Hello Kindergarten Families

Hello Families!

Our days have been full as we continue to explore new tools to help us learn and get to know our friends and workmates better!

We have been working on our buddy reading skills and got to show them off when we met our 4th grade buddies on Wednesday! Both grades had a wonderful time.

We have also been discussing and reading inspirational books to help us think, draw, and write about what our hopes and dreams are for kindergarten this year.

As we talk about what makes us special and unique individually, we have been using shapes to sketch and water color our self-portraits. They will be on display next week!

Show and Tell

Every Tuesday (starting October 9th) two kids from each group (chosen in alphabetical order) will have a chance to bring in a show and tell item at morning meeting (blue group) or closing circle (yellow group). Families are welcome! Please send your child with photos, books, and objects that they can manage and store easily.

Kindergarteners LOVE show and tell! It provides them with an opportunity to share with classmates something special to him/her. In addition to feeling excited, proud, etc. about his/her item, we work on many reading and language arts skills as presenters and audience members.

Speaking in front of an audience with the appropriate volume and posture is challenging. Please take a couple of minutes to practice at home the day before sharing. Many kids get to the teacher chair and are not prepared to say anything! I great sentence starter is “This is my _______. It is special because _______.”

Skills we practice:

1. Share ideas in oral presentations
2. Vary volume of voice
3. Use appropriate body position (face the audience)
4. Pay attention when others are speaking (appropriate audience member)
5. Avoid distracting others (appropriate audience member)
6. Adjust listening and viewing to gain knowledge in a variety of situations
7. Focus attention
8. Understand message given (so your child will need to give a clear message to audience)
9. Increase vocabulary through reading, writing, speaking, and listening (high frequency words, position words, question words, time and order)
10. Answer questions about the text (about the show and tell item)

Snack Advisory

We have noticed that some children are eating sugary snacks and then are becoming very energetic during learning time and are sometimes still hungry. If possible, please send your child with a healthy snack that will fill them up.

Some suggestions:

yogurt
banana
fruit slices
granola bar
crackers or pretzels
cheese
veggies
hard-boiled egg
hummus

As always, thanks for your support!

Liz and Talia