Welcome to Kindergarten

2007-08 School Year

Room 402

Mrs. Connolly

The world of kindergarten is a busy and happy place filled with many interesting, hands-on experiences. Children thrive in an environment that encourages and celebrates lifelong learning.

Classroom Times

May

Reading: This week we are reading the story, I Need a Lunch Box and concentrating on the letters Xx, Yy and Zz. Our two new high frequency words are my and yellow. We are also reviewing the concepts of nouns and verbs. Next week, we will read the story Corduroy and learn our last letter, Uu. I am so impressed to see how far the children have come with their reading this year. It is amazing to watch their progress. Please keep reading with them over the summer.

Math: We continue to work on subtraction. The children really seem to enjoy learning about this concept. Please work on both addition and subtraction at home over the summer, as well as number recognition skills. We will end the year learning about the concept of time. This can be a tricky concept, especially with all the digital clocks we have around today.

Religion: We are learning about many of the miracles that Jesus performed. We have been reading stories from the Bible and talking about all the special things God has given us that we should be thankful for.

Unit Work: Our caterpillars have arrived!!!! It is so exciting to watch the caterpillars transform into butterflies. We will be reading many books and doing fun activities that revolve around butterflies. We will also be learning about plants in preparation for our field trip to the Botanic Garden.

Important Dates:

Thursday, May 15- Shopping Coupon Sportswear Day

Friday, May 23- Field Trip to Botanic Garden

Monday, May 26- Memorial Day-No School

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Kindergarten!!! Your child will be learning and experiencing many new things this year. Your interest and cooperation will be vital to his/her progress. Before Kindergarten starts it is expected that your child can print his/her first name, recite the alphabet, can count up to 10, can recognize colors (red, blue, brown, black, green, orange, yellow, purple), and knows his/her phone number and address. If your child has difficulty in any of the above mentioned areas, please work with him/her daily until the task is accomplished.

We would like to go through some of the everyday details that you should know.

School starts at 8:05 a.m. You will not be able to drop your childhood off early at the Early Child Center. If an older child is bringing your Kindergartner to school, they must stay together and the older child will need to bring the Kindergartner across the street and then return for their start. If you need care before school, please contact the Care Program. They open at 7:30 a.m.

Early Childhood classes will dismiss at 2:45 p.m. We will make sure children enrolled in the Care Program are delivered safe and sound to the main building. If, for any reason, you will be late in picking up your child, please telephone the school office.

Kindergarten Hours: A.M 8:05 – 11:00

Full Day 8:05 – 2:45

PLEASE LET US KNOW WHO WILL BE PICKING YOUR CHILD UP

Kindergarten Supply List 2007/2008

Please bring all LABELED materials (except backpacks) to our first parent/teacher meeting on Thursday, August 23.

2   plain 3-prong pocket folders
1   pair of FISKARS for Kids scissors
1   spiral notebook (approx. 70 pages)
3   boxes of 24 CRAYOLA CRAYONS-STANDARD COLORS ONLY
4   LARGE (FAT) Elmer’s school glue sticks
1   pkg. of CRAYOLA MARKERS-CLASSIC COLORS ONLY
2   24 pkg. Colored pencils-SHARPENED PLEASE
12 #2 pencils with erasers-SHARPENED/STANDARD COLOR
2   pkgs. of stickers (Seasonal, School and Holiday themes are good)
2   boxes of Kleenex (no lotion kinds, please)
2   rolls of paper towels
1   plastic school box
2   pencil sharpeners with shavings container
1   box of 2 or 2.5 GALLON SIZE Ziploc bags
1   box of SANDWICH SIZE Ziploc bags
1   container of Lysol/Disinfecting wipes
1   large backpack
1 pkg. of medium-large sized googly eyes

****Please PICK 3 of the following items and send them to school in original, unopened store packages:

Bingo dabbers, board games, green Easter grass, puzzles, liquid disinfectant cleaner, cleaning sponges, craft gems, coloring/activity books, window clings, die cut outs, holiday themed paper, Bandaids, any size plastic storage container.

Thank You!!

A FEW MORE THINGS!!

Homework – It will usually consist of one of three formats:

1. Printing page – It is important for children at this age to practice and learn to print correctly (PLEASE RETURN PRINTING HOMEWORK THE NEXT SCHOOL DAY)

** See us if your child can’t hold his/her pencil correctly, is constantly erasing his/her work, or can’t hold his/her interest in the homework for five minutes.

2. Ask Me About: We will jot down something interesting that happened that day in school.

** You can use this assignment to help your child remember what he/she did in school that day. (You DO NOT need to return this assignment)

3. Math Activity: This is self-explanatory (PLEASE return math homework the next school day to be put into Math Journals and saved.)

Textbooks: We are currently using the Silver-Burdett Ginn religion series. Our Math books are published by McGraw Hill. In addition to our Whole Language approach to reading, we also incorporate learning through a combination of selected literature, phonics, and practice textbooks by Scott Foresman.

We want and NEED you to be a part of your child’s learning. Your child wants and NEEDS you to be a part of his/her learning. By sitting down with your child every day and helping with homework, asking questions about their day in school and most importantly, reading to him/her, you are showing them that school and learning is important to you. We know you’re busy, but this is your chance to get your child off to a good start.

It is important that your child feels good about going to school each day. Waling up in plenty of time to relax, get dressed, and eat a good breakfast will help start the day right. Sometimes it helps by talking about the next day the night before – what he/she would like for breakfast, laying out their clothes so there is no last minute running around, getting their snack and schoolbag ready and putting it where it can be found in the morning, and talking about something he/she is looking forward to school the next day.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Connolly

Mrs. Moskop (aide)