Dear Parents and Friends,
This week is finally going to be a VERY busy week. It looks like the weather will be warming up however, please continue to send outside gear. You may leave the snow pants at home…Unless your child would like them for warmth, We will continue with our theme Safe & Sound. This week we will focus on people that help keep our community safe. We will also be learning different ways that we can be safe when we are playing in our community. We have two field trips out in our community this week! On Thursday morning we will be taking a bus to the high school to watch some of the high schools rehearse songs for their upcoming musical...Mama Mia! (Full length shows will be held this weekend at the high school). We will be leaving the school at 8:30am so PLEASE make sure your child is on time. We would hate for them to come late and have to sit in the office until we get back. On Friday afternoon we will be taking a bus to Kurn Hattin to see their musical "Summer Camp". We will be out of the school from 12:30-2:25. In Math we are continuing to work on our subtraction and additional strategies. Most of the math work we do is hands on while we working on recording our equations and numbers. This week we will also be learning different ways and combinations to show numbers. In KinderRoots, our new book is The Jumping Sack. This new book will go home tomorrow since we want to review Where is Pit-Pat before moving on. We will be focusing on the letter k with our new book. We keep saying that the books are getting harder and harder and we are not lying! It is very important to practice reading each night. At the end of the week we pull each kid to assess how well they are doing in reading. We check letter names and sounds, sounding out words and finally have them read one sentence. We are starting our new Informational unit in writing this week. We call these books “How-To” books. We ask the kids to think about things they already know how to do. They don’t realize all the things they already know how to do. This unit is always so much fun! Once they realize all the things they CAN do it’s interesting to see what the children think they are experts in :) Runners club will continue this Wednesday for our kindergarteners. It is very helpful if the runners have sneakers so please don’t forget sneakers on Wednesday if your child is signed up for runners club. Also, you may sign up to be in runners club even if you cannot sign up for the 5K. Pickup time is 3:20pm in the gym- There is no cost for being in runner’s club! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley
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Dear Parents and Friends,
Happy Wednesday! It is hard to believe that it is already the middle of the week. Over the next 2 weeks we will be doing a lot of check ins with our students to help us prepare for report cards. Report cards will be coming home on Friday, March 27th. This week we will begin a new two week theme, Safe and Sound. This week’s focus will be on community helpers. There are so many people in our neighborhoods that work together to help others and keep our community safe. We have a new Shared story this week, Where Is Pit-Pat? This book focuses on the letter p. As we promised, the books are getting more and more challenging. As the books continue to get more difficult it is more important to get your child to read each night. Please remember to flip over the homework slips to complete the questions with your child. In Math we are beginning to talk about subtraction. We are going to be asking the kids how they can tell if a problem is subtraction or addition. We are working on several different strategies to help us answer word problems. We have been using blocks, counters, number lines, pictures and equations. We are going to continue to work on our strategies this week. Many of the kids can actually do the math in their head which is fantastic however, now we need to focus on showing our work. In writing we have finally wrapped up our Narrative writing. To finish the unit off strong we let the kids share one of their best narrative pieces with the class. We will also have them work on an unassisted writing piece for two days. Using their writing pieces helps up identify strengths and weaknesses in their writing and allows us to help each child where they are. We will be jumping into Informational writing this week. Runners club starts today for our kindergarteners and we can’t wait to see them all running in the halls. *You do not have to sign up your child for the 5K in order to participate in runners club. On the same note, your child does not need to be part of the runners club to participate in the 5K. Both running events are separate. * On Friday, The VSO a cappella group is coming to visit CES! The students always enjoy listening to the music. We are sure they are going to come home very excited to share with you what they heard! Reminders: Wednesday, March 4th: Runners Club for kindergarteners who are interested 3:00-3:20 Friday, March 27th: Early Release Saturday, April 4th: Rockin'ham 5K (Our schools largest fundraiser) Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Happy Monday and welcome back to your normal weekly schedules! We hope everyone enjoyed their time last week and got some extra rest. We are hopeful that all of the sicknesses that had been going around is gone. The winter months in school can be very tough on our immune systems. The last few weeks before vacation were tough for so many. We will continue our unit this week, Words and Roads Take Us Places. Our focus this week will be on Transportation and how there are many different types that help us to move from one