Upcoming Dates:

• Tuesday, October 10: Safety and Abuse Prevention Presentation 11:00-11:30
• Wednesday-Friday, October 11-13: NO SCHOOL Fall Break
• Thursday, October 19: Cookie Dough and Beef Jerky Delivered (Pickup 2:00-5:00)
• Wednesday, October 25: Say Boo to the Flu immunization clinic 3:00-7:00 (Q1 library)
• Wednesday-Thursday, October 25-26: Parent Teacher Conferences
• Tuesday, October 31: Halloween Parade & Party: Volunteers Needed (please sign up here)
• Wednesday, November 1: NO SCHOOL
• Friday, Nov. 3: Ice Cream Party (Keep up the great work practicing letter naming and sounds!)

Practice: Decodables for this week: (printed copies sent home)

Here’s a quick overview of what we learned this week:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Ask and Answer Questions” and “Topic and Details”. We read informational texts and a tale to go along with our theme “How do tools help us to explore?”

Review of High Frequency Words: (please continue to practice) “see”, “we”, “I”, “can”, “the”, “a”)

Phonics: Sound and Spelling of Pp. Blending words with the letters: m, p, a, s, t.

Phonemic Awareness: rhyming words, syllables, first, middle and last sounds we hear in words, adding, taking away and replacing words in compound words (or prefixes and suffixes), blending sounds we hear to make a word, and breaking apart words into individual sounds.

Vocabulary: discover, defeated, fetch, tools, rumble.

Math Lesson 5: Compare Numbers to 5 (packets coming home next week)

Special Visitors: We had the chance to learn from the local firefighter department today and get up close to their fire truck! They showed us what it’s like to put on their gear and what to do if there’s a fire. We’re so grateful for Firefighters!

We are now beginning Unit 2 in Language Arts. Below are the power words, oral vocabulary words, letters, and sounds we will be mastering during the next 3 weeks. We will continue working on syllables, rhyming, and identifying the beginning and ending sounds of words.

Students were so excited to check out their first library book! They are allowed to keep them for one week. Please reiterate the importance of taking good care of them and being responsible by returning them each Friday. Students are so sad when they can’t check out a new book because they forgot to return their current one. Please talk about safe ways to store their library book in their backpack (they can easily be damaged due to leaky water bottles).

We’re so lucky to have the privilege of accessible books and I hope you create happy memories reading them together! 🙂

Practice: Decodables for this week (Unit 1, Week 3) are found on pages 132-137 and 140-145 of the Reading/Writing Companion.

Looking Ahead:

• Thank you for helping to support our school (and our class) with the Cookie Dough Fundraiser!
• Friday, October 6: Station 63 Firefighters Visit Kindergarten
• Wednesday-Friday, October 11-13: NO SCHOOL Fall Break
• Thursday, October 19: Cookie Dough and Beef Jerky Delivered
• Wednesday-Thursday, October 25-26: Parent Teacher Conferences
• Tuesday, October 31: Halloween Parade & Party
• Wednesday, November 1: NO SCHOOL
• Friday, Nov. 3: Ice Cream Party (Keep up the great work practicing letter naming and sounds!)

Here’s a quick overview of what we learned this week:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Ask and Answer Questions” and “Topic and Details” . We read informational texts and poems to go along with our theme “How can your senses help you learn?”

New High Frequency Word: “see” (please continue to practice “we”, “I”, “can”, “the”, “a”)

Phonics: Sound and Spelling of Ss.

Phonemic Awareness: rhyming words, syllables, first, middle and last sounds we hear in words, adding, taking away and replacing words in compound words (or prefixes and suffixes), and blending sounds we hear to make a word.

We learn 5 new vocabulary words each week. This week’s words include: senses, explore, feast, kneads, finished.

Math: Lesson 4 “Count, Show, and Write Numbers to 5″. We are learning to login and use “Nearpod” to get started on our individualized Math Pathways Lessons.

Science: This week our class learned to be Weather Watchers. That means we are paying attention to the sky and the clouds. We are noticing the temperature and the wind. We are watching for rain or snow. We drew a picture of the weather to record what it was like. You can encourage your child’s curiosity about the weather by becoming a weather watcher yourself! Anytime there are interesting clouds, a change in the wind, or a storm on the way, invite your child to spend some time watching the weather with you!

Practice: Decodables for this week (Unit 1, Week 2) are found on pages 104-109 and 112-117 of the Reading/Writing Companion.

Looking Ahead:

• Last few days to sell Cookie Dough and Beef Jerky (ends Sept. 26) Thank you for helping to support our school (and our class)!
• Tuesday, September 26: Picture Day
• Friday, September 29: Dollar Dress Down Day
• Friday, September 29: Scholastic Book Orders Due: Scholastic Reading Club (use class activation code: Y8WGR)
• Friday, October 6: Station 63 Firefighters Visit Kindergarten
• Wednesday-Friday, October 11-13: NO SCHOOL Fall Break
• Friday, Nov. 3: Ice Cream Party (Keep up the Great Work! We are already seeing amazing improvements in Letter Naming and Sounds)

Here’s a quick overview of what we learned this week:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Ask and Answer Questions” and “Characters”. We read a fable, a fantasy and a non-fiction selection to go along with our theme “How do baby animals move?”

