AUGUST 12-17, 2013

Welcome to Ms. Nora’s and Ms. Valencia’s Kindergarten at Discovery School! This will be an amazing year filled with wonderful learning adventures! We will update the blog every Monday. You will be able to read weekly classroom updates, and see so many other cool and amazing things that we enjoy in Kindergarten. Please join our classroom blog!

 

We will begin with the study of the letter Mm. We will be doing a variety of activities with this letter. The vocabulary words we are going to be focusing on are: magazine, mustache, mustard, meat, muscle, motorcycle, medicine, mud, mop, marbles, mirror, mushroom, microscope, magnifying glass, magnet, and money.

 

 

 

Phonemic Awareness: is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes- in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes (the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in a word’s meaning).

These first weeks of school we will be doing a lot of activities to identify a word, a letter and a sentence.

 

Some of the stories that we will be reading during the week are:

 

The Kissing Hand School is starting in the forest, but Chester Raccoon does not want to go. To help ease Chester's fears, Mrs. Raccoon shares a family secret called the Kissing Hand to give him the reassurance of her love any time his world feels a little scary.

Some of the words we will be discussing from this book are: raccoon, thoughts, thoughtful, nuzzled, scampered, promise, warmth, and nocturnal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you Give a Mouse a Cookie

If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim....

Some of the words we will be discussing from this book are: finished, probably, napkin, thirst, straw, drawing, refrigerator, crayons, cookie, mirror, mustache, scissors, sweeping, washing, blanket, pillow, comfortable, trim and cookie

 

 

If you give a Moose a Muffin If a big hungry moose comes to visit, you might give him a muffin to make him feel at home. If you give him a muffin, he'll want some jam to go with it. When he's eaten all your muffins, he'll want to go to the store to get some more muffin mix. Some of the words we will be discussing from this book are: moose, muffin, sweater, needle, thread, antlers

 

In our first Social Studies unit we will be talking about MY SCHOOL. Some of the vocabulary words we will be introducing in this unit are: stapler, staple remover, tape dispenser, tacks, paper clips, desk, paintbrush, hole puncher, glue, markers, eraser, ruler, scissors.

 

The sight words we will be studying for the next two weeks are the, of, and, a, to. Please practice them daily with your child at home.

 

Kindergarten Kafe: As discussed in our Open House, every week two students will be in charge of bringing the ingredients for our Kinder Kafe on Fridays. The students in charge for this week are Alegria Aguirre and Ian Rodriguez

 

 

DPTO EVENT – Parents’ and Teachers’ Night Out! Mark your Calendars

The Discovery Parent Teacher Organization will host a fun get-together for parents and teachers (especially for those new to the school) next Friday, August 16 at Ibiza Restaurant in Col. San Ignacio, from 7:30 p.m. onwards. Ten percent (10%) of the proceeds will be donated to the school! Invitation and further details will be sent by the DPTO via email next week. We hope all our parents and teachers will be able to join us!

 

GENERAL ASSEMBLY – Discovery School parents are invited to attend the General Assembly that will take place on Saturday, August 24 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the School Cafeteria. Important matters such as a suggested revision to our school calendar, budget information, an update on the status of the Concrete Plant, and school-wide implications of MAP data will be addressed. YOUR ATTENDANCE IS CRUCIAL—we need a quorum of 1/3 of our parents (55 parents) for the meeting to be considered a legal meeting of our school Association. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending.  Teachers who have students enrolled at Discovery are required to attend; other teachers are encouraged to attend to stay informed about school activities.

 

TIP OF THE WEEK: It is important when preparing our children for the first day of school to plan ahead. Children take their cue from their parents. If parents are calm, reassuring, optimistic and supportive, children will feel both confident and competent.

 

GAME OF THE WEEK: This is a fun game that you can play with your child at home.

 

Egg-Carton Memory

What you need:

1 egg carton

12 small items like a coin, shell, or small toy

 

Egg cartons are natural treasure boxes. They have a fabulous amount of uses when it comes to kids, such as paint containers, craft kits, and more! In this case, an egg carton becomes the perfect tool to use for this game, which can be played in a multitude of ways. Fill up each of the spaces with the 12 items, then have your child take a good look at the carton. When he’s ready, close the carton and have him write down what was inside. For a simpler version, simply close the carton, have him close his eyes, then take out one of the items. When he opens his eyes, see if he can guess what is missing. Make it even more of a challenge by switching two items. There are lots of ways to vary the game, making it a fun (and super easy) one to play.