place to another. They are going to learn that transportation and communication can work hand-in-hand! Our KinderRoots shared story this week is Don Gets a Dog, which focuses on the letter o. Our shared stories are getting more difficult, so again, please read each night with your child. It certainly does make a different in your child’s reading when they practice every night. If you are having problems with reading please reach out to us! We would be happy to give suggestions and offer support. In Math, we are going to be working on combining bigger numbers and counting larger quantities. We are going to be rolling 3 dice and finding the sum! Not only are we going to find the sum we are going to look at different strategies to get it. In Writing, we will be Finishing our Narrative unit. We will be focusing on giving our stories powerful endings and sharing some of our favorite stories. Each child is always very proud of their writing. Watching our kindergarteners read they own writing is extremely rewarding! A huge thank you to all of you who were able to donate goods to our Valentine’s party! All of the children thoroughly enjoyed sharing treats with their classroom friends. We also had a terrific time last Friday with our Cross Grade Level activities in the morning. We got the opportunity to make treats, bracelets and snowflakes. The snowflakes are on display outside of our library and they are BEAUTIFUL! *Just a reminder there will NOT be any school next Monday, March 2-3rd due to Teacher Inservice and Town Meeting Day. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Having two snow days at the end of the week really threw us off. We are ready to work hard Monday-Wednesday and then we are going to slow down and take it easy. Thursday is going to be a big day for us in kindergarten-We will be celebrating both Valentine’s Day and the 100th day of school. On Friday we will be having a cross grade level day filled with fun activities. We will continue our Unit this week, Words and Roads Take Us Places. Our focus this week will be to finish up learning about how people communicate and then we will begin to learn about transportation. We will learn that there are many different types of transportation that help us to move from one place to another. They are going to learn that transportation and communication can work hand-in-hand! We will not have a new KinderRoots shared story this week. Since this week is a short academic week and we had a short week last week we will practice previous books. For homework please reread some of your favorite books. In Math, we are beginning to revisit concepts that we worked on earlier in the year. We are introducing new activities such as; connect the dots (number lines), word problems, counting and sorting inventories (with higher numbers) AND representing quantities with numerals and pictures. On Thursday we are going to make 100th day hats! In Writing, we learning how important it is to have a strong beginning. We are trying to make sure our readers WANT to keep reading our books. We are also learning to have endings that share our feelings. Some of these concepts can be challenging to our young authors however, we are getting better everyday! A friendly reminder: We will be have our Valentine’s Day Celebration on Thursday, February 14th. Please make sure that if you child is exchanging valentines that they bring them already filled out. I do have extras in the classroom if you would like to have your child use them. If you let me know that you would like to use them I can send them home with your child on Wednesday. Thank you in advance for your contributions to this celebration. The children really do love celebrating with their friends and that is what the day is all about! *No School February 17th-21st for Winter Break Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
It’s going to be another great week in kindergarten! Nothing out of the ordinary for this week but next week we have a lot of special events planned. Next week on Tuesday, February 11th we will be celebrating our 100th day of school! We will be sending a sign up sheet home to see who is willing to send in ice cream sundae ingredients, as we have been counting down our days until this yummy celebration! We can’t believe that we have been in school for 100 days already. This year is certainly flying by! We would also like for each child to bring in 100 items: pennies, Cheerios, macaroni… just a few examples! We will be sharing them in class. No worries if you can not make this happen as we will be sharing. We will also be sending home a class list so you and your child can make out Valentine cards together and send them in (If you wish to do so). A snack sign up for our Valentine’s Day Party, which will take place next Thursday afternoon, will be coming home as well. Thank you in advance for your contributions to these events. We will begin a new unit this week, Words and Roads Take Us Places. Our focus this week will be on Communication. Our students will learn the importance of sharing a message through communication. We will also learn that there are verbal and nonverbal forms of communication such as pictures, words, signs, and sign language. Our KinderRoots shared story this week is Sig the Pig, which focuses on the letter g. Our shared stories are getting more difficult, so again, please read each night with your child. It certainly does make a difference in your child’s reading. Remember to sign the homework slip as well. Thank you! In Writing, we are coming to the end of our Narrative writing unit. We have thoroughly enjoyed watching our budding authors as they continue to write about true stories that have really happened in