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Week of January 5, 2009

A Message from the Teachers

Your kindness and generosity at the holiday season was overwhelming.  We are grateful to all of our students and their families for your many gifts and good wishes.  We also thank the families who provided treats, beverages, and paper goods for our class Christmas party.

                                                                    Mrs. Minnihan and Mrs. Dalton

LANGUAGE ARTS

With the help of our animal puppet, Friendly Firefly, the class will learn the initial sound of "F" and will practice how to write the letter F.  This week's power word is have.  In addition to our regular language arts pages, we will make a Fish art project.  We will work on 4 Square Writing projects on the theme of winter.  When complete, they will go into the children's writing portfolios.  These portfolios will be handed on to their first grade homeroom teachers at the end of the school year.

MATH

This week, we focus on the numbers 10, 11, and 12.  We will also review our understanding of patterns by making a necklace out of fruit cereal loops.

RELIGION

We will talk about the feast of the Holy Family and the feast of Epiphany this week.  The children will prepare for the Feast of the Three Kings by making jeweled crowns, which we will wear on Tuesday.

This week, we will begin a new chapter entitled God Gives Us Neighbors.  Some of this material will overlap with our study of community helpers back in September, but much of the message bears repeating.  We will begin by answering the question "Who is a neighbor?"  We will review what we already know about community helpers and will act out situations in which neighbors help one another.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES

Winter will be our main topic this week.  We will discuss what we know about the winter season and we will begin to study how different kinds of animals cope with cold weather either through hibernation, migration, or adaptation.  The children will learn about these methods as ways to survive in winter.  We will make migrating ducks to hang in our classroom.  The children will cut some snowflake decorations for the classroom, also.

In keeping with New Year's traditions, the children will make resolutions and display them in the hall.

****Click below for the current Book It form - Program begins in October, 2008. 

BOOK-IT INSTRUCTIONS AND REPORT FORM 

Below you will find a copy of the information sheet that was given out at the Kindergarten Meet the Teachers Night in August.

Please keep for reference during school year!!

WELCOME TO KB!

Now that we have had a chance to meet each other, we thought you might appreciate some information about life in Kindergarten.  We hope this information answers many of your questions.  We look forward to working with you and your children this year!

                                                Mrs. Minnihan & Mrs. Dalton

WEB SITE and NEWSLETTERS: We believe that communicating with our families on a regular basis is very important.  We will send home weekly the KB Corner, a printed newsletter, to keep you informed about events and activities in our classroom.  The newsletter will also keep you up-to-date on curriculum topics.  Several years ago we successfully launched our KB web site and we have been instructed to rely on it more heavily as a means of communication between home and school.  To visit the SMS home page, go to www.stmatthias.info.  When the page comes up, click on “HOMEWORK” and then click on the link marked “KB Events” where you can read all the latest news from our classroom.  We also encourage you to check out the other information areas on the SMS home page.

BIRTHDAYS:     We celebrate your child’s birthday as close to the actual date as possible.  In the spring, we will pick a special day for each of our summer birthday children.  If your child’s birthday falls on a weekend or holiday, we will celebrate it the preceding or following school day.  Just let us know what works best for you.  You may send in a snack to share with the class - cupcakes, cookies, munchkins, muffins, etc.  Please do not send in ice cream or goodie bags.  Napkins, however, are appreciated.  You may send in the treats in the morning with your child or you can drop them off in the SMS office before 11:00 AM.  Please label everything with your child’s name and KB.  Unlike in Pre-School, parents and siblings do not attend birthday celebrations in Kindergarten.  Most years there are 30 students in our class.  In choosing a treat, please be aware that some of our students may have allergies to nuts or other food products.

SNACK TIME:   In Kindergarten we eat snack every day, regardless of whether it is a full day or a 12:30 dismissal day.  Please pack a nutritious snack and a drink for your child every day.  On 12:30 dismissal days, the class will have snack time around 11:00 AM.  On full day sessions, the children will eat lunch at 11:00 AM in the cafeteria and will eat their snacks around 1:30 PM in the classroom.  Lunch may be purchased at school or brought from home, as you prefer.  The monthly calendar lists the hot lunch being offered that day in the cafeteria.  If your child is bringing both lunch and snack from home, please put the meals in separate bags so your child will know which is which.  We have found that when lunch and snack foods are packed together the children tend to eat everything at lunchtime, leaving nothing for later.

SPECIAL CLASSES:   This year, your child will have five “specials”.  On Tuesdays, the class will visit the SMS Media Center for an hour.  The time will be split between Computer class and Library class.  The children will have the opportunity to choose a book to take home for the week.  Mrs. Rezac, the Computer teacher, asks that you send in an inexpensive set of headphones for your child to use during computer class.  Please put your child’s headphones in a plastic ziplock bag and label it with your child’s name and “KB”.  The headphones will be kept at SMS until the end of school in June.  On Mondays and Thursdays, our students will have a Spanish lesson with Mr. Gil.  On Thursdays, beginning September 11, the children will have Gym class with Mr. Johnson.  In order to fully participate in gym class, your child should come to school dressed appropriately in the school gym uniform of tee-shirt and gym shorts (in warm weather), or tee-shirt, sweatpants, and sweatshirt (in cooler weather), and sneakers.  On Fridays, Mrs. Szabo will conduct Music class. 

STUFFED ANIMALS: Each day after recess we have a quiet time when the children rest and listen to a story or soft music.  To help the children relax, they may bring in a small stuffed animal.  No animals that make noise or have moving parts, please, because they are too distracting.  Be sure to label your child’s animal.  We would like to keep the stuffed animals at school during the week.  The children may take them home for the weekend, if they choose.

SHOW & TELL: All Kindergartners love to share their knowledge about things that are important to them.  In KB, we will have Show & Tell time weekly.  We will let you know through the website and the KB Corner when Show & Tell will begin.  We ask the children to bring in an item that relates to the alphabet letter being studied that week.

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: Each child will have a turn to be our “Special Star”.  A note will come home the preceding week letting you know that your child will be Student of the Week beginning the following Monday.  Help your child to select photos of him/herself and the family, special small mementos or awards, etc.  Please do not send in anything fragile or precious.  All items will be on display in our room for the week and will be sent home once your child has had the opportunity to present them to the class.

BOOK CLUBS:   Periodically, book orders will be sent home for you to consider.  The books are reasonably priced and are geared to Kindergarten level.  You are not obliged to purchase anything.  We are able to get many free books for our classroom library through parent participation in these book orders.