October Newsletter

Kindergarten Monthly

October 2011

Our monthly newsletter will be posted on our blog, as well as on the Kendall webpage. To access the monthly newsletters on the Kendall webpage, please use this address, http://kendall.ipsd.org/Subpage.aspx?id=722, and then click on the tab “newsletters”.  Please check the blog at the end of the month for the next month’s information!  Your child’s teacher will put a week in review on her own classroom blog that will be written with the children and it will go over what was learned that week.

Look What’s Going on…

Literacy

The literacy focus skills for October will be making text to text connections (comparing two books), imitating rhythm and rhyme patterns, responding to questions before, during and after reading and genres and cultures. The children will be comparing different fairy tales as well as the stories The Umbrella and One Dog Canoe.  Please look for your child to bring home a completed text-to-text chart to help them share similarities (connections) about the stories with you at home. We will read the story Silly Sally and the children will make their own rhyming books.  The kindergarteners will also read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and complete a sequence activity. 

Our themes during the month of October will be bats and pumpkins.  We will be reading and discussing many fiction and nonfiction books relating these themes, such as Stellaluna, Bats on Parade and many more.  We will also work on rhyming and writing words in the “at” word family. Please ask your child to tell you about each one of these stories and the fun activities that went along with them. 

In October we will be learning one sight word each week. The sight words for October are a, my, the, and is.  A complete listing of our sight words should have come home with your students in their popcorn tubs.

We will also begin a letter a week, once we have completed most of our 42 Jolly phonics sounds. Our first “letter of the week” will begin the second week of October.  In October we will be learning about the letters M, S and R. Please continue to review the Jolly Phonics sounds as well as our “letter of the week”. 

Our Jolly Phonics sounds for the month of October are v, oo, y, x, ch, sh, th, qu, ou, oi, ue, er and ar.

Math
The kindergarteners will continue to practice counting backwards and forwards by 1’s this month.  We will also be identifying numbers 0-10, as well as counting objects.  We will be working on creating and extending AB and ABC patterns, sorting, classifying, and describing shapes.

Social Studies & Science

In October we will begin our first Science unit, Marvelous Me.  Students will be discussing and completing a book on their 5 senses. The kindergartners will be talking about the food pyramid and identifying which foods belong to each food group. They will be hearing many nonfiction stories relating to the food pyramid and their five senses!

In October we will be talking about Christopher Columbus as well as completing an art project.  

Please ask your child to tell you about each one of these stories and the fun activities that went along with them.   

Reminders…

·         Please remember to send in a note with your child if you plan to change their dismissal location.

·         The Kindergartners are doing a great job returning and checking out books independently.  Please continue to have them check their date due slips and return the books on time. 

·         At the end of the month, Kendall students will be having their PTA sponsored fall parties.  On this day, students are asked to bring two of the same healthy snack to school to enjoy during their normal snack time and also at the party.

Wanted…

·         The kindergarteners will be making a “magic” pebble this month to go along with the story Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.  Each kindergarten student needs to bring a pebble (no larger than a quarter) to school for this project by Thursday, October 20th.

Book It
On October 1^st (or before) you will find your child’s first Book It reading log in his or her home folder.  Participation with Book-It is encouraged but entirely voluntary.  Students who complete the reading log and have met the kindergarten reading goal (20 books read to/with him or her throughout the month) should return the log to his or her teacher to receive a certificate good for one free individual pan pizza at Pizza Hut.  Pizza Certificates will be awarded within a few days of receiving the log.  Thank you for your support of this program.  

Important Dates…
October

·        10 – No School (Columbus Day)

·        12 – Early Dismissal (12:15)

·        18 – Wendy’s Night

·        20 – Fall Pictures

·        21 – PTA Fall Festival (5:30-8pm)

·        25 – PTA Skate Night (6-8pm)

·        28 – Report Cards Go Home

·        31 – Fall Parade (1:45)

·        31 – Fall Parties (2:15-3:00)

November

·        9 – Regular School Day – Conferences (4:30-8pm)

·        10 – No School – Conferences (8-3 & 4:30-8)

·        11 – No School – Veterans Day