.
For the month of May/June...
We are in the process of preparing ourselves to move toward first grade! It is amazing to see the children growing in so many ways. Remember that this is such an important time in your child's growth. It is in this particular year where your little one will mature in every aspect. A student must be taught to develop not only the skills that they need academically/socially but also to cultivate the tools they will be given to organize/manage/cope with new situations in a way that will benefit them in life. Some of them will need to foster work habits that will serve them well in school. Others will need help breaking bad habits in order to make way for new practices and routines It all begins now! We are constructing a strong foundation for them to build upon each year. You cannot build a house on sand...we cannot build a basis for a strong education on anything but solid ground. You may not always understand the process but take a leap of faith and believe in my motives and dedication to your children. Remember...their choices every day matters. Please let's work together on this.
Some dates to be aware of...
Monday, May 8th - Progress reports emailed home.
Monday, May 11th- iready testing begins
Wednesday, May 13th - $2.00 N.U.T. day
Thursday, May 14th - Ascension Thursday. School IS open.
Friday, May 15th -Walk-a-thon
Friday, May 22nd - 11:50 dismissal for K. Faculty meeting. NO AFTERSCHOOL.
Monday, May 25th - Memorial Day. No school.
Wednesday, June 17th - Kindergarten graduation. 9am. Last day of school for K.
Our May / June themes are fairy tales and ocean life.
In reading
We have completed every letter and are putting these letters together to sound out words. Rhyming words are a focus. We are also reading sentences and writing sentences using capital letters when needed and periods/question marks. Please encourage and monitor your children. They need to leave space between words in a sentence but not separate single words if they can't fit them on a line. We are distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds that are different and spelling simple words phonetically. Our weekly spelling tests have begun! We encourage oral expression in complete sentences (raising your hand first) and aural comprehension of stories. Let's work together to make sure that the children are practicing their handwriting. Help them determine if the are left-handed or right-handed. Discourage scribbling and guide them towards proper holding/grip of the pencil and careful writing and don't forget that on my class website there is a "Proper Letter Formation" title that you can click on and it will help YOU help your CHILDREN when writing. Some children form their letters/numbers from the bottom, up. This is incorrect. It is easier to learn to write properly the first time than to try and break bad habits. ****It's very important that we make strides with following directions. All learning stems from listening and then remembering to follow the oral directions given. Homework is a simple way to try to get the children to retain directions that were given in class. It is also a way to have the children rely on themselves and not ask mom/dad what they have to do. Specific directions are given to them that do not always comply with the directions written on the page. Parents are not privy to what was said in class so it becomes THEIR responsibility to not only listen, but to then retain that information. It is important to develop this skill because things learned must be retained over time! We will continue to focus on oral expression. It is very important that children get into the habit of speaking in full sentences and communicating their needs, wants and responses in clear ways. The ability to listen and follow directions will be a constant goal as these tools are required as the basic skills for all learning. Aural comprehension of a story is also valuable to develop early in a child's experiences. Your child should be able to listen to a story and answer, not only simple questions, but also those requiring critical thinking. for example....Why do you this this made the boy sad? Have you every felt that way? What else could the girl have done to solve the problem? What do you think will happen next? As you can see, this requires a deeper thought process than....where did the boy go? What color was his car? These questions are more literal and do not require much more than memory.
In math-
We are continuing our addition and subtraction units. We are still grouping sets into 10's and moving on to much larger numbers. We are dabbling into addition and working on our money unit which can be challenging. We are reviewing money and time units. We are continuing to identify whole, 1/2 an 1/4 parts. We are reviewing 3D shapes , graphing and tally marks. We are still reviewing ordinals (1st thru 10th). We are still working to strengthen our listening/following directions skills. We are still reviewing sorting by size and color, shapes, and patterns. We are also reviewing position words (below, top, middle, above, on, under, over, inside, outside, between) and using these terms when verbally expressing location. We are showing one-to-one correspondence between a number and its value, illustrating sets and identifying sets that have more or less. Drills will help me determine their experience with number recognition and number value. Sequential order (following a set a directives in order) will also be a focus which I also sneak into play with art projects.
