Mrs. Nicodemus’
Kindergarten Newsletter
March 9,
2015
Upcoming Events
March 9 – Math homework due
March 16 – Literacy homework due
March 23 – Skating party 6:30-8
April 2 – Light it up blue – wear blue for
Autism awareness
Apr 6-10 Spring break
Reading:
Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin
This is a musical counting book told in rhyme. The story begins
with one instrument playing solo, and one by one, other instruments are added to make a duo, a trio, and so on.
Eventually there is a chamber group of ten instruments and children can see how
an orchestra is formed. The instruments in the book are a violin, clarinet,
cello, harp, oboe, bassoon, flute, french horn, trombone, and trumpet. We will
learn about the different families that instruments belong to (percussion,
strings, woodwinds, brass) and what we do (hit, strum, blow) to play the
instruments in each family. This
story will help us understand that sounds can be made in different ways.
Target
Skill: We will review
several skills this week including Compare and Contrast, Classify and
Categorize, Visualizing, and Cause and Effect. You can ask your child to tell
you how two instruments are the same or different, or you can ask them to tell
you to which family a particular instrument belongs.
Amazing
Words: orchestra,
instrument, solo, duo, trio, violin
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) /
Phonics (matching sounds and letters): J
/ W
Ex: jump, jaw, west, win. This week, ask your child to say words that have /w/ or /j/ at
the beginning. If they struggle with this, give them two choices and then
choose which one makes the sound. To challenge students, ask them to write the
words they come up with. You can also write nonsense words using j, w, or e to
help your child practice. Remind students to blend the sounds in their head and
then just say the word out loud.
Sight
Words: blue, yellow, green
(past words: I, am, the, little, to,
a, have, is, we, my, like, for, he, me, with, she, look, see, of, they, you, are,
do, that, one, two, three, four, five, here, go, from) 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 words”.
Writing: Goals for students’ writing – use capital
letters at the beginning of sentences and lowercase letters for the rest, use spaces
between words, punctuation marks at the end, and sentences that make sense. Students
should be segmenting words and writing the letters for the sounds they hear
when writing unknown words. Encourage
your child to spell sight words the correct way, but all other words can simply
be spelled as they sound. Students have previously learned the letters and
sounds for Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii,
Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, and Tt, and should be able to identify which letter
makes a particular sound and write words using any combination of these
letters.
Math
We will be finishing our chapter on teen
numbers this week and our test will be Tuesday. Students should understand that
teen numbers mean ten and some more and
that all teen numbers start with a one to show the ten and the next number
tells how many more (14=10 and 4 more). Please
continue to have your child practice writing number sentences showing how to
make different amounts (10+4=14 OR
14=10+4). I know some parents have been confused by the problems written “backwards”,
but we view the equal sign as meaning “the same as” so if you see a problem
written differently than you are used to that is why. Please encourage your
child to practice writing and solving problems in this format as well as the traditional
way. Our next chapter will focus on counting to 100 by 1s and by 10s. This will
be a short chapter since many of our students are already quite accomplished at
this skill!
School
Fees:
If you have not paid your $50 school fees,
please try to do so. If you are unable, consider making a smaller partial
payment. Thank you!
