Mrs. Welcomer's Class News

Hello K2 Families,

Please remember that next Wed, Dec. 17th at 8:45 is the Springhill Winter Sing. The concert will be held in our multi purpose room. All kinders are encouraged to wear their pajamas that day to school! Please arrive early, parking will be tricky! The children are so excited about performing!

In reading this week we talked about how a reader points to a word, then reads, then points, then reads. We have been reading books that are decodable that work on the short /a/ sound. Decodable texts allow students to practice the letter-sound relationships they are learning in phonics. They can be in the form of books, short texts, or even words, phrases, or sentences for practice. Some of the tools we use to practice decoding and encoding include using white boards, and magnetic letters. 

In math we continued counting in the teens and twenties, and practicing writing and recognizing these numbers. We had fun playing a Holiday Addition Bump with classmates, and a Rudolf dice game! Many of our young mathematicians still need help with one to one correspondence, and any opportunity to practice with real items help with this growth. Families, please continue to practice rote counting at home, and give your child lots of opportunities to practice counting real objects when possible.

This week we continued creating a holiday traditions song book that features three holidays; Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. You can look forward to hearing your child sing it to you when they bring it home next week! Another family tradition and celebration that we learned about this week was Las Posadas. The children listened to the story The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomi Depaula and painted beautiful poinsettia flowers. The children are enjoying reading about new traditions that they may be unfamiliar with and of course they get very excited to share their own family traditions with others. Learning about different holidays is important because it helps us understand and appreciate diverse cultures, while fostering empathy and respect for different traditions. It also helps children connect common themes of family, and community, across cultures and it promotes cultural awareness and inclusivity.

We have been learning songs about the celebrations of Christmas, Hanukkah, Los Posadas and Kwanzaa in class. Ask your child to sing one for you! They even can sign and sing the song White Christmas!

On Friday our buddies came to help us weave Kwanzaa Mkeka mats. The mkeka mat symbolizes the foundation of African-American history and tradition upon which individuals and the community can build their lives. It represents the importance of a solid cultural base, acknowledging that the future is built upon the past. 

Thanks for the volunteers each day! Please consider signing up to help in the New Year. I appreciate all the families that have signed up to donate items and partake in our fun Holiday Workshops morning on Friday Dec. 19th from 9:00-10:00. Please remember that all kindergarten students will attend school 8:15-11:45 on Friday December 20. It is also an early release day for upper elementary grades.

Have a wonderful weekend! - Katherine