In science-
We are focusing on our monthly theme of ocean life in June. We will continue to be focused on fighting germs and protecting ourselves from getting sick.
In social studies-
With May's theme of fairly tales, we will be focusing on life skills and lessons that the stories can teach us. Ex. Stranger danger with Little Red ridingHood, being a good neighbor with The Three Little Pigs, self-esteem with Cinderella etc. In correlation with religious values, we will always discuss (in an age appropriate way) good citizenship and fairness and how we need to be aware of God's intention that we are all one in His eyes and loved and valued equally.
In writing/ fine motor skills-
We are focusing on our coordination skills regarding how to hold a pencil and to apply the proper pressure to write. We are working on writing our name (both first and last) with only the first letter capitalized. Practicing the proper size of the letters on a given paper with guidelines will be in constant review. We will be copying from the board to strengthen our eye/hand coordination.
**Please refer to the web page titled "proper letter formation" for very specific directions regarding how they should be writing each particular letter/number. We are focusing on neatness which includes using the lines on our handwriting paper properly and taking pride in our work. Our handwriting must be able to be clearly understood by others. Handwriting is a skill that needs constant practice and review at home. Please watch your child as they write. They should be should be writing from the top, down...not from the bottom up. We need to break children of this habit now because when they move on to writing in script, this will complicate the flow of writing. Proper formation of our letters and our numbers is a priority.Neat/readable handwriting is an important form of communication.
****I have also sent home a guideline for you in your child's folders on the first day to help parents understand how we are teaching letter/number formation and how to use the lines. I hope this has been helpful. We have a special problem solving formula which is using our Listen, STOP, Think and Then Do technique. We will also stress rules for classroom discussions (look at the person speaking, take turns talking, raise your hands etc.) We also want the children to listen with a sense of purpose and develop aural comprehension of stories. Expressing themselves using full sentences and expanding their complete sentences with more information in shared language activities is also important. Understanding question words such as who, what, when, where, why and how will be stressed. Many times in school we ask the children a "why" question and they respond with a completely off track answer such as "I like the story" or "Yesterday my cousins came over my house". Ummm....that wasn't an answer to the question I asked. I am also now looking for more detailed responses to my questions.
**** I have made you aware of our homework schedule above. I do not list the actual homework and directions because this is a way to strengthen and test the children's ability to retain information/instructions given to them with a time lapse. It also makes the homework THEIR responsibility and forces them to rely less on their parents. (Please refer to the homework page on this website).
***Remember that you need to decide the best time for homework to be done. Some children need to do it right away when they get home or else they loose momentum. Other children require a bit of a break when they get home from school and do not have a problem getting back into work mode without a struggle later on. You will need to determine what will work best for your child. Please avoid doing homework in front of the T.V. This takes focus away from the task and sends the message that homework is not that important. Please do not write your child's name on their paper for them or do any of their coloring for them. Homework is their responsibility and these tasks provide further practice for them.
As you read the subject objectives above, you will see that much is expected of our children as per the common core curriculum. Proper classroom behavior can enhance or distract us from our goal. That is why our folder's behavior chart that we will discuss on Open House night is so valuable. You can help us keep our children on track and participating in good classroom management by reinforcing our needs to give your children the best learning environment possible!
We will be focusing on following the classroom rules for both safety and learning. Children are encouraged to LOOK at the person speaking and to take turns when talking.
****WORTH REPEATING.....Listening with purpose and developing aural expression is important. When children begin answering questions posed to them from a story such as "Was the boy happy?", they should be able to reply and supply specific reasons for their answer from the story read to them to back up their response. This is an important skill that will be built upon every year.
The emphasis will continue to be on listening and following directions. All learning stems from developing listening skills. Oral expression will be encouraged. They need to speak using full sentences...producing and expanding complete thoughts in shared language experiences. It is important that children speak in complete, clear sentences. We will be focusing on answering question words...who, what, when, where, why and how.
