Kindergarten Homework - 4th Marking Period

As stated in my previous post, homework serves to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom as well as achieve academic success. A child should do their best and be proud of their accomplishments.

During the fourth marking period, our kindergarten curriculum required the completion of the following tasks:

Monday - write the assigned sight words 5-10 times in your journal.
Tuesday - write a sentence for each sight word. Writers should use their best inventive spelling. In addition, writers should underline the sight words and illustrate the sentence.
Wednesday – sort objects
Thursday - math related assignment (worksheets reinforcing addition, subtraction and time)
Everyday - read for 20 minutes

Week 31:
Spring Break

Week 32: All About Me Homework
This activity coincides with the kindergarten social studies/ science unit. Using an extra large piece of white paper (provided by the school), trace the outline of your child’s body. Using paint, crayons and/or markers, add appropriate features (e.g. clothes). They encourage realistic portraits so use appropriate colors for facial features.

In addition, complete a speech bubble titled I’m Very Happy to Be Me which contains the following sentences:

My name is ___________.
I like to eat ___________.
My favorite color is __________.
My favorite book is ____________.
The best thing I did in Kindergarten was _______________.
________ is my hair, ________ are my eyes.
I’m __________ years old, I’m just the right size.

They also asked each child to bring in one artifact to share with the class. The artifact should tell something important or special about your child (e.g. trophy, dance costume, vacation picture). They encourage parents to discuss with their child why it is important. The artifact will then be placed in the “me” museum for a couple of weeks.

Week 33:
Sight words: big, little
Sentence: Create your own sentence. Remember to be creative and use inventive spelling.
Sort: Match each picture to its opposite (e.g. up, down, open, close, big, little).

Week 34:
Sight words: they, are
Sentence: Create your own sentence. Remember to be creative and use inventive spelling.
Earth day sort: Sort pictures that help the earth from those that hurt it (e.g. recycling, turning off water when brushing teeth, littering). Draw a picture showing one way you can help the earth and write a sentence about it.

Week 35:
Sight words: going, do
Sentence: Create your own sentence. Remember to be creative and use inventive spelling.
Word family sort: _at, _ot, and _it. Sort the pictures into the correct word family / chunk. Match each word to the correct picture.

Week 36:
Sight words: mother, day
Sentence: Create your own sentence. Remember to be creative and use inventive spelling.
Word family sort: _en, _in, and _an. Sort the pictures into the correct word family / chunk. Match each word to the correct picture.

Week 37:
Sight word: because
Sentence: Create two sentences. Remember to underline the sight word and illustrate the sentences.
Living and non-living word sort: Sort the pictures into the correct category.

Week 38:
Sight words: one, got
Sentence: Create two sentences. Remember to underline the sight word and illustrate the sentences.
Healthy and unhealthy word sort: Sort the pictures into the correct category.

Week 39:
Sight words: his, run
Sentence: Create two sentences. Remember to underline the sight word and illustrate the sentences.
ABC Sight Word Sort: Write these words in ABC order in your journal: at, we, go, on, in, up, see & the

Week 40:
Sight words: was, out
Sentence: Create two sentences. Remember to underline the sight word and illustrate the sentences.
ABC Sight Word Sort: Write these words in ABC order in your journal: look, and, like, here, come, me, can & you

Week 41:
Journal time is now done,
For kindergarten has been such fun.

Keep your journals so you can be proud
because the journals are handy to have around.

Be sure to use your journals to read and write
To know all your words by sight.

Look for more homework in the fall.
We are sure that you’ll have a ball

Week 42:
Last week of school

Kindergarten Homework - 3rd Marking Period

As stated in my previous post, homework serves to reinforce concepts learned in the classroom as well as achieve academic success. A child should do their best and be proud of their accomplishments.

