Spring Is Here!

Well, I am excited to say that Spring is here! However, it does not look or feel like Spring at all. Imagine how difficult it was to explain to my kindergarten class that Winter is over (even though there was snow on the ground) and that Spring is now here! Hopefully the weather will warm up in the next few weeks!

We are almost at the end of Unit 4 in Language Arts. We will be having our Unit test during the first week of April. It would be good to review beginning, middle and ending sounds as well as all of the letters and sounds. You could also review character, setting, main idea and plot when reading with your child each night. At this point in the year you might want to ask your child to read to you at night! We are working very hard to become good kindergarten readers! Once we begin Unit 5 you will get one more group of sight words. There will be a total of 40 words that your child will have to know. It would be a good idea to practice all of the sight words several times a week. Please also review reading blends with your child. Here are some example of blends we have worked on- lift, band, mask, fast, sift, land, task, past, nest, frog, clap, stop, step, slip, clam, sled, plot, flat, clip, sand, bend. Our new Monday night homework will required your child to read letters, words and sentences. It would be a good idea to save the homework each week and review it with your child throughout the remainder of the year and over the summer!

In Science, besides talking about our new season, we are also talking about living and nonliving things. Thank you to everyone who donated seeds and soil for our planting project. We will be planting the marigold seeds in April!

In Math we are working on measurement. We have been measuring things around the classroom by using yarn, snap cubes and paper clips. If you would like to practice measuring objects at home with your child I would be happy so send snap cubes home for you to borrow. Please contact me if you are interested. Next, week we will dicusss weight and capacity. Each day we are also reviewing many skills we have learned throughout the year. Some skills you may want to practice at home are counting by 2's, 5's and 10's, counting from 1-100, patterns, calandar skills, time, money, shapes, colors, solids, sorting, left/right, top/middle/bottom, above/below, equal parts and symmetry.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email me at korsakv@nasdschools.org.

A Busy Week!

In Language Arts we have been working on sequencing- telling what happens first, next and last in a story. I have just introduced blends with the students this week as well. We are working on the blends-fl, cl, pl, cl. Today I sent home the little tan reading booklet titled "My Words". You will see some words with blends in that story. Please have your child practice reading that, which will give them some extra practice reading words with blends.

This chapter in math has been very exciting for the children. We are learning all about money and time. Today I introduced time to the hour. We will be having a test early next week. It would be a good idea to review the penny, nickel, and dime. The terms morning, afternoon, and evening will also be on the test along with telling time to the hour.

Just a reminder that the 25 book challenge sheets are due as soon as your child has read 25 books. We are planning an end of the year celebration for all students who have participated and returned the sheets! If you have misplaced your sheet please notify me and I will send home a new one.

The Philly Phanatic sheets are due March 31st. Please send them in on or before that date. I will be mailing them out that weekend! Maybe we will be one of the lucky classes to get a visit from the Philly Phanatic!

Good News- our class books are now finished! Your child has worked extremely hard on the book and I think you will be excited to see their work. I will be sending the book to the publisher tomorrow. We will receive the books sometime in April.

More Good News- Thank you to everyone who donated money for the Pennies for Patients Foundation. Although we are not currently winning the contest for the entire school, our class did donate the most money out of the four kindergarten classes!

Read Across America Week!

This week we participated in Read Across America Week. We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday on Wednesday, March 2nd. Dr. Seuss would be 107 years old! To celebrate Mrs. Ginther dressed up as the Cat in the Hat. She also read Green Eggs and Ham in the cafeteria while the children ate green eggs and ham for lunch. We were also lucky to have students from the high school come in and do Dr. Seuss activities. One activity was "pin the bow on the cat"! Author Kelli Lambert also came in and read to the students.









Here are some pictures from February. We learned about dental health, we learned how to count by 2's, 5's and 10's and we had our Valentine's Party!

Dental Health Month!

All month we have been learning about dental health. We are learning about ways to keep our teeth clean and healthy. Today we read a book called "Going to the Dentist". We discussed the importance of going to the dentist and then drew pictures in our dental health booklets. The booklets will be coming home later this week!

We will be having a math test tomorrow. The test will be on even and odd numbers, ordinal numbers, counting by 5's and 10's and the number line. You can review the math worksheets for some examples of what may be on the test. Later this week we will begin our new chapter on money and time! Students will learn about the penny, nickel and dime. They will also learn to tell time to the hour.

During kid writing I have been encouraging the students to write two sentences instead of just one sentence. Please encourage your child to practice writing sentences at home!

New Podcast!

Check out our new podcast! We can count by 2's, 5's and 10's!!

February Is Here!

February will be an exciting time in kindergarten. First, we will be having our Valentine's Day party on Monday, February 14th. If you would like to come in to help out for about an hour please let me know. Our party will begin around 12:45.

Tentatively we will celebrate the 100th day of school on Wednesday, February 16th. Please send in 100 small items with your child on that day. I will be sending home and orange paper for you and your child to write clues about the 100 items.

In Science we will be talking about dental health all of this month. We will be reading books and doing activities to learn about ways to keep our teeth clean and healthy. You can review the worksheets that your child brings home to help encourage keeping teeth healthy and clean!

In Math we are trying very hard to practice counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's. While many of us are doing and excellent job counting by 10's, 2's and 5's have been much more difficult. Next week we will learn about even and odd numbers.

Next week we will read our last story in Unit 3 of Language Arts. We will take our Unit 3 test on Monday, February 14th. It would be good to review letters, sounds (including beginning, middle and ending sounds), sight words, character, setting, main idea, and plot.

We have just started writing our final draft into our class book. Things are going great so far! I will send home information about purchasing a copy of the book next week.

Remember there is no school on February 18th and 21st.
Have a great weekend!

We Reached Our Goal!

We have been collecting postcards over the last few months. Our goal was to collect 100 postcards by the 100th day of school! We have 15 days until the 100th day of school and we now have 101 postcards! Thank you to everyone who sent in a postcard! You can keep sending postcards if you would like. We all really enjoy receiving mail in school!

Today in math we started Chapter 7, Number Patterns. Over the next few weeks we will be working with a hundred chart and learning to count by 2's, 5's, and 10's. Please help your child count to 100 and work on recognizing numbers 1-100.

Please send in Unit 3 sight words as soon as your child knows them all!

We have some more exciting news to share. We will be publishing a class book. Yesterday we picked our topic which will be zoo animals. Each child has chosen an animal to write about. I am encouraging each child to practice drawing picture of the animal at home. I will give them some time to practice in school as well. More information about the project and about purchasing a copy of the book will be sent home next month!