Dear KC Families,
It is hard to believe that we will soon say goodbye to 2019! KC had a fantastic time celebrating the snowy season today before vacation, and we could not have had such a fun Winter Party without all of the supplies that were donated and the volunteers who offered their time to the children. Thank you for all the help!
In literacy, we have been comparing and contrasting various versions of the famous tale, The Gingerbread Man. After reading the original version and then The Gingerbread Boy, we looked for common themes and have been keeping track of these similarities in other stories. Over the past two weeks we have read: The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, The Gingerbread Pirates, The Gingerbread Cowboy, Ten Gingerbread Men, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo, and The Ninjabread Man. While we made text-to-text connections between stories, we also focused our Reading Workshop around a gingerbread theme. The children worked on illustrating a gingerbread poem, making gingerbread collage characters, word searches with words from the stories, retelling and rewriting parts of the story, and making gingerbread cookie characters from play doh and other materials in the science station.
Soon we will focus more on rhyming and reading simple text. To begin working on these concepts, the entire kindergarten will be learning about nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are an excellent way to build confidence in young readers. Often times, children already feel connected to nursery rhymes because of their familiarity. If your child is already reading, nursery rhymes are also excellent for building vocabulary and practicing fluency! On Friday, March 13th, we will be performing various nursery rhymes in a short play entitled, Rhyme Time. If you did not already mark your calendars for this event back in September, please do so as soon as possible. The kindergarten team loves putting on this play each year. Your child will be part of a small group with children from the other kindergarten classes, and will have their first performance on the big stage in our auditorium. Stay tuned for more details!
After winter break we will also be starting our exciting science unit about buildings and structures. We will be exploring the process of building houses and structures, what makes buildings strong, as well as famous buildings all around the world! If you have any children’s books on this topic that you would not mind sharing, please send them in. I promise that we will take good care of them. Thank you!
Important dates/reminders:
I want to wish you all a Happy New Year, and thank you so much for a fantastic fall semester. I can’t wait to see how much KC will continue to grow in 2020!
Sarah
It is hard to believe that we will soon say goodbye to 2019! KC had a fantastic time celebrating the snowy season today before vacation, and we could not have had such a fun Winter Party without all of the supplies that were donated and the volunteers who offered their time to the children. Thank you for all the help!
In literacy, we have been comparing and contrasting various versions of the famous tale, The Gingerbread Man. After reading the original version and then The Gingerbread Boy, we looked for common themes and have been keeping track of these similarities in other stories. Over the past two weeks we have read: The Gingerbread Girl, The Gingerbread Girl Goes Animal Crackers, Gingerbread Baby, Gingerbread Friends, The Gingerbread Pirates, The Gingerbread Cowboy, Ten Gingerbread Men, The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School, The Gingerbread Man Loose at the Zoo, and The Ninjabread Man. While we made text-to-text connections between stories, we also focused our Reading Workshop around a gingerbread theme. The children worked on illustrating a gingerbread poem, making gingerbread collage characters, word searches with words from the stories, retelling and rewriting parts of the story, and making gingerbread cookie characters from play doh and other materials in the science station.
Soon we will focus more on rhyming and reading simple text. To begin working on these concepts, the entire kindergarten will be learning about nursery rhymes. Nursery rhymes are an excellent way to build confidence in young readers. Often times, children already feel connected to nursery rhymes because of their familiarity. If your child is already reading, nursery rhymes are also excellent for building vocabulary and practicing fluency! On Friday, March 13th, we will be performing various nursery rhymes in a short play entitled, Rhyme Time. If you did not already mark your calendars for this event back in September, please do so as soon as possible. The kindergarten team loves putting on this play each year. Your child will be part of a small group with children from the other kindergarten classes, and will have their first performance on the big stage in our auditorium. Stay tuned for more details!
After winter break we will also be starting our exciting science unit about buildings and structures. We will be exploring the process of building houses and structures, what makes buildings strong, as well as famous buildings all around the world! If you have any children’s books on this topic that you would not mind sharing, please send them in. I promise that we will take good care of them. Thank you!
Important dates/reminders:
- Winter break: Monday, December 23rd - Wednesday, January 1st. We will resume school on Thursday, January 2nd.
- No School: Monday, January 20th – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
I want to wish you all a Happy New Year, and thank you so much for a fantastic fall semester. I can’t wait to see how much KC will continue to grow in 2020!
Sarah