Mrs. Sheryl Walsh

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November 28, 2009

November found us surrounded by Native American culture and lore as we 
prepared for our Kindergarten/First Grade Thanksgiving Feast.  As we come off 
of a much-anticipated long Thanksgiving weekend, we will head into the Advent 
season with all its associated events and activities.  As you all know by 
now, Mrs. Wertlieb will no longer be our instructional assistant in the 
classroom, and as soon as I confirm some plans I hope will work out I will 
let you know.

The children have been learning the following concepts in the academic 
areas:

Religion

During the month of November the children learned about several well-known 
(and some not-so-well-known) saints, both in the classroom and through 
morning school-wide prayer.  The children will learn about St. Nicholas as we 
begin the season of Advent in December.  We will gather for Advent song and 
prayer each morning with the 1st and 2nd grades as we spend the season of 
Advent waiting and preparing for the birth of Jesus on Christmas.  We will 
read “The Legend of the Candy Cane” as well as many other Christmas themed 
books.  Our preparations will be focused on the true meaning of Christmas to 
us, and how we can show others our love by giving gifts just as God showed 
his love for us by giving us his Son.  We will complete our school season of 
Advent with the Christmas Pageant.

Social Studies

November was a month dedicated to learning about Native Americans and the 
origin of Thanksgiving, with the Feast as the finale.  The children learned 
about some of the similarities and differences between Native American and 
Pilgrim children and themselves.  They played Native American games, learned 
about how Native Americans provided food (hunting, gathering, fishing), and 
made a variety of crafts associated with the Native Americans to tie-in with 
their culture (dream catchers, drums, beads, symbols).  In December, the 
children will be learning about the differences between wants and needs, and 
also learning about the sequence of events that must happen in order for the 
items they need (food, shelter, clothing) to get to them.

Language Arts/Reading

We have just finished our unit on transportation.  The letters we have 
learned phonetically and practice writing so far are: m, a, s, p, i, t,and 
the letters for the next unit are c and n.  To reinforce letter recognition 
and letter/sound recognition, the children cut out pictures from magazines 
with the letter sounds, they practice "writing" the letters in sand and/or 
paint, form the letter out of Wikki Stix or Playdough, and listen to poems 
and music that reinforce letter sounds.

The sight words we have learned so far are: I, can, we, the, like, a, see and 
go.  The words for the next unit - Food - are to and have. If your child does 
not know these words on "sight" it would be helpful for you to make flash 
cards for them to practice every day.

The children do "journal writing" activities two to three times a week and 
the next assignment will be for them to write about one of the foods they ate 
for Thanksgiving dinner, and tell how it got to them.  They will also write 
about making a snack and what they will need to make that snack.

Science

The children are starting to learn a little bit about the physical science of 
how things move, especially familiar types of toys.  They will learn that 
some objects move with a push, others with a pull, and about how wheels (and 
other simple machines) make moving things easier.  To tie in science with our 
Treasures food unit, the children will find out about the food pyramid, good 
food choices, and other ways to stay healthy through literature, music, art, 
and other hands-on activities.

Math

We have continued to work on recognizing and writing numbers, and have just 
finished working on learning position words (above, below, between, left, 
right).   During our morning opening we have continued focusing on concepts 
of time (today, tomorrow, and yesterday), days of the week and months of the 
year.  We are continuing to stress counting skills (using 1-to-1 
correspondence) as we prepare for January when we will start counting by 2's, 
5's and 10's.  We are working on identifying a set of objects and recognizing 
if one set has “more” or “less” in it than another.  These concepts are 
reinforced using music, puzzles, games, manipulatives, and a variety of art 
materials.  This month we will introduce money in the form of pennies (and 
possibly nickels), and give the children chances to use the money to 
make "purchases" in a “Candy Store” center.

Again, thank you so much for all of your support in general, but particularly 
this past month in working with the Native American crafts and preparing for 
the Thanksgiving Feast.  A HUGE THANK YOU to Mrs. Herlihy who, in addition to 
all the other committees and boards she is on, joined Mrs. Beck in offering 
to coordinate the Kindergarten part of the Feast and crafts.  We are all 
(teachers and your children) thankful to have both of you, as well as all the 
other supporters who make our program possible.

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Mrs. Sheryl Walsh

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