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
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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 Dear Parents and Friends,
It sure is beginning to look a lot like winter! Waking up to snow this morning was a good reminder that we live in Vermont :). We hope that everyone had an enjoyable weekend. This week, we will review our two week theme, Sing a Song, Paint a Picture. This week we will have a walking trip to the Dellamono Glass Studio (downtown B.F.). While we are there we are going to paint our own glass projects. Some kids will be painting juice glasses and others will be painting small bowls. The kids really enjoyed watching Miss Cathy when she gave her demonstration and now they can’t wait to be artists! 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 checking on rote counting skills, one more/one less concept, and counting with one-to-one correspondence. We will be adding in some fun math crafts with measuring and numbers! 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 19th. 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 next Thursday afternoon. Sign-up sheets went home last week. If you have any questions please let us know. Your help and support is truly is appreciated! We have many children coming to school with no snack. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to send a snack with your child. This Friday, December 21st is a half day. The students will be released at 11:30a.m. They will have lunch here at school prior to dismissal. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
We hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. December continues to be a very busy and stressful month for all. We do understand how excited the kids are for the upcoming festivities, but please continue to remind your children to do their best at school. This would be very appreciated and all that we can ask for. Thank you again for your help to make this month run smoothly. This week, we will continue our two week theme, Sing a Song, Paint a Picture. This week we will focus on art and artists. The classes so enjoyed learning about musicians. The best part of the week was watching the children make their own maracas and them march around proclaiming that they were musicians because they were making music. This week our very our Miss Cathy will be doing a demonstration on how she creates art on glass. In Math, we will continue comparing larger quantities of numbers. We will also be counting and representing quantities. We are starting to understand, and solve problems that involve addition and subtraction! One way we are looking at addition and subtraction is by building a number and then trying to make that quantity into a NEW quantity by removing or adding items…CHALLENGING STUFF! As you know, KinderRoo has brought us all of our letters now! Today, 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 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 19th. 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. Some kids are forgetting snow pants because there is no snow on the ground however, at this point snow pants definitely help keep their bodies warm! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Dear Parents and Friends,
Welcome to December, which is a very busy and hectic month for all. This time of year, kindergartners become unfocused, chatty and a bit wound up. We do understand how excited they are for the upcoming festivities. Please remind your children to do their best at school. This would be very appreciated and all that we can ask for. Thank you in advance for your help to make this month run smoothly. This week, we will begin a new unit called “Sing a Song, Paint a Picture” During this unit we are going to teach the children how they can appreciate beauty in the world around them through their experiences with music and art. This week we will explore various types of music and maybe even make a few of our own instruments-You can all thank us later :) In Math, we will continue to practice counting as well as comparing larger quantities of numbers. The teen numbers are still tricky for some. Please continue practicing counting with your child. Thank you! KinderRoo has brought us all of our letters now! This has been an exciting time of year for us and we are sad that we won’t have any more of her antics in our hallways, but excited to start sounding out more words and reading more independently! This is our last week with our current “white books.” Next Monday, 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 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. If you have any questions next week, feel free to contact one of us or send in a note or email. This part of our program is so exciting for the students. We can’t wait to begin! Report cards were sent home on Friday. If you did not receive one in your child’s yellow folder, please let us know. Remember that if you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you! We are pleased with all of our children’s efforts and accomplishments and look forward to seeing even more gains during the next trimester. Last but not least, please join us on Wednesday, December 5th for our Monthly walk to school day! As normal meeting at Hetty Green Park begins 7:25 and we start walking no later than 7:45a.m. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Happy Monday!
It sure was a long 5 day weekend. Hopefully, you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving and got the chance to spend time with family! Last week on our cross grade level day our kindergarteners did FANTASTIC! When we went to the movie theater in town they were all responsible, respectful and kind. You all should be very proud of their behavior. The movie was so much fun to watch with the kids. We hope you all remembered your apple crisp and got a chance to bake and eat it with your family. 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. This morning KinderRoo and Joey strung Yellow Yarn in our hallway-It was EVERYWHERE! 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”. You will notice again the additional homework in your child’s yellow folder. This poetry homework is optional however, we really appreciate all of the families that are completing this work. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Happy Monday!
We hope you all enjoyed the unexpected long weekend. Hopefully you all got to enjoy the first snow of the season. This time of the year always brings a lot of excitement! This 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. We also will introduce the letter Vv. There were pictures of volcanos in the hallway this morning which was not as exciting as other letters but, it got the job done. 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, reading the Dot book and completing an activity and doing some yoga. Our class will eat together in our classroom and then we will head down to the movie theater to see Charlottes Web. Cross grade level days are always a lot of fun for our kids and staff. We hope you ask them all about it! I wanted to thank all of the families for sending back the permission slips so quickly. I also wanted to give a huge SHOUT OUT to a few families for sending in additional money to help out. Your kindness and generosity is appreciated more than words can describe!! There will be no official homework going home this 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. Reminders: -No School November 21-23rd: Happy Thanksgiving! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Happy Monday!
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. This week, we will begin a new 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. 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. Tomorrow KinderRoo and Joey will make a mess with CHips and CHeese in our hallway! For homework this week we will be reading Healthy Foods. The optional poetry homework will continue to be sent home. A big thank you to all of the families that worked on poetry last week! In math we going to continue to focus on measuring things with non-standard units of measurement. We are also 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. The kids are ready for this new math! You will notice again the additional homework in your child’s yellow folder. This poetry homework is optional however, we really appreciate all of the families that are completing this work. Reminders: -No School November 21-23rd: We hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Happy Tuesday!
It was a great weekend to be a part of our community! The Bellows Falls Union High School Terrier girls won the Division 3 Field Hockey Championship. If you were around the town on Saturday night I am sure you heard and saw the celebration. 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. Today KinderRoo tossed 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! 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. You will notice some new additional homework in your child’s yellow folder. This poetry homework is optional however, it would be very beneficial to complete it. The homework is very short and simple. You read the same poem each night and them each night you do something a little different. If you have any questions please let us know. Reminders: -Walk to School Day Wednesday, November 7th meeting at Hetty Green Park @ 7:30 a.m. -Make Up picture day is Thursday, November 8th. Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley Happy Monday!
We hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend and are ready for another busy week in Kindergarten. Even though it was a short week last week, we still got a lot of work done. On Friday the teachers got the opportunity to sharpen our skills through a technology filled day. 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. 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. Today KinderRoo tossed 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! This Wednesday, October 31st, we will have our annual Halloween Parade. Our parade begins at 2:00. 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! This Friday, November 2nd will be our annual Hike for Hunger event. The entire school will walk to Our Place and drop off all of the donated nonperishable goods. If you have not yet brought in a donation and would like to do so, you can send them in up through Friday! Just a Reminder…. Please don’t forget to move your clocks BACK one hour on Sunday, November 4th for DayLight Savings Time! Have a Great Week! Amy and Ashley |