Weeks of August 24-28 and August 31-September 4

Math: Last week we began identifying, writing and reading (the # word) number words from 1-5. Please practice making these numbers at home on whiteboards, in rice, in shaving cream, with colorful gel pens, etc. Make it fun! We learned a # song for each #...ask your child to sing the # songs to you. If you want a copy of the songs, please email or send a note and I will get those to you.

We also have been practicing the identification, drawing and detecting of shapes in our world (circle, square, rectangle, oval, triangle and cube). Ask your child to go on shape hunt for these around the house. You can count the sides, corners, angles and vertex of each (points), too! You probably have seen the shape books come home as well. We practice many skills with those: cutting, coloring in the lines, reading the words and identifying the shape. Have your child read those to you and notice the words the, is, and a- high frequency words we should know. The list of the 50 Kindergarten Sight Words was in your Parent Info Night folder. If you need a new one, just let me know.

Reading: In addition to the shape booklets, we have been reading a bunch of shape Big Books in the room as a class, where the children help me read and we point out the cover, title page, left to right progression, and words we know on each page.

Writing: Every Monday we will write "Weekend News". I will keep this in their portfolios, so you will not see them until the end of the year. It would be very helpful to talk to your child about one thing that he or she will write about on Monday for Weekend News. When we write together, I have the kids help me stretch out words and write what we hear. Learning and reviewing the letters and sounds at home will help your child become a better writer for Weekend News as well!

We focused on the letter A. We learned the 2 sounds it makes, how to write the lowercase and uppercase letter A, and learned words that begin with that letter.

Science: We just got some caterpillars in our room! It will be exciting to see them grow into Monarch butterflies!!