DECEMBER

It is hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner!  The girls are extremely excited in anticipation for what is sure to be a month filled with lots of holiday fun! 

NOVEMBER NEWS!!!!!!


The girls really enjoyed all the excitement of Thanksgiving and everything they learned throughout this month.

The themes for this month centered on building on our phonics and phonemic awareness skills; colors - recognition of the word and writing the color words; scarecrows; Pilgrims and Native Americans (the first Thanksgiving); and turkey time fun.

Lessons included shared readings from big books pertaining to the themes; stories, songs, and even some poetry!  The girls strengthened their skills in sentence structure, as well as their reading readiness skills through more of the fun little books we work on in class.  They were encouraged to continue sounding out and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g out words to hear the sounds when reading and writing.  We continue to build on our inventive/phonetic spelling as we write.

We discussed words that we encountered this month and their meanings through the context in which they were used:  examples include: crops; Pilgrims; Plymouth; chores; churn butter; muck a garden; Native Americans; canoes; teepee; longhouse; wetu; wigwam; cornucopia; pompions; wadddle; etc.

We focused on strengthening our abilities to recognize and write color words through a fun study on scarecrow colors.  We reviewed recognition of the color words red, yellow, green, and orange.  The girls learned how to look beyond the first letter to identify blue, black, brown, purple and pink.  They enjoyed making the little books on scarecrows and colors, and even designing their own scarecrow to write about too!

The girls enjoyed making patterned Indian corn; writing about the things they were thankful for; and learning all about the Pilgrims and Native Americans and the first Thanksgiving.  

Math topics covered this month included a continuation of numbers from ten and higher; shapes; making more intricate patterns; and interpreting graphs.  

Science topics covered this month included experimenting with mixing primary colors to get secondary ones; learning how corn grows and all the things we can make from corn; learning about many of the foods that were eaten at the first Thanksgiving and comparing it to what WE eat at our Thanksgiving table; and facts about turkeys.

Social Studies topics covered this month included an in depth study on Pilgrims and Native Americans: How they lived and made use of the land and its resources; types of houses they lived in compared to ours; chores the children had; tools they used; things they packed - life on the Mayflower; struggles the Pilgrims had and how the Native Americans helped to teach them; the story of the first Thanksgiving.

FALLING INTO OCTOBER

Happy Autumn!  Check out what's going on this month in October!

October 1st-5th:   SIGNS OF AUTUMN
After learning all about our 5 senses last month, we will focus on using them to identify signs of autumn or fall.  We will utilize our grounds and go on a nature walk to find signs of fall.  We will examine leaves and learn about how they change colors and create a blanket on the ground as they fall.  We will use our sense of hearing to listen to the crisp crunchy sound they make as we walk on a pile of leaves.  In art class, the girls will make leaf rubbings, and examine the veins of the leaf.  We will make some great little stories that will focus on simple, repetitive text as the girls learn the words:  I, see, the.  We will continue learning how to use our reading readiness skills (looking at the first letter of a word; stretching the sounds out; looking at the picture to help us; using our pointer finger).  This week, we will focus on letters Ff and Ll.
*We will also watch a great little educational clip via SmartBoard on Christopher Columbus.  The girls will briefly learn about him, the voyage he made with the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria, and why his discovery was so important.
*REMINDER:  Friday, October 5th is a half-day!

October 8th:  Columbus Day!   No School......Enjoy the day off!

October 9th-12th: OCTOBER IS FIRE SAFETY MONTH.
The girls will learn all about Fire Safety Prevention this week.  We will discuss safety precautions (stop drop and roll; stay low and go; never hide from a firefighter; 911 for emergencies only), safe and unsafe things to play with so as to avoid a fire; having a meeting place; the uniform that a firefighter wears for protection; the equipment on the fire truck, etc.  The girls will become aware and educated "junior firefighters".

October 15th-19th:  AMAZING APPLES
We will study how an apple grows.  We will examine what an apple looks like, feels like, tastes like, etc.  We will measure how round an apple is and look for the star that lives inside when it is cut in half.  The girls will taste the 3 different kinds of apples (red, yellow, green) and graph their favorite.  We will also taste apple cider, apple juice, Apple Jacks cereal, and applesauce to see how many different ways we can enjoy apples.  We will also measure out the ingredients together to make some homemade applesauce!  We will make some great books on apples, create stories about the star who lives inside an apple, learn the word APPLE, along with the color words red, yellow, and green.

October 22nd-26th:  PUMPKINS
This week we will study how pumpkins grow.  We will read some great pieces of literature on pumpkins, and also make our own little books about pumpkins that have familiar sight words; learn the word PUMPKIN by stretching it out; mix red and yellow to get orange....thus learning a new color word; and we will work on pumpkin math both in class and in our STEM lab.  The girls will be placed into small groups.  Each group will receive a small pumpkin.  Each group will weigh their pumpkin, measure how tall it is and how wide it is, estimate how many seeds their pumpkin has, and finally, scoop out the inside to take out the seeds to eventually count (in groups of 10).  After logging our results, we will compare groups and find out which group had the heaviest/lightest pumpkin; which had the most/least seeds; who had the tallest/shortest pumpkin.

