As we welcome all the students back on Monday, we are also welcoming our new teacher, Melissa Lemire. Both of us will be in the classroom this week and I would encourage all of you to feel free to pop in, introduce yourself and say hello to Mrs. Lemire. Mrs. Lemire will be getting to know the students and our classroom routines but it will also be wonderful to meet as many parents as possible so you are welcome to stop by at your convenience. Welcome, Mrs. Lemire!!!
And as we get back to the school routine, here are a few reminders and heads up for what will be happening over the next few days/weeks...
- HOT LUNCH: Just a reminder that we are starting our new Hot Lunch program that takes place every two weeks. The first Hot Lunch will be on January 15th but orders need to be placed online 10 days prior so make sure your orders are in by Sunday, January 5th if you wish to order. Thank you!
- HOLY CHILDHOOD BOXES: We have been encouraging the students to collect money for children in other countries in their Holy Childhood Boxes that they brought home during Advent and we ask that all donations come in no later than Friday, January 10th. If you have misplaced the box, please send the money in a ziploc bag so your child can add it to our collection. THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUSITY!
- FOOD BANK MASS: This Friday is our first Food Bank Mass of 2014. Please be generous!
- SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS: Your child will bring home an order form on Monday as we ask that you send in any orders by Thursday, January 9th. Thank you!
- ROCKS & DIRT: We have started exploring the world around us, looking at the weather and now the earth itself. We will focus on water, land (rocks and soil) and air over the next few weeks and your child will be bringing home a note asking them to bring a rock to school as well as a bag of soil from your home. Please send these labelled items (small initials on their rock & name on their ziploc bag of soil) by Monday, January 13th as we will be using them in class and making observations. Thank you for your help.
- SIGHT WORDS: I am also sending home a note as well as a list of Sight Words that marks the beginning of one of our OPTIONAL home programs in Kindergarten. There is no expectation that students do extra work at home in Kindergarten as the full day itself is often plenty for most students. Our first term in Kindergarten has been focused on learning our letters and students should be confident in identifying most or all of both lowercase and uppercase letters. I encourage families to ask their child the different letters to see which ones they know and which ones may still stump them (usually the ones we don't see too often such as 'Qq'). Our second term together will now be taking a closer look at letter sounds so we are hoping that most students will be familiar with all letter sounds by the end of March. Our third term will have us looking at Sight Words, which are words that are difficult to sound out and usually are just known by sight. These are words that are high frequency, meaning we see them often in both speech and written word. While we do not start any routines around Sight Words until April, I know there are some students who have already shown an interest in words and there are some families who have been asking for things to do at home to maintain their child's curiousity. So we are sending the first Sight Word list home with all of our students and I would encourage you to do what you see fit for your child with them. You may want to leave them until April (or even the summer) or you may want to look at one or two words each week. Or you may want to introduce the entire page of words to your child if they are especially interested. Again, please know that this is completely OPTIONAL and I send home the words for you to use at your discretion. There is no expectation from our end that the students need to do this at home...it is only if they are interested. Learning Sight Words will be part of the routine in Grade One and my hope at the end of Kindergarten is just that all of our students know their letters and sounds. This is just for those who enjoy the extra challenge and are particularly interested in words at this point. This is a work-at-your-own-pace program so students practice the words on the first list and when they are confident with all the words, they bring it back and Mrs. Lewis will test them. If they are confident, we give them the next list of words. The list of words become progressively harder as we go along (ranging from Pre-Primer to Grade Three words). I have had a few students over the year-who have been incredibly interested in words-read all the lists and if that is to happen, we continue to look for ways to challenge students and keep their interest so then we encourage them to start spelling the words. This is more of a Grade Two skill but again, in Kindergarten, we often see students show keen interests in different areas and we try to encourage them to explore their curiousity. By no means should this be something forced on students or something that is not enjoyed. If you child is not interested in Sight Words, please put it to one side and then try again in another month or two. Often by April, we see many students eager to start trying Sight Words so perhaps try again then. This is just meant to give you an option. Any questions or concerns, please let me know. Their bag of Sight Words will be coming home our first week back.
- STAR OF THE WEEK: We will be celebrating Kai this week as our first star of 2014!
Sorry to bring thoughts of school during the holidays...we will spend most of next week just adjusting to being back after all the fun and festivities of the Christmas season but I hope the students are looking forward to seeing all their friends again. And I have missed them all so I am greatly looking forward to having this time with them and for Mrs. Lemire to get to know everyone. We have such a wonderful class...I'm sure the rest of the year is going to only get better. Please say Hi to your child for us and that we can't wait to see them. See you on Monday and God bless you all!
