I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were able to spend time with your family. This time of the year gets pretty busy. In January, kindergarten really takes off, the curriculum becomes harder and students are more use to the school environment. It is an exciting time. As the holiday season begins we will be learning about many different celebrations and family traditions. This month’s homework will be about a celebration you have in your family.
This week we will begin a unit study on the Gingerbread man and listen to many different versions of this classic tale. When we come back from winter break we will continue our unit to include many other fairy tales.
Þ When it snows or becomes very cold, students should wear snow pants, boots, gloves and hats. Students are welcomed to leave their snow pants at school, so they do not have to transfer them back and forth every day. Every family has a different opinion about this policy, I think it is easier than transferring and losing an expensive pair of snow pants. . Please inform your child if they should leave their snow gear at school or if they should take it home every day. I cannot stress enough the importance of putting your child’s first and last name on EVERYTHING. All snow gear looks the same. There are times when students accidentally take another person’s gloves home or loses gear in the Anchors Away line or on the bus. It will cut down on loss of gear if you put your child’s last name on everything, including boots and coats.
Þ Please check the clothes in your child’s backpack. Many students have grown and now we are in a different season. Even if your child does not have accidents, there will be times when his/her socks or pants become wet because of the snow. It is strongly advised that you include a full set of winter clothes, including extra socks, in your child’s backpack.
We are doing a unit study on the story of the Gingerbread Man We are listening, comparing, and finding story elements in many different versions of this classic book. When we come back from the winter vacation, we will study fairy tales, then compare versions of the Three Little Pigs. Also as a whole class we are working on decoding words. Students are placed in reading/center groups. In these groups, I am able to give individualized instruction to best help your child grow as a reader, writer and mathematician.
We have also been acting out some of the stories we read. This way we can see that fiction stories have a setting, characters, problem and solution. This is the foundation to retelling and comprehending stories.
Writing:
We are working on stretching our stories over multiple pages. We pick one true event and work on adding details, so that we can we can successfully show what happen in this event, not just tell what happened.
Last week we focused out math studies on measurement. This week we are studying addition. We will begin to work on decomposing numbers. Decomposing numbers in Kindergarten builds a foundation for understanding number grouping. This carries over into understanding numbers as well as understanding our place value system. So many students see a number for simply the name it holds, like seven. But it is so much more! Truly understanding the number seven, or any number, and flexibly thinking about how to decompose it, will build a foundation for students to know how to decompose numbers in our place value system and bring meaning to the operations we require them to learn.
Dates:
December 5- Can Drive Begins
December 9- Tradition Homework Due
December 14- Report Cards will be posted on Skyward
December 16- Math Homework Due
December 22- $1 Pajama Day- Winter Party (more information to come)
December 23- January 3- No School
January 20- Bingo Night
January 25- TENTATIVE DATE- Field trip to see the play The Snow Queen
Please keep sending in Box Tops. The school will have another collect drive later in the year. If we save the Box Tops now, we can win the next contest. PLE gets ten cents for each Box Top collected!
