Weekly Newsletter #11

October 25-October 29, 2010

From Mrs. Hicks' desk…   This Weeks' Focus We will continue our study of pumpkins this week but will also include our study of the 1950's time period. We will discuss what it would have been like to live during this time-what did children play with, how did they dress, what did they eat, what did they read, how did they get to school, etc. It will be an exciting week of activities! We will have daily rotations in the afternoon where the children will be able to play with slinkies, jacks, Mr. Potato Heads, Playdoh, Lincoln Logs and Silly Putty. We will read Peanuts comic strips, Dick and Jane books and Little Golden books like Nurse Nancy and The Poky Little Puppy. On Monday we will have our own Soda Shop where we will enjoy music, Jell-O and Coca-Cola in bottles! How exciting! Language Arts We will continue our study of animal habitats with our story Bear Snores On this week. Ask your child about the ocean, orange grove and grasslands habitats we have studied so far! Amazing Words sleep, winter, cave woods, storm, blustery Sight Words we, my, like

Important Dates 10/25- 50's Day! 10/25 Family Reading Night at 6:00pm 11/11-Veteran's Day **no school**     Homework All written homework is due on Friday. 1. Practice reading Sight Words. 2. Read Family Times magazine. 3. Complete Letter Naming Page. 4. Complete 4 Day Homework Page. Math * practice making ABC patterns using a variety of items * practice recognizing coins and their amounts * practice place value and counting by tens * practice measurement of everyday items * identify and count to the number 50

Letter of the Week

Our Scott Foresman Reading series introduces a new letter each week. When I saw what my good friend, Suzan was doing over at http://krazyforkindergarten.blogspot.com/ for her letter of the week, I had to get busy! Well, my husband had to get busy to build this amazing mailbox for me first. Thank you to Mr. Hicks! This is the third week my class has received their package from The Alphabet Garden and they are loving it!

Thank you, Suzan- you inspire me into exhaustion!  :)



I wonder what the letter is this week?



Our "letter" is from the letter Pp!

Our envelope had a pumpkin in it!

...and a pencil

...a tiny little piglet

and a popsicle stick!
Now we will look for the letter Pp
all over our room this week! 
Where will we find him next?!

We are also learning how to sign all of our letters and a word beginning with that letter.

Pp looks like your fingers are walking and your thumb is trying to hang on! 

I've got it!

This one is a little tricky!

Now we are playing the piano!




We sound out words with the /p/ sound in it using "fingers and a notebook".
Does /p/ come at the beginning, middle or end of  the word?







We stand under the Coconut Tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (see the letters on the tree) and act out the Read Well Alphabet Chant. 

 A says /a/
 Ant on a Apple
 A   a    a



 T says /t/
Turtle on the Tightrope
T    t     t





All of our literacy centers for the week focus on the letter of the week -computer (Starfall), handwriting, phonics, comprehension and fluency. We do create some of our own activities for the literacy centers but the majority of our work comes from these websites:

http://www.scsk12.org/SCS/subject-areas/Kindergarten-Kove

http://web.mac.com/donna.glynn/Kinderglynn

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/waltkek/

The activities from these websites integrate necessary skills that directly correlate to Scott Foresman.  The work connects the letter of the week, the sight words for this unit and target skills such as recognizing the characters and setting in a story or distinguishing the difference between real and make-believe.  



We also make a letter Pp page for our Alphabet Book. We use the Read Well Alphabet Chant for our Alphabet Book patterns.  Our Pp page will be Policeman in the Park. 





P says /p/!





I've got it!