Time For Some Fun...

Students at the Computer Center

We are beginning the 3rd quarter this week (oh how time flies when we are having fun).  We have completed all of our assessments for the 2nd quarter and report cards will be coming home in the next week.  It is important to understand to receive your child's report card you must have paid $25 of the $50 school fees.  If you are unsure if you have paid or if you have a balance please contact me or Mrs. Ilg in the office at 943-6900.  In addition, your child will receive one of two scores on their report card.  The two scores are yes (Y) or no (N).  This basically means if your child can do the assigned skill he/she will receive a yes, if he/she is unable to complete the skill independently then your child will receive a no.  Please do not be discouraged if they receive a no because progress may have been made.  We will discuss this more at conferences.

Parent-Teacher conference forms were sent home on Thursday and Friday of last week.  It is imperative to send those forms back to school on Monday or Tuesday.  We only have two evenings for conferences this time; therefore, it will be a first come first serve.  In addition, we may ask for some phone conferences if all time slots become filled.  We appreciate your willingness to cooperate with us during our tight schedule.  We want to accommodate all of our families in some way as it is important for us to have these conversations.

This week we will be continuing on in our reading street and discussing the differences between today and long ago.  This always allows for some great conversations to occur about what we had awhile ago to what we have today.  You may want to take some time and talk about how school was different for you.  We will continue to work on blending words.  The children are doing this extremely well and I am impressed with how well they are learning their sounds and words.  We have three new sight words this week (they, of, you).  I have noticed the word "like" and "me" have been somewhat difficult for the children.  Please take some time to review the sight words nightly for about 5 minutes.  We are working extremely hard on our writing too.  The children need to be able to write a sentence with spacing, upper/lowercase letters, and punctuation by the end of kindergarten.

This week in math we are working on comparing and ordering numbers to 20.  The children are doing this skill extremely well.  One game we are learning is taking a set of cards numbered to 20 and the children have to order them.  Next, one person "steals a card" and the other person has to figure out which card is missing.  The children are loving this game and it is fun to watch them figure out the missing number.  In addition, the children can learn "war," which will help them with comparing numbers.  You can play where the winner is the one with the largest number or you can change the rule to the person who has the smallest number.  Finally, we will be concentrating on writing numbers to 20.  It is important for the children to be able to do this without a model.  Many children do have difficulty with the teen numbers as children want to write 14 as 41 or 17 as 71.

Thank you for all of your support...I am looking forward to a great week of learning :)