Friday, November 18, 2016

November 18, 2016 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We've had another busy week in Room 115!  We have learned a little about Wampanoags and Pilgrims.  We read a story called “Tapenum” about a young Native American.  We also read a story called “Samuel Eaton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy and a similar one called “Sarah Morton’s Day” which is about a day in the life of a Pilgrim girl.  We talked a lot about the chores Pilgrim boys and girls had to do and I tried to encourage them to be helpful at home too!

The students wove placemants, decorated Native American tipis, and started making turkeys in the art area.  They completed two class books about where they live and what they are thankful for.  These books will be circulating around to homes along with all of our previous ones.  Please be sure to read the books with your family and send them back to school as soon as possible for others to enjoy.  The students also wrote about the Pilgrim boy and girl we read about and did some more rhyming activities too.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving will be a half day of school.  Dismissal will be around 11:30am.  A form went home this past week for you to complete and return that will let us know if children will be riding home on the bus or getting picked up by parents.  Please return the form as soon as possible.  Lunch will not be served at school that day.

It's hard to believe that it's already time to start thinking about all our December activities!  We will start practicing Nutcracker dances in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and to help our trip to the ballet be more meaningful.  We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Thursday, December 15th.  Please be sure to send in the $10 for the field trip.  There are several parents interested in volunteering for the field trip.  I will be pulling names from a hat/bowl early next week and will send a confirmation email by Tuesday.  We are tentatively planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Thursday, December 22nd at 9:00am.  An invitation will be going home soon.  It is one of the biggest highlights from our year in Kindergarten!

We have been doing a lot with rhyming but I would encourage you to practice it at home with your child too.  You can ask them to sing “Willowby-Wallaby Woo” or listen for rhyming words in books or even just try to list as many words as possible that rhyme.  It would also be wonderful if you could help your child practice with counting, ordering, and writing numbers to 10 and even into the teen numbers.  Even simple things like counting stairs as they walk up them or counting how many bites of food they eat would be helpful!

There is a great website that has some great activities to support rhyming, early reading skills, and even math practice.  It is www.starfall.com.  It may be fun for the students to explore.

There is a Principal’s Confidentiality Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 6 at 8am.  If you haven’t attended one yet, I would encourage you to try to make it.  It is one of the requirements for volunteering in the classroom and chaperoning field trips.

I am looking forward to meeting with you for conferences the week after Thanksgiving.  Please be sure to check the schedule and let me know if you can’t make it.

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

Also… Please make sure your child brings warm clothes to wear outside for recess now that the weather is getting colder and please help them practice putting all their stuff on too!


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