March '09 This is the last quarter of the school year. The class has done a great job this year and they are all excited about going to first grade. We want to make the most of our last few weeks of kindergarten. We will be doing addition and subtraction as well as continuing to practice trading coins in math. As always, we need to remember how to count with ordinal numbers and how to write all numbers to 20. Please continue to practice the sight words for homework. Your children should know how to spell them at this point. We are writing short stories and I can see that many of the students do know how to spell the sight words. Continue to read the take-home books for homework. Your child should be sounding out words as they read. The class goes to the computer lab every Wednesday and we use lap tops in our room on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are learning to keyboard and to use keys such as the shift, caps lock,and backspace. It would help your child if they could practice these funcions on your computer at home. Here are some great academic websites I recommend for your kids: Starfall(you already know about that one), abcya.com, and pbskids.com. <>Don't forget to practice money recognition. The students need to be able to recognize a one dollar bill, quarter, nickel, dime and a penny. A fun way to help your child learn these is to let them help you count out change while you are shopping. There are poems in their poetry notebook to help reinforce recognition of the four coins and the one dollar bill. Your child should be writing their name with a capital at the beginning and the rest lower case lowers. This will be checked on the report card. At this time of the school year, they should be using lower case letters and capital letters when appropriate. If you notice your child using capitals incorrectly in their writing please call it to their attention. The children have done a great job learning all the upper and lower case letters. They need to focus on forming the letters correctly. This is also a skill checked on the report card.
Continue to read with your child on school nights. Do not forget to send back the reading logs at the end of the month. These logs go in their portfolio and they will receive a Pizza Hut coupon when they are returned.
Always remember...
In Kindergarten we are leaning lots of new and exciting skills and having fun while we are doing it. There are some important things that parents and students need to remember as part of their Kindergarten reponsibilities.
- Homework-Read every school night with parents. Your child should use D'Nealin handwriting and remember to use lower case letters. Don't forget to review the letter sounds while you are reading with your children.
- Students should practice writing their names correctly.
- Parents should check folders every night removing all papers.
- Please place all notes and money in our communication folder.
- Don't forget a healthy snack everyday. Please no sweets and no drinks for a snack.
- Towels will go home on Fridays to be washed and returned on Monday.
- All transportation changes must be in writing.
- Do not forget to wear sneakers on P.E. days.
