Mrs. Miller's Kindergarten Class
My name is Kathy Miller and I am so happy to be your child's teacher. This kindergarten year will be a year of new beginnings, a year filled with large and small accomplishments, a year of trying new things and making new friends. Kindergarten is an important year in your child's education. It sets the foundation for future years. I am honored to be on this very memorable and special journey with you and your child! I will be updating this website weekly with our K1 Newsletter, class photos, important dates and information.
I look forward to working with you this year!
Important Dates:
Monday, November 24-28 - Thanksgiving Break - No School
Dear K1 Families,
It was a shorter week but it was filled with so much learning!
Friday was Walk to School Like Ruby Bridges Day. This is an annual day of dialog to commemorate her historic steps and bravery. We read a book about Ruby Bridges and all three kindergarten classes walked around our kinder yard to remember Ruby’s legacy.
November is Indigenous People’s Month. We started to learn about the Native Americans that lived in the Lafayette area for tens of thousands of years.They called themselves the Saclan People. We learned that many years ago they built their homes from willow branches and tuli grass. We will continue to learn about Lafayette’s First people next week. We read the book Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Smith. This lovely affirming story is about how a contemporary Native American girl from the Cree Tribe turns to her family and community to help her dance to find a voice and learn to perform the jingle dance like her grandmother and ancestors. After reading the story we watched a short informational clip of a member of the Cree Nation dance to native drums in a traditional jingle dress. We even followed along and tried to jingle dance too!
In reading this week we reviewed all our unit 1 Red words and spent lots of time reviewing all 26 letters and sounds. We will begin our 3rd phonics unit next week.
In the library on Wednesday, we were privileged to watch a puppet show performed by a Springhill parent, Mrs. Brihdish, about an indigenous folk tale that explored the origins of the three essential foods of many of the peoples of the Americas; corn, beans and squash. It was amazing! We are grateful for her storytelling and craft!
We also read books about Thanksgiving. The children heard about the first Thanksgiving of long ago. We talked about what kinds of family traditions we might have at Thanksgiving. We even finished our Classroom Thankful Turkey display. It is filled with beautiful handmade feathers. We also used a toilet paper roll as a painting tool and created colorful turkeys!
In math we did more choral counting, worked with teen numbers and played a fun Turkey Teen game! Please find a copy of this learning game to practice teen counting in your child’s Friday bag.
The holidays are quickly approaching, and our class is excited to help spread a little holiday cheer to a family in need! Our class is participating in Springhill’s Season of Giving Holiday Outreach Program, in partnership with Hope Solutions. This year, our class will bring smiles and holiday joy to a family of four — one adult and three children (ages 7, 3, and 10 months). We’ll be delivering our gifts and goodies to the family on Tuesday, December 9th. Be on the lookout for an email with a Sign up Genius from our room parent Athen Yost.
Please consider donating to our Holiday Class Outreach project.
Have a wonderful weekend! - Kathy
