Newsletter Archive - 5/4/26

Dear Families,

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Spring Celebration last Wednesday! It was a wonderful opportunity to come together as a community as we, hopefully, welcome more consistent spring weather! The students were so proud to share the songs and dances they had been practicing with Ms. Courtney and Mr. Stephen. We wrapped up the week with a special trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where students enjoyed smelling the flowers, admiring their beauty, and discussing the similarities and differences between tropical and temperate rainforests!

May is full of learning and celebration in our classroom! It is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we will be learning about diverse cultures, identities, and traditions. It is also Mental Health Awareness Month, when we will focus on caring for our feelings, building empathy, and practicing strategies to support our well-being.

This week, we’re diving into our ocean and rainforest studies, where we’ll discover amazing creatures, explore vibrant ecosystems, and learn ways we can help care for our planet.

Important Dates

• 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. Carousel Day is Thursday, May 14th. If your child will not have an adult present, please let us know ASAP so that we may buddy them with another family.

2. We warmly invite families into our classroom to celebrate SWANA Heritage Month or Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Families are also welcome to connect with one another to combine presentations. We'd love for students to hear from multiple perspectives! Please email us if you are interested.

3. 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!

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 

• We will also focus on Ubuntu, a powerful idea from parts of Africa that means “I am because we are.” To help students understand this concept, we will read I Am You: A Book About Ubuntu by Refiloe Moahloli. Ubuntu teaches us that we are all connected and that our actions affect others. When one person is kind, it spreads kindness. When someone needs help, we support them because we are part of a community that cares for one another. In simple terms for our classroom, Ubuntu means: we look out for each other, we include everyone, and we work together. By focusing on Ubuntu, we aim to build empathy and a strong sense of belonging, helping students see that each of them plays an important role in making our classroom a kind and connected community.

Throughout the week, we will practice Ubuntu by:

• Helping classmates when they need support

• Using kind and respectful words

• Sharing materials and taking turns

• Noticing when someone feels left out and inviting them to join

• Celebrating each other’s successes

Reading

•  Nonfiction Text Features:

  • Purpose: Non-fiction books teach us and give us information 

  • Nonfiction text features help locate important information in a text

    • table of contents, headings, photographs, captions, diagrams, labels

• Comprehension skills:

  • Reading with fluency and expression

    • For kindergarteners, fluency means that children are developing the ability to read smoothly and effortlessly, by rereading and “scooping words or phrases together.”  This skill is foundational for comprehension, allowing them to understand the meaning of the words and the story they're exploring.

    • Expression in reading adds a special touch to the storytelling experience. When kindergarteners are reading with expression, it means they are infusing their voices with different tones, pitches, and emotions. It's like bringing the characters and events to life through their voice.

• Word of the week

  • The sight word of the week is they. 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, all

• 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 W, X

  • 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

• As children learn to identify and describe common nonfiction text features such as headings, labels, and captions, they will begin to create their own text features to accompany their writing. This could involve drawing a picture and adding a simple label or caption to describe it.

• The children will also be introduced to the concept of “taking notes” by encouraging students to jot down keywords or phrases while reading non-fiction texts or listening to information about ocean animals. They will learn how to focus on important facts or details. After taking notes, students will transform at least one note or sentence fragment into a complete sentence during each writing activity. These pieces of writing will become nonfiction books about the students’ ocean animals of interest.

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

• May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This month, we’ll read My Name is Yoon by Helen Recorvits and Ohana Means Family by Ilima Loomis. AAPI Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the rich cultures, histories, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. In our classroom, we will explore themes of identity, belonging, family, and community, helping students understand and appreciate both similarities and differences among people. Learning about diverse cultures builds empathy, respect, and a stronger sense of connection to the world around us.

• May is also Mental Health Awareness Month, and in kindergarten, we approach this important topic in ways that feel safe, simple, and empowering. Just like we talk about taking care of our bodies by exercising, eating healthy foods, and getting enough sleep, we also talk about ways we can take care of our minds and brains. We introduce ideas like sharing our feelings with people we trust, taking deep breaths when we feel upset, practicing kindness to ourselves and others, and making time to rest and play. Our goal is to help children understand that caring for our mental health is just as important as caring for our physical health, and that there are many small, everyday things we can do to feel strong, calm, and connected.

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

• AAPI Heritage Month: Read books or watch shows that feature Asian American and Pacific Islander characters and stories; Look at a map and find countries in Asia and the Pacific Islands; Talk about your family’s traditions and what makes your family special; Explore different foods together and discuss where they come from; Encourage conversations about names, identity, and what makes each person unique. 

• Comparing quantities: 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. 

• Write a haiku poem: Go on a walk, notice nature, and write a haiku poem with your child about what you saw, heard, smelled, and felt. Haiku poems follow the pattern of five syllables for the first line, seven syllables for the second line, and give syllables for the third line. 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

• 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.