Mrs. Nicodemus’ Kindergarten Newsletter
December 1, 2014
Reading: Little Quack is a fiction story about Mama Duck and her ducklings. Mama Duck asks her babies to jump into the pond and paddle with her, but the ducklings are scared. One by one, they face their fear and jump into the water. Children will understand the nervousness they feel when they are not sure if they are ready for something yet and the excitement they feel when they are big enough to try something new. Thinking about these things will help them answer the question “What new things can you do as you get older?”
Target Comprehension Skill: Plot – the events and actions in a story. Answering questions about plot helps children comprehend and summarize the text. We will use the language: “I can…tell about events in a story”. This week, read a story with your child and have them act out an event from the story. To challenge your child, ask them to act out an event from the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story.
Amazing Words: duckling, paddle, proud, pond, plunged, brave
This week, ask your child to come up with a sentence using one of these words. We will use the language “I can…use new vocabulary”.
Phonemic Awareness (hearing sounds): Initial /r/ – Ex: rug, rabbit, rock. This week, have your child try to find items around the house or outside that have the /r/ sound. You can also tell your child 2 words and ask him to identify which word has the /r/ sound. Students should be able to identify if /r/ is in the beginning or end of the word. We will use the language “I can…hear beginning sounds”.
Phonics (matching sounds and letters): Students will learn to say the /r/ sound when they read the letter Rr and will learn to write the letter Rr when they hear that sound. This week, we will also continue spelling consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) words. Students have previously learned the letters and sounds for Bb, Nn, Cc, Pp, Ss, Mm, Tt, Ii and Aa so you can challenge your child to spell words using any combination of these letters. Remind them to use lower case letters unless it is a proper noun (name). We will use the language “I can…spell words”.
Sight Words: me, with, she (past words: I, am, the, little, to, a, have, is, we, my, like, for, he)
Please practice these words at home! Students can write, search for, or use flash cards to read the words. We will use the language “I can…read sight words”.
DIBELS Practice: Please continue to practice the skills that will be on the DIBELS test next week. This includes letter naming, phoneme segmentation, and nonsense word reading. Students will have one minute for each section.
Math: We have begun Ch. 5 and have learned that adding means to combine things together. This week, we will solve addition word problems, complete addition sentences, and write addition number sentences for sums up to five. We will use pictures and cube train models to help us. Students will be using the language “I can… add numbers”. This week, write an addition sentence and leave one of the addend spots blank. Ask your child to draw a picture to help them solve the problem. If he is able to solve it without drawing a picture, challenge your child by saying a number and asking him, “How many more are needed to make ____?”
Thank You! - Thank you to all of the families that volunteered or sent food in for our feast last week. The students had a great time and there was plenty of new food for them to try and share with their friends. I hope everyone was able to enjoy the few extra days off for Thanksgiving and spend some time with friends and family.
Winter Clothing - As the weather turns colder, many students are wearing hats, gloves, scarves, etc. Many times students forget these items at school or they fall out of the cubbies and are never claimed. Please be sure to label any items you send with your child. Even initials can help me narrow down who they may belong to.
Feel free to contact me with any questions @ 943-6924 ornicodemus_a@westcler.org.
