The Kindergarten Corner February 2015

Saint Ann Catholic School

Report CardsStudents received their first report cards on Friday! Please SIGN and RETURN the report card in the orange envelope by Friday, February 6th. Thank you! As always, please email if you have any questions!

Phonics Mid-Year AssessmentYour child’s January Phonics Assessment is complete and went home in the orange report card envelope on Friday as well. It details where your child is in academics, and where we are going from here. Although you must return the report card, you may keep the Phonics Mid-Year Assessment for your reference.

ReadingWe celebrated Ii for igloo by making igloo and penguin crafts, and reading about penguins. Students painted and flew jets for the letter Jj. Next up, Kk for Kite and Ll for Leaves (and Love!). Most students have already learned 15-25 sight words! I assessed each child in sight word recognition in the yellow report card assessment. *Please practice those sight words that are marked with a star. Those are the words we have practiced in class. Later this month we will celebrate Mm for mouse. Students will make a pet mouse out of felt, and will practice writing Mm within the lines using Handwriting Without Tears. By the end of that week, all students, no matter the group, should be able to read and write the words, ‘me,’ ‘my,’ and ‘mom’. Every group is enjoying Guided Reading. They are working on Leveled Readers, phonics, and writing at their instructional levels.

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MathStudents have new assigned seats and teams. Our new team groups are Penny, Nickel, Dime, and Quarter! They are learning to line up by the name or value of their team coin. For example, if Mr. K or I call the team whose coin is worth ten cents, the members of the dime team stand up, push in their chairs, and walk into line. We have extensively practiced pennies and nickels (with graphing games, addition and subtraction coin stories, counting by those coins, crafts, and other coin games). Now we are practicing the dime! The dime poem is simple: “Dime dime, tiny and ten!”. Students are practicing writing number sentences involving the Helper of the Day and dimes. If your child cannot already, please help your child to practice counting aloud to 50. We have practiced place value with bundles of straws. Students learned that bundles are groups of ten straws. They are learning to sort and count bundles and single ones. We will continue practicing place value, counting pennies, nickels, and dimes, and addition and subtraction number sentences in guided math lessons and in games. Students are also practicing dot to dots: drawing straight lines to connect the dots, 0 to 30.

IXL: Please do not forget to practice IXL each week. Some students work diligently on this program. Others are forgetting to log on and allow their child time for this practice. Thank you for prioritizing this at least once per week, either during the week or during a weekend. Only 20 minutes is required. Thank you!

ReligionStudents learned about Jesus’ Baptism! We discussed how He was baptized by His cousin John the Baptist. We hear about the entire Blessed Trinity during Jesus’ Baptism. God the Son is the one being baptized. The children can act out how the sky RIPPED OPEN and the Holy Spirit flew down onto Jesus as a Dove. Then God the Father’s voice

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boomed, “This is my Beloved Son. I’m pleased with Him. Listen to Him.” Please ask your child to retell this important event for you! We discussed our shock that just a few years later the people forgot this miracle and didn’t believe that Jesus really is God the Son! We also learned about our own Baptisms. We looked at pictures on our Epson Projector, and learned that three things happen when we are Baptized: 1. Jesus washes away our Sin, even Original Sin. 2. We receive Grace, which helps us to share in God’s Life, and 3. We become part of God’s family. We become adopted sons or daughters of the King of the Universe! Next up, we will learn about the Miracles of Jesus! First we will learn about how Jesus changed water into wine at the Wedding at Cana. Jesus did this first miracle even though he didn’t feel ready. He did it because His mom (Mary) told him to. He modeled obedience. We also learn that we can pray to the Mother Mary, and ask her to intercede for us!

Social Studies During Catholic Schools Week we

made cards to show our appreciation for our school, our world, our teachers, our principal and pastor! Next up: a study of Valentine’s Day, Saint Valentine, and ways that we can show love during February. We will also discuss our virtue of the month, Forgiveness! We will discuss real-life events that have happened that have required forgiveness. We will relate it to Christ’s forgiveness and mercy.

