Happy Autumn!

 Happy Friday, Everyone!

Another great week in Kindergarten! We got to spend some time in the woods, played rhyming games, learned some letters and sounds, learned some math games and played with our friends.

We have been working hard on learning the names of our many classmates and the kids have been doing a super job. To practice the names of our friends, we sang “Willoughby Wallaby Woo”. It has been such a hoot watching kids hear a word that rhymes with a name to help them think  about whose name I am saying (Willoughby, Wallaby Wen, and elephant sat on... Ben!) They are doing a great job!

We did a lot of work on the letters c, o and s this week. You can ask your child to trace the letters with their index and middle finger on a textured surface while saying the letter name and sound. You can also ask them where we start writing our letters (at the top!). They are working so hard on these skills. We will also start working on tracing their names next week as a morning job when they get to school. We use specific lined pages in order to consistently reinforce the formation of letters and letter size (upper and lowercase).

In the forest, we will soon have the amazing Amy Butler, our ECO coordinator joining us in the forest starting next Thursday. I am looking forward to getting to know her and learning more about what our amazing outdoor space has to offer!

In math, Matt Pelkey, our Math interventionist, has been joining us and we have been working hard on the numbers 1-6 and seeing them in a number of ways. One way is to see these numbers on pictures of hands, the dots on a dice, the numeral and on a 5 or ten frame. We also did some sorting exercises where we were thinking of ways to organize buttons (by color, size, shape, number of holes, etc.)

Ms. Honi also brought in some fun playdough to use this morning. The kids had a blast making pies, volcanoes and spaghetti, to name a few. These kinds of tactile activities help kids with their proprioceptive input, helps with fine motor skills, and encourages imaginative play.

Playdough recipe:

The Easiest Homemade Playdough Recipe {Lasts for Months!} (livingwellmom.com)

Next week we will press apples on Wednesday. If you have apples at your house that you’d like to donate, feel free to send them in using a bucket to hold them. We’ll be pasteurizing the cider here at school using the kitchen.

It was a rainy start to the day today (Friday), so be sure to send your kiddos in with rain gear and boots. There will be days we will be going out in inclimate weather and making sure that the kids have the appropriate clothing is important. If you need help finding some, be in touch.

Last, next week is Kindergarten screening day. We’ll be working to see what kids know about numbers, letters/sounds, rhyming, motor skills and speech/language. The days that we’ll be working with kids are going to be Tuesday and Wednesday. The information we collect will help with guiding our whole, small and individual group work. It will also be part of the information we talk about at parent conferences on or around November 11th. 

Conversation starters:

*What did you paint in art?

*What colors of playdough did you play with? What did you build?

*Do you get tired at school?

*What is fun to do in the forest?

*Where did you use chalk? What did you make?

*Tell me about the butterflies that hatched this week.

We hope you all have a wonderful, restful weekend.

Best,

Ben and Honi

Reminders

Meadowbrook Fundraiser

In order to support the amazing work of our Rumney PTO, you may have seen a fundraiser packet from Meadow Farms. If you have any questions about it, please get in touch with Honi (hbarrett@u32.org). 

Class Blog

You can check out the blog here for the newsletter and resources

Pictures

The folder with class pictures can be found here. 

Class Gear

Please remember to send in all the tools for the kiddos to be using as we go through the year (change of clothes, raingear, camp chair, etc.). Sneakers are the best daily footwear for students. If you need help getting any of those, please let us know, the school will be happy to help.

Book Order Information

 

With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS).

 

Class Order Due Date: Thursday, Sept 9th.

Shop Our Class Page: https://orders.scholastic.com/XLZX8

Class Code: XLZX8