Dear Parents and Friends, It’s another Monday and hopefully this week will be a full week. The weather this time of year can make morning travel challenging. Always remember to take your time and be safe if you need to drive to school! If you are not getting the cancellation or delay calls from our district office please reach out to one of us so we can update your information. 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 :) Our KinderRoots shared story this week is 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 their 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. Reading these stories only five times per week does not prepare the children for the next week’s book, which is more difficult. Thank you in advance for your support! In Math this week, we will continue to concentrate on 3-D shapes. You can practice this skill 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. Ways to help out our classrooms: We would love Lysol disinfecting wipes to keep the germs at bay, plastic spoons for snack time, and boxes of Kleenex (our school provides some basic tissues however, they are pretty rough on runny noses). We really do appreciate your support and generosity! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley
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Dear Parents and Friends,
What a great Monday to be a Patriots fan! For those of you who watched the Super Bowl hopefully you were able to settle down and get some sleep! Next week on Monday, 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. *Don’t forget that Wednesday, February 6th is Walk to School Day-See you at Hetty Green Park at 7:30! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Happy Tuesday! We hope everyone was able to enjoy the extra day with their families. We finally have our New England winter. It seems like we got all of our winter in one weekend with more to follow. 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. A huge Thank you to those of you who were able to send in extra snacks last week. Please feel free to keep sending in any snacks and even those that your children may not eat anymore at home. They are very much appreciated!! 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. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Last week with the snow day our week was a little disconnected however, we worked hard and pushed through. Hopefully everyone stayed warm this weekend because it was a COLD one! We are hoping that this week warms up and we all get back to our routine. We are crossing our fingers for five days of happiness and 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 animals 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, birds, 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 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. 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 started our new unit Winter Wonderland however, we are going to continue with week one of this unit for this week. This week we will focus 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. 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 below 10 degrees we will be inside, but please continue to send in winter wear just in case it warms up during the day. 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. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley |