NHUF Kindergarten News – Miss Foster

September6, 2013

Hi Parents and Guardians,

This will be my attempt at trying to keep you “in the loop”, so to speak. I will be sending out newsletters pretty often in the beginning of the year, and then towards the end of the year you’ll have a better handle on what’s going on in the class and it won’t be necessary to get one as often (usually only once a month). My objective for the newsletter is always to keep you informed of our activities in kindergarten, the language of kindergarten, and where we are in the curriculum, so that when you ask your child “what did you do in school today?” …you won’t believe them when they say “nothing”! I have to tell you though, that the answer of “played” warms myheart because teaching the young should feel like play to them!

If you would like these email newsletters to go to any other address or if this isn’t the best email address to send it to, please let me know!

I will also post all of mynewsletters and pertinent information on my classroom webpage. Please check my webpage often for updates. To get to my classroom page go to the district website ( click on New Hanover Elementary, click on Teachers, and click on my name…OR you can just follow this link to take you directly there and bookmark it 

FIRST THINGS FIRST

I must tell you how ENCOURAGED I am! After orientation,I couldn’t believe how many of you signed up to volunteer in one way or the other in the classroom, and I amvery grateful for it.I know that this will be a wonderful year!I am in the process of organizing dates/times for a lot of things right now, so if you signed up for something I will be in touch shortly so I can get everything running smoothly as fast as possible.

If you signed up to volunteer for one or more of the events, I am going to leave it up to those who volunteered if you’d like to use the class directory to ask other parents to help donate some of the items you may need, or if you would like to organize getting everything among yourselves. I will send those who have signed up to volunteer for an event an email closer to the date of that event with information about what is needed.

If you signed up to help me prepare materials, I will get in touch with you individually when I can use your help at school or I will send things home with your child if it is something that can be completed at home.

CLASS DIRECTORY

I have attached our class directory to this email. Please check it to see if I have listed your information correctly. If your information is not included and you would like it included or if I listed something incorrectly, please either email the information to me or send in the class directory sheet with your child.

RULES, RULES, RULES

At the beginning of the year, our poor little kindergarteners are just inundated with rules! There are rules for everything! BUT…they are doing very well with them. Itry hard to pepper them in throughout the first few weeks so that it doesn’t feel too overwhelming. This week we built a list of our own classroom rules that we feel are important. Here’s what we’ve learned about our school rules so far. Please talk to your child about these rules just to make sure that they are familiar.

  • When walking in the hallway-stay on the brown line, hands are at our sides, lips are zipped, eyes are facing forward (ask your child to sing you the song we sing before we leave the classroom!)
  • When walking outside- on the white concrete you must be silent and walking (this is mainly to train them for fire drills, so we just do it any time we’re on the white).
  • Hands are for helping, not hurting.
  • Raise your hand when you want to talk.
  • Listen…When I am talking, you are not (and that goes for if someone else is talking as well).
  • Be a bucket filler 
  • Playground – only slide down the slide on your bottom and feet first, no climbing back up the slide—use the steps, hanging only on monkey bars—no climbing on top of them, wait your turn if someone is using something you would like to.
  • On the carpet– eyes on speaker, ears are listening, lips are zipped, hands in lap, and sitting criss-cross applesauce (there is a song for this too, see if your child can remember it! Hint: it goes to the tune of Frère Jacques)

SMARTBOARD

For those of you who haven’t been in an elementary classroom lately—things have CHANGED! Blackboards are a thing of the past! We use SMARTboards now! What is a SMARTboard? The SMARTboard is a digital, interactive whiteboard that is touch sensitive and runs off of a computer system. It is a huge motivator for students, and I use it often…and your child will use it as well! Ask your child if he/she has had a chance to use it yet when we are doing calendar or working on letters and rhyming.

KIDWRITING

As I briefly discussed at Kindergarten Orientation, kidwriting is a phonetically based approach to teaching students to write sentences. After I have a few weeks to go over letters and letter sounds in class, I will teach your child how to "stretch out" words so that they can hear the different sounds that make up a word.

Next, we will work hard as a class to write the sounds that we hear while we have a shared writing experience together. Your child will watch me write down letters for the sounds that we hear in words, become familiar with how those letters will form words, and finally a sentence.We will getsome practice doing this together asI'll start "sharing the pen" with the children. When we stretch words out as a class, students will be invited to come to the white board or SMARTboard (depending on where we’re working that day) to write down sounds that they hear.

Eventually, your child will be asked to think of a sentence that she/he would like to write, and sit at his/her desk to sound it out and write the sounds that she/he hears. It is at this stage that I have asked for volunteers to come help with the daunting task of stretching out words with small groups of students and encouraging them to write what they hear. Remember if you have volunteered to help with this, I do ask that you come to a brief training session on Wednesday, September 18th at 5:00pm in the library if you haven’t been trained in the past.

This week we began going over letters and their sounds (we worked on M, T, A this week), and next week we will start stretching words out just a little. You can practice this at home by finding words to stretch together. For example, in the word "cat", you would hear the following sounds /c/ /a/ /t/. Children at all levels of readiness can benefit from this kind of auditorypractice. However, do not push your child too hard because I want them to enjoy this introduction to writing as they are beginning to learn the writing process.

LETTER/SOUND RECOGNITION

Over the next two weeks, your child will be tested on letter and letter sound recognition. I will send home information to each of you letting you know what letters and sounds your child already knows, and which ones I will be working on in class with your child. The letter I send home will also have a few ideas for ways for you to work with your child at home. Even if your child knows allof the letters and sounds, you’ll get one of the letters sent home, because if I don’t give one to each child, they feel left out!

RHYMING

Knowing how to rhyme will help your student read word “families” such as cat, bat, pat, hat, and fat. Notice that rhyming words have same ending sounds but different beginning sounds. Some words don’t look the same: ache, cake, steak but they rhyme. We’ll be learning all about differences like that throughout the year! We will use poetry and a variety of rhyming picture books to work on this skill along with games.

If you think your student needs a little practice with rhyming, here are some great ideas to help:

Body Name Game
How to Play: Begin by modeling how to rhyme. Point to parts of your body; say a rhyming word and your child should say the body part. This puts rhyming into his/her ears with a visual cue (pointing). If you point to your nose and say rose, she/he will automatically say nose.

  1. Tell your child, "We are going to play a rhyming game. Rhyming words have the same ending sounds. I'm going to point to something on my body, and say a word. You're going to say the body part that rhymes. Okay?"
  2. Give him/her two examples: "I'm pointing to my leg, and I say beg. You say leg. I'm pointing to my nose. I say rose, and you say nose.
  3. Here's a list of body parts and rhyming words, but feel free to come up with your own:

deer-ear
pail-nail
sack-back / go-toe
gum-thumb
put-foot / bye-eye
deck-neck
see-knee / bear-hair
fin-chin
band-hand / peek-cheek
farm-arm
feel-heel
  1. When your child is able to do this, turn it around. Point to your knee and your child will say a rhyming word such as bee or me!

When your child rhymes body parts, play this game:

  1. Say, "I'm going to say a word and you'll tell me as many rhyming words as you can. I say bee." Your child then says words such as "he, she, we three, free, or agree."
  2. Choose one-syllable words that are easy to rhyme with such as had, rat, man, fall, ten, red, big, fill, hop, dog, bug and sun. All of these have multiple words that rhyme.

WORD RINGS

Word rings came home with your child this week (on Wednesday). This ring should stay at home for you to practice. It includes all of the kindergarten sight words, or as we like to call them “Popcorn Words” because they pop up everywhere! This week I introduced the words “the” and “little” to the children. Please begin practicing the GREEN words with your child, as these will be the first words we learn.

I will let you know when we begin to learn the words on the other colors. If your child already knows some of the words, feel free to introduce words to your child that we have not yet learned in school. I encourage you to introduce no more than one or two words at a time and allow your child to master those words before introducing more words, but always keep mastered words in there to review.

Don’t forget that letter and letter sound recognition is just as important as learning these words, so please practice both at home!

BUS NUMBERS

Please, please, please encourage your child to learn the bus number that he/she rides home on (both its name and what it looks like). So far the children have been doing a great job! Beginning next week the 5th and 6th grade helpers that have been showing the PM kindergarteners to their busses will be weaned off, so it is important that your child remembers the bus he/she rides in case help is needed to find that bus. There will be safeties and adult helpers in the hallway all year, so encourage them to ask for help if needed – that’s what they’re there for! If your child is having trouble, it is always a good idea to attach the orange card, another card if the orange one is lost, or a label with the number on it to a visible spot on his/her backpack.

USA DAY

USA Day will be celebrated on Tuesday, September 17thin honor of Constitution Day. Please encourage your child to wear red, white, and blue that day!

SCHOLASTIC READING CLUBS

So many of you have already placed your book orders online! I will be submitting the order on September 20th, so if you haven’t placed an order make sure you do before then! You can either send in the paper copy that was sent home in your child’s folder during Kindergarten Orientation with a check made out to Scholastic Reading Clubs or…order online! You can order online with the information below and pay by credit card. When you order online, we receive books for our classroom library! To order online visit this website log-in as a parent using this class activation code: GQ38V. You will only need this activation code one time, but please double check that it is my name you see after you log-in. You will also notice that there are more items available to purchase online than in the catalogs I sent home.

LEARNING TARGETS

I have attached a copy of our first quarter learning targets. I approach these at school as “I can…” statements so they are child friendly. These will help you know a little more about what we will accomplish at school during each quarter. I will send home learning targets at the beginning and end of each quarter so you know what we will work on throughout the coming quarter, and you will be able to review the targets as you look at your child’s report card at the end of the quarter. These targets are also always available on both the district’s website and my classroom website under the “Curriculum” tab.

BEHAVIOR CALENDARDS

As I have been checking folders over the past week for important information for me, I have noticed that many of the children no longer have their behavior calendars in their folders. If you still have it at home, please keep it in your child’s folder. It is important that it is in your child’s folder so he/she is able to color it on the rare occasion that he/she may change a color. If you cannot find it, don’t worry! I will give your child a new one if he/she changes a color, if not wait until October and you will get a new one to keep in the folder.

WATER BOTTLES/SNACKS

Please remember that while water bottles are permitted to stay at your child’s seat throughout the school day, juice boxes or water bottles filled with something other than water are not permitted. Water is a healthy way to keep the children hydrated at school. Plus, it doesn’t make a sticky mess when it spills. If your child does not bring a water bottle to school, we have a water fountain in the classroom that he/she will be permitted to use instead.

As mentioned at Kindergarten Orientation, there is not a daily snack time in Kindergarten at NHUF due to the short amount of time I have with your child and the increased academic demand. We use this time to supplement academics and work on fine and gross motor skills.

BOOK BUDDIES

Book buddies is a great time for kindergarteners to meet with older students in the school to hear fluent reading. This is a great opportunity for the kindergarteners to see older students share their love of reading and the joy of reading for pleasure. We typically meet with our buddies once a week for about 15 minutes of reading. It is a wonderful experience for the children. The buddy class comes to our room and each child is partnered with a buddy.

This week the PM class met with their book buddies for the first time! The PM class is pairing with Mrs. Roberts’ 2nd graders this year. Ask your child if he/she can remember their buddy’s name (some students have 2 2nd grade buddies since they have a few more students than we do). The AM class is paired with Mr. DeCarlo’s 4th grade class this year. We will be meeting them for the first time within the next 2 weeks, as we are still arranging our schedules. If your child knows someone in his class and would like to be paired with that student please let me know so I can arrange it. 

Okay…I promise you that not all of the newsletters will be this long, but thanks for sticking with me through the end! Thank you for your support and all that you do for our fantastic kindergarteners!

Sincerely,