November 21, 2014
Dear Parents,
It’s hard to believe Thanksgiving is just next week! We’ve completed almost all of our Native American and Pilgrim projects and are looking forward to our “Feast” on Wednesday. Students will be dressing up in the costumes they have made and will eat their snacks in the cafeteria with the other Kindergarten classes. Please be sure to send a snack with your child on Wednesday. Lunch will not be served that day. Dismissal will be around 11:15am. Children will be riding home on their morning buses unless you have specified that you will be picking them up. If you are planning to pick up your child, please walk across the paved hard top area to the cafeteria door to meet your child instead of the area in front of the main office. Please be sure to send back the half day dismissal form if you haven’t already. I’m sure it’ll be an exciting day for the students.
We will start practicing Nutcracker dances next week in preparation for our Nutcracker performance and field trip to the Nutcracker Ballet. We are going to see the Nutcracker Ballet on Wednesday, December 17th. We are planning to have our own Kindergarten Nutcracker Performance on Monday, December 22nd at 9:00am. An official invitation will go home on Monday but I wanted to make sure you marked your calendars ahead of time! Also, please make sure to send in the $10 to cover the cost of the field trip as soon as possible. It will cost $10 for the chaperones as well. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten.
We started writing research reports on animals this week as part of our unit on informational writing. The students drew and labeled pictures of their animals, wrote and drew about the animals’ habitats, what they eat, and how they protect themselves, and they will be sharing these with the rest of the class after Thanksgiving. There is an additional piece of the report that needs to be completed at home. I sent the paper home today and am asking parents to help their child find three interesting facts about the animal being researched. I talked with the students about where to find facts... books at home or at the library or online. I would encourage parents to read the texts with their child and help them to record the facts on their papers. It is best to have the students do as much of it as possible, but parents are welcome to help where it is needed. Students can use words and pictures to record their interesting facts. It would be helpful if these facts could be returned BEFORE the conference day on December 4th. Feel free to send them back whenever they are complete.
We have also been practicing our Readers’ Theatre a lot this week. Students picked an animal, made a mask, and helped write the script and have been practicing it for a couple of weeks. It is based on Bill Martin Jr.’s Polar Bear, Polar Bear story. We videoed one group today and will do the other group next week. I will try posting the videos to my blog when they are both done so you can enjoy them and see all the hard work that has gone into them!
We have been practicing teen numbers this week. I sent home a Spin and Write game in your child’s blue folder today. I showed students how to use a pencil and paper clip to make a spinner and I gave them two recording sheets. Practicing the numbers at home will be very helpful!
A Book Fair flyer will be going home on Monday. Feel free to look through it. Our class will be going to the Book Fair on Wednesday, December 3rd to look at books and make wish lists. We will send the wish lists home afterwards. You can look at the wishlists and decide if you would like to purchase any of the books.
We have been talking a lot about things we are thankful for. I just wanted to say that we are both very thankful to have such a wonderful class of students and also for wonderful parents who are so supportive. Thanks for all you do! Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan and Kerry Marsh
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