*Enjoyed Learning About Our Star Students Grayson Hess (AM) and Logan Rechin (PM)

The Weekender

Mrs. Tirpak

October 2, 2009

This week in Kindergarten we…

*learned about the letters Ii and Rr. We learned the key word pictures and sounds for those letters. We read books containing many of the sounds, played guessing games with objects beginning with the sounds, and learned how to form the letters. Please reinforce these letter skills at home each night – especially writing them, identifying them by sight, and their sounds. Please remember to encourage proper pencil grip. I have shown the children the proper grip and have shown them how to put a finger space between their letters. We talked about making four properly formed letters is better than 20 messy letters squished together on a line. Handwriting takes time and practice is the key to success. Ten minutes a night will do wonders. There is a great deal of handwriting in first grade and the children need to start preparing now.

*enjoyed learning about our Star Students Grayson Hess (AM) and Logan Rechin (PM).

*read a story entitled Mouse Paint and talked about the primary colors- red, yellow, and blue. We did an experiment using those colors to create the secondary colors of orange, purple, and green. In addition, we created our own Mouse Paint book.

*shared many interesting patterns in Show and Tell this week.

*had a very busy week in Everyday Math. We compared our height to the height of one of our classmates as well as other items around the room, played a game called “Give the Next Number”. It is always a great idea to practice counting with the children. We count forward from 1-20 and backwards. We also begin at different numbers and count forward. It is also important for the children to be able to recognize these numbers out of sequence. As your child is ready, move on to higher numbers using similar activities. We also practiced using positional words such as above, under, around, and next to.

*read Leaves, Leaves, Leaves, It’s Fall, and Apples and Pumpkins to help us learn more about what happens during the season of fall.

*enjoyed having Mrs. Hess as a Guest Reader.

Important Notes and Reminders:

*Oct. 14th is our fieldtrip to Red Wagon Farm.

*Oct. 16th is NEOEA Day and there is no school for the children.

Show and Tell next week: an item or picture about firemen or fire safety.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Mary Beth Tirpak