Ellen's Kindergarten: September 2021

Thursday, September 23, 2021

Newsletter 9/24

Reminders and Upcoming Important Dates:

October 7th is School Picture Day. You will find an envelope in your child's backpack. If you would like to order an individual photo of your child, please choose a photo package and return the envelope on Monday. All students will receive a class composite photo.

October 11th - Indigenous People's Day- NO SCHOOL October 12th- Teacher In-Service- NO SCHOOL for Students

GETTING TO KNOW OUR ACADEMY COMMUNITY

Ana Ocasio, our school counselor and Lori Macie, our school social worker are so excited to be starting their annual Kindergarten groups! Each kindergartner will have the chance to participate in four group sessions which consist of playing cooperative games with their peers. The goal of these groups is to help them practice crucial skills from their classroom in a smaller setting. Some of these include: playing together in a group, taking turns, active listening, and working together towards a common goal. It's also a chance for them to get to know the "helpers" in the building and for Ana and Lori to get to know your star students!

LITERACY

This week we (formally) began our phonemic awareness curriculum (although it's already been happening in our star of the day work and when we sing rhyming songs and poems.) Phonemic awareness is the ability to understand that spoken words are made up of individual sounds called phonemes, and it's one of the best predictors for reading success. You can support your child's phonemic awareness at home by playing rhyming games. Hearing and recognizing words that rhyme is key in developing an understanding of sounds. Encourage your child to listen for words that rhyme when you say them aloud such as fun, sun; hat, cat; and fish, wish. Read rhyming books such as Is Your Mama a Llama?, Sheep in a Jeep, or Rhyming Dust Bunnies to your child.

Another phonemic awareness skill we are working on is hearing the first sound in words. Encourage your child to say words that begin with sounds they know, such as their name, sibling's names, or pets. help them identify and isolate the first sound in a word, such as the /m/ sound in Mom and see how many more words they can say that begin with that sound (such as milk or Monday or mountain.)

Thank you for your help at home!