Newsletter ~ March 28

Spring Ahead Rascal Families!

Grateful accolades to you for sending in your child’s baby picture.  The combination baby/kinder photograph bulletin board works in beautifully with our reading theme:  Ready, Set, Grow!  Look who is grooowing!!!  Now we have a special connection to the concept of growth.  Needless to say, we are very excited about learning how living things grow and change. 

I LOVE the week following report cards.  The Rascals are focused on becoming better students.  

They’re on a mission to improve in every area.  Thank you for helping them set learning goals for the remaining kindergarten days.  With your support, they are going to grow like weeds from this day forward….Go Rascals!!!!

Root, Root, Root for your child!  We’ve been working together to help each other become better readers.  This week, we buddied up with a partner and took turns reading decodable readers aloud to each other. The children had fun pressing the easy button as they read aloud to their Rascal partner. 

          Good Readers A-Bloomin' With The Help Of 

                               A Rascal Buddy!

I am proud to share with you my observations.  We have learned to follow along and listen attentively while others read.  We praise each other for good reading such as correcting an error that didn’t make sense or reading with good expression.  We try to give others some “wait time” to work out unknown words on their own.  If help is needed partners work together to help their classmates solve it by prompting them to try something else such as:  “It’s a sight word”, “you can take that word apart”, or it can be as simple as helping them with the beginning sound.  We have learned so much one can only imagine what we will have mastered by June!

Each kindergarten student’s goal is to read the kindergarten decodable quite fluently.  Kindergarten decodables are sent home weekly (usually on Friday) for your child to read at home on a daily basis. 

We’re in the groove  to move….. The Rascals are on the “50 Sight Word” run for fun, fun, FUN!!!!  What?  Just 57 kindergarten school days left?  We ‘re determined to learn all 50 sight words by the end of kindergarten. Daily practice is a must in order to maintain the pace at which the sight words are introduced.  With your nightly help at home and daily practice during school, we will reach our goal of reading 50 sight words with automaticity (as quickly as we can say our name)!  GO RASCALS!!!!!!

The Imagine It Reading Series has brought us deep into Literacy Activities.  I am surprised that long vowel lessons are part of kindergarten instruction in this program.  The good news is long vowels will be taught in first and second grade, too.   We’ve been introduced to Long A. 

Moving right along to Long I next week with two new sight words:  down – they.  Many Rascals are ready to practice all 50 sight words.  Check out the complete list on our class blog.  Some kinders know them already… I am soooo impressed!!!!

Math has been a popular center this week. The focus has been on 2 and 3D shapes.  Our goal is to be able to name and describe the following:  square, circle, triangle, rectangle, hexagon, cube, cone, cylinder and sphere.

Be on the look-out for our 3-D shape papers.

Music with Ms. Latham will take place every Tuesday from now until the end of the year.  

  

Calling all Reading Challenge blue forms on Friday….  Remember to complete it and send it to school.  Last week the PM Rascals read the most minutes in the entire school… Congrats!!!   We’re on a mission to help our school reach a goal of reading 100,000 minutes.  This challenge ends April 12th.  Thank you!

 

                                                                        Happy Easter!

                                                                        Happy Passover!

                                                                        June A. Rich