Upcoming Events:
- Wednesday, September 2: FSA (family school association) meeting in the PC at 7pm.
- Friday, September 4: 2:00 dismissal; please note, aftercare IS still available from 2-6 (that is NEW this year).
- Monday, September 7: NO school, Labor Day
This Week:
We had a great first full week of kindergarten! We continue to go over our kindergarten rules and routines and participated in many getting to know you activities and songs. We are slowly getting into the academic part of kindergarten too!
We had our first Fire drill this week. Next week we will have our second fire drill and first tornado drill. All safety drills will take place in the first month of school. With the kids, we focus on for fires we “get OUT of the building”, and for bad weather we “stay IN the building.”
Next Week:
We will finish up the iReady “inform” (previously called the “diagnostic) next week for both reading and math. What is iREADY? iReady is a digital program that begins with an assessment (iReady inform) followed by a “learning path.” The assessment is taken three times a year. The learning path is determined based on how they do during their assessment, so it’s different for each child. IReady is a required program, but it’s a small part of my instructional time, and though I do value the weekly data I get from it, I ask that you please do NOT put too much weight on the “inform” results at this young age. Put more focus on the assessments I sit down and do with each child and I share with you at conferences.
- i-Ready Inform, an assessment students complete three times a year to show teachers where each child is in their learning
- i-Ready Personalized Instruction, a personalized lesson pathway, called My Path, built from each student’s i-Ready Inform results
Language Arts:We’ve started FUNDATIONS, our phonics, spelling and handwriting program for grades K-2 at St. Cletus. Fundations teaches the skills in a very explicit, systematic way so it is beneficial to ALL learners. The skills build with each unit at each grade level, and then also, they build from each grade level to the next through second grade until all phonics rules and skills have been covered. The program contains the 5 essential components to learning to read including phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, vocabulary, and fluency. Please read the note I sent home about Fundations to learn more!
In kindergarten, Fundations is broken down into 5 units which will cover:
1.) Unit 1 (12 weeks): lowercase letters (both names and sounds) for a-z, phonemic awareness skills, story retelling, beginning writing skills, trick words (word wall words).
2.) Unit 2 (4 weeks): Upper case letters, A-Z (both names and sounds), Phonemic awareness skills, blendings 3 sound short vowel words, story prediction, trick words (word wall words).
3.) Unit 3 (6 weeks): Phonemic awareness skills, blending sounds in NONSENSE consonant/vowel/consonant (CVC) words, distinguishing between short and long vowel sounds, story elements (character, setting, main events), beginning writing skills, trick words (word wall words).
4.) Unit 4 (4 weeks): Consonant digraphs (sh, ch, th, wh, ck), trick words (word wall words), story elements (character, setting, main events), spelling (encoding) 3 sound words with digraphs, reading (decoding) 3 sound words with digraphs.
5.) Unit 5 (6 weeks): sentence structure, sentence dictation, narrative vs informational books, trick words (word wall words)
When I mention “phonemic awareness” that includes blending (putting sounds together so c-a-t is CAT!), segmenting (taking a word like CAT and being able to break it down into individual sounds, c-a-t), manipulating sounds, isolating sounds and rhyming. Simply put, it’s the auditory part of phonics.
Stay tuned for more info on “trick words” or “word wall words”!
Here are the letter/keyword/sounds we have learned so far in unit 1:
t/top/t
b/bat/b
Math:
Next week we will start our very first “INTO MATH” workbook. Each workbook contains a certain number of “modules” or chapters. Module 1 all about: counting and sequencing numbers to 5. In addition to this, we will work on the following math skills:
- Number writing: We are focusing on number formation for the following numbers this past week and next week: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Click HERE to see the poems that go along with each number. In kindergarten we spend a lot of time focusing on how to form each number. By doing this, it will really help the kids when we get more into manipulating numbers–comparing, adding, subtracting, etc. The kids won’t be so distracted by trying to figure out HOW to write the numbers, but instead can focus on the actual concept. At home: Ask your child to show you how to make a 1, 2, or 3! These are the numbers we’ve practiced so far
- Tally Marks: We will practice counting a group of objects and tallying up to 10. “1, 2, 3, 4, 5 MAKES A BUNDLE!” (FINGER SPACE) “6, 7, 8, 9, 10 CIRCLE IT UP!”
- Ten Frames: We are learning to quickly recognize amounts on a ten frame up to 10. We are representing numbers using counters on a ten frame up to 10.
- Counting: Counting by 1s to 20. At Home: Practice counting! You say a number, they say a number, go back and forth. The car is a great place to do this! The expectation is up to 100 by the END of kindergarten. We are counting to 20 right now.
Religion: We will begin our FIRST religion unit titled, “I am Special.” God made each of us special. There is no one in the world just like YOU! We will learn our very first pocket chart song called, ‘I am special.” Ask your child to sing it to you! These are songs we’ll illustrate and keep in our poetry journals. We will pull these poetry journals out throughout the year to practice reading and singing.
SPRINKLE kindness stickers: We are making kindergarten and all of St. Cletus is a little sweeter by trying to sprinkle kindness wherever we go. If your child comes home with a kindness/sprinkle sticker, ask what he/she did to earn it!