The Super Stars
September 2016 Newsletter
Dear Families,
Can you believe that we have already had our Back to School Night and have been at school for almost 1 month already! The children are really getting into the swing of things as they are beginning to understand our classroom rules and routines.
Everyone who signed up to help in the classroom has been contacted (if you haven't, please contact me!). I can't thank everyone enough for all your help and support. It is so very much appreciated!!
Our Room Parents are :
Mrs. Hansen (Contact Room Parent)
Mrs. Blood Mrs. Joo
They will be in contact with you to let you know about the year’s special events!
Language Arts
We are continuing our review of the letters A to Z, including letter formation and identification, and of course meeting a special Alphafriend each day. We are continuing our Letters in Our Name activity and can’t wait until we finish our special class book. We will spend a few more weeks on this review and then jump right on it to our reading program where we will be taking an in depth study into letters and words. J
Science
Last month we introduced the 5 senses and observed and adopted the tree outside the Kindergarten gate. We fittingly name it the Red Oak tree. We will watch our tree the entire year and record the changes we observe throughout the seasons. Now we have moved onto our tree unit and in the following weeks, we will be focusing on the growth cycle of the pumpkin, which will culminate with the Pumpkin Patch coming to Red Oak on Wednesday, October 26th.
Math
We are cruising through our Houghton Mifflin Hartcourt, Go Math Book with Deanna Jump enrichment activities! The boys and girls will be showing their expertise in numbers 0-5 as well as demonstrating what they know about numbers that are greater and less than 0-5. We will then move onto numbers 6-9, wow! Please note that at the end of each unit we will send home that Chapter’s workbook. There are pages in it that your child can enjoy completing at home along with ideas to do at home with your child. Please enjoy going through the book with them and also having them “show” you about the numbers!! J
We are learning how to tally, bundle and work with ten frames and will continue to do so each day during calendar. We are also becoming experts at counting by 1’s and 10's.
Social Studies
We are continuing to learn about Citizenship this month in class. We will be discussing what it means to be a good citizen as we work in our Morning Meetings to develop our classroom community and learn to be respectful and compassionate to all of our friends, big and small.
We will also begin learning about mapping and where we fit in in the world.
Happy Birthday!!
This month we will celebrate the following birthdays:
Sonia – 8th
Shriya – 25th ( celebrated September 26 )
Lucas – 30th
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!!
* Thanks for all of your support at Back-to-School-Night. It was great to see all of you!
* Thank you for all of the cooking/activity donations. The children love to be able to cook and your donations allow us to implement this activity in the curriculum.
* Thanks for all the Parent Volunteer sign-ups! We have already put many of you to work already. Thank you for all of your time. You have saved me hours of after schoolwork and have aided the class in many, many ways.
Reminders
· Please be sure that you sign-in in the office every time you come to volunteer in the classroom. In order to enforce campus security, you will be asked to return to the office if you are seen on campus without a volunteer badge. This is a school-wide policy to ensure the safety of all our students. The students know not to interact with anyone who does not have the official Red Oak badge. Thank you for your cooperation and support.
· We continuously need to refill the art basket with egg cartons, toilet paper and paper towel rolls, tissue boxes and those handy carry trays from Starbucks. We have so many budding artists who look forward to using your daily donations! If you have any donations, feel free to send them in!
* If your child is going to be absent, please be sure to call the Red Oak Absentee Line at 597-4242. Thank you.
* If your child is absent, I will put the missed work with their name and the date in their seatsack. Please be sure to have them make up their missed work, it does not need to be returned but it is to their advantage to complete it and have it checked by you. Thank you!
* This is a good web site that tells about helping your kindergartner to read:
http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/Shining_Stars_Kindergarten.pdf
* If your child is going to be going home early or has a change in schedule, please let me know ahead of time so I can have them packed up for you when you arrive. Please first check them out of the office, the office will call the room and then come pick them up in the classroom. Thank you for your cooperation. Also, please be sure to send a note in their homework folder if there are going to be any changes to their schedule, such as attending am/pm or enrichment classes. This helps to ensure that your child arrives safely to the proper area.
* Library books will be coming home on Thursdays. They are due back at school each and every Thursday. Please be sure that your child returns his/her library book each week in order for him/her to check out a new one. Thanks for your cooperation.
* The weather in Oak Park can get crazy! We have foggy, chilly mornings and warmer afternoons. Please be sure to layer your child so that he/she is warm enough in the early morning and cool enough by snack recess time. Please also label all jackets, sweaters and jackets (especially those Red Oak ones-they all look alike!). Thank you!
* Our big buddies this year are Mrs. Johnsons’ third grade class. J We will meet with them several times throughout the school year and will do many fun and different activities.
· SAVE THE DATE: Kindergarten Assessment Week is the week of October 4th.
There will be a 12:15 dismissal every day that week.
Have a great month!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Jones