April Newsletter

Making Connections When We Read

As we move into the third quarter of school, our class is focusing on making connections with read aloud books.  "Making Connections" essentially means that students connect their personal knowledge or background experience to the text that is read.  Research has shown that readers comprehend significantly better when they are actively engaged in thinking about their own experiences and how it may relate to the topic of the book.

To better help your child develop and use this reading comprehension strategy, make sure you ask the following questions when your read with your child:

What does this book remind you of?
What do you know about this topic?
Does this book remind you of another book that we have read?

Your child should be very familiar with the concept of making personal connections to stories.  Please continue to read with your child at home and make connections together.

Math Objectives for Kindergarten

These are some of the concepts that parents can help reinforce at home for this quarter.

• counting by 5s
• counting by 10s
• counting by 2s
• counting to 100
• identifying 2 digit numbers (1-100)
• writing 2 digit numbers (1-100)
• identifying pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters
• identifying coin values (pennies, nickles, dimes, and quarters)
• practice measuring different things using a ruler

Progress Reports

Happy Holidays children and families!
We wanted to let you know about the concepts we will be assessing soon after the December holidays. We hope you enjoy your time together reading and learning.
Sincerely, Your Kindergarten Teachers
• Read a book together and discuss the events in order

• Identify the upper and lower case letters

• Identify the letter sounds

• Practice your kindergarten sight word flashcards

• Use the correct beginning letter for a word

• Write letters the school way

• Write your first name and last name “the school way”

• Applies knowledge of word study in daily reading and writing

When writing your child should be applying these writing skills as often as possible:
-picture matches your words

-begin sentences with uppercase letters

-finger spaces between words

-stretch your words by sounding them out

-sentences end with punctuation

• Count forward to at least 30

• Identify objects that have symmetry

• Count backward from 10, from 12, from 15

• Write numbers 1-15 in order, can you write 15-20, 20-30? etc. the “school way.”

• Look for patterns around your house and be able to create and describe 2 and 3 part patterns.

• Tell number stories

Example, I have 2 cookies and my friend has 3 cookies. How many cookies do we have in all?