Happy New Year!! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families. It was so nice to have parents come in during December to share their families holiday traditions with the class. During the Chanukah celebration, the children enjoyed tasting latkes and measuring each other with menorah candles. We are glad the cd was a big hit for many families - it is nice to bring a little piece of your child’s day to your home. It is always a nice treat to have parent volunteers in our class, please let us know if you ever want to join us to read a story or be a part of choice time.
In December the Pre-K small groups split into 3 focus groups, the Snowflakes, the Frosties and the Jinglebells to review previously taught skills and to assess the progress of each child made since September. The teachers are best able to set academic and social goals for the second half of the Pre-K year knowing what each child is able to do and how each child learns best. We worked on teaching through many modalities and through hands-on experiences and were also able to create learning opportunities that would challenge each child to think critically and creatively in problem solving situations. In our HWT journals your children learned the correct formation and stroke sequence for O, Q, G, J and P. While reversals are common at the Pre-K stage of development the structure that HWT provides eliminates many reversals and the letters are made better able to be learned correctly. The sound that each letter makes has also been a focus and will continue throughout the year. Vowel sounds are more challenging than consonant sounds so when you work with your child at home on letters and sounds please keep this in mind. Many Pre-K children are working on the correct spelling and writing of their last names and this is a fun thing to practice at home with paints, chalk, tub crayons and even snow!
The kindergarten class spent the month of December doing some review of what we have learned since September. It is amazing to see the improvements in each child from their handwriting to their knowledge of sight words and simple math skills. Each child illustrated a gingerbread sentence which they read to their classmates, they were so excited to read out loud. In January, we will be focusing on writing with lowercase letters, especially when writing their first and last name. This will be helpful to them as we start to write sentences daily in our writing journals. I will be working with each child to strengthen their reading skills and sight words, I want them to try to read at least 1 book a week to the class. I have sight word books which we will be using in class, and will send them home for practice. We will also be doing a math paper each week that will focus on a different math skill - addition, sequencing, more/less or number writing practice. Each child will also start their number scrolls this month - these scrolls will be done based on each child’s skills, some may write from 1 - 30, 1-50, 1-100 or from 1 - 1000.
Important dates and reminders for January:
Progress reports will be handed out the week of January 11th - 15th
CLOSED January 18th, MLK, Jr. Day
Please be sure your child comes to school with all of their outdoor gear, we will go out as long as the temperature is 29 degrees or above, even in snow. If your child does not have all their outdoor gear they will not be able to go out to play. Also, please help your child to put their hats and mittens in their coat sleeves each day - this helps when getting ready to go outside. It is an extra 10 minutes going in backpacks to get hats and mittens. We truly appreciate your cooperation.