******* The learning technique that I call..."Listen, STOP, Think and then Do" will be continued in class. Young children sometimes listen to only bits of what someone says and then rush ahead to complete a task. This often results in careless mistakes. I tell the class that before they pick up a pencil or raise their hand to reply to a question, they should listen carefully to what is being said and then STOP. They need a chance to process the information/request before they charge forward. When they stop themselves, at that point they are asked to THINK about what they need to do next. Only after they take the time to formulate the information should they begin to DO. This technique forces the children to slow down their actions until they have a clear understanding of the task at hand.
Aural comprehension of a story is tested. Questions that require critical analysis is a valuable way to evaluate whether a child understands information read to them and helps them often a deeper awareness of the material. Literal questions such as, "Where did the boy in the story live?" or "What color was the room?" are fine but it is also important to delve into a more substantial thought process such as, "How do you think the boy felt when that happened? Why did he feel that way? Have you every felt that way and why?" This requires the child to internalize the story and look for content in the story to support their answer. These are little steps that will prepare their ability to process information in general not only in Kindergarten but in grades to come!
***Art in my class, aside from work done in art class with their art teacher, has many different purposes. I use art to develop their ability to follow directions, specific sequencing to get a finished result, practice their fine motor skills etc.
*** In religion will will focus on the Our Father. We are a "class family" is stressed. Showing kindness to each other makes God happy. Religion is not treated as a subject in our class. It is a part of our lives all the time in what we do and how we act and how we treat others. We have been talking about how we are a "class family". Even though we go home to different houses and have different parents, we are still all God's children and are all brothers and sisters of Jesus. We know no child in our room is better than another because God made us all special and loves us all the same. We are learning the Our Father through song because singing is a way to pray too. The children have been taught to make the sign of the cross whenever they hear a police, ambulance or fire truck siren. This means that somewhere someone is in trouble and needs our prayers to keep them safe. As we make the sign of the cross and move our hands, we say (either out loud or inside our heads) Father, watch, over, them. The children have been encouraged to share with you/teach to do it too. Part of our mission as Christians is to be ready to offer our prayers for others.
Please be aware that we are also working on the LURES program (please look on my website for more specific information) which will be discussing what types of affection if okay and what is not. Beginning in April thru June, the social worker/psychologist will be coming to the K classes to talk about personal safety in various scenarios.
For the month of May/June...
We are in the process of preparing ourselves to move toward first grade! It is amazing to see the children growing in so many ways. Remember that this is such an important time in your child's growth. It is in this particular year where your little one will mature in every aspect. A student must be taught to develop not only the skills that they need academically/socially but also to cultivate the tools they will be given to organize/manage/cope with new situations in a way that will benefit them in life. Some of them will need to foster work habits that will serve them well in school. Others will need help breaking bad habits in order to make way for new practices and routines It all begins now! We are constructing a strong foundation for them to build upon each year. You cannot build a house on sand...we cannot build a basis for a strong education on anything but solid ground. You may not always understand the process but take a leap of faith and believe in my motives and dedication to your children. Remember...their choices every day matters. Please let's work together on this.
Some dates to be aware of...
Monday, May 8th - Progress reports emailed home.
Monday, May 11th- iready testing begins
Wednesday, May 13th - $2.00 N.U.T. day
Thursday, May 14th - Ascension Thursday. School IS open.
Friday, May 15th -Walk-a-thon
Friday, May 22nd - 11:50 dismissal for K. Faculty meeting. NO AFTERSCHOOL.
Monday, May 25th - Memorial Day. No school.
Wednesday, June 17th - Kindergarten graduation. 9am. Last day of school for K.
Our May / June themes are fairy tales and ocean life.
