Your kindergartener has worked very hard this week, and what a busy week it has been! We have begun to talk about the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes, beginning sounds in words, and the sounds in our names and we are learning more and more about each other. Please support your child at home by asking him/her what the beginning sounds in different words are. You can do this by asking, “What letter and sound is at the beginning of -------------?”. Please keep practicing at home and in the car!
During Phonics this week, we worked on writing our names, identifying uppercase and lowercase letters, tracking print from left to right, and identifying and counting letters and words in sentences. We learned a bit about vowels and also worked on rhyming, isolating the beginning sound in words, blending and segmenting words, and letter sounds (we will work on these every week).
We started our new reading and writing programs by Collaborative Classroom! Some of the things we did in our reading lessons this week include listening to and discussing stories to build comprehension and build alphabetic knowledge, reading and discussing our names to build name recognition, learning the concept of rhyme and identifying rhyming words to build phonological awareness, learning the difference between fiction and nonfiction texts, building stamina for independent reading, and develop independent work habits while reading. We read the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and practiced rereading, as good readers do!
In Writing, we learned that good writers generate ideas about things they can draw and write about. We then drew pictures and labeled them with beginning sounds. We practiced sharing our discussing our stories/pictures with each other.
We've started our Math program this week, Envisions+. We are learning that numbers tell us how many. We are learning to count, recognize, represent, read, and write numbers 0–5.
This is a really important number sense foundation because students are learning the meaning behind the numeral, not just practicing writing it. In the coming weeks, we will start to really dive into our Math curriculum.
In our WeThinkers social/emotional lesson, we learned that everyone has thoughts and feelings! We are learning to recognize and talk about our own thoughts and feelings while beginning to understand that the people around us have thoughts and feelings, too. We are practicing using our “thought makers” (brains) and “feelings keepers” (hearts) to help us understand ourselves and others.
We had our first Interactive Writing lesson! Interactive Writing is a time in which the children and I share the writing responsibility and learn about letter/sound relationships, capital and lowercase letters, letter formation, and composing a sentence using correct titlecase and punctuation. We also practice sight words during this time. Our lesson this week focused on reading and writing the sight words "I" and "am". Encourage your child to write for you at home the following sentence: I am _________.
We visited our Play Lab and are so excited to start playing! Play is so much more than a break from learning. It is how young children learn best! Through play, children are developing important academic, social, emotional, and problem-solving skills in meaningful and engaging ways. As children build, create, pretend, and explore, they are learning to think critically, solve problems, use language, count, sort, recognize patterns, and make connections. Play also gives children opportunities to practice sharing, taking turns, cooperating, communicating, resolving conflicts, and understanding the thoughts and feelings of others. It encourages creativity, imagination, independence, confidence, and self-regulation. Whether children are building a tower, running a pretend restaurant, creating a story, or working through a disagreement with a friend, they are learning and growing. In Kindergarten, play is not separate from learning—play is learning! Our goal is to provide purposeful, hands-on play experiences that allow children to explore, wonder, create, collaborate, and apply what they are learning every day. We will head to our Play Lab multiple times each week. Please check your emails for a video showing what we are playing with in the Lab this quarter (it will change every few months). Check out our Play Lab here: https://drive.google.com/file/
More to come!
We started practicing literacy centers and are getting ready for what's to come in the next few weeks!
Reminders:
Please check and empty your child’s folder each night and return your child’s folder daily
Please send a snack with your child everyday
Don’t forget to send in a framed 4x6 or 5x7 picture of your family- candid photos work!
No School 9/7
Hearing screenings September 11th
Reed Spirit Night September 22nd
Don't forget to get your volunteer paperwork completed if you would like to help us in our classroom or attend our field trip (more info to come)!
Have a great weekend!
Jena
