"READ TO SUCCEED!"
In our Kindergarten class, it is mandatory that you and your child read
together nightly for at least 10 minutes. Upon finishing the story, you and
your child must engage in a brief and specific meaningful discussion about
one or more elements of the story (ex.-favourite part/character, setting-
where and when the story took place, a new ending, etc. The possibilities
are endless.). Should your child wish to draw and write about the
discussion, he/she may do so on a piece of paper or within a workbook.
Pictures/Drawings should always be done using crayons only (enocuraging your
child to use at least five colours in his/her picture). If your child
wishes to print some words/phrases or wishes to scribe to you his/her
thoughts about the story or about his/her drawing, pencil must always be
used. Furthermore, correct letter formation and other concepts of print are
musts (by this we mean correct use of upper and lowercase letters, left-to-
right directionality, correct punctuation, and proper finger spacing). When
writing with your child, always verbalize everything. Once again, his/her
responses to what has been read may be in the form of words/phrases/simple
sentences, just pictures, or a combination of pictures and
words/phrases/sentences. Again, he/she may dictate his/her
thoughts to you for you to scribe. However, we do not encourage this on a
consistent basis. We prefer that your child "shares the pencil" with you
and that you and your child interactively (take turns) write. He/She should
be using "invented spelling" as he/she writes(stretching out the words and
hearing the sounds the letters say). Please DO NOT spell words for him/her;
but rather, celebrate and embrace his/her attempts! Each response must have
a thoughtful/meaningful plan behind it, and it must demonstrate a connection
to what the child has just listened to or read.
In addition to this nightly reading, you and your child may wish to complete
this week's optional enrichment activities; which are listed below.
ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES FOR THE WEEK OF JANUARY 4TH TO JANUARY 8TH:
1. Practice reading the Kindergarten high frequency sight word list.
(known as, "SNAPPY WORDS-see, know, say in a snap")using flash cards.
2. Sing and read continually this week's songs and poems.
3. Recognizing and printing his/her first name neatly and correctly
the "school way" (uppercase letter for the first letter only; lowercase
letters for the remaining letters).
4. Saying his/her address, birth date, and phone number.
5. Continuing to complete each day's activity on our optional monthly
enrichment homework calendar.
6. Practice reading the take-home AR text; as part of our optional
"Accelerated Reading" enrichment program.
7. Reading daily with an adult and upon reading, engaging in a brief but
detailed "after reading" comprehensive discussion about an aspect of
the text (characters, setting, plot/problem/solution, new ending, etc.)
*MONTHLY HOME LEARNING PROJECT-visit the "Clever Critter Creations" icon to
learn of the project and its instructions.
GRAY (a song to the tune of "Jingle Bells")
gray, gray, gray
gray, gray, gray
g r a y, "gray"
An elephant's skin
A big garbage bin
g r a y, "gray"
THIS (a song to the tune of "Jingle Bells")
this, this, this
this, this, this
t h i s, "this"
This is the boy's bat.
This is the girl's hat.
t h i s, "this"
NINE (9)
Make a loop
And then, a line
That's the way
To make a "9".
JANUARY
January, now is here
A fine new start to a brand new year.
The snow falls softly in the dark of night
And we wake up to a blanket of white.
In January, when there is snow
We get our sleds and away we go!
JANUARY
January sparkles.
January's bold.
January huff and puffs.
January's cold.
SNOW
The snow falls gently during the night
And makes a blanket, soft and white
It covers houses, flowers, and the ground
And does not make a single sound.
ICICLES
We are little icicles
Melting in the sun
Can you see our teardrops
Falling one by one?
THE SNOWMAN
One day we built a snowman
We built him out of snow
You should have seen how fine he was
All white from head to toe.
We poured some water over him
To freeze his legs and ears
And when we went indoors to bed
We thought he'd last for years.
But, in the night a warmer kind
Of wind began to blow
And Jack Frost cried and ran away
And with him went the snow.
When we went out next morning
To greet our friend, "Good Day"
There wasn't any snowman there
He'd melted all away!
SNAPPY WORDS TO DATE:
child's first name, red, a, one, circle, blue, I, two, square, yellow, and,
three, triangle, green, it, four, rectangle, orange, is, five, oval, black,
on, diamond, six, seven, brown, no, said, purple, like, pink, up, eight,
gray, this, nine
OUR "SOUNDING OUT" STRATEGY:
1. KNOW the sounds.
2. BLEND the sounds.
3. READ the word.
SOUNDS TO DATE USING OUR "SOUNDING OUT" STRATEGY:
"continuous" sounds (meaning the sound is held for 2 to 3 seconds)-a (as
in "cat"; the vowel sound), e/ee (as in "he" and "see"; the letter name), i
(as in "it"; the vowel sound), f, m, n, r, s, th
"soft and quick/short stop" sounds (meaning the sound is said softly and
quickly once)-t
WORDS TO DATE USING OUR "SOUNDING OUT" STRATEGY:
miss, mass, this, fan, ram, Sam, rim, seem, seen, than, man, fee, thee, ran,
math, at, it, sit, that, sat, rat, tan, tee