Mrs. Jeffers' Kinder News

Apr 30

May News

Hello Everyone

Thank you to all the parents who helped out at Maplewood Farm. It was a lovely day.

Recently, we have been working at listening to the individual sounds (phonemes) in words and counting them out using little blocks. I show the students a picture of a shoe and they count out the sounds "sh" - "oo" (2 sounds, 2 blocks) or a picture of a peach "p"- "ea"- "ch" (3 sounds, 3 blocks.) We're not counting letters, just sounds. I am very impressed with how well the students can hear the sounds. The tricky ones are the middle vowel sounds. Later we will progress to 4, 5 and 6 phoneme words.

In math, the students have been showing numbers to ten in two parts (eg, another name for 10 is 6 and 4 or 7 and 3 etc.) We have used two-part mats and ten frames and 'Polka Dot' our ladybug.

We are continuing to pratice printing numbers and letters correctly starting at the top and pulling down.

Our Butterfly larvae should be arriving any day now. We will observe the life cycle of a butterfly in our classroom as well as learning about other insects.

Some May dates to note:

May 1 : Bella Ceramica

May 4: Pro-D

May 18: Fun Day (Wild West theme - more info to follow)

May 24: Auction Night

May 30: Visiting Scientist -- Mrs. Turner will be making presentations to all 3 K classes

Apr 13

Multicultural Day

Hello Everyone

A notice went home today explaining the adapted Kindergarten Multicultural Day we will be celebrating on Wed. April 25th.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Mar 30

April Highlights

Hello Everyone

Here are some April Highlights:

Classroom instruction of the personal safety program LET'S TALK ABOUT TOUCHING will take place this month.

This program is designed to teach Kindergarten students strategies they can use to protect themselves from sexual abuse. Please feel free to speak with me regarding the program. (I will be teaching it.)

April 11: Kilometer Club begins and continues until the end of June.

- every Monday, Wednesday and Friday all the primary children will walk or run around the lower field from 10:00 until recess

- please make sure that your child wears sturdy running shoes on these days

- 3 laps around the field is a Kilometer and your child's progress will be recorded in the classroom

After Easter our theme will be the Farm.

April 24: Maplewood Farm field trip. (A notice will be sent home soon.)

April 16: Hip Hop dance lessons for two weeks.

Please feel free to see me if you have any questions.

Mar 26

Home Reading Update

Welcome back everyone! The Kindergarten final term is a very exciting one.

Here are some ideas to consider while home reading with your child.

When starting a new book:

1. Look at the cover

* make predictions related to the cover

2. Picture Walk

* look at each picture, notice info and continue to make predictions

3. Echo read short text

* parent reads, the child echoes

* finger must track word

4. Read text together, tracking each word

5. Child may read text independently tracking each word

The books that are "just right" for the children are the ones they can read and comprehend with 95-100 % accuracy.

After Reading:

Reflect on how text matched or did not match predictions

Compare characters, incidents, content to self, real life and other experiences

Summarize major ideas

Please allow your child to read books over and over. Reading from memory is the start to reading , as the words become internalized with repetition. Model sounding out simple words

such as b-a-t so that your child may make the connection between letters, sounds and how they make words when blended together. It is important that this is done within a short time, in order to keep your child focused.

Thank you for your support of our Home Reading Program.

Feb 28