I hope you all enjoyed your weekend and were able to stay warm! :)  This week the weather seems as if it will be warm enough for the children to play outside during recess time.  Please be sure to pack appropriate clothing for outdoor winter play.  Though there is no snow, some of the children like to wear boots and snow pants in order to stay warm.   Talk with your child at home about what you are packing each day for outdoor recess time.  Also, please remember to pack two healthy snacks each day. We usually eat our morning snack at 10:30 and our afternoon snack around 2:15. Your children can help with the packing process at home.

Classroom Materials:  It is the halfway point of the school year and we are beginning to run low on pencils, large glue sticks, crayons, and dry erase markers.  We use these materials every day in our kindergarten classroom.  If you are able to send in some of these materials it would be very much appreciated!   Thank you! :)

Word Wall Words:   We now have 24 words on our Word Wall.  We add three new words each week.  Our three new words are can, you, & on.  Please practice reading and writing all of these words at home.  You can make flashcards or simply write the words with markers, crayons, colored pencils, dry erase markers, etc.  Talk about the letter sounds in each word.   You can even make two sets of cards and play a matching game.  Practicing these words will help your child grow as a reader and as a writer.  The words on our wall are:   a, am, and, at, can, go, he, I, it, is, like, me, my, no, on,  run, see, she, the, to, will, yes & you.

This week we will continue reading and learning all about penguins.  We will also continue working on our personal narrative writing unit.  The children have enjoyed writing and illustrating their own stories.  I am so proud of the effort and growth I am seeing in our kindergarten authors each day.   We will begin wrapping up this writing unit this week, but we will continue to work on Writing Workshop throughout  the remainder of the school year.  Stay tuned for upcoming writing topics!

During math, we are really working hard on adding numbers.  We are reading and writing numbers sentences while drawing pictures and working with different kinds of math manipulatives.  I will send home a math packet this week.  Please feel free to work on some of the pages at home.  You can choose what to work on.  You may send back one page at a time, a few pages, or the whole packet.  Work at your own pace and choose what works best for you and your child.  I will be sure to put stickers on the papers as they come back to school. 

I am looking forward to a week filled with lots of penguin fun! :)

Sincerely,
Mrs. Eileen Browne