Volunteers and Permission Slips As we move into field trip time of year, it is important they are returned as soon as possible. We would like to see all students participate in our fun events. If a permission slip is not returned with a signature your student will not be permitted to leave the school grounds. We are always looking for parent volunteers in the classroom and at activities. If this is something you would like to do please note it on any slips that come home and return it or contact the PTO for more information regarding what you can help with  Phonics Everyone has mastered their letter names and sounds and now its time to put them to use! We are pretty good at writing consonant, vowel consonant words (cat, lip, hug) so now we are adding on a new layer. WE have begun working with long vowel sounds and words. First we must identify whether it is long or short vowel. After we master this skill we will work on the aspect of what is making it say its long vowel sound. We will begin with the “magic e” concept (ride, bike, home). After working with “magic e” words we will take a look at vowel teams. Now this will be a basic look simply to say that if we see two vowels right next to each other there is a good chance it will be a long vowel word as we read it (team, boat, leaf). These will be skills used to help us in reading. The application of writing these vowel team words will not be expected until into first grade. Lastly we will be working with the “H Brothers” sh, th, wh, ch  Handwriting This is still an area that all students need practice. We have handwriting journals we use weekly but could always use the additional practice at home as well. Each letter should be made using as few of “pick ups” as possible. Completing letters in single fluid lines and curves. Lowercase letters are a bit more difficult but please encourage your student to be writing is as many lowercase letters as possible. You will find handwriting paper and letters along with this newsletter for reference and practice. If you would like more lined paper let me know! If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out to me! I will be available throughout this month to do end of the year meetings if you would like  Each of your students has done a phenomenal job this year. Kindergarten has been a blast this year for me and I only hope they feel the same! Way to go families!

Writing Math Reading Social Studies We have finished informational writing and are circling around to our Small Moment narratives. These stories are from events in their personal life with a beginning, middle and end. Students should be able to write in complete sentences telling where they were, who was there, what happened and how they felt. Example: “One day I went to the mall with my mom. We went shopping and bought hot pretzels. It was a great day with my mom.” We will be teaching how to review and edit our own writing pieces checking for finger spaces between words, sight words spelled correctly, punctuation and capitalization appropriately. Math Continuing with addition we will be working on addition strategies. Not all students process math the same way so they will be exposed to a number of strategies like counting on, drawing a picture, ten frame, using fingers, number line, use objects, memorization and others. When we begin subtraction in late April/early May we will utilize the same strategies for students to choose from. Please allow them to show you what they know as you practice at home. Ask them how they figured out the answer. This will help them develop a deeper understanding of the concept other than “I just knew it” or “I added them together”. Ask them how they knew it or how they added them together. Reading This month we will be focusing on our reading strategies. I am sending home an informational packet for you to practice these strategies at home with your student. We have covered Pointer Pup, Eagle Eye, Lips the Fish, Sharpie the Shark, and Stretchy Snake. The remaining strategies will take us through the first three weeks of April. We are teaching and using these reading skills daily to not only read more independently but to also work on reading comprehension. Students should be able to retell the book ( no matter how short of long) with details in order. At the end of the month we will be applying everything we know about reading to return to narratives. Students will work on retelling the beginning, middle and end with details and also identify the characters and setting. When identifying these students should be able to state who is a main character. Social Studies We will be studying a few topics in social studies this month. Places in Our Community will focus on the community and members. Smallest community we all share is our classroom and the largest being our world. We will take a week to study the 3R’s, reduce , reuse, recycle. We will look at the impact we can make on our community and world. Hopefully we will have an opportunity on Earth Day to do some clean up around the school! Decision making and problem solving is something we have worked on all year. As we do this for our final unit in social studies we will work on analyzing the impact of our decisions.