December 1, 2023 Class News
We had another fantastic week together in kindergarten. We are getting ready for Advent and thanking God for all we have! Your children are progressing tremendously in so many ways. They are growing into confident learners!
This weeks Star Student was Harrison. Next week will be Holly.

Sight Words: Our two sight words this week: at and be. Next week will be this and have.
Phonics: During our Words Their Way phonics lesson this week we reviewed the letters /l/ /k/ /j/ and /w/. We cut our “sort” cards, sorted them by beginning sounds, glued them on a graphic organizer and lastly drew and spelled our own words that begin with l, k, j, and w.
Literacy centers: We continued with our reading groups, sight word center, independent library center, and iPad center. At the phonics center, students created sight words using sight word baskets, and using letter apple cards to create the word. In reading groups, we continue to make predictions using word clues and picture clues, using our reading finger to track words, sound out words and identify sight words. We also continue to work in our Explode the Code books which help students with handwriting, letter sounds, CVC words, and more!


Writer’s Workshop/Social Studies: We learned all about elves this week! We brainstormed ‘adjectives’ – words that describe elves. A few we came up with are: happy, sneaky, and small! We used a writer’s workshop skill to label the parts of an elf, and noticed patterns and trends of clothing we often see Elves wearing – hats, belts and pointy shoes. We exercised our creative writing skills this week by writing two different stories – pretending an elf came and visited us, and what we would do if we were an elf! One person wrote they would feed the reindeer, and someone else wrote they would help make the toys! On Friday, we had fun making our own sneaky, helpful and adorable elves to display in our classroom!


Math: We continue our investigation of the 100s chart! We are practicing to become 100 chart experts. We learned a new game called, Race to 120. I sent home a copy in their Friday folders, they can teach you how to play! All you need is a dice and two kinds of player pieces.


Second Step: This week we continued our unit on Emotion Management and learned that sometimes we can feel sad. We know that everyone can feel sad sometimes! Students talked about times when they have felt sad, and what they can do to help themselves or others feel better!
Common Core Standards we’re working on:
- I can read common sight words.
- I can count to 100 by ones and tens.
- I can count forward beginning with a given number within the known sequence (instead of starting at 1)
- Identify whether the number of objects in one group is greater than, less than, or equal to the number of objects in another group, e.g., by using matching and counting strategies.
- I can read emergent level text with purpose and understanding.
- With prompting and support, I can ask and answer questions about key details in text.
- I can spell simple words phonetically.
- I can read CVC words.
- I can speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings and ideas clearly.
- I can read the words in a book in the right order.
- I can tell how the words and pictures go together in stories.
- I can say the most common sound for each consonant in the alphabet.
- I can draw or write to help me share what I think.
- I can help my class learn about a subject and then write about it.
- I can print lots of upper and lowercase letters.
- I can write numbers from 0-20.
Important Dates:
- Thursday, December 7th – Christmas Concert! Egan Hall, 6:15pm
- Wednesday, December 13th – Field trip to the Children’s Museum! Please do not order hot lunch for this day. More information to come!
- Friday, December 15th – Noon Dismissal, Christmas Break
- Tuesday, January 2nd – Classes Resume