We had a wonderful week last week with 100 Day and Kindness Week. The culmination of Kindness Week was taking our "kindness chain" and combining it with all the other classes that were also making kindness chains. We had three 3rd grade classes plus Mrs. Barbara's class, and our class, out on the kindergarten playground combining our chains. It was very impactful! I will link pictures of this in a separate email.
Language Arts
We will introduce the digraph ck this week. Our sight word is this.
A big emphasis right now is using our knowledge of letter sounds, digraphs, word families, and sight words to write simple sentences. Children need to be able to put together a readable sentence on their own by the end of kindergarten. Encourage your children to write and spell phonetically as often as possible to build their abilities as independent writers. Try to resist the temptation to spell words for them if they ask, rather, encourage them to "stretch the word out" and put down all the sounds they hear themselves. They can write notes to you, grocery lists, cards for family members, etc.
We will continue reading and writing with a snow theme. We will read Elmer in the Snow by David McKee this week and do a fun art project. We will also read books about Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year.
Math
We are beginning Module 5 this week: Numbers 10-20; Count to 100 by 1s and 10s. We will be breaking teen numbers into "a ten and some ones," continuing to use number bonds and ten frames to model teen numbers as a ten and some ones, and continuing to reinforce counting to 100 by 10s and 1s, which we've been doing on a daily basis during calendar time. Parent tips for this module can be found here.
Kimochis/SEL
Last week, we had a Cornerstone lesson, presented by Kassie (Porter's mom). The lesson was on managing anger/frustrated feelings. Kassie read the book, "When Sophie Gets Angry, Really Really Angry" and had a discussion with the students about appropriate ways to manage feelings. The children enjoyed practicing breathing techniques and a few yoga poses.
Of course, we also had Kindness Week last week. I was so impressed with the things students were doing to be kind! It was wonderful emphasizing kind acts in the classroom, as well as at home. I hope you benefitted from plenty of kind acts in your home last week! Aside from the kindness chain, students designed their own "Kind" Kimochi. We also had a discussion where I read different scenarios, and children decided whether or not those were kind acts, and why.
UPCOMING
Snow Day:
Snow Day will be on Friday. This is a day when the children come to school all dressed in their snow gear-- whatever items you have. Mittens, knit hats, jackets, snow boots, scarves, goggles, etc. are all welcome! Please do not buy anything special for this day, just use what you have or borrow from a friend. They wear their gear, and then we will be having a "snowball fight" among all our K classes using wadded up recycled paper just after our 10:30 recess. Following the fight, we will enjoy some hot cocoa. Children should bring a separate bag for their snow gear for taking on and off, as it gets too warm wearing some of those items all day. They also tend to get lost if we don't have a place to put them. If they fit in your child's backpack, that is fine too. Our centers that day will all be snow-themed. It is always lots of fun.
**If your child has a dairy allergy or cannot have dairy, please send a thermos of their own hot cocoa to enjoy with us. We will not have marshmallows this time, only candy sprinkles, on our hot cocoa.
Valentine's Day:
On Monday, February 14th, we will be celebrating Valentine's Day in class. We do not have a party, we just pass out valentine cards. Just to give you some advance notice (since I know your children will be eagerly shopping for/making Valentines soon!) in kindergarten, we have the kids sign their valentines, but we do not have them write who the valentine is "to." This makes distribution MUCH easier. So please sign the cards, but leave the "to" box blank. I prefer valentines without candy attached because it gets to be a bit much when everyone has candy. There are cute valentines that have mazes and stickers-- please consider those instead. Please send in 24 valentines so that there are enough for each child in the class. Thanks!
**Children should return library books by Tuesday, so they can check out a new book on Wednesday.
**We have P.E. every Monday. Please send your children in shoes & clothes appropriate for fitness
