Monday, April 27, 2015

Grant El. Kindergarten Weekly News
From Mrs. Conran and Mrs. Caya

Week Beginning:  April 27, 2015

Important Dates
April 28          Do Math! Night: 5:30 – 7:00 Dinner & Games
May 2             Mother/Son Sports Day - More Information to Follow
May 5             Family Night- Minute To Win It - More Information to Follow
May 7             OPT Meeting
May 25           Memorial Day - No school

Reading & Writing
Comprehension Learning Target:  I can answer questions about what happens in stories.
Students have been keeping track of the questions that arise before, during and after reading.  Keep reading at home and talking about your thoughts and questions.
Reading Accuracy:  Below are a few prompts for helping your child solve new words WITHOUT always telling him/her to sound it out.
- What would make sense?  - Get your mouth ready for the first letter and look at the picture?
- What would sound right?
Phonics Learning Target:  I can build word families.
This week we are working on –en and –et and –ed word families.  Your child should be able to read and write the words in these word families.  Place the stress on learning how the family part stays the same and only the beginning changes.  We do not want students thinking of these as unrelated sight words.  The goal is to see the patterns in words.

en
ed
et
hen
men
pen
ten

led
sled
shed

bet
let
met
net

Writing Learning Target:  I can write to give information.
We are continuing to write to give information.  Within the next few weeks, each child will write a how-to book.  You can practice at home by writing the steps to do tasks together.  For example:  how to make a sandwich, how to make your bed, how to set the table. or how to make chocolate milk.

Things to do over the weekend!

Play a board game, make a journal of what you did each day, read, count, tell stories, take a walk and look at how the trees are changing, look for patterns in nature, and/or divide snacks in half.

Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) & Social Skills
RESPECT - Too many children are being disrespectful.

            Please talk with your student about showing respect to ALL adults. The          students are misbehaving with their classroom teachers, but are being        horrible to other staff in the building including lunch, art, music, gym, and     library.


RESPONSIBILITY - Accepting the choices you make.

Good people make mistakes with their behavior.  Showing responsibility means you accept the consequence for your behavior. Many students are very busy and over talkative. When this happens every now and then, it does not disrupt our day. Too many students are too busy and over talkative throughout most of the school day. Next week we will be working on behavior, this may mean that clips will be getting moved. Please talk to your child that it is not okay to misbehave at school.

Math
Directions provide assistance in pointing out the proper route. Position defines placement or arrangement in an order (e.g. first, second, third). The position of an object is also referred to as ordinal numbers.
Knowledge about directional or positional words as well as ordinal numbers enhances a child’s ability to give and follow directions as well as to speak precisely. One of the skills a child should master in kindergarten is the ability to describe the location of an object using positional or directional words. Our kindergarten teachers recommended working on the following words:

above                                     after                                     before                           behind
between                                bottom                                front                              middle
under                                     top                                       below                            next to
on                                          

Using objects such as a stuff animal or doll, help your child grasp these words by putting them in various positions. For example, put the doll after the stuffed animal. Another great activity is to point out items throughout your home, e.g. the cat is under the chair.


Mark Your Calendars!
We will be taking a field trip to the Milwaukee Zoo on Tuesday, June 9th. Each class will need six parents to chaperone the trip. The trip will be from 8:30-3:00. Please see your classroom teacher if interested, as you will need to have a completed background check on file in order to go.