Septemer 21, 2007

September 21, 2007

Dear Families,

Seasons and weather were discussed this week. We made lists of summer words, fall words, winter words, and spring words. These lists were written on seasonal symbols and hung in the hallway. We took an “end of summer” walk to look at the trees, flowers, grass, etc. (If the weather didn’t cooperate, we didn’t go on the walk.) We talked about how the trees are still full of green leaves. We noticed that some of the leaves are already turning colors, and some have even fallen off the trees. The kindergartners talked about how the trees change for each season. They made trees to show the four different seasons. The kindergartners enjoyed painting the trunks brown. Have them tell you about how the trees change for each season.

A couple of weeks ago the kindergarten students participated in the DIBELS Benchmark Assessment. We had several different people working with our students on this evaluation. We will share these evaluations with you at your fall conference.
If your child practices writing numbers, their name, or the letters as we learn them at home, send that paper to school. We will give them a sticker for their work.

Next week we will be talking about the letters of the alphabet. We will learn how many letters there are, why we need letters, letters make different sounds, and what letters our names begin with. We will begin learning to write our first name the “kindergarten way.” We will also be reading and doing activities with the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. We will read other alphabet books and learn some alphabet songs. Next week’s sharing needs to be something that deals with the alphabet. This item can be a book, a puzzle, a game, an educational toy, etc.

An important date coming up is Tuesday, October 16th. We believe that this is school picture day. Watch for more information to be sent home soon!

Please remember that each Monday the kindergartners get a new library book. If your child forgets to return the book that day, the teachers will try to get them to the library for a new book as soon as they can. It may NOT be the very day theirs is returned due to our busy schedule.

We hope your child is enjoying kindergarten. Things are slowly improving! Have a great weekend!

Ms. Howard, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Pokorny, and Mrs. Herink