Mrs. Miller's Kindergarten Class

Dear K1 Families,

February is Black History Month. This observation provides a meaningful opportunity to celebrate the contributions, achievements, and rich history of Black individuals and communities throughout our nation. It also allows us to reflect on our shared responsibility to create inclusive, supportive spaces where every student feels seen, valued, and inspired to thrive. We began our learning by reading a book about Harriet Tubman. Another book that we are reading is, The ABCs of Black History, by Rio Cortez. This beautiful rhyming informational book explores topics, places and people that have significance to Black Americans. A favorite story of our class is Sulwe. This book was a recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award and a recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Literary Work. Written by Academy Award–winning actress Lupita Nyong’o. Sulwe is a powerful, moving picture book about colorism, self-esteem, and learning that true beauty comes from within. There is a song also written by the author that we are enjoying learning. Ask your child about it!

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching! We will be celebrating on Thursday, February 12th. We will be having a Valentine’s card exchange. Each child is invited to bring in 22 valentines (including one for themselves.) Please do not have your child address them, just have your child sign the cards. This helps with passing out the valentines.

Fine motor Friday was dedicated to working with tiny paint brushes to decorate our Valentine’s Day bag. The artists had fun being creative with colorful paints while strengthening their fine motor skills.

In social emotional work we read about the Kimochi character Cloud. Cloud’s character is moody and unpredictable like the weather. When cloud is happy he spreads sunshine, but when he turns his head his sad face signals that he may rain on your parade. Please find a handout in your child’s Friday bag to support a home to school connection with Cloud.

On Tuessday Mrs. G came into our class and shared another wonderful lesson on friendship. She talked about “sour friend actions” and “sweet friend actions.” A sour friend action might be not letting a classmate play a game with you, or laughing at someone else’s misfortune. A sweet friend action might be helping a peer tie their shoe or sharing your crayons with another classmate. Keep talking to your child each day about kindness and the simple ways that we can make a difference in another person’s day.

In math we continued to work on addition and talked with a partner to discuss how we solved a problem and what method we used to arrive at our answer. Being able to talk about our thinking continues to be a big part of our math each day.

Please continue to review our new and old red words at home with your child. See if they can read them, write them and find them in print. This week we focused on “want” and “are”.

Please remember that next week is a short week due to the four day weekend. There is no school on Friday, Feb. 13th and Monday Feb. 16th.

Have a wonderful weekend!  - Kathy