Kindergarten A

Dear Families,

Welcome back, kindergarten families! We hope you all had a refreshing spring break and enjoyed quality time with loved ones. As we ease back into school, we will take time to reacquaint ourselves with our routines and norms and engage in discussions about something the children learned, created, or built over the break.

Although March was a shorter month, we are excited to continue celebrating remarkable women in honor of Women’s History Month. April brings many exciting events, including Grandparents and Special Friends Day, Poetry Month, Earth Day, and Earth Month. Additionally, we will be recognizing Arab American and SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) Heritage Month, exploring the rich cultural contributions these communities have made to America. We look forward to a month filled with learning, creativity, and a continued appreciation for one another.

Thank you to the families who have already signed up for their parent–teacher conferences. If you have not yet had a chance to schedule your conference, please do so as soon as possible. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss your child’s kindergarten experience and celebrate the growth and learning we’ve seen so far this year. 

Thank you as always for your partnership!

Important Dates

• April 6 - Classes resume

• April 6 - Spring POLY PM Regular and Enrichment begins

• April 8 -  Lice Check

• April 10 -  Women’s History Oratory Contest Judging

• April 10 - RESCHEDULED: Kindergarten & Grade 1 Family Dance, 3:45 PM

• April 16 - Afternoon In-Person Parent-Teacher Conferences - No After School Programming

• April 17 - School Closed: Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences 

• April 20 - School Closed: Professional Day

• April 23 - Grade 1 Parent Preview - 1:00 PM

• April 24 - United Voices - 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

• April 24 - Grandparents and Special Friends Day 8:45 AM - 11:45 AM

• April 28 - RESCHEDULED: Kindergarten Family Literacy Night - 5:30 PM

• April 29 - Kindergarten Spring Celebration - 8:45 AM

Here are some important reminders for the week:

1. The Kindergarten & Grade 1 Family Dance will now take place on April 10th at 3:45 PM. The dance is a short, sweet affair. We’ll have decorations, a photo station, and good tunes. There is no dress code for the dance; come as you are, wearing what you would normally wear to school. 

2. Register for Jammin’ June and Math Camp

Registration for June Camp programs at Poly Lower will open on Monday, January 26, at 10:00 AM. Learn more here about Jammin June, Robochef, and Math and Motion! Space is limited. Registration is first-come, first-served.

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

Social Emotional Learning

• We have been exploring the “feelings thermometer," a tool for identifying emotions and how they feel energetically in the body. We’ll explore tools for when we are in the blue, yellow, and red zones to help us get back to the green zone such as breathing, movement, positive self-talk, and asking for help. 

  • Blue Zone: sad, bored, tired, sick, lonely

  • Green Zone: happy, calm, proud, focused, confident

  • Yellow Zone: worried, nervous, embarrassed, irritated, silly

  • Red Zone: angry, overwhelmed, scared, agitated, jealous 

Reading

• Five Finger Retell

  • Students have been learning a strategy called Five-Finger Retelling to help them think about and talk about stories. Using their fingers as a guide, children practice retelling the characters, setting, beginning, middle, and the ending of a story. This strategy helps students strengthen their comprehension by encouraging them to recall key details and explain what happened in their own words.

• Word of the week

  • The sight word of the week is see. Play Sight Word Go Fish. Using index cards, make three of four cards with one sight word. Shuffle the sight word cards and deal 5 cards to each player. Place the rest face down in a pile. Players look at their cards and try to make matches of the same sight word. If they have a match, they place the pair down. The first player asks another player, “Do you have the word ___?” If the player has that word, they give the card to the person who asked. If not, they say “Go fish!” and the player draws a card from the pile. If the drawn card matches, the player places the pair down. Players take turns asking for words. The player with the most matching pairs at the end wins.

• Learned sight words: and, the, a, I, to, do, he, me, she, we, my, you, your, was, said, of, like, have, how, are, has, her, his

• 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.

