Mrs. J's Kindergarten Class
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November News
Dear parents,
Thanks for all of    your kind words and support during our shut-down.   The students have successfully adjusted to being back in school and  their school stamina is steadily growing.     To enhance our study of Fall, the children made applesauce this week  .  Not everyone liked it, but nearly everyone was brave enough to try it.    


 
 In Math we are working on counting back from 5, printing numerals to 5, and understanding the concept of more and less.  
Last month, I  introduced Math Stations.  Our  focus  is   building  Math stamina and  developing   Numeral Sense (flexible thinking around quantity) which includes:
    
 -counting rules ( correct sequence of number names, one to one correspondence, cardinality, stability (arrangement does not change quantity)
-making connections between number names/quantities/ symbols
-using base 5 as a referent when thinking about one/two more or less
-subitizing familiar arrangements of dots to 6.  (Subitizing is the skill of knowing an amount, without counting.)

Patterns, describing similarities and differences and using the concept of opposites as a basis for sorting will be introduced in December.        

In Language Arts, the children have been learning: phonics, left to right progression, understanding the difference between a letter and a word, and syllabication by studying the names of their classmates.
Last month I introduced some Phonemic Awareness activities like rhyming, elastic word stretching and syllables.  Phonemic awareness is the foundation to reading. You can help at home by: playing word ‘games’ and reading stories that contain rhyme;  stretch   words by  segmenting  the  sounds (/b/-/a/-/t/) and ask your child  to identify the mystery word ; play games like I Spy using first or last letter sounds. (I spy something that ends with the sound _____.  Note- don’t worry about the actual spelling (like a word that ends in silent e or c/k combinations). The purpose of the activity is to teach your child to  hear the sounds in a given word.
 This month we will  expand our  letter learning.   We will focus on one letter a day until we reach the end of the alphabet (and then repeat the sequence from the beginning of the alphabet, in the new year, with a different focus).  Our first introduction to letters will focus on learning  lower case letters and introducing    the common sound associated with each letter.  Each day we will make a special lower-case letter to create a phonetic alphabet.
The second time we cycle through the alphabet we will focus more on learning the sound of the letter and I will   introduce printing the letter correctly.   Learning goals are flexible and  will change each time we cycle through the alphabet in relation to the needs of the children.  The goal, by the end of the year, is for your child to recognize and name upper-case and lower-case letters and  know some of the sounds.  Many kindergarten children are still developing fine motor control and therefore, printing all of the letters from memory  is a grade one goal.  
You can support your child’s learning by engaging your child in fun activities at home.  A few ideas to get you started: make a collage of pictures that start with a  pre-decided  letter; use magnetic letters and ask your child to find certain letters by providing them with only the sound that letter represents; or have a scavenger hunt! -  ask them to find three things that start with c, two things that start with d and one thing that starts with the letter a (for example).  Keep it short, active and fun!

Pen Pals
Each child in our class has a  pen pal from Robertson Elementary.    The children  will develop  their written communication by   writing  to  their  pen pals each month.  
 
 Looking Ahead

We are going to decorate  a Christmas treat   in December. You may want to save some Halloween candy for this project.  Halloween candy comes in  perfect sized packages and   also provides  your child with a lot of variety.  (Note:  We  will not be allowed to share candy-  Each student will only use what he/she brings in for this project.)
I will let you know, in December, when to send the candy. 

Report cards

            Formal report cards will be issued in December.


A few Dates to keep in mind:

NO SCHOOL- November 11th, 12th   and November 26th 


            Sincerely,

            S. Johnston  


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