On December 8th, the conference begins at 12 noon and goes to 8:00 pm. Students are dismissed around 11:25 on Conference day. A conference sign-up will be coming out from the principal. Meetings are over Zoom and are about 20 minutes long. Your family will have to sign up for a time slot on skyward. 

Stone Soup 

Last week’s theme was Thanksgiving, and next week’s theme will be Stone Soup. We will read the different versions and make the soup on Wednesday morning. Please send in any soup ingredients on Wednesday.  I sent home a note about Stone Soup on Wednesday, November 16.

Stone Soup is a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to share a small amount of their food to make a meal that everyone enjoys and exists as a moral regarding the value of sharing.

Assessment and Report Cards

Next week we will begin testing sight words, letter sounds, numbers, reading, and writing. These results will be on the report card and shared at conferences. I am very proud of the students and the progress that they made.

Winter

We care about your children and want them to be happy and comfortable playing outside daily. But, as we know, Michigan weather can change very quickly. As we move into late fall and early winter, we have many children without the proper clothing for cold weather. 

Please remember we will be outside every day. Over the years, we have found it is easiest for parents to leave a set of clothing (see below) at school.

Make sure extra clothes in their backpacks are ready for winter.

1). Please supply a set or two mittens (one knit and one waterproof). Even in sunny weather, the playground is often cold and damp. 

2). Please supply a warm hat. Most children find them more comfortable than hoods with better visibility.

3). Please bring a pair of snow pants and a coat to school. Please teach your child how to put them on themselves. We can help start zippers and snaps, but independence is our motto.

4). Please bring a pair of snow boots to be left at school. Then, please have your child practice so they can get them on and off themselves.

Label Everything!!!! (Everyone has a black or pink jacket, and things can quickly get misplaced. 

Phonics

We are learning letter sounds and stretching out words to spell them phonetically. This is a challenging task for all kindergarteners, but it is necessary to know all the sounds and place the correct letter sounds in words. 

Reading

We were learning how to decode words and focused on cross-checking this week. Cross-checking requires a person to think and monitor meaning constantly. It is a strategy for ensuring the words and pictures read make sense and match the letters on a page.

Math

This week in math, we focused a lot on writing our numbers 0-20. We practiced by playing different games during centers. We even made a human number line! We also played games that helped us show different ways to make numbers and see when a number is greater than or less than another number. 

Writing

This week in writing, we continued writing pattern books. We focused on see-saw patterns and publishing our books. 

Social Studies 

We learned about what culture means and how we are alike and different. We took a survey with a friend and discovered that even though we might look different on the outside, we are the same on the inside.