Can you believe that kindergarten is almost over? We just finished our last full week of school. This can be challenging for students because they realize that they will be in a different class and will not be with the same students next year. Different students can take this in many ways. Some students might act out, others will become sad, and others will not affect them. If your child is acting differently, you might want to talk to him/her about the next school year. 

Friendly Reminder, beginning Monday morning, we are taking the iReady test for the next two weeks. Please send in your child’s computer every day. If you log into iReady at home, you might see the exam; please do not have your student complete any portion of the test at home. 

Next year’s placement

This time of the year many families become worried about next year’s placement. I would like to inform you how the process works. The kindergarten teachers put the students into classroom groups based on many different criteria including: reading, math, writing scores and gender. The teacher of the group is then chosen by Mr. Maktari. In August families will be informed about who their first grade teacher will be. I also do not know the final placement of students and teachers until August. I cannot take request for certain teachers or placing students together.

Reading-

This week I hope your child will foster their interest and enthusiasm for reading so that reading becomes a lifelong love that extends beyond the school walls. Students participated in “Reading Playdates” with their peers as they play school, played games and played pretend with reading to explore a different reading genre. 

The following anchor charts are things your child is working on in school. Students were encouraged to engage with books by marking their thoughts and ideas, posting them, and talking about books with their partners and friends at school. We encourage you to try these things at home!

In reading, we began to read our first chapter book, Mercy Watson. We are focusing on retelling when we read this series of books. 

Writing- 

In persuasive writing, we start by noticing or seeing a problem around us that involves more than just ourselves. We then have to think of a possible solution. This part is more complex than it sounds! A lot of students are drawn to the resolution of “just stop.” We all know that “just stopping” something is a lot easier said than done. We have been working together to think of solutions that are complex and require a little more effort from everyone involved. The last step is to think about who you will write to and how you will persuade them of your solution through writing. 

This writing can look like a book read to the whole class, a letter to Mr. Maktari, a petition calling people to help, an announcement at Monday Morning Meeting, etc. I can’t wait to see what changes come about because of our writing!!

Some of the problems that have come up so far are:

– littering

– pushing on the playground

– running in the hallway

– friends not being kind 

Phonics-

We are studying blends and digraphs. A consonant blend is when two or more consonants are blended, but each sound may be heard in the combination. The most common beginning consonant blends include: bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fr, tr, fl, gl, gr, pl, pr, sl, sm, sp, and st. Blends can also occur at the end of words, as in the word “last.” We even wrote magical spells.

Social Studies-

We learned about maps and made maps of our classroom.

Math-

We are practicing adding with the game addition top it. We also learned different ways to make numbers.