In December we have many exciting and fun events planned for our kindergarteners!
On December 20th, we will have our first kindergarten field trip to Heritage Square. We will not return to school until 12:15, so be aware that the kids will need to be picked up a little later than usual. Please contact your daycare to inform them of the later time if you use that service.
We also have our holiday party on December 21st. The party will start at 11:00 and end at 11:45. All are welcome to come help us celebrate!
Yesterday the class visited the gym to watch the 6th graders' musical Dear Abby. I was really proud of how patient, polite, and quiet our kids were while watching. The musical was just over one hour, so I was really impressed! We even received a compliment from a 6th grade teacher because our class was so well behaved. I gave the class an extra 10 mins. during recess as a reward.
This month, we will continue our learning in letter formation, sounds, and word families. We will be looking closely at the letters P, J, V, W, Z, and Q. When we reach the end of the month, we will only have two more letters to learn in January and our alphabet will be complete! We also learned how to tap our words using our fingers. This will help kids hear all the sounds in a word, especially those tricky middle sounds, as well as learn to spell. Have them practice tapping out CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words at home.
In writing, our kids have been working hard at "How to" writing (ex. "How to eat a cupcake"). This is quite a lot of writing for our kindergarteners, as each piece could have 4-5 sentences. We plan by first drawing and labeling all the steps, then think of a topic sentence (this is very difficult and will be a goal for all our kids most of this year), and finally write a sentence for all the steps. At the end of this month, kids will pick their favorite "How to" piece to revise and create as a book to take home.
In reading, we continue to work on decoding and comprehension strategies. We have been practicing how to chunk big words, say the first sound and slide into the word, say the first sound and look at the picture for something that starts with that sound (then checking it with the word), among other decoding strategies. As for comprehension, we have been working on retelling the story when we finish, discussing the characters and setting, making connections to the story, as well as trying to think of the main idea.
In math, we will introduce addition and subtraction through concrete activities (like using a pocket to add or take away objects, discussing the change). We continue to work on number formation through homework and matching the written number to number of things on cards. We have started skip counting with 5's and 10's. This will take some practice, so please do this at home with your child. I've also noticed that many of our kids need practice with teen number recognition. As you get teen number homework, please make flash cards to have your child practice at home. We will also introduce the basic language of probability, discussing what is certain, possible, or impossible, as well as continuing practice with patterns, estimation, and number stories.
I hope you all have a great holiday season with your friends and family, and I look forward to the new year coming up with our awesome kindergarten class!
