KINDERGARTEN

NEWS FROM THE KINDERGARTEN LEARNING POND

Lessons that will be coming up

Readers:  

Zip
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Phonics and Handwriting:  

Letters Zz and Cc
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Language:  

We are working on nouns:  person, place, things, animals.  Putting a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence.  Putting a . at the end of a telling sentence and a ? at the end of a question.  We are working on verbs:  action words, what the noun is doing. Adjectives:  describing words
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Reading: 

While reading the stories Feast for 10, Ten Little Puppies, Peace and Quiet,  and Counting Noodles and our journal writing reading story we will be working on characters and setting of a story, finding the problem in a story, talking about how the characters solved the problems, categorizing, classifying, responding, beginning, middle, end of a story, short a words, phonemic awareness of the letter p, f and g, initial consonant p, f and g, high frequency words and, an, at, to, a, go, my
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New Words: 

buzz, fizz, fuzz, zag, zap, zig, zip, act, cab, camp, can, cap, cast, cat, clam, clap, class, cliff, clip, club, cob, cop, cost, crab, craft, crib, crop, cross, crust, cub, cuff, cup, cut, fact, scrap, into  
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Math: 

Objectives
• Ordering four objects by length
• Naming a shape piece using 3 attributes
• Coping line segments, shapes and designs
• Measuring length using nonstandard units
• ABC patterns
• Some, Some More
• Some, Some Went Away
• Nickels
• Counting by 5’s
• Identifying a cylinder
• Ordering objects by height
Higher Order Thinking Skills
• Applying
• Evaluating
• Analyzing
• Creating
• Understanding
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Themes:  

Snowman, Winter, Penguins

Dates to Remember
January 25 – January Student of the Month
January 27 – Readers as Leaders money due
February 1 – January Reading Logs Due
To receive a Book-It Pizza Coupon
February 2 – Readers As Leaders Reading Party -Bouncy House
February 3 – NO SCHOOL
February 14 – Valentine’s Party
February 17 – Early Out 12:30
February 20 – NO SCHOOL
March 12-16 – Spring Break

Everyday Life Lessons

Kindergarten these days have to learn and do so much, so it’s even more important for parents to bring the learning home.  These five activities can help reinforce those important concepts and make learning fun for your child.

School’s back in session, but the learning shouldn’t stop at the schoolhouse doors.  Parents who encourage their children in everyday situations set their kids up for great success.

But where do we start with kindergarten activities to bring learning home?

1 – SUPERMARKET MATH

Heading to the grocery store isn’t just about getting the bananas and lunch meat.  There are many valuable real-life math lessons in the store’s aisles that doubles as kindergarten math activities.

How?  Educational consultant Heidi Waterfield, EdM, suggests getting them involved in label reading.  “Have the child tell you how much the item cost – read the price label and use dollars and cents in the answer,” says Waterfield.  This will help reinforce learning numbers

Kids can also learn about weight at the grocery story, she says.  “Weigh produce with the child and show them how to read the (main) numbers on the scale.  Help them understand that when more goes in, the weight indicator goes up, and vice versa,”  says Waterfield.

2 – FOOD PHONICS

Groceries aren’t the only food-related learning opportunity for kids.  Food can aid in letter recognition – by using foods to create letters.

“Make cookie letters.  Have your child form the letters by rolling the dough and putting the pieces together,” says Jan. Z. Olsen, OTR, Handwriting without tears.

Another option?  Olsen suggests forming letters with foods like carrots or French fries.  It brings learning into the home.

3 – LETTER CUT-UPS

Fine motor skills are more and more important at this age, but many kids don’t really know how to use scissors.  Practice your kindergartner’s scissors with a fun alphabet activity – a home learning activity that does double duty for fine motor skills and reading development.

“Making alphabet books with old magazines and newspapers is a fun, creative way to recycle and to practice that fine motor skill of cutting – somewhat of a lost art, I’ve noticed,” says former teacher Andrea Villafana-Melendez.

You can also form short words with the letters and make simple sentences.  Kindergarten reading games like this are a great way to introduce the idea of reading, and learning at home puts the concepts in a low-pressure, fun environment.

4 – FABULOUS FLASH CARDS

Flash cards are great for letter recognition, but they are also fabulous for kindergarten sight words and teaching about spelling.  “Instead of doing flash card drills, you can point to letters and say the sound, build words, substitute letters and make new words (can, cat, cab…),” says Julie Rebboah, author of Magic Letters:  The Keys to the World of Words and Magic, Words:  Discovering the Adventures of Reading

5 – MAGIC MONEY

Got cans?  Everyone knows that recycling is good for the environment, but it’s also good for your kids’ brains.  How?  Let kids collect and return cans and bottles for the deposit.  Rebboah says that this kindergarten math activity teaches important money skills.  They learn about earning it and budgeting it for spending later! 

“Kids are motivated by fun and by feelings of success,” says Rebboah.