Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break! The two weeks off were filled with family, fun, and rest! I was geared up to start the new year with my kindergarten friends! We are off to a great start! The children seem to return from break more mature and ready to take on the challenge of becoming prepared for first grade. The kids were excited to see their new desk and rug spots.  We welcome a new friend, Lucas, to our classroom!

January brings BIG changes in Kindergarten. During the first few weeks back we will spend a good amount of time assessing the children as we prepare for report cards and begin to change up our flex groups. Each child will be assessed for their 2nd quarter math skills as well as on our Kindergarten sight words. Students will also take our winter CBM tests. In order to do these assessments, the children may be doing more seat work or independent reading/writing for a few days. But once we get our new scores, it will be full speed ahead! When we pull all this information together, we will look at what your child's needs are. We will place them in a flex group that works on the skills they need to build upon or that provides them with enrichment. We will also begin to differentiate within the classroom more during centers and writers workshop. We strive to provide the very best education for each and every one of our May Watts kids.

This week we focused on the letter F. We read non-fiction books and articles about frogs and wrote wonderful fact pages about what we learned and discussed. We will begin making books in writer's workshop.  It will be exciting! We will share our books every once and a while in class. The kids will get great ideas from each other! After sharing the writer's workshop items will come home for you to celebrate your child's writing.

This week we talked about New Year's resolutions and read a story about a squirrel who could decide what resolution to make...only to discover that he was being a helpful friend to everyone he saw.  THAT is a great resolution for all of our friends in our class! 

We practiced math concepts with the math wall, math stations, and math games.

If you are interested in placing an order for Scholastic go to www.scholastic.com/bookclubs. Our class activation code is HVN79.  If you would like me to send a flyer home to you please let me know.  I will place orders by Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Please notice the January calendar to the right.  We have no school this or next Monday.  Our Open House is scheduled for Wednesday January 30th.  I will give you times as I receive them.  This night is for parents AND students.

When or IF snow arrives, please make sure boots and snow pants are labeled and PLEASE have your child practice dressing independently! What a big help that will be. Thank you!

Have a great weekend!