CONFERENCES
Thank you for signing up and attending a spring conference. I enjoyed speaking with each family about the progress your child has made in kindergarten.
BALANCED LITERACY
Phonics: This month in Fundations we will learn the following letters and their sounds: Qu/qu-queen-/qu/ and Zz-zebra-/z/. This month we have also started learning about syllables. We know that syllables are how many parts are in a word. We have spent time counting syllables in a variety of words by using a variety of actions such as clapping, snapping, or patting it out on our legs.
Home/School Connection: How many syllables are in the word…
-television
-banana
-monkey
-turtle
-shoe
Challenge: hippopotamus
Writing:
In writer’s workshop we started a new unit on opinion writing. This unit encourages students to think about problems they may see in our classroom or at our school and to write about why it’s a problem and offer many reasons why the problem should be fixed. Students are challenged to write in a convincing way so that their readers will understand why these problems need to be fixed and changed. Here are a few problems that we’ve been writing about so far…
-kids running in the hallway
-people not putting the books back in the correct bins in our classroom library
-excluding people
-pencils and markers being left on the floor
Ask your kindergartener to tell you more about what problem/s they are writing about during writer’s workshop.
READING:
Students continue to make great progress with their reading. They enjoy reading their “just right” books during independent reading and it’s been exciting to see them using reading strategies that we have learned as a class to help them when they come to a word they don’t know. Students have also been working on monitoring their reading and thinking about the following questions as they read and decode unfamiliar words.
-Does it look right?
-Does it sound right?
-Does it make sense?
SOCIAL STUDIES
This month we will learn about the Sensational Season of Spring. The children will draw their spring self-portraits and will make a careful observation of a tree in spring.
SCIENCE
We will continue our sand investigation this month. We are exploring different types of sand and their properties. We are also comparing wet and dry sand and learning where sand comes from. We are especially enjoying exploring sand in our sandbox and building sand structures!
EXTRA CLOTHES AND WINTER GEAR
Please be sure your kindergartner has a full set of extra clothes at school. We have experienced many spills, puddles, and accidents lately. Label everything!
Also, even though it is getting warmer, boots are still a good idea as the field will be very muddy for the next month.
And finally, if you are all done with your kindergartner’s boots, snow pants, or gloves and you don’t have anyone at home waiting for hand-me-downs, please consider donating them to the classroom for next year. We always need extras! Thank you!
FIELD TRIP
The 3 kindergarten classes will be going on a field trip to the Harvard Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, May 5. Parents are welcome to chaperone. If you are interested in coming with us, please be sure that you have filled out a CORI application. If you aren’t sure, you can check with Mrs. Mariano.
More details about the trip and a permission slip will be sent home soon. For your planning, please note that there is not room for chaperones on the bus so chaperones will need to drive to the museum (or carpool.) Also, chaperones will need to pay for their own admission; the cost is $10.00. We also ask that you find childcare for younger siblings, as your field trip group will need your full attention.
