Hello Families,
It is beginning to look and feel a lot like winter in Vermont. Since it was raining today we did not get a chance to go outside for recess. If your child comes home with a little extra energy you know why. Last week we began a new unit called “Sing and Song, Paint a Picture. This week, we will continue with this theme. We will focus on art and artists. Today we built maracas using easter eggs and beads. Watching the children make their own maracas and them march around proclaiming that they were musicians because they were making music was the highlight of the day. In Math, we will begin a new unit that puts a lot of emphasis on learning shapes. This unit is always a lot of fun! We will be incorporating some art by creating a mural using shapes. The kids will learn names of 2-D and 3-D shapes and they will learn how to describe shapes appropriately. As you know, KinderRoo has brought us all of our letters now! Tomorrow, your child will be bringing home their first KinderRoots Shared Story - #4, The Wet Dog. With these 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 inside front cover of each book. The red words are sight words that they will learn by saying the word, spelling the word 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. Please remember to keep reading at home. Your help is truly the success of this entire program. The more they read the stories and are exposed to the print, the better readers the children will become. The homework slip will also look different each week, but will still need to be signed each night. Your child will have a question to answer each night on the back. This part of our program is so exciting for the students. We can’t wait to begin! If you have any questions, or concerns, please contact one of us and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Reading at home should NOT be stressful for you or your child! We are greatly looking forward to our next step in our reading process! Please remember that the Shopping Mall is scheduled for next Wednesday, December 18th. Please send in your permission slip by the end of this week, if you have not done so already. We are still missing a few slips. The money just needs to be brought to school by Wednesday morning if you have not sent it in with the permission slip. Thank you! There will be Simple Snack Holiday party at school next Thursday afternoon. This will be a low key event for the students, but will be fun for all. We will be sending home a sign up sheet for anyone who would like to contribute to our festive afternoon. Thank you in advance for your generosity. It truly is appreciated! Reminder: We do go outside everyday- if it it not too cold! Your child will need boots, a hat, mittens and snow pants each day. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley
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Hello Families,
We have a normal full week ahead of us. This letter will update you for both this week AND our two days for next week. This week, we will continue with our theme, What’s on the Menu. We will be concentrating on eating foods that are good for our bodies. The activities that we will be doing are intended to get our children interested in eating a variety of food types. KinderRoo will be bringing the letters Yy, Qq and, Xx this week. These are the last three letters that we need to introduce. Once all the letters have been introduced we continue to work on letter sounds and really get into sounding out words! We are about to head full force into reading. For homework this week we will be reading At The Market. This week in math we are going to continue combining numbers to get to a bigger number! We will be playing different games all week to reinforce some previous taught math skills such as comparing numbers, writing numbers and showing “how many”. We are well into our writer’s workshop unit and the children are beginning to realize that they are authors. We are going to keep building up their writing confidence by giving them time to get their ideas on paper. They are working hard on writing words by stretching out the sounds they hear. It is amazing to watch them write! Next week is a very short week for us. We will be using Monday as a day to catch up on different math concepts and theme topics. Tuesday will be our first cross grade level day. A cross grade level day is a great time for our kindergarteners to spend time with the older kids while they get the opportunity to visit different classrooms and teachers. The activities on Tuesday include: apple crisp making, crafting skunks and decorating quilt tiles. Our class will eat together in our classroom and then we will head down to the movie theater to see Homeward Bound. Cross grade level days are always a lot of fun for our kids and staff. We hope you ask them all about it! There will be no official homework going home next week. We suggest you spend time reading some of the previous books or some of your favorite holiday books. Enjoy the time with your families and loved ones during Thanksgiving break. Know that we are beyond THANKFUL for being apart of your family this year. Important Dates: No School Wednesday, November 27th-Friday, November 29th: Thanksgiving Break Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Happy Tuesday!