New High Frequency Word: “we” (please continue to practice “I”, “can”, “the”, “a”)

Phonics: Sound and Spelling of Aa.

Phonemic Awareness: How to produce the sounds: /u/ /d/ /g/ /sh/ and long /o/. We learn how our mouth forms these sounds including what our tongue, teeth and lips are all doing. We work all year on rhyming words, chunking words into syllables, first, middle and last sounds we hear in words, adding and taking away and replacing words in compound words, and blending 3 sounds to make a word (consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC words).

Math: Unit 1 Math in Action (Review position, length, height, and sorting) and we’ve continued to practice writing our numbers. Reversals are still very common and we praise when students write the correct number, even if it’s backwards, and then have them fix it because we’ve learned that fixing our mistakes helps us learn and grow.

Science: We heard a story about a little boy who watched a thunderstorm with his grandpa from the front porch of his house. Just before the storm, the little boy noticed that the wind was making the tree branches move! After hearing the story, your child made a Breeze Buddy to hang outside. A Breeze Buddy moves in the wind, showing which way it’s blowing! If you have a spot outside, you can hang up the Breeze Buddy and encourage your child to pay attention to the wind and the weather. Watch for changes in wind direction. Sometimes a change in wind direction indicates that the weather is about to change!

Lexia is our online reading program that follows the science of reading. In order to reach their end-of-year benchmark, Lexia sets a goal for each student to pass off a certain number of units each week. You’ll find screenshots below of what it looks like when they’ve passed off a unit (the arrow is pointing to a section of a circle–each section represents a “unit”). The dashboard shows how many minutes and how many units have been completed that week. When they’re in a lesson/unit, there’s a progress bar at the bottom to show how close they are to finishing that lesson/unit. (If they exit before completing the unit, they have to start that unit completely over again). On average, students can complete a unit in about 5 minutes. 

To stay caught up when students are absent (or if they aren’t keeping up in class), please have them login at home, if possible. Average goal is 2-3 units each day (8-12 units per week). Parents are welcome to clarify anything their student might be confused about, but obviously please don’t give any answers. The program will assume the child knows more than they do and give them questions that are too hard.

To login to Lexia, their username and password are found in their take home folder:

• Go to lexiacore5.com
• Username:
• Password:
• Teacher’s email: lteichert@questac.org

We will be reading decodable stories several times: together as a class, whisper read to ourselves, in small groups, and with a partner. I can’t stress enough the importance of decodables. Students feel like readers and can be successful because all the words can either be sounded out or are high frequency words (“power words”) that we’ll be learning and reviewing in class. They’ll be exposed to the power words and letter sounds many times. If they are unable to read the decodables, please practice the power words and letter sounds consistently. Most kids need 4-40 repetitions to learn something new, but struggling readers may need to see it 40-200 times before it becomes automatic. Please continue to read to them A LOT at home and have them start reading the decodables to you. I hope they’ll soon be excited to show off their new reading skills to you, grandparents, siblings, or anyone that will listen! 🙂

Practice: Decodables for this week (Unit 1, Week 1) are found on pages 76-81 and 84-89 of the Reading/Writing Companion.

Looking Ahead:

• September 18-26: Cookie Dough School Fundraiser
• Tuesday, September 26: Picture Day
• Friday, September 29: Dollar Dress Down Day
• Friday, September 29: Scholastic Book Orders Due: Scholastic Reading Club (use class activation code: Y8WGR)
• Friday, October 6: Station 63 Firefighters Visit Kindergarten
• Wednesday-Friday, October 11-13: NO SCHOOL Fall Break

Here’s a quick overview of what we’ve been learning:

Comprehension strategy/skill: “Ask and Answer Questions” and “Characters”. We read a fable, a fantasy, and an informational text to go along with our theme “How can we get along with friends?”

Power Words: “I“, “Can” “a” and “The” (please practice these)

Phonics: Sound and Spelling of Mm.

Phonemic Awareness: We started learning sounds from our sound wall. We look in the mirror to see how our mouth forms these sounds including what our tongue, teeth and lips are all doing. We work all year on rhyming words, chunking words into syllables, first and last sounds we hear in words, adding and taking away and replacing words in compound words, and blending 3 sounds to make a word (consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC words).

Practice: Name writing, logging into our iReady, Lexia and handwriting programs, transitions from whole group practice into small group learning.

Math: We have started our individual math lessons on iReady. We are working to master counting to 20 and reading and writing our numbers 0-10. In addition, we are identifying which number comes next when we hear any number 1-99. You can help us at home by saying a random number 1-99 and asking us which number comes next. Our math lessons have covered positional terms, comparing length & height, and sorting.

Science: Completed our summer “Weather Watcher” form in preparation for our Seasons Lesson in the future and started our wild weather unit. We learned about weather prediction and storms. Your child heard a story about a boy named JJ who helped his grandfather get ready for a big thunderstorm.

Library: We’ve visited the library 3 times now and love going. Ms. Anderson always has amazing books and lessons to share!

We have a very sweet class and I’ve watched several acts of kindness between them as they start to form new friendships and enjoy being with each other and helping each other. Thanks so much for sharing them with us! Kindergarteners are the best! 🙂