Mrs. Miller & Mrs. O'Toole's Kindergarten Class

We read lots of books about fall, Day of the Dead and scarecrows this week. We drew and painted scarecrows and read and sequenced the story, The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid Of Anything. We retold the story by creating our own scarecrow based on the book. See if your child can retell the story to you!

In reading this week we reviewed all 26 letter sounds. We practiced building CVC words and writing simple words. The trickiest sounds for early readers are the vowel sounds. Please keep reviewing letter sounds, especially vowels every day at home. You can refer to our monthly fluency page for extra practice. Please also continue to reread the books that your child brought home last week. These books were in your child’s reading book bin. Some of the books focused on “red” words, others were informational readers, and some were based on poems that we have been practicing. Each young reader is working at their own pace and level. Some are able to read these books fluently, others need an adult to read them and others are just beginning to be able to read a few words or name letters and sounds. Please keep these reading books in a place where you and your child have access to them to reread many times as they grow as a reader.

We continue using our handwriting program, Handwriting Without Tears. Handwriting Without Tears provides developmentally appropriate instruction for handwriting and number writing. The children know that you “always start a letter at the top!” Some of the language this program uses includes: big line down, big curve and little curve. We also practiced writing our numbers 1-10 correctly this week.

In math we continued learning about teen numbers. This can be very tricky, especially writing these numbers. We learned a fun song this week to help us, “Numbers in the teens they start with one!” We also played a fun dice/steal the bears game. Math games are wonderful to reinforce number skills and provide practice following a group plan, sharing and being a supportive friend. We will be starting a new math unit next week, Shapes All Around Us.

In social emotional learning, we continued working on the “size of the problem” and matching the reaction we have to the size of the problem. We talked a lot about how most problems we encounter each day are small, therefore our reaction should be small. Having a big reaction to a small problem makes others feel uncomfortable. You can reinforce these lessons at home when problems arise.

We read about the Mexican/Latin American celebration, Day of the Dead, this week. We learned that this is a celebration of life and a time for families to remember and celebrate loved ones that have passed on. We read many books that described special foods, decorations and customs that might be found during Day of the Dead. On Friday, 

A big “thanks” to all the families that came out and cheered for us at The Rainbow Run! It was such a fun time and the children enjoyed a Kool Pop and a gold medal for their efforts! We even enjoyed watching the older grades run while we were at recess!

Next Friday is Ruby Bridges Day. All children are invited to wear purple. We will participate in a school wide walk to remember Ruby’s courageous walk to school on Nov. 14th, 1960.

Please remember that next Wednesday is Veteran’s Day. There will be no school. 

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Kathy & Stephanie