Weekly News Feb. 1-5

February is shaping to be quite the exciting month in Kindergarten...100 day, Valentine's Day, an upcoming field trip  and some fun family night events!

Also along with a new month comes a new lunch menu and homework calendar.

Additionally, here are the school and specialist newsletters.

Upcoming Dates:
February 8th: 100 Day of School Celebration
February 12th: Valentine's Day Celebration
February 17th: Field Trip (more info to come)
February 25th: 1/2 day 11:30 Dismissal
                         PSC Family Night at Funset Boulevard
February 26th: NO SCHOOL
February 29th: Family Night

Reading: We are starting a new unit this week called Readers are Resourceful.  This unit will kick off with some inquiry about how readers know when they need to go back and fix things up and what the signs are that they look for.  The students' realizations during this first day session will set the stage for moving beyond "sounding it out" to use the many, many sources of info available in texts to assist readers.  We will draw on our prior knowledge of topics or connections to stories while thinking about what would make sense in the text and sound right in the sentence.

Writing:  This week we will move into our last week of writing procedural (how to) books.  We will be working to make sure our books have all they need to teach readers and will choose a specific audience to gift one of or more of our books to.  We will also be choosing one of our best pieces to publish and will work together as a class to finish writing our How to Make Peanut Butter and Jelly book.  We will be using this book at the end of the week and will put our writing to the test as we REALLY follow the steps to make sandwiches for snack as a celebration!

Math:  We are also approaching the end of Unit 3 in math.  We will work this week to solidify the major concepts in this unit: teen numbers, story problems and shape composition.  We will work hard to see and write the partners of a number as look at arrangements of math tools and pictures.  Our math centers this week will be:

• playing teen number Go Fish
• working with a friend to find the missing partner of a given number
• coloring and classifying by shape on a workbook page
• making arrangements of teen numbers with real objects   

Science:  We wrapped up our short family unit it Social Studies last week.  Your child brought home a book he or she wrote about your family.  They turned out so great!  Make sure to look for it in your child's folder over the weekend.  Our new Science unit focuses on wood and paper.  We will study different types of wood and where it comes from and then learn about and engage in the paper making process.  On February 17th we will take a field trip to the Paper Discover Center in Appleton for some additional hands-on investigations.

Word Work:  New sight words for the next two weeks are: with, new, away, down, do
Looking to break up some winter boredom?  Play Sight Word Hide and Seek!  Have your child write their sight words on individual pieces of paper.  Then a parent or sibling can hide them around your home and your child can hunt for them!