We hope you all enjoyed the longer weekend. The days are getting shorter and the weather is getting colder. Now that we are officially into the colder weather we are going to send home your child’s bag of extra clothing. Please go through it to make sure that the extra clothing in the bag is weather appropriate and then return the bag to school. Also, please keep your eye on the weather. If it is wet or snowy outside please make sure your child wears boots. If you would like to keep a pair of sneakers at school please let us know and we will make sure not to pack them every afternoon. This week, we will begin a new theme, What’s on the Menu. We will be concentrating on eating healthy foods that are good for our bodies. The activities that we will be doing are intended to get our children interested in eating a variety of food types. The kids may even get a chance to try a few new foods during this unit! KinderRoo will be bringing the letters /ch/, Jj and, Vv. For homework this week we will be reading Fruit Salad. This book is a great book for introducing the sight words then and we! In math we are beginning to combine numbers to get to a bigger number! We will be playing a game with 2 dice where the kids need to roll the two dice and figure out their total number. We will also be working with a buddy to get to the number 15 by rolling dice and adding pennies together. The kids are ready for this new math. Thank you all who sent in items for our Hike for Hunger walk! The kids really like giving back to the community. We talked about how some people have a hard time and those people can go places for help in our very own community. There were a lot of kids and staff who wore red, white and blue to show support to our veterans. It really was a beautiful scene as we all were surrounding our new flag pole. Reminders: -No School November 27th-29th: We hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Hello Families,
We hope that everyone was able to enjoy their Halloween night. It was rainy and windy but at least it was warm! The teachers enjoyed a day full of technology on Friday. We were able to learn new ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. We can’t wait to try some new things out! This week, we will continue with our theme, Cornucopia. We will be concentrating on the various sources of food. We will talk about eggs, breads, fruit and vegetables. During this week we will be looking into where all of these foods REALLY come from. Some of the kids are shocked that food doesn’t simply come from the store. KinderRoo will be bringing the letters /sh/, Zz and, Ww. Tomorrow KinderRoo will toss SHeets all over the hallway! For homework this week we will be reading In My Garden. Thank you for continuing to sign the homework slip each night. Please continue to reinforce pointing to each word as they read it. In math we are focusing on measuring things with non-standard units of measurement. What that means is we are not using rulers yet in kindergarten. We may use things like cubes and sticks! We are learning to hold the items we are wanting to measure parallel to one another. We are also trying to remember to line the ends of the items up before measuring. The Halloween Parade was a huge success! The Halloween celebration could not have been possible without the support from all of you so, again we say, THANK YOU! We hope you were able to join the crowd for this fun and exciting school tradition. We are so thankful that the rain held off! Friday will be Central’s Annual Hike for Hunger event. We will we walking down to Our Place to donate all our items that we have collected as a school. If you would like to donate please send in nonperishable foods and/or toiletry items (tooth paste, soap, tooth brushes, shampoo etc…). The deadline to send items in is Friday, November 8th. If you have any questions please let me know. Information about Red, White and Blue Day (also Friday, November 8th) will be coming home with your child soon. As a heads up: children and staff that would like to participate are encouraged to wear red, white, and blue to show support to our veterans. Reminders: -Walk to School Day Wednesday, November 6th meeting at Hetty Green Park @ 7:30 a.m. -Friday, November 8th: Hike for Hunger & Dress in Red, White and Blue to support our Veterans -Monday, November 11th: No School, Veteran’s Day Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Hello Families,
This week, we will begin a new two week theme, Cornucopia. We will be concentrating on the four seasons and all of the changes that take place with people, animals and plants during fall. This unit really engages the children and they always have great insights to the gradual changes that occur. This fits in nicely with our fall weather here in Vermont. KinderRoo will be bringing the letters Ee, Ll and, Hh. Tomorrow KinderRoo will toss Easter Eggs ALL over the hallway! For homework this week we will be reading My Pumpkin. Thank you for continuing to sign the homework slip each night. Reading at home is definitely making a difference! We will be beginning our first writers workshop unit of “Launching the Writing Workshop”. This week we will be learning that we are ALL writers! We are going to put a lot of focus on never really being ‘done’ as writers. “When you are done, you have just begun!” will be our motto for our writing time throughout the rest of the school year. This week brings us to a new math unit as well. We will continue