In reading
We have completed every letter and are putting these letters together to sound out words. Rhyming words are a focus. We are also reading sentences and writing sentences using capital letters when needed and periods/question marks. Please encourage and monitor your children. They need to leave space between words in a sentence but not separate single words if they can't fit them on a line. We are distinguishing between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds that are different and spelling simple words phonetically. Our weekly spelling tests have begun! We encourage oral expression in complete sentences (raising your hand first) and aural comprehension of stories. Let's work together to make sure that the children are practicing their handwriting. Help them determine if the are left-handed or right-handed. Discourage scribbling and guide them towards proper holding/grip of the pencil and careful writing and don't forget that on my class website there is a "Proper Letter Formation" title that you can click on and it will help YOU help your CHILDREN when writing. Some children form their letters/numbers from the bottom, up. This is incorrect. It is easier to learn to write properly the first time than to try and break bad habits. ****It's very important that we make strides with following directions. All learning stems from listening and then remembering to follow the oral directions given. Homework is a simple way to try to get the children to retain directions that were given in class. It is also a way to have the children rely on themselves and not ask mom/dad what they have to do. Specific directions are given to them that do not always comply with the directions written on the page. Parents are not privy to what was said in class so it becomes THEIR responsibility to not only listen, but to then retain that information. It is important to develop this skill because things learned must be retained over time! We will continue to focus on oral expression. It is very important that children get into the habit of speaking in full sentences and communicating their needs, wants and responses in clear ways. The ability to listen and follow directions will be a constant goal as these tools are required as the basic skills for all learning. Aural comprehension of a story is also valuable to develop early in a child's experiences. Your child should be able to listen to a story and answer, not only simple questions, but also those requiring critical thinking. for example....Why do you this this made the boy sad? Have you every felt that way? What else could the girl have done to solve the problem? What do you think will happen next? As you can see, this requires a deeper thought process than....where did the boy go? What color was his car? These questions are more literal and do not require much more than memory.
In math-
We are continuing our addition and subtraction units. We are still grouping sets into 10's and moving on to much larger numbers. We are dabbling into addition and working on our money unit which can be challenging. We are reviewing money and time units. We are continuing to identify whole, 1/2 an 1/4 parts. We are reviewing 3D shapes , graphing and tally marks. We are still reviewing ordinals (1st thru 10th). We are still working to strengthen our listening/following directions skills. We are still reviewing sorting by size and color, shapes, and patterns. We are also reviewing position words (below, top, middle, above, on, under, over, inside, outside, between) and using these terms when verbally expressing location. We are showing one-to-one correspondence between a number and its value, illustrating sets and identifying sets that have more or less. Drills will help me determine their experience with number recognition and number value. Sequential order (following a set a directives in order) will also be a focus which I also sneak into play with art projects.
In science-
We are focusing on our monthly theme of ocean life in June. We will continue to be focused on fighting germs and protecting ourselves from getting sick.
In social studies-
With May's theme of fairly tales, we will be focusing on life skills and lessons that the stories can teach us. Ex. Stranger danger with Little Red ridingHood, being a good neighbor with The Three Little Pigs, self-esteem with Cinderella etc. In correlation with religious values, we will always discuss (in an age appropriate way) good citizenship and fairness and how we need to be aware of God's intention that we are all one in His eyes and loved and valued equally.
In writing/ fine motor skills-
We are focusing on our coordination skills regarding how to hold a pencil and to apply the proper pressure to write. We are working on writing our name (both first and last) with only the first letter capitalized. Practicing the proper size of the letters on a given paper with guidelines will be in constant review. We will be copying from the board to strengthen our eye/hand coordination.
**Please refer to the web page titled "proper letter formation" for very specific directions regarding how they should be writing each particular letter/number. We are focusing on neatness which includes using the lines on our handwriting paper properly and taking pride in our work. Our handwriting must be able to be clearly understood by others. Handwriting is a skill that needs constant practice and review at home. Please watch your child as they write. They should be should be writing from the top, down...not from the bottom up. We need to break children of this habit now because when they move on to writing in script, this will complicate the flow of writing. Proper formation of our letters and our numbers is a priority.Neat/readable handwriting is an important form of communication.
****I have also sent home a guideline for you in your child's folders on the first day to help parents understand how we are teaching letter/number formation and how to use the lines. I hope this has been helpful. We have a special problem solving formula which is using our Listen, STOP, Think and Then Do technique. We will also stress rules for classroom discussions (look at the person speaking, take turns talking, raise your hands etc.) We also want the children to listen with a sense of purpose and develop aural comprehension of stories. Expressing themselves using full sentences and expanding their complete sentences with more information in shared language activities is also important. Understanding question words such as who, what, when, where, why and how will be stressed. Many times in school we ask the children a "why" question and they respond with a completely off track answer such as "I like the story" or "Yesterday my cousins came over my house". Ummm....that wasn't an answer to the question I asked. I am also now looking for more detailed responses to my questions.
