Weekly Monday Note From the Desks of ...

Mrs. Romano – Room 1 Mrs. Knudsen – Room 2

Ms. Ponce – Room 3

For the Week of: December 9, 2013

Dear Kindergarten Families:

1. Mark Your Calendar:

* Friday, December 20th is an Early Out Scheduled Day. * Monday, December 23rd - Monday, January 13th … … … 3 Week Winter Break!

School resumes Tuesday, January 14th.

2. Upcoming Events: We have fun activities planned all week and to prepare for our full week please see our due dates below.

Monday, December 16th … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Stocking Stuffers Due Monday, December 16th … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Wrapped Book Due Monday, December 16th … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Pajama Day Thursday, December 19th… … … … … … … … … … … … … … …Snowman Project Due

3. A Note About Pajama Day:

Kinder students may wear their pajamas to school on Monday, December 16th.

House Slippers may NOT be worn - students will still need to wear regular shoes for

outdoor activities.

Students may bring one SMALL stuffed animal that will fit in their lap. We cannot

accommodate large stuffed animals or pillow pets.

And too, please do not send blankets or pillows.

2nd Quarter Testing continues his Week! No Centers and No Volunteers this week again and we will let volunteers know if we will need their

assistance prior to the Winter Break because of our change in the schedule. Also,

We will not be sending home the homework folder next week and so please be sure to return the folder this Friday with all completed papers. Therefore, this will be the last week of homework before the Winter Break.

4. No Formal Homework Next Week – Only Snowman Homework Project:

Homework envelopes will not be coming home next week.

You may bring in your Snowman Project before Thursday to share with the class.

Remember to continue practicing 1st Semester skills this week and over vacation every

opportunity possible. Please check out the many practice items we have on our

website in the areas of reading, writing, and math and continue to do “Reading Eggs”.

5.

Continue to complete one fine motor activity and one language &/or math activity each

night from the 1st Semester homework sheet. Remember to complete 2 activities each

night that are in addition to the required story and math pages. Have a grown-up record

what you did this week completing the cover sheet and return the cover sheet, story and

math pages and attach any items you may have created at home. Please check under the

headings Letter Formation and Writing for “Suggestions to Encourage Writing” and under

Homework Activities for “Suggestions for Letter Name, Letter Sound, Word and Number

Recognition Acquisition”.

On the language experience writing paper provided, give your child the topic:

"I can _____." Have them write the entire sentence and complete the last word with

something that starts with a Kk". They may first draw a picture of something that starts

with a "k" using at least five colors in the picture and “no white showing”. Suggestions to

complete the sentence include: kick, fly a kite, do karate, eat Kit Kats, eat Kix, pet a

kitten, kiss my mom, be a king, go to kindergarten, use a key, hop like a kangaroo, drink

Kool-aid, etc. Have your child (not the grown-up) write the words about what they did.

Focus on the letter sounds that we hear and say. Say the sound slowly for them and ask

them to write the sound they hear at the beginning of the word and any other sounds they

hear in the word. After your child has finished writing the words using the letter sounds

(not necessarily conventional spelling), correctly spell the word below in teeny tiny writing

what they have written. Your child is not to erase and correct the spelling, but to

recognize that sounds make words and that you can read what they write. Remember to

praise all efforts!!!

Complete the Math Pages P37, P38; read P39 (P40); and complete P41, P42; P43,

P44. Remember you can use buttons in 2 different colors, or small legos in two

different colors for “counters”. For example, put 3 red legos in boxes and 3 yellow

legos in boxes to total 6. Then write 3 color red and 3 color yellow .

Clue Bag is optional for the sound of /k/.

6. Please help us with the concepts below by reviewing them at home:

Practice the Word Family of the Week (Alphabetic Principle) – saying and writing real and

nonsense rhyming words in the –at word family; bat, cat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, sat, that, dat, gat, lat, zat.

Use the –at family of rhyming words for homework spelling activities.

Included this week is our schedule of word families. Students are to be able to read and spell these

Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) words. We encourage you to practice the word families at home to

facilitate quick mastery of this skill.

Practice initial sound matching - listen to two words and decide if they begin with the same sound

(can, cut - yes) (sock, game - no).

Practice oral blending - listen to 2, 3 or 4 individual sounds (short or long vowel sounds) and blend

the sounds together to say a word (/c/, /a/, /t/ - cat) … this is a more difficult task that takes

continued practice. Use the finger spelling technique for each sound. Have your child show you or

ask us how to “finger spell the sounds”. Begin mastering 2 sounds before moving to 3 and 4 sounds.

(2 sounds – at, me, on) This phonics activity is done orally and has no correlation to “book print”

spelling.

Have a Wonderful Holiday Season

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Name: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - _______________________________________________

My K Picture

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Write the sentence on the lines above: I can _______________.