During the third marking period, our kindergarten curriculum required the completion of the following tasks:

Monday - write the assigned sight words 5-10 times in your journal.
Tuesday - complete the sentence by drawing a picture. If possible, label your drawing. We do this five times.
Wednesday – sort objects
Thursday - math related assignment (worksheets reinforcing counting by 2s and 5s, graphing, identifying three dimensional figures, telling time - hour)
Everyday - read for 20 minutes

Week 22:
Sight words: look, at
Sentence: Look at the ______ _______.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “at” and “an”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. cat, bat, hat) with the chuck sound /at/ from pictures and words (e.g. pan, can, man) that have the chuck sound /an/.

Week 23:
Sight words: this, my
Sentence: This is my ______ _______.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “ad”, “ap” and “ag”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. dad, sad, mad) with the chuck sound /ad/ from pictures and words (e.g. map, nap, cap ) that have the chuck sound /ap/ from pictures and words (e.g. bag, rag, tag) that have the chuck sound /ag/.

Week 24:
No homework this week. School closed due to two snow storms delivering 40+ inches of snow to the suburbs of Washington D.C. We did decorate a heart and completed the following sentence: what is love … ?

Week 25:
Sight words: me, on, from
Sentence: I got a ____ from my ____. The ____ is on me.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “op” and “ot”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. stop,mop,hop) with the chuck sound /op/ from pictures and words (e.g. hot, dot, pot) that have the chuck sound /ot/.

Week 26:
Sight words: she, went
Sentence: She went to the _______.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “ug”, “ut” and “un”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. mug, bug, rug) with the chuck sound /ug/ from pictures and words (e.g. nut, cut, hut) that have the chuck sound /ut/ from pictures and words (e.g. sun, fun, bun) that have the chuck sound /un/.

Week 27:
Sight words: he, will
Sentence: He will ______ with me.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “et”, “en” and “eg”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. wet, net, vet) with the chuck sound /et/ from pictures and words (e.g. hen, pen, men) that have the chuck sound /en/ from pictures and words (e.g. leg, beg, peg) that have the chuck sound /eg/.

Week 28:
Leprechauns are on the loose in our school! Our wonderful teacher asked each student to formulate a plan with their family on how to catch a leprechaun. First, write a plan about how you would catch a leprechaun and then draw a blueprint illustrating your plan. They encourage using labels and if you make a trap to send in a picture. Helpful tip: my children think leprechauns love Lucky Charms.

Week 29:
Sight words: have, for
Sentence: I will have ______ for dinner.
Sort: Sort by chuck sounds “in” and “it”. Sort the pictures and words (e.g. pin, fin, win) with the chuck sound /in/ from pictures and words (e.g. pit, sit, hit ) that have the chuck sound /it/.

Week 30:
Sight words: with, of
Sentence: I went to the _____ with _____. Can I have some of that _____?
Sort: Rhyming word sort - sort the pictures by rhyme (e.g. bee and tree, wing and ring, cake and rake, boat and goat, bear and chair).

Kindergarten Writing - Foster Your Little Shakespeare

Our school held a kindergarten curriculum information session. The session provided parents with some helpful information about writing expectations. At the beginning of the school year, the focus was on an idea not the writing. Expectations have shifted. Our teachers briefly discussed what they expect and do not expect from kindergartners.

A kindergarten student should be able to perform the following functions when writing:

Proof work. Kindergartners should reread their work and self-monitor for meaning and structure.

Use upper and lower case letters. A sentence begins with an uppercase letter. Upper case letters should not be present in the remainder of the sentence unless it is a proper noun.

Use spacing. Use your pointer finger to create a space between words in a sentence. Make sure letters within a word are close together.

Use punctuation. Convey a complete idea using punctuation. They should mark the end of their idea with an explanation mark, period or question mark. Also, they should use punctuation to separate ideas.

For example,

Wrong: I like to go the park and play with my friends and play kickball.

Correct: I like to go to the park. I like to play with my friends. I like to play kickball.

Construct idea. Students should construct an idea using multiple sentences; explain a picture with more than one sentence.

