Hi Parents!
September has arrived, and our school year has been fantastic so far! Thank you for being so conscientious about checking your child's red folder, for returning paperwork, and for initialing the behavior charts. Please continue to send in snacks and a weekly rest towel.
We have been working on learning routines and procedures. Listening and following directions have been our main emphasis, and we are thrilled with how well our class is doing. We always give the children several warnings and reminders before they have to move their clips. Using positive reinforcement has been the most effective practice that we use. We want to have the students enjoy learning and always try to do their best with an "I Can Try" attitude.
We really appreciate your willingness to help with literacy centers and coming in to be a Mystery Reader. Children love to see their families at school, and it's fun to see how hard the students work and to meet their friends. The class also really enjoys the letter-of-the-week snacks that are so generously donated.
We will be doing activities with the letters Tt, Mm, Nn, and Hh this month. The children need reinforcement identifying the letters and sounds of the lower-case letters. We are also learning basic sight words that require instant recognition. Please practice any word lists that your child may bring home.
Reading with your child for 20 minutes daily is important. List the name of the book or chapter that you read and at the end of the month a reward will be given when the Monthly Reading Log is returned.
In Math, we will be making and matching number sets, creating patterns using manipulatives, counting by ones, twos, fives, and tens, identifying and knowing the value of pennies, nickels, and dimes, making trades of pennies for nickels, writing numerals and number words, and using position words.
In Language Arts, our emphasis will be on identifying letters, knowing the letter sounds, writing the letters correctly and neatly, and writing words using Guess and Go spelling. This is where the children sound out the words to write as best as possible. We are reading and writing color words, and we're learning what good readers do and about text features of books and print.
In Social Studies, we will be learning our address, telephone number, city, state, country, and continent. Please work with your child on this.
We are studying animal mothers and their babies, similarities and differences, mammals, animal homes, and sorting animals by characteristics of their coverings and movements.
In Health, we will be learning about ways to prevent spreading germs, staying healthy, and about fire and bus safety.
The children absolutely love going to the computer lab each week with the lab teacher, Ms. Fine, who is funded solely through our Foundation. We also use computers during our center time.
Thank you for working with your child to make his/her cardboard figure look so sharp. They are adorable hanging in the hallway, and we are a family learning together and caring about each other.
We really appreciate all of the items and treats that have been sent in from our class wish list and for our Treasure Box. The students love receiving rewards for their warm fuzzies.
Thank you for ordering the teal blue kindergarten t-shirts that each child will wear for field trips and for class events.
It is so important that you send in a WRITTEN NOTE stating ANY CHANGES IN DISMISSAL for your child or any special school program that you enroll them in (like A.S.P., Cardio-Kids, Kid Chess, Drama, etc.). Enrollment forms for programs are located on the Mountain View website under Foundation.
Thank you for your Scholastic Book orders, too, that earn special books for our classroom.
Students should be able to identify the number of days in a week, months and seasons in a year, and say them in order. We do activities on the SmartBoard each day to reinforce this and all of our lessons, which the children enjoy.
IMPORTANT DATES:
September 5th - Labor Day, no school
8th - Library Day
9th - Class teal blue kindergarten t-shirt order and money due. Every student needs to have one to wear to class field trips and to Field Day.
13th - PTA/Foundation Booster-Thon fund raiser kickoff
15th - Library Day
22nd - Library Day
23rd - Booster-Thon Fun Run during school time (more info to come)
PTA Fall Festival from 6:00 to 9:00 (see you there!) This is an even that you won't want to miss.
26th - WellStar "Germ Quest" program in our classroom
28th - Fall School Pictures
29th - Library Day
October 24th-28th - Conference Week, Book Fair, Early Dismissal 1:30 daily with an early lunch
Every Friday, Chick-fil-A biscuits are sold for $3.00. Also, Fridays are Spirit Days where the children wear their Mountain View t-shirts. Thursdays are our library days, unless we have to schedule a Wednesday because of the media center availability.
Students need to wear gym shoes on P.E. days (Mondays and Thursdays) for safety.
Please consider putting extra money in your child's lunchroom account so that there is always enough money and your child won't have to make a charge. You can do this online or by sending in money. It is so much better for your child to only buy extra snacks or ice cream on special days, since it is difficult to monitor the children to have them eat their lunch first before eating the treats. A note to the cafeteria can block your child's account from having ice cream or add-on treats every day. Our normal lunch is 10:21-10:51.
Here are some great websites for practice:
www.starfall.com/
pbskids.org/
www.sitesforteachers.com/
www.kids.nationalgeographic.com/
Many thanks to our fabulous room mom, Jen-i DeBetta, who is coordinating our awesome center volunteers, readers, and classroom activities. We also appreciate our center moms and dads, and our snacks for the Letter-of-the-Week.
Please join PTA ($5) so that our class can win an ice cream party!
Thank you all for your incredible support. We have a super class! Ms. Linda and I feel so fortunate to be working in a partnership with you to make your child's kindergarten year be successful.
