Kindergarten News

Feb. 27-March 2

Upcoming Events

Monday, Feb. 27--Fluoride

Tuesday, Feb. 28—Library 

Thursday, March 1—Computers  

Friday, March 2—Music/P.E.

Monday, March 5-Friday, March 9—SEP WEEK

Weekly Theme:

HUMAN BODIES/HEALTH/NUTRITION

Early Literacy Ideas

When you are finished reading a book to your children, or after they read a book to you, ask them questions about it to help develop good comprehension skills.  For example, “What is this book mostly about?”  “What happened at the beginning, middle and ending of this story?”  “What do you remember about _______?”

NEWS

        

SEP Week is March 5-9.  A form will be sent home in your child’s homework folder on Monday.  Please see if the scheduled time works for you and let me know by returning the form back to school with your child as soon as possible.  I look forward to meeting with each of you to discuss the progress of your child.

School will be dismissed at 10:50 for the AM class and 2:30 for the PM class during SEP week.  This will be the schedule even on Early Out Wednesday!  Students who attend the PM class will attend from 12:30-2:30.  The buses will run as usual.

Once again, please know that I enjoy teaching your child and seeing the growth he/she is making.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns!

      

                      

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

586-2850

Kindergarten News

Feb. 20-24

Upcoming Events

Monday, Feb. 20—President’s Day

NO SCHOOL

Tuesday, Feb. 21—Library 

Thursday, Feb. 23—Computers 

Friday, Feb. 24—Music/P.E.

Weekly Theme:

HUMAN BODIES/HEALTH

Early Literacy Ideas

Have your child clap the syllables in different words.  (For example, all-i-ga-tor gets four claps.)

NEWS

Thank you for the fun Valentine gifts!  I appreciate you thinking of me.

We have had a great time learning aout patriotism, American Symbols and Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

      

     We have learned over twenty-five kindergarten sight words and will continue to learn more and more.  As part of the assessment, students are required to read at least twenty-five of these high frequency words.  If you would like an additional copy of the words we have learned, I would be happy to get one to you.  Please just let me know. 

SEP Week is coming up the first week in March.  I look forward to meeting with each of you to discuss the progress of your child.  It is amazing to see what each one can do!  Reading at home and helping with homework makes such a big difference.  Please continue to read daily with your child and send the take-home library books back and forth from school to home on a daily basis.  You are a wonderful support to your precious kindergartner!  Once again, please know that I enjoy teaching your child and seeing the growth he/she is making.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions ro concerns!

      

                         

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

586-2850

Kindergarten News

Feb. 13-17

Upcoming Events

Monday, Feb. 13—Fluoride

Tuesday, Feb. 14—Library

Tuesday, Feb. 14—Classroom Valentine’s Day Party

Thursday, Feb. 16—Computers  Friday, Feb. 17—Music/P.E.

Monday, Feb. 20—President’s Day

Weekly Theme:

Patriotism/

American Symbols

Early Literacy Ideas

·      Read rhymes, poetry, nursery rhymes and stories that “play” with language

·     Sing songs together and do finger plays

NEWS

Just a reminder--Our Valentines Party will be on Tuesday, Feb. 14th.  The students can bring Valentines to their classmates any time before then.  We have 17 students in the AM class and 20 students in the PM class.  To avoid confusion, please do not have your child put individual classmates names on the Valentines, just have them sign their own name on the back of the Valentine or on the envelope.  It simplifies the "passing out" process so much!

We will continue to learn about American symbols, patriotism, and the birthdays of Presidents Washington and Lincoln.  We will discuss some of the things they did to contribute to our great country. 

The students are working hard and I am impressed with their diligence at following directions and participating in the learning activities and trying to do their best.

We are especially concentrating on our writing skills.  Please encourage your child to write stories at home too by (1)saying the word they want to write slowly, (2)stretching out the word, (3)listening for each sound, (4)writing down the sounds they know, (5)trying their best.  Do not worry if they do not spell each word correctly.  We call this “kid writing” or “phonetic spelling” which helps them not to be intimidated by being able to spell everything absolutely perfect!  Of course I always model correct spelling when we write together as a class.  They will eventually spell the words correctly as they progress throughout the learning process.

Thank you for your continued help and support at home!  Please continue to read books with your child and have him/her read to you.  This makes such a difference in their success at school!  I love your children.  Each one has a special place in my heart!  Please contact me with any questions or concerns.

                        

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

                                                                        586-2850

Kindergarten News

Jan. 30-Feb. 3

Upcoming Events

Monday, Jan. 30—McDonald’s Fundraiser 6:00-8:00 PM

Monday, Jan. 30--Fluoride

Tuesday, Jan. 31—Library

Thursday, Feb. 2—Computers  

Friday, Feb. 3—Music/P.E.

Weekly Theme:

Shadows/

Day and Night

Thanks for collecting box tops and sending them in with your children.  It helps earn money for our school and is greatly appreciated!

