Sept. 3-7

Here is what's going on in Kindergarten next week:

Language Arts: We will introduce the new Word of the Week: “like, my”.  Word Wall Words are words that must be memorized and cannot be sounded out (also known as “sight words”).  It would be helpful for your child to create their own Word Wall at home (or just use flashcards) to help your child read, memorize and write these words daily until they have been mastered. Next week, we will read 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?’ and students will identify all of the “see” words in the book.  Also, students will choose a classmate’s name and write “I see _______ (name of that classmate).

Handwriting Focus Letters:   M,m, N,n, Rr. These letters are a combination of “straight line letters”, like we focused on last week, combined with what we call “Rainbow Letters” which are the lowercase letters (h,m,n,r) that curve in a rainbow shape.  Some students still need to practice writing their names with an uppercase first letter and the rest of the letters being lowercase.  Please spend time helping them with this every day until it is mastered so they feel confident writing their names easily.  I will be sending home a practice sheet with their name.  At Back to School night, I will be handing out letter formation guide to help you teach the same Kindergarten way to write letters.

Math: We will continue to study patterns, counting with our “Counting Collections” and identifying/writing numbers 1-5.  We will begin math workshops this week.  We will have a variety of games that will teach number recognition. 

Back to School Night is on Thursday, September 6^th. This is an adult-only event and we ask that you find childcare for your children. We will be meeting in our classroom from 6:00-6:30 to tell you more about our Kindergarten program. Following this, Ms. Green will be giving a presentation from 6:45-7:15 in the multi-purpose room.

We are excited to have parent volunteers begin to help out in the classroom soon and will have a sign-up sheet at Back to School night. As a reminder, if you are interested in volunteering in our classroom, you will need to be fingerprinted and have a TB test.  If you have already done this in the past for our district and our school has record of it, you will not have to do it again.  Please ask the office for more information and to get the Volunteer form ASAP.   I will go over what other volunteers are needed to help our classroom and school run smoothly. Room Parents at Rio help to organize classroom parties as well as assisting with our classroom auction project and other classroom events.  Sometimes this role is more fun with a group of parents that want to share the job.  

I sent home many papers at beginning of the year from our district that needs to be returned.  Please go through those packets and sign and return papers stating you know about emergency medical treatment, photography consent form, and voluntary participation student accident/health insurance.  Thanks

Please return field trip forms.  Please remember to get fingerprinted and TB test done.  Also, there is a driver form that needs to be filled out and returned with license and car insurance.

Our district provides free and reduced breakfast or lunch to our students. If you are interested in receiving this service, please contact me.

I hope you have a great long weekend with your families,

Mrs. Werner

September 27-31

Hi Kindergarten Families,

Here is what’s going on in class next week:

Handwriting: This past week, we focused on writing “straight line letters”: I,i, L,l and, T,t.  Next week, we will focus on letters H,h , V,v and X,x.  While helping your child write letters at home, please remind them that letters always start at the top and go down. Students are also practicing how to write their name correctly- beginning with a capital letter first and followed by all lower case letters. We will teach them to think of a “Big Momma Duck (capital letter) with a line of Little Baby Ducks (lowercase letters) following”. Please reinforce these skills at home with DAILY handwriting practice if needed.

Math: We will focus on the concepts of number recognition, counting and writing numbers 0-5 correctly. We are also focusing on shapes and patterns.

Phonemic Awareness/Art: We will continue our “Nursery Rhyme” theme.  The students are enjoying these rhymes and art projects and are having fun coming up with their own silly rhymes as well!

Sight words for the week:  a, see

If you are interested in applying for the Free or Reduced Lunch program please go to the Food Services Department at the District Office.  Applications are available on the PVUSD website. 

Beginning Weekly….

On Fridays, our students will visit our school’s computer lab to work on academic programs that support what we are studying in class.  On Wednesdays, students will visit our school’s library to listen to books read by our new school’s librarian "Mrs. Lowe".  Kinders do not check out books.They will have this privilege in first grade.  

On Fridays, we have “Reading Buddies”  with Third grade Mrs. Chekouras' class. We will be reading, writing, doing art projects and playing outside with our Buddies throughout the year.

Back-to-School night is Thursday, September 6th.  This is a child-free night!  Where you will learn about what curriculum we use and sign up for centers.  I will give you times but usually it starts around 5:30 or 6.  

Please remember to read with your child every night.  You can also keep track of our weekly word wall words to review at home.  

Also, next week I will be sending out our first Scholastic book order.  You can order books throughout the year using my Scholastic code that is on my blog.  I will only be sending out book order forms every other month.  Once I send out the order form, you can either go online to order or send me back the order for me to send in.  I'll give you about a week to order and the date will be posted on the order form.

Reminders:

First Field trip: Wednesday, September 26th (Please get your finger prints and TB test results at the district office and driver forms)

 

Labor Day: Monday, September 3 NO school

Have a great week!

Ms. Werner

Hi Kindergarten Families! 

I am so excited to meet all of you and begin this VERY exciting year of fun and learning! The first day of school is on Wednesday, August 15th. A few days prior to that, you will receive a letter in the mail with information about who your child’s teacher is, the room number, and an invitation to a “Meet your Teacher” event which will occur on the morning of Monday, August 13th in our classroom (Room 17). The specific time will be given to you in the letter as well.  Besides meeting the teacher, this is a great way to familiarize your child with the classroom, set up a bus schedule/going home routine, and most importantly, comfort any nerves that may be building up for the big first day! At this orientation, we will also give you an important newsletter that will answer the many questions you may have (ie: information about our daily schedule, snack time, where to pick your child up, etc.).

If you've already started school shopping, we suggest that you buy your child a REGULAR size backpack that can hold a (provided) 9x12 homework folder, a lunch box, and a sweatshirt inside. Make sure to label all of these items with your child's name (especially clothing). And for safety reasons, please NO rolling backpacks. We've already purchased homework folders and most classroom supplies (crayons, pencils, journals, etc) for the students, however if you are able to contribute any classroom donations, it will be very much appreciated. Please check out our Classroom Donations List, located to the right of this posting, to see what is needed or on the tree in the classroom. Thank you! 

Ms. Werner