their lives. If you would like assistance or help reading or understanding what the NWEA MAPS Family report means please reach out to your child’s teacher. These are the reports that we sent home on Friday. We would be happy to schedule a short meeting (15 minutes) and discuss what these reports mean. Please keep in mind that these results are just a snap shot of learning- they do not show you the whole picture. These assessments do not always align with what we see in the classroom with hands on learning. This is the first time our students are seeing a testing platform and it is a challenging task we are asking them to complete. They all did well and tried very hard- that is what is important! *Don’t forget that Wednesday, February 5th is Walk to School Day-See you at Hetty Green Park at 7:30! *No School February 17th-21st for Winter Break Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
It’s another Monday in kindergarten and it looks like it is going to be another full week of learning! We have been lucky that our snow days and delays have been limited…Let’s all hope that continues. This week we will continue with our theme, Day and Night, Dark and Light. We will focus on Opposites and how two things can be related but, are very different from each other. We will discuss concrete examples such as big and little, clean and dirty when we read Harry the Dirty Dog. Then when we read The Empty Pot we will address opposite values of honesty and dishonesty. This unit is both serious and silly :) Since last week was only 3 days we are going to use Monday to review our book Dogs in Hats, Dogs in Bows. Your child will not bring home a new KinderRoots shared story until Tuesday afternoon. On Tuesday, we will begin with our new book Nan’s Pet, which focuses on the letter p. As the weeks progress the books are getting harder for the children to read. So, please read each night with your child. We have been noticing that more and more children are not practicing reading each night and are beginning to struggle when reading in class. Complete success with this program depends on reading both at school and home. Thank you in advance for your support! In Math this week, we will continue to concentrate on 3-D shapes. We are even going to build cubes with tooth picks and gum drops! After our cube building hopefully we will all have a better understanding of edges, vertices and faces. You can practice geometry skills at home by asking your child to find everyday objects that look like specific 3-D shapes (cones, cubes, spheres). Many of the kids are already seeing 2-D and 3-D shapes all around in the classroom. Friendly Reminder: Monday, February 17th- Friday, February 21st: Winter Break, No school Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Happy Wednesday! We hope families enjoyed a little extra free time together. We are backing to having our New England winter. It’s been cold and snowy again but hopefully everyone is getting outside when they can for a little fresh air. This week we will beginning a new theme, Day and Night, Dark and Light. This week our focus will be on the differences with the sun and the moon. We will discuss the activities associated with certain times of the day or night. This helps our students concentrate on logical thinking. Hearing a child’s perspective on certain events can be an enlightening experience. Our KinderRoots shared story this week is Dogs In Hats, Dogs In Bows, which focuses on the letter n. Each week, usually on Monday, your child will be bringing home the new book as well as last week’s book. These previously read books are yours to keep. You and your child can practice them when you have extra time. We are hoping homework is going as well as reading is going in class each day. Please let us know if there are any problems with the reading at home. To clarify, the red and green words that we learn in class are colored as we learn them however, in the books they are not color coded. I know this is a little confusing and we wish they would just print them in color! If you feel like it is helpful you may find and color the words or underline them in their color (just a thought). Please keep those questions coming as you have them...Open communication is necessary for success! In Math this week, we will be learning about 3-dimensional shapes. We will be learning how to describe, identify and compare 3-D shapes. We will also be building our own 3-D shapes with clay. There will be a lot of hands-on exploring with 3-D shapes for sure! As we move into more shapes we will also continue to work with students on counting and writing quantities because we want them to continue to practice and sharpen their skills. The students are working very hard at getting dressed in their winter wear all by themselves. Thank you so much for helping with this skill at home. Your efforts do not go unnoticed. Each week, we have more and more students who are able to get ready independently. Important Dates to Remember: Monday, February 17th- Friday, February 21st: Winter Break, No school Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
