It’s hard to believe that January has come to an end and we have begun a new month. This past Monday marked the 90th day of school-we are half way through kindergarten!
Reminder: Science night is next Friday, February 8th. There is a sign-up hanging outside of the classroom if your child is interested in participating.
WELCOME
Please join me in welcoming Camila and her family to Horace Mann and to KB. We are excited to have this new friend with us and we have been working hard to help her feel like a member of our KB family!
BALANCED LITERACY
Phonics: This month in Fundations we will learn the following letters and their sounds: Ll (Ll-lamp-/l/), Hh (Hh-hat-/h/), Kk (Kk-kite-/c/), Pp-pan-/p/, Jj-jug-/j.
Writing: In Writers’ Workshop we will continue learning about how to make our stories easier to read. We will be working on adding spaces between the words, writing neatly and writing letters for every word. We are also focusing on adding details to our stories. This month we will also be learning how to talk about our stories as well as giving helpful suggestions to our peers about how they can add details make their story easier for their reader to understand. We will learn how to make suggestions in a helpful and respectful way.
Independent Reading:
We will begin independent reading every afternoon. Each child is matched up with a collection of books that are at his or her “just right” reading level. Some of the strategies we are working on during independent reading are: pointing to the words while reading, looking at the first and last letter in a word to help us figure out what the word is, using picture cues, and monitoring our own reading to make sure that what we are reading makes sense.
MATH
In math this month, we will continue working on addition and subtraction symbols and terminology with our “Bunk Beds and Apple Boxes” unit as well as through other number stories and concrete experiences. This unit also introduces the students to the ideas of combinations learning strategies to help us find all combinations for a number (ex. For the number 4 we can have 4+0, 3+1, 2+2, etc.) We will also continue our work on numbers and counting.
SOCIAL STUDIES
This month in social studies we will continue to study the Sensational Season of winter. Students will also be introduced to historical figures, such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. During the unit we will learn important facts about each person, as well as learn about our current president, Barack Obama. In addition we will discuss important places in Washington DC, like the White House and the Lincoln Memorial.
SCIENCE
To complement our social studies unit on the Sensational Season of winter we will be taking a closer look at ice. Students will come up with questions about what happens to water in the cold and we will have the opportunity to create some experiments. Try some water and ice experiments at home with your scientist this winter!
CELEBRATIONS
Chinese New Year
This month we will celebrate the beginning of the new lunar calendar. This year we celebrate the year of the Snake.
100th Day of School
The 100th Day of School is this month! If we do not have any snow days it will be on Tuesday, February 12th! We will do several activities about 100 that day. Kindergartners should bring in a collection of 100 things. These can be anything small and inexpensive – macaroni, marbles, paper clips, buttons… It might be helpful to put the things in piles of 10 when you are counting with your Kindergartner to make counting easier; we work on counting by tens when we talk about how many days we have been in Kindergarten. The collection should be labeled with your child’s name.
Valentine’s Day
On Valentine’s Day students will be exchanging Valentine cards. Students should bring in a Valentine for each of their classmates on Thursday, February 14th (or before if the valentines are ready). You might want to start writing cards with your child soon. Remember, kindergartners will vary in their stamina for writing names and signing cards. Encourage your child to do some of the writing, or to read you the names, but it is OK for you to help.
We will be making boxes for our Valentines out of cereal boxes. Please save and cover one cereal box and send it to school. To cover your box, you can use wrapping paper, tissue paper, paint or anything else you can think of. Please DO NOT decorate it at home as we will decorate our boxes together in school. PLease send your child to school with their covered box next week (week of February 4-8). Please, send any extra cereal box you might have, or let me know if you need a box.
Thank you!
KEEPING CONNECTED
The best way to get in touch with me is with a note or email. My address is:
Courtney_Bonzey@newton.k12.ma.us
