WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8-12

Dear Parents,

Last week our students enjoyed learning a lot about penguins and polar bears. We discussed the difference between a fact and an opinion.

This week we will be working with the letter Ss. The vocabulary we are going to be discussing is the following: sandwich, sand, seal, stop, sink, skates, stapler, suitcase, socks, skirt, sofa, skeleton, sandals, soup, and smile. 

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

 Seal´s Silly Sandwich come for supper at Seal’s house! This story is about a super-duper sandwich that will surprise kids and teach them all about the letter S.

The Very Busy Spider is well on its way to becoming a modern classic. Follow an industrious spider as she carefully spins her web. A cow, a pig, and other farm animals want her to play--but a busy spider needs to finish her work, or there'll be no dinner.

Swimmy is a happy black fish that lives in a school of red fish until a big tuna eats all of his brothers and sisters. Lonely and sad, Swimmy searches the sea and finally finds another school of red fish. These fish are too frightened to swim in the ocean, so Swimmy comes up with a plan: all the red fish swim close together in the shape of one giant fish, and black Swimmy is the eye!

We are going to talk about facts about spiders. Some of the ones we will be discussing are that Spiders come in many sizes and colors. Spiders hatch from eggs. Spiders are NOT insects like many people think… and much more!!!!

For the next three weeks we are going to be talking about Honduras. Some of the vocabulary words that we will be talking about are: map, Lempira, coins, waterfall, island, heroes, mountains, flag. If you have anything about Honduras that you are willing to share with us, we would really appreciate it. You are more than welcome to come into the classroom and talk about this beautiful country, show pictures, or even share a typical food with the kids. Let us know in advance if you would like to do a special activity with the children.

On Friday we will be having Honduras Independence Day Celebration, starting at 9:00 am. We will begin the celebrations by having a traditional Honduran breakfast in the classroom. Each student is responsible to bring in his/her assigned food item. We will be having breakfast from 8-8:50 a.m. This is a half day. Students will be going home at 11:45 am. Your child does not need to bring in a snack for break or lunch that day. Your child is encouraged to wear traditional Honduran clothing or jeans and white shirt or the Honduran Soccer uniform. Parents are welcome to join us at the Independence Day assembly at 11:00 am. There is no school this Monday, September 15th, and Tuesday, Sept. 16th. Classes resume on Wednesday, Sept. 17th.

For the next three weeks we are going to be doing a lot of activities about beginning sounds. You may want to help us out at home by asking your child certain questions such as “what is the first sound you hear in the word bed, house, car, etc.”

This week we are going to introduce new sight words. These words are: he, was, for, on, are. Please practice daily ALL the sight words with your child at home. Children do not learn new words by being exposed to them only once. Repetition is key to sight word acquisition. A good strategy to practice sight words with your child at home is playing a game called “Concentration or Memory” You simply write each word on two cards, shuffle and lay face down to play.

In Math we are going to introduce the concept of Pictographs. We will learn that a Pictograph is a way of showing data using images. At this point we will just be learning how to read a pictograph.

We are also going to focus our study on the number 11.

The IXL skills that need to be practiced this week are

Numbers and counting up to 5

B.4     Count up - up to 5

B.5     Count down - up to 5

Last week, you all received information about the Honduran typical breakfast that we are going to have with the students this Friday, September 12th. You do not need to send your child with a snack on this day since we will all be having the breakfast. Children will be dismissed at 11:45 a.m. on this day. The program will begin at 9:00 at the gym if you would like to come and join us. Let us know if you have any problem with whatever you were assigned with. Thank you in advance for your support with this celebration.

We would like to thank Mateo Jacome and Nicolas Martin for donating the ingredients for Kinder Kafe last week. The children enjoyed making a pizza on their own. They were delicious. This week we will NOT be having Kinder Kafe because of the holiday.

MIDTERM REPORTS are going to be sent home this Friday, September 12.

HOLIDAY – Please remember that this Friday is an early dismissal day (11:45). There will be NO SCHOOL on Monday, September 15 and Tuesday, September 16 as Honduras commemorates its Independence. We hope you all have a great 3-day weekend.

Well done Kindergarten!! We won the Ecofriendly lunch, as an award, on Tuesday students should not bring snack. Tenth graders will provide snack for that day.

The Wednesday that we come back to school (September 17^th) Kindergarten will be having a birthday celebration at lunch time. You do not need to pack lunch for your child on this day. Drinks and lunch will be provided for the students. You only need to pack a snack!!!

Tip for Parents: Read it and experience it

Connect what your child reads with what happens in life. If reading a book about animals, relate it to your last trip to the zoo.

MIDTERM AND PROGRESS REPORTS –Midterm Progress Reports will be sent home on Friday, September 12. Please read through them and return them signed by next Wednesday, September 17. 

DESAYUNO CATRACHO – To Celebrate the Honduran Independence, there will be a Pot Luck Style “Desayuno Catracho” in each classroom on Friday, September 12, from 8:00 to 8:50 a.m. We ask our parents to help us organize this, and contribute with goodies. Honduran cultural and fun activities will follow the breakfast. We encourage our students to come dressed in a Honduran outfit that day. We also want to remind parents that this is an early dismissal day (11:45 a.m.) and that the following Monday, September 15 and Tuesday, September 16  are holidays!

FROM THE COUNSELOR’S OFFICE - Scholastic Book Club leaflets are out. This is an optional activity offered by the school, because we know you want to motivate your child to read at home.  With your purchase, our library will accumulate points to redeem more books for the benefit of your children in our school.  The due date to purchase the books online is Sep.12. The books will arrive to the school in one single delivery, and we will distribute them to the students according to their orders, approximately three weeks after the purchase due date.