We have another “normal” week ahead of us. Last week we persevered through some pretty difficult standardized testing. This week we settle back into days filled with hands on learning! We will be continuing with our theme, Winter Weatherland. This week we will focus on Winter and snow and the changes that occur. We will also concentrate on how people and animal behaviors change in the winter and what they do to prepare for the temperature change. This is a perfect theme to focus on this time of year. Our KinderRoots shared story this week is Miss Sid, which focuses on the letter i. Please keep in mind that as the week’s progress, so does the difficulty of our stories. We are pleased with the efforts of both children and their families. Almost all of the students have been reading at home and it is obvious as to who is reading at home. Success of our program does rely on both reading at school and at home. Again, Thank you for reading each night! In math we have been talking about 2-Dimensional shapes. Last week we made a beautiful winter scene shape mural where the kids used shapes to create an entire winter scene. There were people ice fishing, skiing, sledding, skating, clouds, trees, snowmen, igloos…It truly was a masterpiece! This week we are going to be practicing putting shapes together to create new shapes. Putting shapes together to complete puzzles and make new shapes can be challenging but they will only need a little practice before they are experts! It has been very cold outside, so we are asking that you please continue to send in the proper winter wear. Hats and mittens are the most forgotten item for sure! We have lots of students who are now leaving sneakers/shoes at school each night. This has definitely helped in the morning when getting ready for our day. Friendly Reminders: No school Monday, January 20, 2019: Martin Luther King Jr. Day No School Tuesday, January 21, 2019: Teacher In-Service Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
We sure are glad to be back in school with all of our kindergarteners! Last week we decided to slowly get back into the hang of school again after being away for almost two weeks. We spent two days getting back into the school and classroom routines. This week we will start a new unit titled “Winter Wonderland”. The focus this week will be on the concept that winter isn’t the same all over the world on the same day and everyone doesn’t experience the same season at the same time. We will also discuss cloudy and rainy days which will help introduce the wonders of the water cycle. We will learn the importance of our sun! Our KinderRoots shared story this week is Tam and Tad, which focuses on the letter t. Just like in our first story, there will be green and red words on the front cover of each book. The red words are sight words that they will learn by saying the word, spelling the word while clapping each letter and then saying the word again. The green words can be phonetically sounded out. This will be difficult in the beginning. But with continued practice week after week, the routine will become easier. Thank you so much for your continued support with reading at home. The kids are so excited when they are actually reading the words on their own and understanding what they are reading. Their expressions are truly priceless! What are corners, vertices, sides, curves, or faces? We plan on finding all the answers as we begin our new shape unit. Shapes are always so much fun to talk about! There will be a lot of activities to help us learn more about shapes. We will begin with 2-D shapes and then move into 3-D shapes. We will be discussing the differences in shapes as well has how to describe shapes. Please remember that we do go outside everyday, if it it not too cold!! If the temperature is so low that it is unsafe to be outside we will be inside-please continue to send in winter wear. Also, please send in a pair of shoes or sneakers each day. We don’t have an abundance of extras and some children don’t like the limited choices that we have. Your child is more than welcome to leave a pair of shoes/sneakers in their cubby rather than carrying them back and forth each day. Just send in a note or email us, so that we know we have your permission to keep them at school. Thank you. Dates to Remember: No School January 20th: Martin Luther King Jr. Day No School January 21st: Teacher In-Service Day Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
We have one more week before our holiday vacation. We are going to be having a lot of holiday fun this week. This is a fun and exciting time of the year for everyone! This week, we will review our two week theme, Sing a Song, Paint a Picture. We are going to be focusing on our artistic skills by making some special holiday crafts. In Math, we are going to be checking in with the kids to see how they are coming along with their math skills. We will be reviewing previously taught skills. We will also add some fun pattern and length crafts. We will not be sending home a new book this week for reading. Please take this as an opportunity to reread some of your favorite books. Remember with our new stories, your child will need to follow each word with their finger and sound out any words that are difficult for them. There will be green and red words on the front cover of each book (this would be an excellent week to review). The red words are sight words that they cannot sound out and the green words can be phonetically sounded out. Reading at home should NOT be stressful for you or your child! Please remember that the Shopping Mall is scheduled for this Wednesday, December 18th. If you have not sent in your permission slip or money yet please do so ASAP. We would hate for your child to miss out going to the shopping mall because we didn’t have a permission slip signed. Our classroom holiday party is at school this Thursday afternoon. Sign-up sheets went home last week. If you have any questions please let us know. Your help and support is truly appreciated! This Friday, December 20th is a half day. The students will be released at 11:30a.m. They will have lunch here at school prior to dismissal. Holiday Vacation is from December 23rd-January 1st. We will see you back on January 2nd. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley |