Kindergarten December Newsletter

December Newsletter

Welcome to the busiest time of year. As we are all busy getting ready
for the holidays, here at school we are trying to keep everything normal and
calm. There are a few dates and times of events that I would like to inform

you of. Enjoy the holidays and think SNOW! Enjoy
December 5-Grinch Day- We will be celebrating Dr. Seuss’s classic story
How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Please have your child wear green for that
day.

December 6 – Book Clubs – I will be sending home the December book club

forms soon. Online ordering is now open for December Firefly and
December Seesaw. I will be closing the ordering on the 7th so we will havethe books before Christmas.

December 12- Gingerbread House Day - We will be making Gingerbread

Houses. We are asking that each child bring in a can of white frosting with
their name on it. We will need candy to decorate houses. If you are willing
to send in a bag of candy please let me know. I also will need three boxes of
gram crackers. I appreciate your help. Thanks!

December 19- Polar Express Day-We are asking that the children bring to

school their bathrobes and slippers for this day. Please put them in a bag
with their name on it.

December 20- Is a full day of school. Enjoy the vacation.

Winter Clothes- Now that we are heading into the colder months of the

year, children will be putting on many more clothes. The school rule for
recess is as follows, children who bring snow pants and boots may play in the
snow at recess. If children do not have these items, they will still have
recess but, will just need to stay on the black top. All children need to learn
to put their own snow pants and boots on by themselves. We will help them
if they are stuck, but there is only one adult, and 16 children. If they are
able to get their clothes on by themselves, the faster we get outside the
longer the recess. So, practice, practice, practice. Thank you!

Literacy- In Literacy we have begun our Guided Reading Groups. Your

children will be bringing home books inside zip- lock bags. Please have them
read these books to you by pointing to each word and send them back to
school in the bag. If they bring home a book that says “Keep Book”, your
child may keep these books at home. It would be a great thing to create a

Browsing Box at home. An old shoebox or basket would work great. Your

child can keep all of their books in the box so that they can read them at
home. We are building many words with” word chunks “. We have been
working on “at”, “ap”, and “all”. We have been building, reading, and writing
words that have these chunks in them. Letters a, p, b, c, and e have come
to visit us in the past few weeks. We have learned to make CVC words with
” a “ and “e” in the middle. The children have learned how to “stretch” the
sounds so we can read words we do not know. I will be sending home soon, a
list of all the” Literacy Lingo” that we use in school so you will understand
what your child is doing and what the lingo means. By now you have seen the
first set of popcorn words. Popcorn words are sight words that the children
need to learn by sight. Please follow the directions attached to the popcorn
words so your child can practice these words at home. The more sight words
a child learns the more fluent they will become when they read. Learning to
spell and write these words will help your child become a better writer. So
make popcorn words a nightly activity for about 10 to 15 minutes. Our
November author was Marc Brown and our new authors will be Stan and Jan
Berenstain.

Math-Number Sense is the area in Math that we have been working on. They

have been recognizing, forming, ordering and building towers with numbers
0-10. The children have also been working on comparing sets of objects
using number quantity. We continue to graph and estimate objects in our
guessing jar weekly. We now are able to count to 60 by tens. While learning
new math skills the children are also learning math vocabulary, such as
equals, greater than and less than. We call this “Math Talk”.

Science- In Science we have finished our work on the season of Fall. We

have observed the inside of a pumpkin, cranberry, and some e-rays. The
children have learned the cycle of the cranberry, pumpkin and apple tree.
The children are learning how to label what they observe with new
vocabulary words such as air-pockets, pulp, torso, and vines. Winter is soon
approaching which will begin our winter unit.

Social Studies-In Social Studies we have been learning about the Pilgrims

and their journey to America. The children were amazed that there were no
stores, cars, or houses when they arrived in Plymouth.

Finger Plays, Songs, and Movement-We have learned the following songs;

Five Little Pilgrims, Tom Turkey, This Land is Your Land, Letter A in the
Middle, Please Letter A Don’t Run Away, Apples Up On Top, Button Factory,
The Color Song, Going on a Bear Hunt, Lettercize, and I Said Ah Boom
Chicka Boom.

How Can We Help At Home-Reinforcing the letters a,b, c, f, e, m, n, p, h, x,

and t, would be beneficial. When practicing writing the letters make sure
the children are starting from the top (sky) and working down to the
bottom (grass). We will be working on writing our last names soon. Children
can begin to practice this at home . Number recognition, formation and
order of numbers 1-10 would also be beneficial. Now that we are wearing
winter coats, learning how to zip their coats is a wonderful skill to work on.

Oh, and those wonderful popcorn words, you can work on those too.

Happy Holidays,

Debora Bacchiocchi