to work on our counting skills but, we are going to put a strong emphasis on measuring. Our last unit did a great job of building a good foundation for us-Now, it’s time for us to grow our learning! We know that we mentioned that we would be going on a walking field trip to Riverside Medical last Tuesday however, we will be going THIS Tuesday, October 29th. This Thursday, October 31st, we will have our annual Halloween Parade. Our parade begins at 2:00 *PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A TIME CHANGE* Please send your child to school with their costume in tow. We will be getting dressed in our classroom shortly before the parade begins. When the parade finishes the students will go back to their classrooms to remove their costumes and collect their items. We are asking that family members remain outside just as you would for a normal dismissal. Our Halloween party will take place prior to the parade. A huge thank you to those who signed up to bring in goodies for this event! Friendly Reminders: Friday, November 1st-No School, Teacher In-Service Sunday, November 3rd: Don’t forget to move your clocks BACK one hour for DayLight Saving. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Hello Families,
Happy Monday to everyone. Last week was a short whirlwind week for sure! We are ready to hit this week running. This week we will finish up our theme, Head to Toe. We will finish talking about our five senses by tasting a variety of pumpkin goodies as well as touching the outside AND inside of a pumpkin. We will also incorporate a few different pumpkin science experiments. As a way for us to culminate this unit we will be taking a short walking field trip to Riverside Medical (downtown Bellows Falls) where we will meet with our very own Whitney Patterson! Miss Whitney will talk with the kids about what doctors do. We even get to see and touch different tools that doctors use. This is always fun! This walking field trip will take place on Tuesday, October 22nd. KinderRoo brought the letter Ff today. There were fuchsia feathers everywhere! We will also use this week to review the letter sounds that we have learned up to this point. We will also be checking in with students to track their individual progress. For homework this week we will be reading What Smells? Keep doing what you are doing at home and practice reading each night. Don’t forget to sign those homework slips. In Math, we are focusing on comparing quantities. We are going to be looking at how many letters our names have. After we establish how many letters we have in our own name we are going to compare our names to our friends names! Next Thursday, October 31st, Central Elementary School will have our annual Halloween parade. Our parade begins at 1:30 on George Street. Students will bring their costumes to school. Please do NOT send your child to school in their costume. We will also be having a classroom Halloween party prior to the parade. Sign up sheets are in your child’s yellow folder. If you would like to sign up to bring anything please return the form by Monday, October 28th. Friendly Reminders: Early Release Day this Friday, October 25th-Teacher In-Service (Kids are released at 11:30 a.m.) No School Friday November 1st-Veteran’s Day. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Hello Families,
We have thoroughly enjoyed meeting with all our kindergarten families for conferences! If you were not able to meet with your teacher for a conference and you would like to do so, please make sure to contact us. We have a short week but we have a lot of fun planned! This week we will continue with our theme, Head to Toe. We will be concentrating on the Five Senses; hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching. Since there are only three days this week and we love with unit we are only going to be discussing hearing, sight and smell this week. We will finish up with the five senses next week. There will be a lot of hands on activities that we are sure you are going to hear about. We love to listen to all of the student’s observations and experiences about each of our senses. KinderRoo will be bringing the letters Rr and Bb. For homework this week we will be reading A Nature Walk. Please be sure to sign the homework slip each night for your child. Students are working very hard at pointing to each word as they read. We are so impressed with their efforts. What is more impressive is how excited and proud THEY are that they can read new words! In Math, we will continue to be counting AND comparing numbers. We will also begin to compare quantities of numbers. One way we will practice this is by playing the fun card game of “war”-which we call “compare”. Don’t be too surprised if your child comes home and wants to play compare with you! Halloween is approaching and many of you have asked about what we do at Central. You will receive more information about our parade, party and other details in the coming days! A huge Thank you for all of you that have donated snacks to our classrooms. They are SO greatly appreciated! