November 29th ~ December 3rd

I trust that your Thanksgiving holiday was filled with joy and lots of turkey!

Our letter this week is "Nn" and we will continue working with letter formation and the sound that this letter makes as we read and write. We will talk about the seasons and various activities that take place during each season. We will practice listening with a purpose and will play listening games to evaluate our listening skills. We will continue interactive writing where I share the pen with the children and we create posters and charts to display in class. You may notice that conventional spelling patterns are not mandatory in your child's writing from day to day, but when we are producing something that the children may use for reference in the room, we do pay attention to accurate spelling.

We will continue working in our journals, add two poems to the poetry binders, and we will read a phonics decodable book and add it to our book boxes.

Text Talk ~ Our story this week is "The Scarecrow's Hat" and our six vocabulary words are: swapped, grateful, benefit, relief, delighted, and trustworthy. Remember to use these words in your everyday conversations to see if your child catches you using them!

Math ~ We will be reinforcing the teen numbers using games and activities. Teen number Bingo is a favorite!

Art ~ We will create a paper plate snowman this week and we will reinforce math concepts by beginning a book about the shapes of Christmas. This book will come home before the holiday break and the kids will use a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, diamond (rhombus), and oval in various holiday scenes.

Snacks ~ We are running low on snacks for our class. If you are able, a box of crackers would be greatly appreciated. The kids seem to enjoy Wheat Thins, Cheese-its, animal cookies, graham crackers, and goldfish crackers.

Upcoming Events ~
Holiday Music Program - Thursday December 16th at 8:45 in the gym for kindergarten
Snow Village Field Trip - Friday December 17th (Permission slips in the Wednesday Watch).
Gingerbread House Construction - Tuesday December 21st from 1:00-2:20 in our room

Have a fabulous week and enjoy those leftovers!!

November 22nd ~ 23rd

It sure was fun to see so many of you at the Barnes & Noble performance and book fair. The kids did a great job and they just looked adorable as they sang and danced.

Our letter for this week and next will be "Nn". We have such a short week and I didn't want to shortchange this important letter. We will begin working with the words "it" and "have" as we strive to add them to our word wall.

Math ~ We will continue to reinforce reading, writing, and using the numbers 0-31. We will make a construction paper chain with all the numbers from 0-31 together.

Our only classes with a specialist this week will be P.E. on Monday and our music class that will take place on Tuesday morning this week. Your child has one more week to read his or her current library book and our library time will resume after Thanksgiving.

We will be taking a walking field trip just one block from school on December 17th. The Drummonds live on Nina Clare and assemble an intricate snow village each year that involves a large portion of their home. They love to have kindergartners come for a tour and a lesson about Sweden and how the people of that region celebrate the holidays. Mrs. Drummond bakes little gingerbread cookies for the children and it is a delightful outing.

Don't forget that Tuesday is an early out day with dismissal at 12:00 noon. There is no school on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

I hope you have a terrific week and a blessed Thanksgiving!

November 15th ~ 19th

Our letter this week is "Ff" and we will learn about action words (verbs). We will add two new poems to our poetry binders and another phonics decodable book to our book boxes. The kids will continue to add to their journals and we will make a class mural. The mural will have a hand print tree of thanksgiving and we will interactively write and label the things we are thankful for. We will continue to work with our existing word wall words and I encourage you to help your child find these words as you read together.

Math ~ We will continue to work with the teen numbers, and specifically the numbers 16-20. We will practice skip counting by 2's and 5's. These are both tricky concepts and another fun thing to practice with your child. We will also count, read, and write the numbers through 31.

Social Studies ~ We were not able to complete our quilt of friendship poster, so that is on the agenda for this week. We continue to discuss good choices and how to avoid bad choices.

Art ~ We will make a hand print turkey craft this week.

Barnes and Noble ~ Don't forget about the Barnes and Noble performance and book fair this Sunday, the 21st at 3:00 p.m. The kids will perform for about 15 minutes and then you will have the opportunity to shop. 20% of your purchase price benefits the Poly Drive Library.

Have a great week

November 8th ~ 12th

It was wonderful to visit with each of you and share the awesome progress your child is making each week. Our letter this week is "Aa" - specifically the short vowel sound. I will introduce the words "go" & "the" and they will soon be displayed on our word wall. We will practice using complete sentences, label items in our room using interactive writing, read and add another phonics decodable book to our book boxes, add two poems to the poetry binders, and add another entry to our journals.

Our word wall now contains eleven words and by the end of kindergarten, we will have added 36 words to our wall. These are words that occur frequently in print and they should be easily recognizable for fluent reading. Our current words are:

am ~ blue ~ but ~ can ~ go ~ I ~ is ~ like ~ red ~ the ~ yellow

Text Talk ~ We will read the book, "It Takes A Village" and then discuss six challenging vocabulary words. They are: restless, wandered, responsible, vendor, searching, & support.

Math ~ We will finish chapter 4 this week and begin our study of the "teen" numbers. I encourage you to practice proper number formation, as well as reading and writing the numbers 11-20. We will continue to work in our math journals this week.

Social Studies ~ We will discuss how to make good choices and avoid bad ones. We will make a paper quilt about getting along with others and we will display this in the hall.

Art ~ The children will create turkeys using small paper bags, scrap paper to stuff their turkey, and paint to decorate the feathers.

Mark your calendars . . .

Sunday November 21st is the Barnes and Noble Poly Drive book fair and vocal performance. The children will perform 2-3 short songs from 3:00-3:20 that afternoon and you will have the opportunity to do some Christmas shopping that also benefits the Poly Drive school library.

Thursday December 16th is the Poly Drive Holiday Music Program. Times and more information will follow shortly.

Tuesday December 21st is our annual classroom Gingerbread House event. Parents are invited to join us from 1:00 - 2:20 as each of the kids will create a Gingerbread House from graham crackers, frosting, and various candies. It is a great time in our room and the children love it!! As we get closer, I will send home specific information.

Have a wonderful week ~ Thank you again for sharing your child with me!!