Kindergarten Things

It's amazing how much these Kindergartners have grown up in just one month!  This really is such an important and busy year.  Not only are your children learning how to do school but they are also learning how to do things for themselves.  Responsibility is a huge skill in our Kindergarten classroom!

So how can you support your child at home?  Give him or her lots of responsibilities!  Here are some things you can do at home that will help them throughout the school day:
* Does your child put on their own coat and zip it him or herself?  If not, it's time to start!  Practice makes perfect!
* Start teaching how to tie shoes.
* Does your child clean up after themselves?  For instance, after dinner, does your child take care of his or her plate?
These little responsibilities go a long way in a classroom.  And it helps us put our time to good use when kids can manage these things themselves.  Moral of the story?  Don't do things FOR your kids, teach them how to do things for themselves! :)  This is critical in establishing important learning behaviors now and throughout your child's schooling.

Phonics Updates
So far this year, we have mostly been concentrating on learning to read and write our names, beginning work with letters, hearing rhymes, and hearing the parts in words or syllables.
Watch this video at home with your child about Syllables:


Math Updates
Great work keeping up with math homework! :)  This week we started a new math routine and we are loving it!  Math Journals!  Each child received a composition note book, where each day will we record math we are learning.  We complete a journal entry together as a class first:

Then each child completes a page in his or her own journal:

I can't wait to see where this takes us!


Today we talked about direction words.  We practiced moving a teddy bear counter in different positions in relation to a block, using words like around, above, below, next to, in front of, behind, across, etc.  We also read a wonderful story called Rosie's Walk by Pat Hutchins that illustrates this concept.  Here is an online video of the story for you to watch at home!




Science
We are beginning our first Science unit Collections from Nature.  We will be studying many natural collections from the world around us, starting with APPLES!  For our activities next week, we need some bags of apples.  Is anyone willing to send in a bag of apples on Monday or Tuesday?  We need a variety: red, yellow, green, etc.  If you are willing, please leave a comment to the post below and indicate what color you plan to send in.  Thank you so much!