September 23, 2016 Dear Parents,   This week, we worked together to formalize the wording for our class goals for the school year: Be safe with our bodies; Take care of our classroom; Be kind to each other; Always do our best; Have fun on our Kindergarten Adventure. We signed our names on the poster, took pictures, and celebrated with a class party! We will revisit these goals over the next few weeks to further discuss, role-play, and illustrate what each goal would look like and sound like in a variety of situations. We launched Word Study this week, by learning how to sort picture cards into categories, using our language to articulate the reasons behind the way we sorted, and learning how to play the Switching Game with a partner. During Shared Reading, we learned the poem, My New Friend. We had fun substituting our names in the poem, examining the number of tall, small, and tail letters, identifying initial letters and sounds, and learning a special way to count the number of syllables in our names and other words. We highlighted the words I, like, and my in the text, and added them to our Word Wall and word rings. In Writing Workshop, we continued to generate ideas, plan, and draft one-page teaching books. We learned that ”When we think we’re done, we’ve only just begun.” We can add more details to our sketches by asking ourselves, “What else do I now about this topic?” or independently start a new book. In Reading Workshop, we learned to treat our books gently and with clean hands. We also learned that readers have adventures with books by lingering on each page, and touching and naming everything we see. In Math, we focused on the concepts of same and not the same, writing numerals correctly, examining patterns on our calendar, and began exploring place value. We began reading the Star Book Harry the Dirty Dog and had fun making clean and dirty Harry cut-outs to act out the different story parts.

Looking Ahead: Special Notes: We also began afternoon centers, explored several ABC iPad apps, and began working one-to-one on literacy assessments. It was truly a wonderful week in Kdg-Y! Wishing you a lovely weekend! Sincerely, Linda Yelvington   Looking Ahead: First School-wide Assembly: Monday, September 26 Picture Day: Tuesday, September 27 Next week is Apple Week in Kindergarten! Apples Due: Wednesday, Sept. 28 Rosh Hashanah-Schools Closed: Monday, October 3 NJ Week of Respect: Oct. 3–7; Wear Blue: Wednesday, October 5 Kindergarten Garden Planting: Wednesday, October 5 Writing Folder Collages Due: Monday, October 10 Special Notes: Please practice sight words and read your child’s Book Buddy book selection with your child each night. PTO Kids Stuff Coupon Books or payment envelopes due today – please return as soon as possible. Kindly complete all school online requests at your earliest convenience. I will begin to post pictures on my web site once all OK to Photo/Do Not Photo responses are complete.