Happy Thanksgiving

If you are looking for a fun Thanksgiving project, look no further. I have the perfect activity that only requires minimal creativity and supplies. You will need a piece of construction paper and red, orange and brown finger paint. My daughter brought home from school the fabulous picture to the left. Using your child’s hand and finger paint create a turkey. Add this poem and you have a fabulous keepsake.

This isn’t just any turkey.
As anyone can see.
I made it with my hand,
Which is part of me.
It comes with lot of love,
Especially to say,
I hope you have a very
Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Author Unknown

Kindergarten Parent Teacher Conference

Last week, I attended a parent teacher conference to review my daughter’s first marking period. She did not receive a report card but I did obtain a data notebook. The goal of the notebook is to provide a tool that assists in ensuring a happy, productive and capable student.


The data notebook is a 1” 3 ring binder that also serves the following purposes:

monitor a child’s learning
communicate their progress
provide opportunities for parents to work with on areas that need improvement

The following areas of the reading/ language arts kindergarten curriculum were addressed in the data notebook:

Letter Identification

Her teacher assessed her ability to identify the letters of the alphabet. They specifically tested the following items:

26 upper case letters
26 lower case letters
2 “funky” lower case letters, a and g which are often found in early emergent text.

Click here for a PDF file of the upper case letters.

Click here for a PDF file of the lower case letters.

High Frequency Words (Sight Words)

Throughout the year, assessments are performed to determine a kindergartener’s knowledge of high frequency words (sight words). Children enter kindergarten at various levels. Identifying a child’s ability to identify high frequency words assists in instructional planning.

Our school system identified 25 words that students should master by the end of kindergarten. In addition, they provided 2 additional lists of 25 for those students who are beginning to read higher level texts.

Some students will master all 75 high frequency words and when possible are encouraged to learn an additional 100 words which are assessed in first grade. Mastering these 100 words enables a child to join the exclusive 100 club. After a child masters reading these 100 words, the focus shifts to writing them correctly.

Our school emphasizes that the first goal is mastering the 25 high frequency words for kindergarten. These 25 words are slowly introduced throughout the school year. Parents should assist their child in knowing the words as they are introduced. The ability to read these 25 words fluently will greatly assist a child in reading a level 4 book.

If your child enjoys playing games, check out Er-u-di-tion , an award winning educational board game that exposes players to these high frequency words and basic phonics.

Guided Reading

Our kindergarten curriculum assesses a child on basic foundational reading skills. The assessment is performed 3x’s a year. After a student successfully masters many of the foundational skills, they are ready to embrace a guided reading program. Our teachers provided the following examples of foundational skills:

concepts about print
letter identification
phonemic awareness
knowledge of high frequency words
phonics

Through the application of skills and strategies, the guided reading program promotes reading at advanced levels. For approximately fifteen minutes, small groups gather with their reading teacher to learn skills and strategies. The ability to read a level four book is the benchmark for students after completing kindergarten. A level four book typically contains the following:

3 to 4 lines of text per page
Picture clues
Pattern of repetitive text
Presence of high frequency words (also called sight words)

Our school district identified the seven keys to college readiness. Interestingly, the first key is advanced reading in grades kindergarten through second grade. Reading a level six book has been identified as the stretch goal for the end of kindergarten.

Handwriting

Assessments are given three times a year to track the progress of a child’s ability to write. Students are instructed to write both their name and a sentence.

At the end of the school year, students are expected to write their name correctly; beginning their name with an uppercase letter and the remainder using lowercase letters. Unless you are my child who has two “first” names (i.e. Emma Leigh). In addition, they are expected to use an uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence and lowercase letters for the remainder. Finally, students are expected to use punctuation at the end of a sentence.

Writing for Personal Expression

This section encompasses the developmental stages of writing, a rather lengthy topic. So look for a sequel post elaborating on this section, which addresses a child’s attempt at spelling and creating a picture to match her/ his writing. After a group lesson, a child independently creates a picture and writes about it. Click here for a writing sample template.

For example, my daughter’s teacher told her class something about herself. She then instructed them to draw a picture and write something about themselves.
My daughter drew a fabulous picture of a home with smoke coming out of the chimney, a tree, a smiling sun and a bird. She wrote the following: I Youst to Liv in Phlodfa it was fon in Phdofa in my old home. By: Emma Leigh Bossard.
Translation: I used to live in Philadelphia. It was fun in Philadelphia in my old home.

Kindergarten News - Month of November

Welcome to the Second Semester of Kindergarten! Last week began the beginning of our second marking period. In the month of November, our kindergarten class will focus on the sight words to and like. The themes throughout the month will center on fall, family, and Thanksgiving.

As mathematicians, the kindergarteners will focus on counting and exploring numbers, specifically comparing, ordinal, and odd and even numbers.

In language arts, emphasis will continue on beginning sounds, letter and sound identification and sight word recognition. New concepts such as segmenting syllables in words and identifying environmental reading will be introduced. Our teacher encouraged us to work with our child in identifying items in our pantry and refrigerator as well as on boxes and containers.

As writers, students will continue to develop ideas. Students will begin to include letters to represent the sounds in words when writing.

They will also study the attributes of weather (i.e. temperature, precipitation) and learn about important people, symbols and events in our nation.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Kindergarten Activity

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was my first book review. Both of my children loved this book when they were in preschool. The author did a spectacular job introducing the upper and lower case letters. The illustrator did a fabulous job filling each page with colorful pictures that holds a child’s interest. As a parent I enjoyed reading about personified upper case letters as well as having my child locate the matching lower case letter on each page.

So I was pleasantly surprised when my daughter brought home her artwork above. Using brown, green and yellow construction paper, she made a coconut tree. Using a newspaper or magazine, she cut out the letters in her name and glued them at the bottom of the coconut tree. What a fabulous activity!

While this book is a family favorite, it indirectly caused me angst. While playing tennis with a friend, our children were playing in the park adjacent to the courts. Once they grew tired of the playground, they moved onto climbing trees. I heard my daughter say, “chicka chicka boom boom will there be enough room.” I immediately stopped playing tennis because her voice was above me and ran towards the trees. My daughter had proceeded to climb to the top of a “coconut tree”, which was at least as tall as a two story home. With moral support from her brother and panic stricken mother, she navigated her way back down without getting hurt! When I asked what she was thinking, she replied, “climbing to the top of the coconut tree!” Not one of my most memorable moments!

Halloween Candy Makes Perfect Patterns

Happy Belated Halloween! Hoping you had a lovely day with your family. Even a little rain wouldn’t damper our evening. My family had a fabulous Halloween! We equally enjoyed trick or treating with our friends as well as handing out candy. We split our evening spending one hour gathering candy and the other hour handing it out.

I am thankful for the extra hour that daylight saving time provided this morning as everyone needed some extra sleep. I awoke to my son sorting his candy while watching the recorded version of the ending to Game 3 in the World Series. Of course, seeing him sort all his Halloween candy gave me a great idea – have my daughter create patterns. My daughter smiled the entire time as she chose her items to make patterns and while she made her patterns. She made the following patterns ABABAB, ABBABBA, ABCABC and AABAAB using Hersey’s, Reese’s and KitKat candy bars.

Unit one of our kindergarten math curriculum focused on patterns; my daughter must possess the ability to identify, describe, extend and create patterns using concrete objects. It appears she has mastered this particular math skill especially when chocolate is involved!