Can you believe we have been in school for about 5 months?! Our 100th day of school will be February 15th and we are half way through kindergarten. This is my favorite part of the school year, students are more self-confident, understand expectations and are ready to learn. They also understand me better and the next six months will go very fast. By now, you should have checked your child’s report card. If your student went down in any area, keep in mind that the standards become harder each quarter.
Our Valentine’s Day party will be on February 14, from 12:40-1:40. A donation letter and volunteer will go home on Monday. You are welcome to come to the party as a volunteer, please note it on the donation letter. Due to Mr. Maktari’s rules, our party can only last one hour.
When you or your child makes the Valentine’s Day cards, please make sure to put names on the envelope. This insures that every student receives the card. If a student does not receive a card their feelings become hurt. I know it takes more time to address the cards with each student’s name, but it saves hurt feelings and it is good writing and reading practice. After cards are passed out, we will make a Valentine’s Day book with everyone’s cards. We will be passing out cards on February 10th.
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.
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.
For National Play day on February 1st our class did “Play Centers.” We built things with STEM toys: Knex, Legos, hexagons and blocks.