Spell sight words correctly. The kindergarten sight words should be spelled correctly. Students should use phonics to spell unknown words. Each word should have a beginning, middle and ending sound. They were very quick to point out not all words will likely be spelled correctly as this would not be a realistic expectation. They further stated that some sounds are developmental (e.g. sh, ch and th).

Draw detailed pictures. Students should illustrate with detail. Their pictures should reflect on their sentences and provide additional information. No stick figures!

Check work. Students proof their work before, during and after the writing process to check for the meaning and structure.

Every child prior to handing in work should perform the following check list:

Reread – good writers reread their work

Abcd – 1st letter of a sentence is a capital letter and the remainder are lowercase letters

Spacing – make sure there is spacing between words

Punctuation - ! . ?

Spelling – did you spell the sight words correctly

Reread – check corrections and continue process until no errors

Let your child self-monitor using the above checklist and parents should double check their work. The teachers also gave us a helpful hint to assist our children in writing more – ask questions!

Seasonal Celebration - First Day of Spring (Vernal Equinox)

My family and I decided to celebrate the vernal equinox, more commonly referred to as the first day of spring. After a long, cold and snow filled winter, we gladly rejoiced on Saturday. We rode bikes and played tennis, football and baseball. We spent time at the playground, walked our dog and ended the day with a celebratory meal reflecting on all the things we are thankful for - especially winter coming to an end!

I recently finished a fabulous book, encouraging one to remember their victories as they serve to build confidence. They also suggested celebrating victories. Given my propensity for celebrations, I’m in implementation mode! I declared to my husband last week, let’s celebrate the four seasons. After a winter of over 70 inches of snow, my family was willing to humor me. We plan to celebrate the first day of each season.

Fun Seasonal Facts for Your Children

Earth continually moves. It takes one year for it to orbit the sun and it rotates on its own axis every 24 hours or 1 day which causes day and night. The earth is tilted 23.5 degrees. If the earth was not tilted, there would be no seasons or differences in daylight. The tilt of the Earth’s axis and its revolution around the sun creates different cycles in a year, called seasons.


The following seasonal information is relevant to the Northern Hemisphere:

The vernal equinox occurs on March 20th or 21st when the sun is positioned directly over the equator and the hours of daylight and darkness are equivalent.

The summer solstice occurs on June 20th or 21st which is the first day of summer. This day contains the most daylight.

The autumnal equinox occurs on September 22nd or 23rd and is similar to the vernal equinox in that the hours of daylight and darkness are equal because the sun is positioned above the equator.

The winter solstice occurs on December 21st or 22nd which is the first day of winter. This day contains the least amount of sunlight.

Source: Ronan, Colin A. “Seasons.” The New Book of Knowledge. 2010. Grolier Online. 22 Mar. 2010

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Ireland’s most distinguished national holiday is Saint Patrick’s Day, commonly called St. Paddy’s Day. This holiday honors the missionary who became the patron saint of Ireland. The Irish happily celebrate this day with parades, festive dinners, and dances. The national color of Ireland is green and the favored color on March 17th. Many people wear shamrocks which is the country’s national symbol. According to legend, Saint Patrick explained the concept of the trinity using a shamrock (three leaf clover).

My family loves to celebrate St Patrick’s Day! Conveniently, my daughter’s half birthday falls on March 17th so we fill our day with lots of festive activities. We proudly wear green on St Patrick’s Day. We eat green bagels, green scrambled eggs with cheese and ham. We sing happy half birthday and again eat something green and sweet. Of course, we read one of our favorite books, Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham.

In school, my daughter recently completed a great activity that is perfect for St. Patrick’s Day. She counted shamrocks and incorporated the sight words “there”, “was” and “were”. Draw a shamrock (draw 3 hearts) and write, “There was one shamrock.” Draw two shamrocks and write, “There were two shamrocks.” Continue until your child or you get bored!

Source: “Saint Patrick’s Day.” Reviewed by William R. Keyser. The New Book of Knowledge®. 2010. Grolier Online. 13 Mar. 2010 .

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