News from 1A44 Mrs. Winter’s KG Kids The writing workshop time of our day is always a favorite. We have a new tool to use when we write-a long term writing partner. Everyone has a friend that they can sit with and talk to during the writing workshop. Partners help us with our writing, spelling words or reading our writing to fix it up. We had to set a goal to work on for the next quarter. Many of us are working on stretching our words to write more sounds, putting spaces between our words or even using lower case letters when we write words. You can read our stories when you come to the portfolio conference. Mrs. Tennebrini came to visit us and we shared our writing with her. She’s the Literacy Coordinator at Taipei American School. Newsletter 1 October 3, 2008 Writing Workshop News Click to go to the next page

News from 1A44 Mrs. Winter’s KG Kids Joy Cowley has become one of our favorite authors. We love her characters like the Hungry Giant. Using her books we’ve been looking at characters, settings, and why characters do some of the things they do, like yell and scream. We have learned some new chants like Mistress Pratt. Chants help us learn rhyming words like Pratt fat! This week we are breaking words into parts and counting the parts. We call the parts syllables. Wayne, Joyce and Ben have one syllable in their name. The two Sabrinas have three! One of our favorite things to do is cook! We read recipes and follow directions when we cook. We’ll share our cooking with you some time. Literacy Highlights Newsletter 2 October 3, 2008 Click to go to the next page

News from 1A44 Mrs. Winter’s KG Kids Math Happenings We’ve been playing some number games to work on our math skills. Working with a partner helps us develop our language skills as well. We’ll be taking photos of symmetry on the school playground and looking for symmetry in nature. Learning about those tricky teens is something else we are working on in math. Newsletter 2 October 3, 2008

News from 1A44 Mrs. Winter’s KG Kids October 9-12 th Fall Break October 20 th Sabrina H’s Birthday October th Student Led Activity Based Portfolio Conferences October 31 st Halloween Party 1:00 Parade 1:45 Mark Your Calendar Student led activity based portfolio conferences will be on the 16th and 17th of October. The children are always excited to get to share their work that day. A BIG thanks to Sandy, Felix’s mom for reading to us on Monday. She selected two wonderful books and the children were so engaged. These KG Kids are growing up. There are a large number of children who walk to the room alone and do their jobs with any prompting from parents! That independence fosters self-esteem and confidence. Kudos to those children who are gaining their independence! You will receive more information about the Halloween parade and party in the near future. Stay tuned…Thank you for sharing your children with me. I love the Grandmother role but the biggest compliment I get is when they mistakenly call me, “Mom.” A Message From Mrs. Winter Newsletter 2 October 3, 2008