WEEK OF AUGUST 17-21, 2015

Dear Parents,

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, mop, marbles, mirror, mushroom, microscope, magnifying glass, magnet, and money.

If you have any items at home that begin with this letter, send them over with your child and we will be discussing them in class, we will display them on a table and we will return them back on Friday. The kids get excited to bring things from home.

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

AlphaTales are humorous stories designed to help young children recognize letters and the sounds they make. In this story we will find out how Monkey turns a miserable Monday into a marvelous one with this rollicking tale that teaches the letter M.

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, and antlers.

It’s the story of a mischievous mouse who explores the kitchen at night.  “Crackle, sweep, he rakes cornflakes – and jumps into the pile he makes!”

Phonemic Awareness is important because it is critical to reading and spelling success. A child’s phonemic awareness is a powerful predictor of the likelihood of reading and spelling success. Children who cannot distinguish and manipulate the sounds within spoken words have difficulty recognizing and learning the necessary print=sound relationship that is critical to proficient reading and spelling success. If a child has poor phonemic awareness it is difficult for them to discover the necessary link between print and sound.

This week we will continue doing a lot of activities to identify a word, a letter and a sentence.

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

In our first Social Studies unit we will be talking about MY SCHOOL. We will begin with this unit this week. 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.

As stated in our Open House, we will be sending homework every day from Monday-Thursday.  Please make sure the notebook is sent back to school every single day.

Please remember to check your child’s folder every single day and send it back to school the next day. We are working on this special routine with the students. Remember that this is the best way for you to communicate with us.

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 Camilla Matamoros and Giulliana Florentino.

Make sure that your child has time to play after school and on weekends. Now that your child spends more time in a structured school environment, you should allow more free time at home for play. Kindergarten homework includes playtime!