Kindergarten Newsletter
September 6-10
Back to School!
Welcome back to school!! We hope everyone has had a wonderful Labor Day weekend and is ready to jump back into Kindergarten! For some students, this is a returning year in which the expectations will be to improve and expand upon all that was learned last year. For others just entering our Kindergarten program, the structure and routine will be a bit different, but all will soon fall into place as expectations and rules are established.
There are a number of different projects planned for this week that will assist us in getting to know one another in addition to establishing rules of the classroom. Please read on to find out what we have in store!
Handwriting: Each week we will be working on a new handwriting letter. During our handwriting time today we will be working on stop and go fingers (the appropriate fingers used to grasp a pencil). We will also be kneading, squishing, and pounding play dough to build hand strength.
Counting the first 100 days of School: Counting the days of school each morning is a painless way to teach children how to count to one hundred by ones. They also learn how to count by tens to one hundred, by fives to fifty and by twos to twenty. The repetition really does work. We will celebrate the 100th day of school with an entire week's worth of celebration!
Show and Tell: We will be starting show and tell this week! Each Wednesday throughout the school year the students will get a chance to bring in something from home to share with the class. For Show and Tell this week, students may bring in an item related to school. Each student will describe their object and give others an opportunity to guess what they brought in based on the clues given!
Learning and Art Experiences:
* Painting letters and numbers to decorate the classroom
* Writing and drawing our favorite things about Kindergarten
* Practicing to write and recognize our names
* Coming up with classroom rules
* Easel painting a self portrait
* Decorating a name to hang on the wall
Books:
* Does a Panda Go To School? by Fred Ehrlich
* Back to School by Maya Ajmera
* School ABC: An Alphabet Book by Amanda Doering
* Five Little Monkeys Go Shopping by Eileen Christelow
* The Berenstain Bears Discover School (DVD)
* Number 1 Teacher: A School Counting Book by Steven Layne
* First Day at School by Monica Hughes
* Froggy Goes to School by Jonathon London
* Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten by Joseph Slate
Word Wall: A word wall is an organized collection of words displayed on a wall in a classroom. The sight words we work on are intended to:
* Provide reference support for children during their reading and writing
* Promote independence on the part of young students as they work with words in writing and reading
* Provide a visual map to help children remember connections between words and the characteristics that will help them form categories
* Develop a growing core of words that become part of a reading and writing vocabulary
As we build our word wall, we will initially just be adding the names of the friends in our class! This may take 3 or 4 weeks as we just add a name a day.
Journal Focus: Each day the Kindergarteners work in a journal. Our journals help us to work on our fine motor skills, drawing and writing. This week we will be working on drawing about our first week at school and practicing to write our names!
Field Trip News: Upcoming field trips for the beginning of the year include:
* Tuesday, September 14th - Schlitz Audubon Center
* Wednesday, September 29th - Nieman Markets in Cedarburg for apple picking
* Tuesday, October 5th - The North Shore Fire Department will come to visit
Housekeeping: Our new classroom schedule will begin on Tuesday, September 7th. The biggest difference in the schedule will be choosing whether or not to eat breakfast. It will be offered between 8:15 and 8:45. Anyone interested in eating breakfast should participate during that time OR wait until lunch at 11:35.