It’s hard to believe that March is here and spring is just around the corner! At the beginning of this month we talked about how the weather in March “comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”. I am certainly looking forward to the calmer days with milder temperatures!
CONFERENCES
The spring conferences are beginning the week of March 10th. Please be sure you have signed up for a time online on SignUp Genius. Please let me know if you need the link again. During the spring conferences we will talk about your child’s progress and look at some of your child’s work.
BALANCED LITERACY
Phonics: This month in Fundations we will learn the following letters and their sounds: Ll-lamp-/l/, Hh-hat-/h/, Kk-kite-/c/, Vv-van-/v/, Ww-wind-/w/.
Writing: This month we will continue writing personal narrative stories. We will continue to focus on adding details to make our stories more interesting for our readers. We will also talk about making our writing easier to read by putting spaces in between words.
Independent Reading: We are enjoying independent reading every afternoon. Each child is matched up with a collection of books that is “just right” for him or her. The kindergartners really enjoy independent reading and look forward to finding new books in their bags! 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 it makes sense.
Kindergartners have also been using their Raz-Kids account. It is a great way for them to practice their reading skills at school and at home. If you are having trouble opening the books, it might be that you need to install or update Flash Player. Please let me know if you are still having difficulty accessing your child’s Raz-Kids account at home.
MATHEMATICS
This month we have begun our unit on Bunk Beds. This unit introduces students to number combinations and the idea that numbers can be broken up into 2 parts in a variety of ways (4 can be broken up into 2+2, 3+1, 4+0, etc.) Students will be working with a variety of numbers to try to find all possible ways of making that number as well as exploring how they know they have found all of the ways.
Social Studies
This month in social studies we will be talking about the season of spring and about how it affects us and our environment. We will also continue our “Person of the Week” program. Please make sure to put your child’s week on your calendar. Let me know if you have any questions.
SCIENCE
This month, we will begin a new science unit: Exploring Properties of Objects and Materials. In this unit we will investigate the physical properties of water, sand and other sediment. We will work on formulating questions to investigate, we will classify objects and materials, and we will use scientists’ tools (hand lens, Proscope, and pan balance).
