Fall Conferences
Fall conferences will begin on Tuesday, October 27th. Be sure to sign up for a conference. These conferences will be a time for us to speak about your child’s transition into kindergarten, some of the skills s/he has demonstrated, goals for the year and other information you believe is important to share to help make this year a successful experience for your child.
Balanced Literacy
Phonics: In phonics, we will work on letter recognition, letter formation, phonological awareness (the understanding that spoken language consists of parts- sentences, words, syllables, sounds), sound mastery and becoming familiar with new sight words. Be on the lookout with your kindergartner for words with those sounds, and ask him or her to teach you the drills (letter-word-sound).
This month in Fundations we will learn the following letters and their sounds: T (Tt-top-/t/), B (Bb-bat-/b/), F (Ff-fan-/f/) and N (Nn-nut-/n/).
Writing: In writing we have launched the writing workshop. The authors are busy working on telling a story using pictures. We learned that a picture can tell a story but we, as authors, have an important job of adding details that tell our readers what our story is about. We are working on adding details that tell what we were doing, where we were, and who we were with. This month we will expand our writing by labeling objects in our pictures. We will learn that labels can also give our readers important information about our stories. Students will work on “turtle talking”- saying words very slooooowly to hear the sounds more clearly. We will also learn how to use the alphabet chart to help us with writing these sounds. The kindergartners write their stories based on their true experiences and happenings from their lives. It would be very helpful for families to talk about which of their many adventures, large and small, might make a good story.
Read Alouds, Shared Reading and Poems: This month we will be reading a variety of books and poems about fall, as well as Halloween. When we are reading we will be talking about the parts of the book, including the cover and title. We will also be talking about the direction we read and what to do at the end of a line, which is called a return sweep. These are all introductory skills that develop each reader’s understanding about print.
Here’s our newest and first Halloween poem:
Skeleton Parade by Jack Prelutsky
The skeletons are out tonight
They march about the street.
With bony bodies, body heads,
Any bony hands and feet.
Bony, bony, bony bones
With nothing in between.
Up and down and all around
They march on Halloween!
Social Studies
During the month of October we will be studying the season of Fall. We will be discussing what the weather is like, what we wear, the holidays we celebrate, what activities we do and what animals do. Students will also make observations on how our environment changes and record their observations.
Math
We have been establishing routines for math time and becoming familiar with our math materials. We will begin to introduce number writing and counting strategies through interactive games and activities.
Social/Emotional Skills
Social/emotional development is an important component of kindergarten. Often times these skills are developed through open-ended conversations based on what we see and hear happening in the classroom. Some things that we will be talking about this month include sharing, classroom rules, and expectations, as well as how to solve problems with friends.
This past week we started learning about “green problems” and “red problems”. Green problems are problems that students can solve on their own independently by using their words or finding different friends to spend their time with. Some green problems that we talked about this week are: friends knocking over someone else’s block structure without asking, and friends telling other friends that they can’t play. “Red problems” are bigger problems that need the help from an adult to be solved like if someone is badly hurt, bleeding, or sick.
Lunches
When your child stays for his/her long days, he/she can order food from food services. For more information, log on our school website
http://horacemann.newton.k12.ma.us/
click on the food services link. It will direct you to the Newton food services page.
Classroom Wish List
As I mentioned at Curriculum Night, I will occasionally post a classroom wish list. This list includes items that will enhance our curriculum or help with the daily routine such as cotton balls or small zip lock bags. Providing these items is totally voluntary – please do not feel any obligation! If you would like to participate, the list is posted on our website. Thank you!
Reading Buddies
Our Kindergarten class is in the process of being paired with a third grade class to be Reading Buddies with. We will get together once a week or every other week to read together. For the most part the third graders read to the kindergartners, but sometimes kindergartners read their writing work or special books to their buddies. We also occasionally use this time for special projects.
Housekeeping
With the first month of school under our belt we are ready to move full steam ahead. The children are building skills and becoming more independent each day. In the morning please say good-bye to your child at the door so he/she may enter the classroom, unpack, and sign-in independently. They really do feel proud when they are able to do these things on their own. Of course I am happy to help, but it’s important to give them the opportunity to try it on their own first. Thank you!
