Newsletter Archive - 4/27/26

Dear Families,

What a wonderful Grandparents and Special Friends Day we had! Thank you to all the grandparents and special friends who joined us. The children sang loud and proud in the gym and absolutely loved sharing their classroom and school day with our special visitors. It was a memorable morning for everyone!

We have an exciting week ahead! We hope you can make it to the Family Literacy Night on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, we invite you to join us for our Kindergarten Spring Celebration at 8:45! The children will perform a May Day dance to welcome spring. And lastly, we’re looking forward to our trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Thursday. As a reminder, students will need to bring a nut-free lunch on that day.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Important Dates

• 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 20 - K Field Trip to the NY Aquarium

• 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. Please help us keep our classroom a focused learning environment by leaving toys at home. We've noticed an increase in children bringing toys to school, which can lead to distraction and conflict over sharing. High-value items like collectibles (such as Labubus or similar toys) should especially stay at home. If your child needs a comfort item, they may bring one small stuffed animal that can stay in their backpack and be taken out during Choice Time if needed. Thank you for your understanding and support!

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. Our trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is this Thursday, April 30th. Please remember to pack a nut-free lunch and a water bottle for your child on that day. Glass bottles are not permitted in the garden. 

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 all. Play Sight Word Memory. Choose 6-8 sight words and write each word on two index cards to create pairs. Arrange all cards face down in an array for a game of memory.

• 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, what, who

• 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 U, V

  • New digraph: ck (rule: ck is used when you hear the /k/ sound at the end of a word with a short vowel sound, such as luck, back, sock) 

  • 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.

  • Poetic devices we’ll explore: the five senses, alliteration, similes, onomatopoeia, rhythm, rhyme, repetition 

Math

Addition

• MIF School-to-Home Connections 

• Skills your child will practice include: 

  • adding by putting together and adding to

  • using addition facts to 5 to add

  • counting on to add numbers to 10

  • writing and solving addition sentences

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. 

• 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 by forming them with playdough: a, the, and, I, to, do, he, me, she, we, you, your, was, said, like, have, how, are, has, of, her, his, see, what, who, all

• Identify the vowel: Give your child a word with a short vowel sound in the middle. Ask them to “roller coaster it” (we do this activity daily during our phonemic awareness drills) to hear the sound in the middle, or at the top of the roller coaster. 

• Math Walk: Take a walk around your neighborhood or backyard. Look for objects to count (e.g., trees, flowers, birds). Create addition problems based on what you see (e.g., "If we see 2 squirrels and 3 birds, how many animals did we see altogether?"). Use fingers or objects found during the walk to help solve the problem

• 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.