Kindergarten Newsletters: December 2014

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Kindergarten Newsletter December 15th - December 19th

Thank you for coming to our Winter Concert. We really enjoyed showing you the result of all our hard work! Thank you also for supporting our Scholastic Book Fair and for the books you donated to our classroom from our wish list.

Recap of the Week: Last week we made our surprise gifts. They will come home this week. We also did some work using math tools to add. We learned that we can use pictures to help us solve math story problems. In reading, we worked on the short e and short i sound.

Math: We will use our sorting/categorizing skills to make a Christmas tree. We will continue working on our addition skills, using counters and dice to help us solve problems. We will also make some patterns with holiday pictures.

Literacy: Our reading groups will work on stories containing words containing o as in octopus and u as in umbrella this week. At circle time, we will introduce the concept of syllables. We will also use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast 3 read aloud stories – The Gingerbread Boy, The Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends.

Writing: In our handwriting books this week, we will begin practicing lower case letters t, a, d and g. We will work on ‘sounding out’ some holiday words together as a group and then write some individually. We will write stories about what each of us would do “If I owned a toy store…”

Social Studies, Art & Science: We will make a Feliz Navidad book with Teacher Caroline. We will get to watch a special movie on Thursday. On Friday, we will make and decorate gingerbread houses and play games to celebrate before Winter Break.

Gingerbread Houses: Please send in your donation for this project by Wednesday December 17^th. We will need a volunteer or two to help with this project. The first job is to wrap the cardboard bases in foil. We also need someone to sort the candy into 9 bags, one for each student.

Routines: This is a busy time of year and our children can feel the excitement in the air! With everything we do to make the season feel special for them, it is easy to stay up late and let the schedule go a little. Remember to expect some over-excited behaviors and try to keep to your regular routines as much as possible.

Fundraisers:

- Box Tops for Education,

- Fred Meyer (you can support our school by going to https://www.fredmeyer.com/topic/community-rewards-4 and adding Little Acorn to your rewards account),

- Scholastic Book Orders (http://www.scholastic.com/ our school code is GX4F3),

- Scholastic Book Fair (http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs - Click on the State, the City, then the School to order) and enter the code GX4F3

- Usborne Books eFair (https://n3313.myuban.com/634160).

- Shoparoo: Little Acorn is now a member of Shoparoo (shoparoo.com). You can download the Shoparoo App to earn points for our school.

Winter Attire: Please send your kindergartner to school with coats and footwear appropriate for the weather. Even hats and gloves/mittens are needed on some days as this week has shown us! Remember we go outside as much as we can, as long as it is not too cold and there is not too much of a downpour.

Sickness: If your Kindergartener is sick, please call the school office, or you can send me an email or a text so we can keep track of illnesses.

Weather Related School Closures: Remember, if Vancouver School District declares a 2 Hour Late Start or is Closed, then our school will be closed too. In case of bad weather, watch for emails and/or text message notifications from Little Acorn and from our Remind.com accounts. The Remind.com number for Little Acorn is 307-459-3175, class code lapsk20. For Kindergarten, the number is 503-342-8657, class code @473363.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions or concerns. Send a text, give me a call, or you can email. I am here to help you and your child have a great kindergarten year!

Thank you for sharing your child with us,

Teacher Sinead & Teacher Caroline

Dates to remember:

December:

17^th	Kindred – Singing to the Grandmas & Grandpas
19^th	Kindergarten Classroom Holiday Party
Dec 22^nd – Jan 2^nd: Winter Break - No School

January:

5^th	Return to School, Tuition Due
10^th	Tuition Grace Period Ends
15^th	Parent Board Meet & Greet 6:30-7:30pm Conrad Room
19^th	Martin Luther King Day – No School

Tuition Prices 2014-2015 School Year

2 days a week $190.00 a month

3 days a week $245.00 a month

4 days a week $300.00 a month

5 days a week $355.00 a month

Kindergarten $405.00 a month

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Kindergarten Newsletter for December 8th - December 12th, 2014

Recap of the Week: Last week we learned about how evergreen trees grow. We did an experiment to show how pine cones close up when wet and open to let their seeds out when it’s dry. We also had fun making some reindeer and poinsettias for art.

Winter Concert: The Kindergarten class will join the Busy Bee, Sunshine and Star classes for our winter concert tomorrow, Monday December 8^that 6pm. We will all sing some songs and watch a slideshow. Please drop your Kindergartner to the classroom by 5:45 and then go to the sanctuary to find a seat. Bring your family and friends along to enjoy this festive event. The scholastic book fair will be open that evening too!

Math: This week we will continue learning about numbers in the teens. We will also begin some addition.

Literacy: Our reading groups are beginning to move at different rates, based on their abilities. Some of us will continue to work on E as in elephant for a few more days, while others will move on to I as in insect and O as in octopus.

Writing: In our handwriting books this week, we will begin practicing lower case letters c, o, s, v and w. We did not make our Christmas lists last week, so we will do that and write what we would do “If I bumped into Santa Claus…”

Social Studies, Art & Science: We will be making a “surprise” this week as well as some Santa Claus’ to hang outside our classroom.

Santa Breakfast: Great fun was had at the Santa Breakfast. Thank you to everyone who came to eat and have some holiday fun with us. A special thank you to those who helped us make it possible. We would love to hear some feedback so we can make next year even better.