I hope that the journal writing has gone successfully this week. My goal is that the children are excited about writing, not stressed out by it, so please let me know if there were any problems. A few other reminders about the journals:
- Writing should always be in PENCIL.
- Above the writing, in the blank box, children should draw a neat, (at least) four-color picture.
- Encourage your children to spell high-frequency words that we've introduced correctly.
- Please DO NOT copy a sentence from the book.
We have a new letter this week, Ff, and the Alphafriend is Fifi Fish. We have a new sight word, we. Please review the "High Frequency Word" tab on the right to learn which words we've introduced. A good way to practice reading and spelling the sight words is by logging onto http://www.spellingcity.com/k2grist. "Missing Letter" and "Audio Word Match" are great games for younger players. The link to this site is also on the right.
We will continue our math topic on numbers to 20. Please continue reinforcing these numbers at home with flashcards, especially if you've noticed your child having difficulty recognizing them. Especially difficult seem to be 12, 13, and 15, because they don't follow the pattern of "number in the ones place" plus "the word teen," like fourteen, sixteen, etc. Also, subtraction needs continued reinforcement as we wrapped this up before the holidays, and many children had a hard time with it.
We have Martin Luther King's birthday holiday coming up. We will be talking about him in class and doing some art projects. When we discuss MLK, we will discuss some of the discrimination that took place in the past, and how he helped change that. So if you hear your children asking questions about that, you will know why. We try to keep it fairly simple in kindergarten in terms that they can understand and relate to.
This week's share will be Book Share. Friday children can share any other day this week. Please have your children choose a book and be ready to tell the title, a bit about what it's about, and have a favorite page bookmarked. We will also continue with wintery-themed art projects this week.
We continue to need glue sticks & baby wipes if you can donate those-- thank you!
Also-- please take note below at some new special events that have been posted. They are-- Snow Day: children will dress up in whatever snow gear they have-- hats, mittens, coats, scarves, etc. and we will have a fake snowball fight with K1. 100 Day-- we celebrate the 100th day of school with some special activities. Also there will be special homework that week. First Field trip!! We will go to the Sunnyvale Community Center to see a play-- please note that the afternoon class will be on a Wacky Wednesday schedule.
We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow, Blue Bags in hand!
Upcoming Events:
1/18: Staff Development Day, no school
1/21: MLK Day, no school
1/25: Snow Day-- children dress up in snow gear
1/30: January's Wacky Wednesday
1/31: 100 Day-- celebration of the 100th day of school
2/13: Special Wacky Wednesday for field trip to see a play
2/18-2/22: President's Week: No School
