and blending words that have a short vowel in the middle.  We have been practicing reading and writing "cvc" words (words that have a consonant at the beginning and end and a short vowel in the middle.)  Many students are having difficulty differentiating words that have a short e (beg) and a short i (big) sound.  

BOOK BAGS

All students need to keep their reading bags (and library books) in their backpacks when they are not reading them. 

There are some students who are not reading their books at home and are having difficulty keeping up in class.  Please help your child become a confident and fluent reader by having him/her read everyday.  It is so very important.

Some of the reading strategies for students to use:

• Point to each word (very important for beginning readers)

• Use the pictures for clues

• Go back and re-read

• Look at the beginning letter(s)

Here are some additional ways to use these books after reading them:

• · Read the pictures to tell the story

• · Look for word wall words

• · Retell the story – what happened in the beginning, middle and end

• · Ask how this story relates to real life; can they make any connections

A note From Mrs Canafax, our school counselor:

Food Assistance or Other Needs

As the school counselor, one of my most important roles is to help ensure that every student has what they need to learn and thrive. If your family is ever experiencing financial challenges or needs support with food, school supplies, or other basic resources, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I am here to help, and all conversations will remain confidential.  

My email address is: lauren.canafax@gcisd.net

AT HOME LITERACY ACTIVITIES

The link below contains some fun activities for your child to enjoy and practice different reading skills!

mCLASS® Home Connect®

https://www.mclass.amplify.com/homeconnect/

SIGHT WORDS

Below are the kindergarten sight words for the entire year. We may not cover them all and we may add in some of our own.  Knowing our sight words will help your child tremendously in reading and writing. Each week we will learn two or three new words. Please review these words with your child. Students are expected to read, write and spell these words.

These are the sight words we learned this week:

No new words this week

These are the sight words we have previously learned:

 look  went  he  she  said  we  did  in  and  like   

can  it  at  go  am  to   by   my   I    see   a    the   

READING and WRITING SKILLS WE WILL LEARN in KINDERGARTEN

By the end of Kindergarten, students should be able to:

• Recognize and produce rhyming words

• Segment words in an oral sentence

• Segment words into syllables

• Segment and pronounce initial, medial and final phonemes in spoken CVC words

• Manipulate phonemes with additions or substitutions in one-syllable words

• Name all letters of the alphabet

• Write all manuscript letters in lowercase and uppercase

• Sequence letters of the alphabet

• Fluently produce sounds of consonants and short vowels when given the letter

• Fluently produce sounds for basic digraphs (wh, sh, ch, th, ck)

• Name and write corresponding letter(s) when given sounds for consonants, consonant digraphs, and short vowels

• Distinguish long and short vowel sounds within words

• Read and spell approximately 200 CVC words 

• Spell other words phonetically, drawing on knowledge of sound-letter relationships

• Read and write our sight words

• Identify and name correct punctuation at end of sentence

• Capitalize words at beginning of sentences and names of people

• Name the author and illustrator of a story and define their roles

• Explain narrative story structure including character, setting and main events

• Use a combination of drawing and dictating to narrate linked events to tell about a story in  sequence

• Re-tell key details of narrative and informational text, using pictures or prompts as a guide

• Identify characters, settings and main events in a story, with pictures or other prompts

• Describe what happened in a story when given a specific illustration

• With prompts, compare and contrast the experiences of characters in two stories

• Explain difference between narrative and informational text

• Echo-read a passage with correct phrasing and expression

• Identify and explain new meanings for familiar words and newly taught words

• Produce and expand complete sentences in shared language activities

Curriculum Objectives

Language Arts: 

I can identify the beginning, middle and ending sounds of words and identify what letter makes that sound.  

Math:

I can read, write, and represent whole numbers from 0 to at least 20 with and without objects or pictures.

I can count a set of objects up to at least 20 and demonstrate that the last number said tells the number of objects in the set regardless of their arrangement or order

I can compare sets of objects up to at least 20 in each set using comparative language. 

I can generate a number that is one more than or one less than another number up to at least 20.

I can count to at least 100 by ones and tens beginning with any given number.

Social Studies: 

I can identify a map and a globe.

I can use a map to find a location.

I can identify and use tools that aid in determining location.

I can identify different types of maps.

I can be a good citizen and follow the Gator Way.