Fundations / Handwriting 

• Blending sounds

  • Tapping out sounds to blend

• Review of lowercase letters 

  • Review all of the lowercase letters

  • Review of uppercase letters O, P

• Fundations At Home Pack for Unit 2

  • The Fundations Home Fundations Home Support Pack Unit 2 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

• Letter Writing

  • Children will explore the five basic components of a friendly letter. They are learning to express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a structured and personalized manner. Our focus is on teaching them the essential elements of a friendly letter: the heading (short date), greeting, introduction, body, closing, and signature. 

Math

Numbers to 20 

• MIF School-to-Home Connections 

• Students will learn to group up to 20 objects by making a 10 and ones. Students will learn that numbers are composed of tens and ones.

• Students will extend their knowledge to order numbers within 20. They will learn to find missing numbers by counting on and back.

• Students will decompose numbers to 10 for numbers up to 20. Breaking down numbers into tens and ones helps students see the groupings, relationships, and patterns in numbers.

Social Studies

•  Arab American and SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) Heritage Month

  • We are introducing kindergarteners to the similarities and differences between these identities in a way that is clear and developmentally appropriate. While these groups may share connections, they are not the same—each has its own unique cultures, traditions, and histories. For more details on how we are framing these discussions, please refer to this document, which provides additional context for adult reference. 

• Women’s History Month 

  • We’ll continue learning about Women’s History Month, exploring the incredible contributions of women such as Jane Goodall, Greta Thunberg, Gladys West, Marsha P. Johnson, and Wangari Maathai, along with many others. We will discuss the important ways these women helped shape our world and how their work was sometimes overlooked or credited to others, specifically men. Learning their stories helps us understand why it’s so important to recognize and celebrate their achievements.

• Children will acknowledge and celebrate a woman in their own lives, whether a mother, grandmother, teacher, or family friend, by sharing why this person is important to them. Through this personal connection, we hope to help them appreciate the many ways women shape our lives and communities every day.

Anti-Racist Read Aloud

• Our anti-racist read-aloud this month is We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, a powerful story about Indigenous communities protecting the earth's water from pollution. The book connects beautifully to our current theme of agency—the idea that we all have the power to make a difference and stand up for what matters. Through this story, we will discuss how the young protagonist takes action to protect something precious, and we'll talk about ways we can use our voices and actions to care for our earth and our communities. We're excited to hear the children's ideas about how they can be protectors of the environment!

What You Can Do At Home

• Encourage your children to practice counting and comparing numbers in everyday situations, like at the supermarket. Ask questions such as “How many more apples do we need?” or “Which snack has fewer pieces?” to help them apply math in real-life contexts and strengthen their number sense. 

• March was Women’s History Month. At home, you can learn more about the women in your family and honor the people who care for you by trying some of these ideas: 

  • Read books: Read books about inspiring women. 

  • Ask questions: Talk with a parent, grandparent, aunt, or another grown-up about the women in your family. What were they good at? What did they love to do?

  • Share a story: Ask someone to tell a story about a woman in your family who was brave, kind, creative, or helped others.

  • Look at photos: Look through family photos and learn about the people in them.

  • Say thank you: Write or dictate a short thank-you note to a woman who helps you at home, school, or in your community.

• Story Retelling: After reading a book, ask your child to retell the story in order, using the five finger retell strategy. The thumb represents the characters in the story, the index finger represents the setting, the middle finger represents the beginning of the story, the ring finger represents the middle of the story and the pinky finger represents the end of the story.

• Sight words: Have your child practice spelling learned sight words in shaving cream or sand: a, the, and, I, to, do, he, me, she, we, you, your, was, said, like, have, how, are, has, of, her, his, see

• I Spy with Sounds: Play a sound-focused version of "I Spy." For example, say, "I spy something that starts with the sound /m/ or ends with /n/," and let your child guess objects around them - like kitten or storm.

• Number Hunt & Match: Write the numbers 11 to 20 on sticky notes and hide them around the house. Have your child find them and place them in order on a number line. For extra practice, give them a set of objects (e.g., buttons, blocks) to count and match to each number.

• Build and Count: Use LEGO bricks or blocks to build towers representing each number from 11 to 20. Encourage your child to count out loud as they stack. You can also challenge them to create two towers that add up to a specific number, reinforcing simple addition. 

• Fine Motor Skills: Practice fine motor skills with exercises like beading, buttoning, and 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.