October 29th-31st:  HALLOWEEN FUN
The girls will make some fun decorative Halloween crafts and stories.  For example: We will make a black cat and using our knowledge of rhymes, we will write and attach all the words we can think of that rhyme with cat; We will make a book about a witch that reinforces our knowledge of shapes.  
I look forward to seeing everyone's costumes when the girls wear them to school!  It will be a fun-filled day with great treats and lots of fun activities (including a picture on our school grounds out by the pumpkin patch.)
***********HALLOWEEN LUNCH: OCTOBER 31st!!!!!!

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During the month of October, we will continue to develop our phonics skills; work on letters and sounds; stretching out words; recognizing familiar sight words; continue to develop reading readiness strategies and skills.  

In math, the girls will make observations from graphs; use pattern blocks as we learn about shapes; use unifix cubes to create patterns (AB - two color; or apple pumpkin/apple pumpkin;  AABB apple apple pumpkin pumpkin; or red red yellow yellow;  ABC - three color: red, yellow, green; or apple pumpkin leaf).
We will play number/shapes games; continue to make our number books as we learn how to write the numbers 5-10 (and review 1-4).  Other concepts taught will be: making an interpreting class graphs; weather graphs; counting on; number placement, etc.

We will begin using our Weekly Reader/Let's Find Out; Science Spin; and National Geographic magazines.

This month, we will have a meet and greet with our 8th grade Big Sisters and also a Halloween get-together as well.

September 2012

Welcome Back To School!!!!!

I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable summer. I look forward to us having a fantastic first day of Kindergarten. The girls will be very excited about all the fun things we will be doing this year. On the first day of school, they will meet our class bear named TEDDY, learn a song about him, and add the letters of each other's names to help learn who is in our class! It will be fun to meet their special stuffed animal or doll friend too!  As we read about Chrysanthemum, we will examine each other's names and really get to know all about everyone in the class.  We will also read some great stories, including Kindergarten Here I Come; The Kissing Hand; and Froggy Goes To School.  We will also jump right into our daily routine so that the girls begin to familiarize themselves with our daily schedules.  

During the first week of school, I will take the class on a tour of the school to familiarize the girls with where they will have lunch, outside play, physical education (in our newly renovated room), art, music, and STEM exploration (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).  

This month, our focus will be centered on introducing the children to conventions of print and beginning to develop their reading readiness skills. They will also learn class rules and routines, and adapt to a fuller schedule with specials (which will begin during the first full week of school). The children will learn how to "work the room" within rotation groups, play appropriately within each of the centers, and work cooperatively within our class family.

For the month of September, we will explore our 5 senses as we focus on an All About Me self-discovery theme. The children will identify their 5 senses, as well as their physical attributes. Through hands-on experiments in our science center, we will explore our ability to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. Through this theme, the children will learn more about each other as well. They will compare/contrast similarities and differences in physical attributes (eye color, hair color, etc.) Each child will have the opportunity to be the Star Child of the Day. This great honor will help the children in identifying the names of one another as well as help the girls get to know all about each other.

We will make numerous books that the girls will begin to "read". The children will begin reading familiar text through a study on Nursery Rhymes. The girls will learn how to use pointer finger to point under each word as they read. Within our study on nursery rhymes, we will spend a lot of time identifying rhymes, rhyming word pairs, "reading" familiar text, and learning some repeated sight words.

The girls will begin learning how to identify the difference and correlation between letters, letter sounds, and words. They will start to become aware of the spaces in-between words, and begin to use reading strategies. We will begin to review letters and letter sounds as well. As we work on proper letter formation of upper and lowercase letters, we will learn to identify the letters within our own names, as well as the names of our classmates.  We will figure out who has the longest/ shortest name; who has equal amount of letters; how many people have particular letters in their name...etc.

Finally, the children will be introduced to the proper grasp of a pencil when writing, and we will work on strengthening our fine motor skills through coloring, cutting, painting, tracing, etc. The girls will work on and practice writing their first name as they learn how to form letters correctly.

Within our math curriculum, we will begin to review numbers. The girls will make number books and learn to identify how many and write the numbers 1 to 10. We will also begin to identify simple ABAB 2 color patterns.

The curriculum will be enriched with issues of our Weekly Reader, Science Spin, and National Geographic magazine subscriptions throughout the year. This year we will use a special booklet that is geared for Kindergarten level, which teaches about the role of a president and the voting process of the two candidates.  I will explain more about all of this, as well as Guided Reading, Take-A-Book Home (lending library), our book/buddy journal writing experience, the implementation of our school's STEM curriculum, and our Big Sister/Little Sister program at the Open School Night later in the month.

Please take some time to read the parent/student handbook, which is now on our website.  This will keep you informed on the school's policies.  Make sure to check the monthly blog as well, so as to keep abreast of what your child will be learning and doing within each month. 

I look forward to an exciting year!

Warm Regards,

Mrs. D'Addona