WEEK OF AUGUST 12-14, 2015

Welcome to Ms. Valencia’s and Ms. Nuvia's Kindergarten Class 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!

Going to kindergarten is an important step for your child. It will help them learn skills that they will build on throughout their life.

Starting kindergarten is one of the biggest milestones in a child’s life. At kindergarten your child will grow socially and emotionally. Their ability to think, use and recognize language and their fine and gross motor skills will be developed through play, art, dance, music, movement and interacting with others. Most importantly, your child will be learning to become an effective learner as they develop and extend their communication skills, build their self-confidence, learn to be creative, and develop skills that assist them with reading, writing and mathematics.

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

During the first three days of school we are going to be doing a variety of activities to get to know each other. We are going to be learning a song called “I am Special.” 

        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. We will discuss the meaning of the word fear and children will get to share their feelings for the first day of school!!

Froggy's mother knows that everyone's nervous on the first day of school. "Not me!" says Froggy, and together they leapfrog to the bus stop -- flop flop flop.

Chrysanthemum thinks her name is absolutely perfect—until her first day of school. "You're named after a flower!" teases Victoria. "Let's smell her," says Jo. Chrysanthemum wilts. What will it take to make her blossom again?

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.

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).

During these first three days we are going to be talking about Kindergarten Expectations. We are going to be discussing the following with them:

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.