Thanks again to all volunteers who made it another great week in kindergarten.
Poetry books came home this weekend with three new poems we've learned since Thanksgiving, I hope you enjoy reading these with your child! We are busy in class working on a new one for the upcoming Sharing Assembly (Fri. Nov. 23).
This week we continued our sound work with 'Tt' next week will be 'Ii'. Using phonics (sound-symbol associations for letters) is an excellent strategy for beginning readers and writers. As the children log more and more reading hours and build a sight word vocabulary (instantly recognizable words that they don't have to sound out) phonics begins to take a back seat to spelling patterns and word chunking as a primary strategy but for now it develops a great deal of confidence. You can help your child decode words in their books by encouraging them to "sound it out" and when writing encourage your child to listen for the sounds in the words. Initial sounds are the easiest and first to identify, final sounds the next easiest and middle sounds the hardest. Consonants are easier to hear and discriminate than vowels. Encourage your child to say the word slowly and write letters as they hear the associated sound. You can see that having a strong understanding of letters and sounds is essential. Learning the alphabet and making sound associations opens the door to reading and writing!
Report cards will come home Monday with your Senior Kindergarten child. All students, Junior and Senior are encouraged to have an interview - thank you to those who have already signed up. If for any reason you become unable to attend your chosen time you can call the office to cancel and I'll do my best to accommodate another time. Please keep in mind most interviews are back to back with other families and as the interviews are only 10 minutes in length it is crucial to be on time. I look forward to speaking with each of you.
Independent dressing continues to go extremely well - several more students have become able to take care of most of their dressing needs and are so excited by this it's wonderful! Whenever you have time please encourage your child to do their own dressing and help them be familiar with the workings of any coats they may wear to school. Please remember to send indoor shoes when your child wears boots, the boots often have more aggressive treads and can bring great amounts of playground dirt into the class, as well - it's extremely uncomfortable to keep them on for the entire session!
This is a short week, remember that because of the PA day the 5 day school cycle will shift over by one day.
Monday - PM Library, SK reports go home, Interviews as scheduled
Tuesday - AM Library, Interviews as scheduled
Wednesday - AM Reading Buddies, PM Computers, interviews as scheduled
Thursday - Crazy hair day! AM/PM Mystery Readers, Interviews as scheduled
Friday - PA Day, Interviews as scheduled
