Kindergarten A

Dear Families,

You may have already heard, but in our mock election, M&M Cookies won over Rice Krispie Treats! The children will enjoy the winning dessert with their lunch on Tuesday, 11/12. In class, we’ll continue holding fun elections making learning about voting and decision-making relatable and enjoyable, helping the children appreciate the importance of voting. Some future topics will be where to have Friday recess, which chapter books to read, and choice time activities. 

We appreciate your participation in parent-teacher conferences. They provided valuable insights into your children’s growth and strengthened our home-school connections. This week, we’ll highlight Solidarity Week, where kindergarteners will learn about kindness, empathy, solidarity, and what it means to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.

Looking ahead, November is a time for the children to reflect on thankfulness and share what they’re grateful for. We’ll also recognize and celebrate Native American Heritage Month, an opportunity for the children and our community to explore the rich traditions, history, and contributions of Native American cultures. Thank you for your continued support in shaping a meaningful kindergarten experience.

Important Dates

• November 11-15 - Solidarity Week

  • All week long, students will learn about kindness, empathy, and solidarity, and students will discuss what it means to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.

• November 15 - Kindergarten wears PURPLE to take a picture dressed in the colors of the rainbow flag,

                         a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community.

• November 25: December Drive Begins (Used Coats and New Toys)

• November 26 – No After School

• November 27-29 – School Closed for Thanksgiving Break 

• December 4 - Make-Up Picture Day

• December 6 - Crazy Hat Day

• December 16 - Celebration of Learning 

Here are some important reminders for the week:

1. Please check out the specialists’ websites for updates and happenings in their classrooms! 

Art      Dance       Library       Music       PE       Science      Spanish

2. Our Family Study has begun. Please sign up here for your Family Share! We would love for everyone to participate! Please sign up as soon as possible so your child has the chance to share something special about your family with the class. This is a wonderful opportunity for the kids to learn more about one another and celebrate our diverse classroom community. 

3. ANTI-RACIST READ ALOUDS

Our school-wide anti-racist read-aloud is I Walk with Vanessa by Kerascoët. Discussion questions and prompts can be found on the parent portal.

4. Please send your child with a change of shoes that they can leave in their cubby. It may get muddy during our time in the park, and we want to avoid tracking excess dirt into the school and classroom. Also, the weather is changing. We still plan to go to the yard (or park) once a day. Please provide your child with a layer of some sort (sweater, light jacket, etc). Don't forget to label your child’s clothing!

Please read below for this coming week’s learning goals and a few pointers for what you can do at home:

Social Emotional Learning

• Growth Mindset: Persistence

  • Students will continue to learn what it means to have persistence. Read-alouds will include Everyone Can Learn to Ride a Bicycle by Chris Raschka and The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires.

Reading

• Rhyming

  • We are learning that words rhyme when the ending sounds are the same.

  • Rhyming words and word families help children discover many common word patterns.

    • Here are the word families we have taught thus far: -an, -at, -ad, -ap, -ag

• Word of the week

  • The sight words of the week will be she and we. Have your child find the words she and we in magazines, newspapers, etc. They can circle, underline or highlight (also good for fine motor) every time they see the word. As you or they are reading books, they can also count the number of times it shows up on the page.

• S-T-R-E-T-C-H words apart, sounding out each letter (particularly consonant, vowel, consonant 3 letter words) then joining them back together to read the word.

• One-to-One Correspondence or Finger Point Reading

• One-to-one correspondence is the ability to match written word to spoken word while reading. Pointing, or one-to-one correspondence, helps beginning readers make text-to-word connections. This also helps students with directionality, visual tracking, and keeping their place while reading. We will continue to practice this skill while reading our mini-books. 

Fundations / Handwriting 

• Letters p and j

  • Recognizing lowercase letters p and j

  • The sounds of p and j 

  • Writing lowercase letters p and j 

  • Review: t, b, f, m, n, i, u, c, o, a, g, d, s, e, r

• Fundations At Home Pack for letters “p and j”

  • The Fundations Home Support Pack provides you with the “why” and the “what” regarding our reading program, Fundations. The Fundations Home Packet also provides you with the language that the teachers use when forming their letters. Please use the same language when instructing and practicing with your child at home.

Writing Workshop

• We will continue with our first writing unit called "We are all Writers!" This unit introduces children to writing by exploring both informational pieces and true stories. Students are encouraged to think, draw, label, and write about their pictures in their own way. It's an exciting step in developing their storytelling skills.

• Writers will use booklets to stretch a story about their lives across three pages. We will practice:

  • THINK: something that happened to you, or something you did

  • PRACTICE: telling with a storyteller’s voice (touch each page as you say aloud how it might go)

  • PICTURES and WORDS tell: who, where, what

  • Use speech bubbles to say more 

• We will continue to practice the rhyme, When you think you’re done, you’ve only just begun. Children often say they are done, but we ask them to add more details to drawing, labeling, and writing.

Math

Flat and Solid Shapes

• MIF School-to-Home Connections 

• Name and identify flat and solid shapes by their specific attributes

• Compare the similarities and differences between flat shapes and solid shapes

• Use position words such as “above” and “below” to name the relative positions of shapes

• Use attribute blocks to create new shapes and use pictures to create new flat shapes 

• Identify a sequence of shapes that form a pattern 

• Determine the similarities and differences when observing patterns formed using flat shapes and solid shapes           

Social Studies

• We will continue our family unit with an exploration of our own families and what we like to do together: special traditions, food we like to eat, holidays we celebrate, etc.

• Read-Alouds will include: All Families Are Special by Norma Simon and All Kinds of Families! by Mary Ann Hoberman 

• Election: We will continue to learn about the importance of elections and voting with Kindergarten-friendly read-alouds such as Vote for Our Future! by Margaret McNamara 

What You Can Do At Home

• Letter Sound Identification: Play word games at home or in the car. Think of a word that begins with the sound of /p/ and /j/. Think of a word that ends with the sound of /p/.

• Letter Formation: Using playdough, have kids roll out “snakes” and shape them into lowercase letters.

• Rhyming: Say two words aloud and ask your child if the words rhyme or not. Remind them that the middle and ending sounds have to be the same for the words to rhyme (hat and bat rhyme because they both end with /at/. 

• Spelling: Have your child practice spelling learned sight words in shaving cream or sand: a, the, and, I, to, do, he, me

• Domino Match: Play with a set of dominoes and focus on finding pairs that add up to 10. Discuss the different combinations that make 10. (Play with different sums up to 10)

• Number Matching Game: Make pairs of cards with numbers that add up to 10. Spread them out face down and take turns flipping over two cards at a time to find matching pairs. (Play with different sums up to 10)

• Rainbow Writing with Dry Erase Markers: On dry-erase boards, write a letter or number and then trace over it several times with different colors reinforcing letter formation through repetition and creating a beautiful, colorful result. (This can also be done on paper with crayons, markers, and colored pencils.)

• Fine Motor Skills: Practice fine motor skills with exercises like beading, buttoning, zipping. Foster independence and build confidence at home by encouraging your children to peel their own oranges, open a snack, clean up after themselves when they eat, and practice tying their own shoes and zipping their own jackets.