Cottontails Newsletter - Sept/Oct

Each month, I will send home an overall update on our classroom fun.  It is hard to believe that six weeks have gone by.  We feel like a happy family and we are learning to work well together.  Enjoy the update and please read below for important updates as we continue to build routine.

Literacy
We are readers!!  I hope you have enjoyed my updates on our reading fun.  I am so proud of your child's enthusiasm.  At the start of Kindergarten, we work hard to build confidence in our new reading skills.  This week's discussion about our favorite books have us excited to share our love for books with one another.

We have been meeting in weekly small reading groups to work on developing reading skills.  Our guided reading groups working on building fluency, using picture cues to solve tricky words, and discovering ways to sound out words.  Please look to the recent email sent to learn more about your child's specific reading level and group activities.  Daily, we use our canvas Book Bags to practice our reading at school.  Please be sure your child brings their Book Bag AND the books within to school everyday.

To help you better understand the use of our black and white books please use the following key.
Star Book = "I can read this book all by myself!"
No Star Book = "I might need your help, please."
Checkmark Book = "We are all done with this book at school.  I can keep this book at home."

If it does not have a checkmark on the book, please be sure to keep it in the Book Bag for classroom practice.  Thanks for your help.

While we continue to build reading confidence at school continue to encourage your child's growing excitement at home.  Daily reading time is essential.  Take your child's lead in building their reading skills.  In coming weeks, I will begin a Parent Blog Segment to provide you insight and support on how to encourage your child's positive journey in learning.

Scholastic Book Orders are a great (and inexpensive!) way to build home (and classroom) libraries.  Thank you for those that ordered.  The Kindergarten classes will provide a formal opportunity to order books every other month, but in the meantime you are always welcome to place orders through our classroom Scholastic website.  Click HERE to visit.

New orders use the activation code NCNYY.  October orders will receive a FREE book if you are interested.  Book orders will go home again in November.


Math
Math time is a wonderful time for our Kindergarten friends.  We enjoy breaking into small groups and working with friends from both Kindergarten classes.  Students have been working in our Chapter 1 Math curriculum from our Kindergarten and First Grade Math in Focus curriculum.  Students investigate by counting and sorting objects, identifying and writing numbers and discussing less than, greater than, and the same.

This combination of sorting and counting and understanding numbers is a necessary skill for analyzing data and the begin go math literacy.  Countable items are used to develop the association between the physical representation of the number, the number symbol, and the number word.  Continue to encourage your child's excitement for Math at home.  Remember, to have your child complete ONE double-sided Math Homework Packet page per weekday.  Math Packets are due each Monday.  Thank you for your support.

Science
In September, we spent a lot of our time discussing the changing seasons and apples.  As the weather grows cold, our brains continue to grow as budding scientists.  We have discussed the uses for apples, how apples and apple trees grow, and the parts of an apple.  It has been so much fun watching the Kindergarteners take their learning so seriously.  They put on their "Scientist" caps and think about things from a real-life perspective.  They enjoy trying to decide how to make their pictures and diagrams best represent the apples, trees and segments we are studying.  Please take a look at the following blog post to learn more about our Apple fun.

In the coming weeks, we will continue to discuss the changing seasons and segue from the life cycle of apples to the life cycle of pumpkins.  NEXT, Wednesday, October 8th we will be traveling to Wilson's Orchard's pumpkin patch.  Please be sure to leave your child's booster seat.  We are still in need of one more parent drive.  Please click HERE to sign up if you are able to drive on the field trip. These opportunities are not possible without your support.