**** I have made you aware of our homework schedule above. I do not list the actual homework and directions because this is a way to strengthen and test the children's ability to retain information/instructions given to them with a time lapse. It also makes the homework THEIR responsibility and forces them to rely less on their parents. (Please refer to the homework page on this website).
***Remember that you need to decide the best time for homework to be done. Some children need to do it right away when they get home or else they loose momentum. Other children require a bit of a break when they get home from school and do not have a problem getting back into work mode without a struggle later on. You will need to determine what will work best for your child. Please avoid doing homework in front of the T.V. This takes focus away from the task and sends the message that homework is not that important. Please do not write your child's name on their paper for them or do any of their coloring for them. Homework is their responsibility and these tasks provide further practice for them.
As you read the subject objectives above, you will see that much is expected of our children as per the common core curriculum. Proper classroom behavior can enhance or distract us from our goal. That is why our folder's behavior chart that we will discuss on Open House night is so valuable. You can help us keep our children on track and participating in good classroom management by reinforcing our needs to give your children the best learning environment possible!
We will be focusing on following the classroom rules for both safety and learning. Children are encouraged to LOOK at the person speaking and to take turns when talking.
****WORTH REPEATING.....Listening with purpose and developing aural expression is important. When children begin answering questions posed to them from a story such as "Was the boy happy?", they should be able to reply and supply specific reasons for their answer from the story read to them to back up their response. This is an important skill that will be built upon every year.
The emphasis will continue to be on listening and following directions. All learning stems from developing listening skills. Oral expression will be encouraged. They need to speak using full sentences...producing and expanding complete thoughts in shared language experiences. It is important that children speak in complete, clear sentences. We will be focusing on answering question words...who, what, when, where, why and how.
******* The learning technique that I call..."Listen, STOP, Think and then Do" will be continued in class. Young children sometimes listen to only bits of what someone says and then rush ahead to complete a task. This often results in careless mistakes. I tell the class that before they pick up a pencil or raise their hand to reply to a question, they should listen carefully to what is being said and then STOP. They need a chance to process the information/request before they charge forward. When they stop themselves, at that point they are asked to THINK about what they need to do next. Only after they take the time to formulate the information should they begin to DO. This technique forces the children to slow down their actions until they have a clear understanding of the task at hand.
Aural comprehension of a story is tested. Questions that require critical analysis is a valuable way to evaluate whether a child understands information read to them and helps them often a deeper awareness of the material. Literal questions such as, "Where did the boy in the story live?" or "What color was the room?" are fine but it is also important to delve into a more substantial thought process such as, "How do you think the boy felt when that happened? Why did he feel that way? Have you every felt that way and why?" This requires the child to internalize the story and look for content in the story to support their answer. These are little steps that will prepare their ability to process information in general not only in Kindergarten but in grades to come!
***Art in my class, aside from work done in art class with their art teacher, has many different purposes. I use art to develop their ability to follow directions, specific sequencing to get a finished result, practice their fine motor skills etc.
*** In religion will will focus on the Our Father. We are a "class family" is stressed. Showing kindness to each other makes God happy. Religion is not treated as a subject in our class. It is a part of our lives all the time in what we do and how we act and how we treat others. We have been talking about how we are a "class family". Even though we go home to different houses and have different parents, we are still all God's children and are all brothers and sisters of Jesus. We know no child in our room is better than another because God made us all special and loves us all the same. We are learning the Our Father through song because singing is a way to pray too. The children have been taught to make the sign of the cross whenever they hear a police, ambulance or fire truck siren. This means that somewhere someone is in trouble and needs our prayers to keep them safe. As we make the sign of the cross and move our hands, we say (either out loud or inside our heads) Father, watch, over, them. The children have been encouraged to share with you/teach to do it too. Part of our mission as Christians is to be ready to offer our prayers for others.
Please be aware that we are also working on the LURES program (please look on my website for more specific information) which will be discussing what types of affection if okay and what is not. Beginning in April thru June, the social worker/psychologist will be coming to the K classes to talk about personal safety in various scenarios.