NEWS

Hooray, the assessments are completed and entered in the computer system!  Your child will bring a copy of the assessment results in his/her homework folder on Monday. Also, the reading calendar for February will come home with this week’s homework.  I wish I could meet with each of you individually and explain any questions you may have. Remember that if your child writes a letter or number backwards, it is not considered “mastered” even though reversals are “age appropriate” in kindergarten.  FSF stands for First Sound Fluency, PSF stands for Phoneme Segmentation Fluency and NWF stands for Nonsense Word Fluency.  Each is a timed one-minute test.

   Please return the completed January calendar with your child by Monday, February 6^th.

Our school will be having a read-a-thon celebration towards the end of the year.  We are encouraging students to read on a consistent basis.  Please make sure to read with your child or have him/her read to you a minimum of 15 minutes a day, five days a week.  We will keep track of the leveled library books and reading calendars that are turned in consistently to determine who is eligible to attend the party. This is a fun, worthwhile motivator and we hope every student will meet the requirements to attend.  Please help your child accomplish this goal by supporting them in their reading!

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

586-2850

Kindergarten News

Jan. 23-27

Upcoming Events

Monday, Jan. 23—Fluoride

Tuesday, Jan. 24—Library

Thursday, Jan. 26—Computers 

Friday, Jan. 27—Music/P.E.

Weekly Theme:

OCEAN LIFE/
WHALES

We are finished with the assessments/DIBELS and benchmark reading levels. I will send a copy of the results home with your child as soon as they are entered into the computer system.

NEWS

Our PTA is sponsoring a food drive to help our local food pantry.  Students are encouraged to bring canned and packaged foods to our classroom this week and then the food will be delivered to the pantry. The winning class gets a party and the winning school gets 500 free tickets to athletic events at SUU.

In addition, South Elementary will have a McDonald’s Fundraiser on January 30^th.  Please come and eat at McDonald’s that evening and help bring a portion of the money earned back to our school.

February 6-10 is Family Week.  Monday is Family Movie Night--more information will follow.

We will continue to learn our kindergarten sight words and produce many stories using these words in text.  Your children are certainly great readers and writers!  It is exciting to see their progress in all areas of the curriculum.

Thank you for all you are doing to help ensure a quality education for your child.  Helping your child complete the homework packets and reading consistently are vital in providing the best education possible!  

                       

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

586-2850

Kindergarten News

Jan. 16-20

Upcoming Events

Monday, Jan. 16—Martin Luther King Day (NO SCHOOL)

Tuesday, Jan. 17—Library

Thursday, Jan. 19—Computers 

Friday, Jan. 20—Music/P.E.

Weekly Theme:

OCEAN LIFE/
WHALES

Thanks for collecting box tops and sending them in with your children.  It helps earn money for our school and is greatly appreciated!

NEWS

We will finish up with the assessments of each of the students this week.  I will send the results home in your child’s homework folder when we finish the testing.  Each student is progressing nicely and I appreciate your support at home in helping your child have a successful year.

 We will be learning about whales and other sea mammals this week.  We will also focus on subtraction, recognizing and writing numerals 21-30, learning more sight words and practicing our writing techniques.  The students are working hard in each area of the curriculum.  We are also emphasizing the importance of always doing nice, neat work.

During our P.E. time this week, Miss Taylor is letting each child bring a toy from home to play with.  Please make sure it is something that will not get broken.

Have a wonderful week and please call or e-mail with any questions or concerns.                    

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

586-2850

Kindergarten News

Jan. 9-13

Upcoming Events

Monday, Jan. 9--Fluoride

Tuesday, Jan. 10—Library

Thursday, Jan. 12—Computers  )

Friday, Jan. 13—Music/P.E.

Weekly Theme:

PENGUINS

Early Literacy Idea

Encourage your child to write the names of the people in your family.  Drawing pictures to go along with the names is fun too!

NEWS

We had a great week back in school and the students are adjusting well after the long break.  January is a good learning time and I am excited to see the continued progress of your wonderful children.  Each one is making progress!

This week is a big one for us—each student will be evaluated on DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills), the Kindergarten Assessment and Benchmarking for reading ability.  I will let you know the results after each student has been tested. 

We will continue to work hard at school and I appreciate the time and dedication you are putting into your child’s education at home too!  We started guided reading groups this week.  It is exciting that the students are ready for this!

We will continue to talk about winter, Antarctica and penguins. We will discuss the characteristics of wintertime, fascinating facts about Antarctica, and learn about penguins and how to categorize animals according to similarities and differences.  We will conclude that there are many different types of animals found around the world.

A big thank you to those helping with centers.  I couldn’t do it without you!  Also, again THANKS to all of you for your help and support at home! Please let me know of any questions or concerns.    

ginger.ekker@ironmail.org

586-2850