4/13/26

Dear Families,

We are looking forward to Parent-Teacher Conferences this week! We can't wait to share all of the ways your child has grown as a reader, writer, mathematician, learner, and community member so far this school year. This week, we’ll be diving into our poetry unit in honor of Poetry Month. What a perfect time of year to explore this exciting form of writing! 

We look forward to connecting with you this week!

Important Dates

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

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

• April 18 - Earth Day and Park Cleanup event 

• April 20 - School Closed: Professional Day

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

• 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

• April 30 - K Field Trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

• May 13 - United Voices - 3:45 PM - 5:00 PM

• May 14 - Nursery, Pre-K, and Kindergarten Carousel Day, 8:30 AM - 12:30 PM

• May 22 - School Closed: Professional Day

• May 25 - School Closed: Memorial Day

• May 27 - School Closed: Eid al-Adha

Here are some important reminders for the week:

1. Mark your calendars! We have a field trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on April 30th. More details will be coming soon via email. If you'd like to join us as a chaperone, please let us know. We'd love to have you!

2. Kindergarten Family Literacy Night was rescheduled to Tuesday, April 28 at 5:30 PM. It’s a fun opportunity to read together as a community. 

3. All Poly families are invited to the Earth Day and Park Cleanup on Saturday, April 18, 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM in the Lower School Yard and Prospect Park. Join us to help care for our green spaces by removing trash from Prospect Park. We will also have Earth Day activities in the Lower School Yard available such as making seed balls for planting! Please note the indoor facilities in the LS will not be available, there are bathrooms in the Picnic House at Prospect Park. 

4. 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

• Fluency

  • “The Fantastic Four of Fluency”: rate, expression, punctuation, and phrasing (or as we call it, scooping up words)

  • Reader’s Theater 

• Word of the week

  • The sight word of the week is what. Play Sight Word Go Fish. Using index cards, make three or 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, see

• 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 Q, R

  • Digraphs: ch, sh, th

• 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

• Poetry

  • We will explore various types of poems, including acrostic poems, rhyming poems, shape poems, and sensory poems, through engaging activities and hands-on experiences.

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. 

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. 

• Read lots of poetry for Poetry Month! 

• Write a poem: Go on a walk and write a 5-senses poem with your child about what you saw, heard, smelled, and felt. Encourage the use of descriptive words and alliteration.

• 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.

• Fluency: When your child reads aloud, encourage them to match their voice to the punctuation and the story's mood. 

• 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.