Mrs. Miller's Kindergarten Class

Hello Families,

Please remember that there is No School Monday, Oct. 13th. It is a Professional Development Day for our district teachers.

In Bridge to Reading we worked a lot with sight words/Red Words;: finding them in readers, poems and in various print. We practiced writing them, sang about them and used them in our story writing. We focused on the letter sounds, /h/, /r/ and /l /this week. Please look at this week’s A Peek at our Week handout. It has lots of ideas to support your child’s growing reading skills at home.

In math, we worked with ten frames, and  identified and wrote numbers to 10. A ten frame is a simple graphic tool that allows people to “see” numbers. Understanding that numbers are composed of tens and ones is an important foundational concept, setting the stage for work with larger numbers. A strong sense of "ten" is a prerequisite for place value understanding and mental calculations. The students worked together in pairs or small groups and  played number building games with cards, dice and counting cubes. Not only is playing math games  a fun way for the students to learn their numbers, but it also focuses on the social aspects of taking turns, working together and good sportsmanship.

Our theme was bats this week! We sang about these nocturnal mammals, recited poems and read so many informational books about these amazing animals! We created  spooky moons with water colors and coffee filters. We also made fun bat hats with our buddy class.

In social emotional learning, we worked on “smart guesses.” We make a smart guess when we take what we observe and combine that with what we know. We consider the context and situational clues, people, their body language, tone of voice, ect. And make observations about who, what, and where we are. We then combine this information with our general knowledge about the way the world works coupled with any specific personal knowledge and make a reasonable guess, prediction or inference. By teaching children to make a smart guess, we can help them learn to observe and become more aware of the world around them.

Looking ahead to Halloween, please remember that ALL KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS attend 8:15-11:45. There will be a Kindergarten Halloween parade at 11:00 on the lower playground. All families are invited to attend! It is always an exciting time. Please take a minute and read what Mrs. Thallaug wrote concerning costumes.

Halloween: Halloween is still a few weeks away, but as you and your students are starting to plan for costumes, I want to be sure everyone is aware of the costume guidelines we will be following at Springhill. As a school and community who values diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging, it is expected that no costumes portray a stereotyped image of a culture or group of people or are offensive to any racial, ethnic or religious group. 

• Costumes or themes should be age appropriate.

• No costumes promoting/suggesting violence or terror.

• Costume weapons or large accessories will not be permitted.

• Absolutely NO masks or makeup that obscure vision or render faces unrecognizable. This is for safety reasons so we can see students' faces at all times.

• No scary clown costumes.

• No blow-up costumes or bulky costumes that limit mobility or ability to sit in a chair.

Thank you parents for volunteering this week! If you have not had the opportunity to sign up yet, I know there are lots of opportunities

Best - Kathy