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Saint Valentine is the patron saint of love, young people, and happy marriages, among other things. Some information about Saint Valentine is unclear. As fas as we understand, Roman emperor Claudius II was killing Christians in Rome. Saint Valentine was a priest who loved God and loved helping others. He knew God wanted him to say Mass even though he would die if Emperor Claudius II or his soldiers caught him. So Saint Valentine risked his life to say Mass. He invited Christians and said Mass in secret hiding. Saint Valentine married young Catholic people who were in love. They had to celebrate their marriages in hiding so that the emperor would not put them to death too. Saint Valentine was finally caught being a practicing Catholic priest. He was put to death by beheading on February 14th, in about the year 270. We know he is happy in Heaven, but he does not rest in peace- he is busy interceding and doing miracles for people who pray for his help! Saint Valentine, pray for us! In class, we will discuss how we can show love to others just like Saint Valentine did. Students will make Valentine’s Day mailboxes, and will distribute their cards and celebrate on February 13th.

Science Students look forward to returning to the Science Lab this week! They will use numbers, tally marks, and counting to collect data during Lab Learner. During our Valentine’s Day party, they will ‘hunt’ for and graph particular words (see graph to the right).

Hundred Day

Celebration & Last project of the Year We will celebrate our 100th Day of school on Friday. Thank

you for helping your child to make a poster with 100 of something on it. We ask that you relate the poster to God somehow. For example, if your child wants to glue 100 goldfish crackers to a poster, you could write, ‘God made the fish’ at the top to relate it to God, or you could quote Jesus in the Gospel,

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“I’ll make you fishers of men”. Please help your child to practice counting the objects to 100 as you make this poster.You have already received the information about this project several times, but we included it below as well. This is the LAST kindergarten project of the year. We only ask you to do two projects- the All Saints project and this one.

Although this is the last kindergarten project, Saint Ann Catholic School has another special project. Everyone in our school will dress as a favorite book character sometime in the next few months. You may want to start thinking about that costume. You will make a small poster (standard sized paper is fine), just illustrating your character and the book, or printing a copy of the book cover and having your child draw a picture of the character. I’m not sure when this will come up. Last year it was announced suddenly, and parents had about a week to prepare. So here is your advanced notice.

Valentine’s DayThank you for making a valentine for each child in the class and sending them in on Friday, February 13th. Please see the other attachment for details.

We look forward to a wonderful month! Students are enjoying their new Reading and Math Centers. For your information, below is a description of the Math and Reading Centers which your children rotate to most days. Students receive opportuniites to practice their reading, phonics, and math skills with games that offer varying challenge levels. God Bless you,Ms. Cat and Mr. K

Reading & Math Centers

1. Word Family Graph: Students will roll the word family dice and the consonant dice, and read the word. If it is a word on their graph, mark one on the graph! The first word to get to the top wins! 2. Slide and Count: Addition Center. 3. Leap Pads: Students will follow along as they listen to stories on Leap Pads.4. Word Family Mat: Students will use their stamps to stamp the word family words. Extra time: they may color the pictures.5. Math Journal: Students will stamp a number, then draw that many of a particular object next to the number. ex: stamp the number ‘8,’ then draw 8 squares next to it. 6. Reading Journal: Students will trace and then write simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, then illustrate.7. Cover Ten: Addition and subtraction practice game. Roll +/- dice, and then number dice. The first to cover all 10 squares wins!

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8. Rhyming Sounds: Students will match and connect the plastic pieces with pictures that rhyme. 9. Poem & Painting: Read the poem. Check your partner as he/she reads it too. Then paint your own picture! 10. Patterns with Stacking Counters: Students will make the following patterns: AABB, ABC, AAB.11. Letter/Sound Match: Students will place the clothespin clip on the pictures that begin with that letter. When finished, flip it over and check. Those pictures with stars should have clips. 12. Word Family Roll & Play Dough: Students will roll the word family

dice and theconsonant dice. If it makes a real word, they get to make that word in play dough! See how many words they can make! If they can each read the words, they can get a ‘jewel’ at the end! This is the ONLY CENTER with the opportunity to earn a jewel.13. Spelling Puzzles: Students will sound out the words and form them.

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