January Newsletter

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

I hope your holidays were full of joy and I wish you a HAPPY YEAR 2010!

This is the beginning of second semester and the children seem eager to continue to learn!

Language Arts:
We have learned the names of the letters of the alphabet. We have learned to identify upper case letters and lower case letters. We are in the process of learning the sounds the consonant letters stand for as well as the short vowel sounds. We are also identifying words that rhyme and words that begin with the same sound. WE ARE READY TO READ and that’s why we have been practicing how to blend two and three letters together to form a word (for example, c-a-t, p-i-n, s-u-n, t-o-p).

Your child should be taking home “little” reading books. Please sit with him/her to supervise and/or help when reading is taking place. This way, you make sure he/she is sounding the letters correctly. Please DO NOT read the books to your child: let him/her try!!

Math:
• We will be learning about solids (boxes, cans, cones, pyramids, and balls), shapes (circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles), and sharing (separating groups into equal parts). You can practice with your child by making a shape sculpture. Here is what you can do together:
1. Collect materials such as cardboard tubes, empty boxes, paper cups, and wrapping paper.
2. You can use tape or glue to put the pieces together.
When it is finished, you can talk about the different solids and shapes you used.
• We will be learning how to make numbers to 10 in different ways, and we will use numbers to 20 to count and measure. You can practice making numbers to ten in different ways when you eat a fruit. Here is what you can do together:
1. Pick a fruit that has seeds, such as an apple, orange, or grapefruit.
2. Cut the fruit in half.
3. You can count the seeds in one half.
4. You can count the seeds in the other half.
You can count all the seeds together!

Social Studies:
We will continue to learn about South America. This month we will focus on Colombia, Argentina, and Peru.

Science:
We will learn about the food pyramid. We will continue to take care of our tomato garden and soon we will be able to eat some of our own tomatoes!!!

Thanks for all your help and support and welcome back to a new semester!

Ms. Monica


Important dates of the Month:
15th Luis Fernando’s birthday
25th Simon’s birthday
26th Early release, TT
29th Elementary Assembly