Newsletters 2023-2024
Kindergarten News
Mrs. Boudreau’s Room
September 2023
Welcome to Kindergarten! I hope you had a terrific summer and are excited about the upcoming school year! Your child is special to you and us. Mrs. Pereira and I hope to form a partnership with you as the year progresses.
Once a month you will be receiving this newsletter. It is designed to give you information about what we are doing in school and give you ideas of activities you can do at home with your child. I will highlight some activities and key ideas from the My View Reading Program, Fundations and Everyday Math! This first month I am sending a paper copy, but all future copies will be via email and will be posted on the class website.
Studies show that the best foundation for children is to use play as the activity to ‘spark’ learning. When you ask your child what he/she did in school, his/her answer will most likely be ‘I played’, and he/she will be absolutely right. Much of what they learn in September will happen through games and play. A part of this newsletter, titled “What Are We Doing in School?” (below) will tell you what theme the class is working on and what your child is learning through play.
What Are We Doing In School ?
Themes: Getting To Know You and Social Skills
What Reading & Writing Skills are being practiced?
We are working on letter recognition with the My View Program. In Fundations we have introduced letters t,b,and f. We are working on these letter sounds and proper writing formation. We are working on various social skills with Tabby and Tom Cat! The skills we have covered so far include: taking turns, following directions, following rules, sharing, being a good friend, impulse control, and voice volume. We have had some great discussions and the students enjoy role playing to practice the skills.
What Math Skills are being practiced?
We are practicing number recognition, counting and five frames. We are exploring various manipulatives. Skills are being practiced through hands-on games and exploration.
Extensions At Home:
•Draw and write about your favorite part of a story.
•Practice counting how many spoons, forks, etc you need for dinner.
•Get into the counting habit! When you take a walk, try hopping, skipping, jumping, or sidestepping a certain number of times.
Additional Information:
September 23rd- Pumpkin Somethin’ (Please consider donating an item for our class’s baking basket)
-Classroom Wish List:
(Donations are on a voluntary basis - thank you in advance for your generosity!)
Baby Wipes & 8 count packs of skinny Crayola Crayons
Thank you for all the supplies and wishlist donations from the start of the school year!!!!!
Kindergarten News
Mrs. Boudreau
October 2023
What Are We Doing In School ?
We have had a great September learning about rules, routines, and social skills. We also started our Fundations program and Everyday Math Program. We also learned about ST Math and love going on adventures with JiJi. We have mastered writing our first names and are moving on to our last names next week. We have started our first myView Unit and we are building routines that go along with the program. Each week we have a story that builds vocabulary and asks comprehension questions. We have worked on “concepts of print” or how a book works, as well as elements of a story. During Writer’s Workshop, we are working on drawing and writing words to support different story elements. Please continue to reinforce skills at home.
Our Month In School:
What’s happening in small groups:
In small groups, we have been working on crafts and games that support the skills learned in myView and Fundations. For example, sound games, letter recognition games, crafts that are seasonal or theme related, and many other various hands-on activities. During this time, reinforcing previous skills is also completed through small group intervention.
Reading & Writing Skills that are being practiced:
With myView we have transitioned from the letter recognition unit to starting our first unit on Special Places. The students have been doing very well working with the new materials!
Fundations Skills that are being practiced:
We are starting the month by learning some vowel sounds. We have learned i, u, o, and a! We will continue to introduce more consonants and vowels this month. Please refer to the parent sheets that come home each Monday that explain what our Fundations focus for the week will entail. Each day the students enjoy practicing their sounds with Mama Echo and Baby Echo! They enjoy skywriting and practicing letter formation on their white boards. We also enjoy engaging in word-play, finding letters on our magnet boards, reading sentence frames, and hearing stories. The handwriting is looking great- any practice at home is greatly appreciated too!
Math Skills that are being practiced:
The Common Core Math Standards ask kindergarten programs to spend more time on number sense, which is representing and comparing numbers. Therefore, we will practice recognizing equal quantities in different arrangements and understanding the concept of one more. We have been focusing on counting, identifying and representing the numbers 0-20. We will work on counting to larger numbers and to learn more shape names. Patterns are also introduced and practiced at this time of the year. The ST Math program is a game format and is completed on ipads. It works at the student’s pace and allows for a lot of problem solving strategies to be used.