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Happy Monday! We had a wonderful morning at the firehouse. We watched a firefighter get into his gear and crawl around! We also had the opportunity to sit inside a fire truck. It was a perfect way to celebrate fire prevention and safety week. This week we will begin a new theme, Head to Toe, which will focus this week on how marvelous our body is. We will concentrate on our heart, lungs, brain and the major systems of the human body. It is always fun talking about our bodies. KinderRoo will be bringing the letters Cc, Kk and Uu. As in the past there are going to be some BIG messes in the hallway!! Be sure to ask your child how CRAZY that was! We will be continuing with our homework this week. We will be reading MY BRAIN. Please be sure to sign the homework slip each night for your child and return the books each morning. Students are working very hard at pointing to each word as they read. We are so impressed with their efforts! In Math, we will be counting AND comparing numbers this week. We will also be measuring various items, using the vocabulary, longer than, shorter than as well as comparing quantities. These will be difficult concepts at first, but with practice, both at home and school, they will become easier and easier. We are almost out of extra snacks. If you are out and about and thinking of us we would really appreciate your help. Typically goldfish, graham crackers, crackers, granola bars, popcorn and pretzels are easiest to store and pass out. We can not thank you enough for all that you do to help make our days a bit smoother. Important Dates to Remember: No School on Monday, October 14th-Columbus Day No School Tuesday, October 15th-Conferences Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Hopefully everyone is getting out and enjoying the beautiful fall weather. We love hearing about the different things families are up to on the weekends! In Math, we will continue to focus on counting by 1’s as well as writing and recording numbers. We have also begun to work on one to one correspondence when counting items. These skills are very important and any extra practice at home will be of great benefit! Thank you in advance for your help. Another exciting week with KinderRoo!! This week KinderRoo will be bringing the letters Pp, Gg and Oo. She will be doing antics on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week! The children are so excited and a bit disgusted at the messes she creates each day, but KinderRoo truly helps our children to learn their letters and sounds. We hope that they are sharing what they have learned at home! This week, we will be reading the book, Families Together. You can read it with them or read a page and then have your child read it after you. The importance about this “homework”, is simply having them point to each word as they say it - read the word with their finger under it then moving it to the next word. The children are also encouraged to look at the pictures to figure out the words. Until January, our classes are just memorizing the words. We are building their self confidence to believe that they are readers. Your support is vital to the success of our program. Thank you so much for your support!! This week we will continue with our theme, Those Nearest and Dearest. We will focus on families and their importance. We will discuss how all families are different and that is what makes them special. Please remember that Central School picture day is this Thursday, October 3rd. If you have not sent back your order form and would like to purchase pictures, please send in money with the form on or before Thursday. Coming Up: There will be NO school on Monday and Tuesday, October 14th and 15th. October 15th is our Parent-Teacher Conference day. A note will be going home to set up your scheduled conference time. We offer several options to accommodate every family. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
We have officially reached fall in New England. We hope you all enjoyed the last blast of summer over the weekend. In Math, we are beginning a new unit that focuses on counting quantities and comparing lengths. We will start this week with counting items that we can grab with one hand. We will also learn how important it is to represent a specific number. We will practice writing our numbers 1-6 by introducing a game of Roll and Record. Students will roll a die and then record the number it lands on. We will begin a new theme unit, Those Nearest and Dearest! This weeks focus is on friends. This is a wonderful unit especially during this time of the year. At this point we have settled in and we are now bonding with new friends. One of the first questions we ask the kids is “What is a friend?” The responses we typically get are always heartwarming. We will also talk about all the different things that friends do together. One thing that we haven’t mentioned previously is that we are following the Learning Without Tears handwriting curriculum. This is an exceptional program that helps us focus on proper letter and number formation. If you hear the kids mention big lines, little lines, big curves or little curves it’s all coming from from our handwriting program! KinderRoo was at it again last week. Mr. Sully (Our custodian) had to come in and have a little talk with KinderRoo! There was cooked spaghetti all over the hallway and on top of KinderRoo. On Thursday there were dinosaurs and DIRT everywhere. This week we are going to focus on three new letters; Tt, Ii, and Nn. You’ll have to ask your child what happens on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday :). Homework will continue to go home this week. We will be reading Me Too! If you are having any problems getting the homework done please reach out to us. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley |