Dear Families,
Vowels that are not followed by a consonant say their name. That is what we learned this week. We code vowels not followed by a consonant with a macron. A macron is a straight line that goes over the vowel. Some words we learned to read were so, go, no, he, be, me, hi, etc. Since we are finished learning the letters of the alphabet, the kindergartners started making keyword booklets. Reviewing these booklets over the summer really helps them remember the letters, keywords, and sounds. The boys and girls practiced sequencing with a snowman activity. We have been working on evaluations for report cards. The kindergartners reviewed telling time to the hour and decorated place mats for the school board meeting on March 19th.
The kindergartners continued Daily 5 this week. We learned how to listen to reading. When we listen to reading we listen to books recorded on tapes or cds. We are quiet. We get busy right away and stay in one spot. We follow along in the book so that we can learn new words and listen to a fluent reader. The students loved the different voices and added sounds and music on the cds and tapes. The kindergartners started out listening to someone for 3 minutes. We increased the time a minute a day, and now we are up to 7 minutes! We did get to practice reading to selves and worked up to ten minutes minutes. Our goal for read to self is ten minutes.
We are in need of some supplies for Daily 5. The kindergarten classroom could use some new single color ink pads for stamping. The students could also use more individual cd players with headphones and individual tape players with head phones for listening to reading.
Our chair pockets are an exciting addition to our classroom. Children may now bring their own cool pencils from home to use at school. The pencils stay in the chair pockets so only your child will use them. Please send pencils with erasers on them so that if your student makes a mistake he/she can easily erase it. Check with your student. Some pencils need to be replaced by families because the eraser is worn down or the pencil is too short.
Until further notice, sharing is free choice. Please send only ONE item to school each week unless it is a collection of something.
March 21st is the end of the third quarter. We believe that report cards will go home on March 28th.
There is no school all of next week, March 12th – 16th because of spring break. School will resume on Monday, March 19th.
North Tama Elementary is using a math practice website called IXL. Kindergarten families are welcome to go online and use this website. The address is www.ixl.com/signin/northtama. Your child’s user name is their first initial followed by their last name. All of these letters are lowercase. You child’s password is your child’s initials typed in lowercase letters. For example, if your child’s name is John Smith, his username would be jsmith, and his password would be js. This is a great tool and easy to use!!! At each questions there is an option to have the computer speak to you. You also get prizes when you reach the goals!!! Try it, it’s great! Another great website for literacy is www.starfall.com. This website gives students many different ways to learn and read!
This week the kindergartners continued working with the green, yellow, red system. Lately the class as a whole has been talking a lot and not listening to directions. We start every day on green. (Green is great!) If the class is loud or isn’t following directions as a group, the green will turn to yellow. (Yellow is a warning.) If the boys and girls work hard and begin listening and following directions we can move back to a green. If they do not, we move to red. (Red is BAD!) If the kindergartners get to red, they eat snack silently. If they get two in a day, they eat snack silently AND put their heads down on their tables for a few minutes. Our goal is to have 7 days in a row without any reds. Check with your kindergartner on how close we are to reaching the goal.
Please send hats or earbands and mittens or gloves to school everyday. When it is cold outside we make them wear them. If they do not have hats/earbands (or hoods) and mittens/gloves the boys and girls have to borrow from us, and they do not like our selection. Please send snowpants to school, too. Kindergartners have a really hard time staying out of the snow, and we do not want them coming back in the building with wet pants. The rule is no snowpants – no snow. Please put extra socks in your student’s backpack. Socks tend to get wet at recess or after recess when they walk to put their boots away.
Keep sending the boots everyday until further notice. The North Tama playground has big snowpiles on it that take a LONG time to melt away and there are many mushy places. If it snows again, please send the snowpants.
If we decide that our students do not need to wear boots we will leave them in the room and play outside without them. Please let the teachers make that decision.
On Thursday, April 5th students are dismissed one hour early for Easter break. There will be no school on Friday, April 6th. On April 18th the students are dismissed at 12:50 for professional development.
Round up week will be April 30th – May 4th. Kindergarten students stay home that week so that we can get to know the future kindergartners. Please mark your calendars and arrange for child care that week.
Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour on Saturday night! It is time to “spring ahead”!
Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Daugherty
No comments:
Post a Comment