Mrs

Mrs. Bower’s “Beary” Important News=

Week of A= ugust 17^th-August 21^st

Dear Parents,

We had a wonderful first week of kindergarten! The children are precious and alre= ady have settled nicely into their new schedule and classroom! I want to thank all the parents who attended Open House last Thursday evening! It was a pleasure to meet you all and I look forward to working with= you and your child this year!! If= you were not able to attend Open House, feel free to stop by or email me if you have any further questions.

THINGS TO REMEMBER THIS WEEK:

*Media Center Orientation-Our class will make our first visit to the library on <= span style=3D'font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:red'>Thursday!

*Poetry Notebooks-<= /b>The child= ren brought home their Poetry Notebooks for the first time last Friday! They were very excited to share th= em with your families. Please read/sing the first poem, I Am… and remember to return the notebook on Monday so that = we can add our new poem for the week!

*Snack-Please remember to send your child to school each day with a nutritious= snack! Be sure snack is packed separately= from your child’s lunch box or is clearly marked “snack”.<= o:p>

*Meet &am= p; Greet Information Folders-Please remember to return your child’s folder with completed forms by Friday, August 21^st.

*Daily Communication Folders-Each day remember to check your child’s daily folder = for schoolwork and important notes. Please return your child’s folder each morning to schoo= l.

*Extra Clothes<= /b>-Our class will take regular breaks as a class.= In case of any bathroom accidents or spills, please keep a set of extra clothes/underwear/socks in your child’s book bag.

*Center Volunteer S= ign-Up-We depend greatly on our parent volunteers.&n= bsp; At Open House, we did not get a good response for center time volunt= eers during Meet & Greet; therefore, we are hoping many of you forgot to sign up. Your child will be bringi= ng home the September/October<= span style=3D'font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:blue'> Calendar= for parents to have another opportunity to sign-up for at least one day a month= to come into our kindergarten classroom to assist with a center activity. If y= ou are interested in volunteering, please write your name on any preferred days and we will do o= ur best to honor your requests (you are welcome to sign up for as many days as= you would like and we will try to plug you into the calendar for as many days a= s we can). When the calendar is finalized, a master calendar will be = sent home with your child letting you know the dates and times you will be neede= d. = Please return the Center Volunteer calendars back to school by FRIDAY, AUGUST 21st= . Thank you!
*Rest Tim= e-Your chi= ld may bring a small beanie baby, WebKinz, or stuffed animal to sleep= with at Rest Time. Please be sure = it is small enough to fit in your child’s cubby.

Unit Study

Our theme for this week is ALL ABOUT ME! In class, we will be reading books= about families and discussing characteristics of families. Each child will also share qualiti= es that make him/her unique and special! During Center Time, the children will be creating self-portraits and each child will make a book describing himself/herself using the first letter of his/her name:
(A my name is Alice. My name begins with A<= span style=3D'font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:blue'>. I like = apples!)

Language Arts/Handwriting

During Shared Reading this week, we will be reading several popular alphabet books a= s we introduce letters and sounds. Chicka, Ch= icka, Boom, Boom, Shiver Me<= /span> Letters and Alphabet Mystery are just= a few alphabet favorites! Skills we will focus on this week include concepts of print (front/back cover of a book, top/bottom, where to begin reading and tracking words as we read and sequencing events in a story). Through rich literature, we will f= ocus on using the cover to choose a book, looking for books on favorite topics a= nd characters, and more!

In Handwriting this week, our class will focus on making vertical, horizontal lines along with forward and backward circles. We will also practice writing our = first and last names on Handwriting paper (beginning the first letters with an uppercase letter followed by all lowercase letters). Proper pencil grips will also be a= main focus for our lessons in Handwriting!

Math<= /o:p>

Our class will be focusing on Sorting this week. During Math centers, = the children will practice sorting in a variety of ways using manipulati= ves (attrili= nk shapes and foam shapes).

During Calendar Math, our class is working on our standards of sequencing the days = of the week, months of the year, positional words, place value, patterns, data collection, identifying the penny and nickel, comparing sets as equal to, m= ore than, or less than! Wow…= ;lots of learning! On Fun Friday= , we will celebrate our 10^th day of school…… ZERO THE H= ERO (our school super-hero) will visit our classroom in honor of our first number ending <= span class=3DGramE>in zero!= !

Show &= Tell Day

Each week our class will concentrate on a color of the week as we learn to read and spe= ll all the color words!

On Fun Friday (August 21^st), please have your child bring in something RED to share with our class (must be s= mall enough to fit inside a bookbag). We will sort and graph our RED= items as= we work on our sorting and graphing standards in Math.

The following is a list of Dolch Sight Words your child will be learning this year. We call t= hese words our (Dolch Words) in class…we have separated the words into colors of the rainbow. The ch= ildren will record their progress on individual rainbows in their reading/writing folders in class.

At home, please practice these words beginning with the “red” rainbow words and progress down through each color of the rainbow when your child can read each word by sight!

Happy Reading!

Mrs. Bowe= r

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RAINBOW WORDS:

RED Words-= me, my, see, I, no, he

ORANGE= Words-can, for, a, up, so, by

YELLOW = Words-go, it, look, the, of, will

GREEN = Words-and, is, play, said, you, at

BLUE Word= s-big, come, in, we, have, do

INDIGO= Words-here, make, to, run, not, was

VIOLET = Words-some, made, she, then, now, into

Cloud Words-like, as, am, from, went, out

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