Sowing the Seeds of Spring

Sowing the Seeds of Spring

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Greetings From the Kindergarten!

We have had a busy few weeks in the classroom. Students continue to learn letter formation and key word sounds. They are becoming more comfortable with sounding out letters to form words as they label their journal entries and pictures. Rhyming helps students listen for letter sounds and word families and we have learned a number of nursery rhymes and rhyming games. Ask your student to share some with you. We have also been playing rhyming and letter bingo.

I have been reading with individual students during silent reading time. As a result, students are interested in bringing home easy readers to read with you in the evenings. I will be sending home reading sheets with these books and ask that you help your student fill in the sheet and keep it in their reading folder. This helps give them a great sense of accomplishment when they see what they have read over time. It also has a spot for them to tell me if they liked the book, which allows them to begin to form opinions about stories. Look for these folders toward the end of the week.

We have been exploring numbers in a variety of ways - counting up to and down from twenty; learning about place value; and using language to compare numbers such as is equal to, is greater than, is less than, how many more, and how many less. Students have been making pattern block pictures and have been "taking a picture" using pattern block stickers.

Our unit on bats is winding down. We will begin a study of our families in the coming weeks. I will be sending home a short at-home project that will help launch this unit. We have also been discussing family traditions as the holidays approach.

On November 17, there will be a buddy activity that has become a holiday tradition and is part of our school's community service efforts. Students will put together Thanksgiving food baskets for those in need in the greater Putney community. In preparation for this we ask students to bring in food items to help fill the baskets. Kindergarten has been assigned to bring in two bags of stuffing per student. Then, on November 17 we will all gather and put the baskets together. Please plan to bring the stuffing bags in before the end of the week. I will collect them in the classroom. If you have any questions or are unable to do this please let me know.

After the Thanksgiving break, we will begin a school-wide study and community service project about the cultures and countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Students will learn about these cultures in the classroom and in mixed age groups as they work on a variety of hands-on projects and a service learning initiative.

The next two months are fun but busy ones at TGS. I will endeavor to keep things consistent in the classroom and continue to work to ease transitions. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns you might have.