~KINDERGARTEN NEWS ~

Week of: September 26th- 30th

Tomorrow is our first fiend trip! If you are heading with us to Blakes be sure to check out the Reminder note coming home today- there is a map attached with directions. If you are interested in coming in to help with filing, copying, putting up bulletin boards, etc please just drop me a note when you can. Any help in these areas are welcomed, as we have new Math Expression workbooks that have several pages to rip out for our little kindergartners. A days notice is okay just to verify you have completed the district volunteer form. September Scholastic Book orders will end on Friday, be sure to place your order online if you wish to order any books . I will be sending home an October Book order soon! Intervention specialist, Mrs. May has just completed our DIBELs testing (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills). These are a set of procedures and measures for assessing early literacy skills. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. Scores will be issued soon.

Today we began our second theme I Am Special. Children will discover that they are like others in some ways and different in other ways. They will share the joy of things they can do and the excitement of learning new things. We are jumping into more phonemic awareness and phonics this week with the introduction of Mm and Ss. I often sing the tune every letter makes a sound and M says /m/. You can do this at home and ask your child to give you an example such as mouse or mitten. Reinforcing the letters we are learning each week will be extra helpful to your child if they are struggling with making the connection of letter and sound. To be successful in classroom behavior management I am using a color card system, called How am I doing today? Each child will begin their day on the color green, if a poor choice is made they will be asked to flip their card to yellow (warning), next is orange (time off of recess) and then red (disciplinary note/call home). Some of us have been on yellow already a few times last week, we want to see everyone try to stay on green! Please encourage this at home as well. We created our own rules that coincide with our behavior chart. I always try positive reinforcement over punishment. But I also believe in being responsible for the choices you make. HOMEWORK: Math worksheet practice number writing Letter work * All homework was turned in this week! YAY!

**Unless otherwise stated please do homework in pencil. FOCUS OF THE WEEK: Wall word a Writing words and labels. Many of our beginning journal entries are just drawings, the students will begin to label them, and later in the year progress to writing a sentence to describe their drawing. Consonants Mm /m/ and Ss /s/ (you will see that the curriculum generally covers 2 letters a week and one high frequency word) IMPORTANT DATES: September 27th- Field Trip to Blakes September 30th- Picture daywear your best smile October 5th- Fun Run & Count day! 9:00-9:45 FRIDAYS are Spirit and PTA popcorn day (50c)