Thursday, January. 27, 2005

Dear Kindergarten Families,

            We have been learning two letters this week, Uu and Vv.  At the language and writing center students completed a letter Uu book as well as a letter Vv book.  They learned a letter Uu tongue twister and a letter Vv tongue twister.  They learned to write both letters and they wrote two sentences in their journal.

            At the math center we reviewed addition number stories and practiced solving some problems.  Then I introduced subtraction and the kids played a game called disappearing train to reiterate and practice the concept learned.

            At the theme art center students finished their last three world book pages.  They learned the name of our country and where it is located on the map.  They learned the name of our continent and where it is located on the map.  They also colored a map appropriately according to land and water.  I plan to help them all learn their address and phone number over the next month or so.

            We are nearing the end of January and report cards came home today.  In addition to the information given to you on the report card I will briefly discuss some other things that happened in January over the course of the month.

            Each week has been spent studying a different letter of the alphabet.  We only have two more letters to study.  Most students have a full understanding of all the letters and their sounds.  Now we will begin studying word families and working more with words and reading.

            During January I talked quite a bit about story details and putting a story in sequence.  Now the students will begin to write their own stories and we will discuss story elements like characters, setting, plot and resolution.  Throughout this past month I prepared them for story writing by having them write pattern books.  Their I can . . . and I like . . . books have come home to you already.  They also wrote a pattern book about winter.

The Tsunami incident brought up a current event and very teachable moment for us here in Kindergarten.  Hopefully the kids took away an understanding of the devastation it caused, how we were able to help and how lucky we are to live in such a safe place.

            We celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, discussed diversity and some of the actions taken by Dr. King to help create a more diverse America.  The students participated in a couple activities to promote an open-mind towards the differences all of us have and how important it is to accept those differences and get along well with one another.

            Math concepts we have learned this month include telling time by the hour and half hour, calculator uses, counting by 2’s, addition and subtraction number stories, sorting objects by a variety of characteristics along with simple day to day review of past objectives.  Next I will introduce all the different coins and their values and we will learn how to count change.

        We are constantly on the go here in Kindergarten!  We are always very busy.  I appreciate all the help and support you give your students at home.  That is a huge part of the success they experience here in my classroom.  Have a wonderful weekend and please feel proud for all that you do for your kindergartener!

Sincerely,

Miss Schultz kschultz@manistee.org

http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us/e2005/kdg/

Main Onekama School Page: http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us