Dates to Remember:
The Aitken PTO Facebook page is a great place for more information about many of these events.
-Friday, October 6th-Bingo Night-6:30p.m.
-Saturday, October 7th Pumpkin Somethin! 10a.m.-3p.m.
-Monday, October 9th Holiday-NoSchool
-Wednesday, October 11th Picture Day!
- Wednesday, October 18 and Thursday, October 19th is Parent-Teacher Conferences Early
Release - 12:45
-Sunday, October 22nd-Aitken/Martin Trunk or Treat-3-5p.m.
-Monday, October 31st Happy Halloween-wear black and orange
EXTENSIONS AT HOME: (Have students…)
* Count everything.
* Talk about who has more or less of something and how you know.
* Practice writing your name starting with an uppercase letter and the rest
lowercase letters.
* Read each night at home.
Wish List Items: No items at this time
Mrs. Boudreau
October 2023
What Are We Doing In School ?
We have had a great September learning about rules, routines, and social skills. We also started our Fundations program and Everyday Math Program. We also learned about ST Math and love going on adventures with JiJi. We have mastered writing our first names and are moving on to our last names next week. We have started our first myView Unit and we are building routines that go along with the program. Each week we have a story that builds vocabulary and asks comprehension questions. We have worked on “concepts of print” or how a book works, as well as elements of a story. During Writer’s Workshop, we are working on drawing and writing words to support different story elements. Please continue to reinforce skills at home.
Our Month In School:
What’s happening in small groups:
In small groups, we have been working on crafts and games that support the skills learned in myView and Fundations. For example, sound games, letter recognition games, crafts that are seasonal or theme related, and many other various hands-on activities. During this time, reinforcing previous skills is also completed through small group intervention.
Reading & Writing Skills that are being practiced:
With myView we have transitioned from the letter recognition unit to starting our first unit on Special Places. The students have been doing very well working with the new materials!
Fundations Skills that are being practiced:
We are starting the month by learning some vowel sounds. We have learned i, u, o, and a! We will continue to introduce more consonants and vowels this month. Please refer to the parent sheets that come home each Monday that explain what our Fundations focus for the week will entail. Each day the students enjoy practicing their sounds with Mama Echo and Baby Echo! They enjoy skywriting and practicing letter formation on their white boards. We also enjoy engaging in word-play, finding letters on our magnet boards, reading sentence frames, and hearing stories. The handwriting is looking great- any practice at home is greatly appreciated too!
Math Skills that are being practiced:
The Common Core Math Standards ask kindergarten programs to spend more time on number sense, which is representing and comparing numbers. Therefore, we will practice recognizing equal quantities in different arrangements and understanding the concept of one more. We have been focusing on counting, identifying and representing the numbers 0-20. We will work on counting to larger numbers and to learn more shape names. Patterns are also introduced and practiced at this time of the year. The ST Math program is a game format and is completed on ipads. It works at the student’s pace and allows for a lot of problem solving strategies to be used.
Dates to Remember:
The Aitken PTO Facebook page is a great place for more information about many of these events.
-Friday, October 6th-Bingo Night-6:30p.m.
-Saturday, October 7th Pumpkin Somethin! 10a.m.-3p.m.
-Monday, October 9th Holiday-NoSchool
-Wednesday, October 11th Picture Day!
- Wednesday, October 18 and Thursday, October 19th is Parent-Teacher Conferences Early
Release - 12:45
-Sunday, October 22nd-Aitken/Martin Trunk or Treat-3-5p.m.
-Monday, October 31st Happy Halloween-wear black and orange
EXTENSIONS AT HOME: (Have students…)
* Count everything.
* Talk about who has more or less of something and how you know.
* Practice writing your name starting with an uppercase letter and the rest
lowercase letters.
* Read each night at home.
Wish List Items: No items at this time