Weekly News: September 2-6

I hope you enjoy the three day weekend with your families! We are looking forward to a short, but busy week in kindergarten! There is a lot of information and I appreciate you taking the time to read. 

School picture day will be THIS Thursday, September 5th! Be on the look-out for a flyer being sent home soon!  

We also have our Parent Workshop this Thursday, September 5th from 6:00-7:00. We will meet in Mrs. Stanley's classroom next door and go over all of our kindergarten standards/goals for the year, exactly what they mean, and strategies for how you can help your child with these goals at home.

We will begin our fun apple unit this week. We are learning about apple orchards, the life cycle of an apple, and this week we are tasting apples and writing about which apple we like the best. A sign up for apple donations is on ParentSquare if you are able to donate apples for this week.

We will begin our Reading Conference Helpers and Fun Friday Centers THIS WEEK! A big thank you to the parents who signed up to help in class every week!

Our very first kindergarten field trip is coming up! Mrs. Stanley's and Mrs. Bess's classes will be going to Willowbrook Apple Farm in Oak Glen on Wednesday, September 18th. We will be leaving school by bus around 8:45 for our 9:30 apple farm tour. During this tour, our students will have the opportunity to enjoy a tractor ride through the apple orchard, feed and pet the farm animals, visit the honey bee house, learn about the life cycle of an apple, and we will be pressing our own apple cider. At the end of our tour, students will get their very own caramel apple to take home and we will all enjoy snack together at the picnic tables, then be back to school in time for dismissal and electives. All of our field trips are paid for through your generous donations to our school's Dollar a Day website. We are asking for a donation of $15 for this first field trip. Here is the link to donate: Dollar A Day Link Unfortunately, if we do not receive the funding, we will not be able to go on any other field trips this year. If you would like to chaperone, we would love to have you! Chaperones can either ride the bus with the students or drive separately. If you would like to chaperone, please let me know by email. Chaperones will need to pay an additional $12 in cash to your child's teacher. Unfortunately, siblings and little ones are not welcome on the field trip due to the safety of our kindergarten students. A permission slip will be coming home soon for our field trip, so make sure you fill that out and return it to your child's teacher. We are looking forward to a great field trip together!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: look, here, this

Letter Team: CH (like in "cheetos") and OO (we are learning that OO can make two sounds: OO like in "look" and OO like in "pool".)

Word Family: AM - like in yam, ram, Sam, Pam, etc. 

Reading: This week, we will begin reading books about apples and Johnny Appleseed. Students will continue to read little books in class that include sight words and letter teams. Some of these little books will come home on Friday. Please keep them inside your special home book box that you shared on the first week of school and practice reading them every day! As your child become a more fluent reader, more of these paper books will be coming home throughout the year to live with you - if they have a big star or stamp on them, that means your child has read it for me fluently and they can now keep them at home! We will continue to learn that vowels make 2 sounds - a short sound and a long sound. Ask your child to sing you the vowel songs! We are reading a new class book this week titled, "My 3D Shape Book". We will learn all about our 3D shapes as we practice reading our sight words of the week.

Writing: We have been working hard on our writing each day. Every day that you see your child's writing come home, celebrate your child's first attempts at becoming a writer! Some students are attempting words and sentences and some students are drawing and labeling our pictures with sounds that we hear inside our words. Every step is so exciting and worth celebrating! We are continuing to use an uppercase at the beginning of a sentence, finger spaces between our words, and a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart.

Math: This week, we are learning our 3D shapes - cone, cube, sphere, pyramid, cylinder, and rectangular prism. We will learn to describe 3D shapes by their faces and vertices. You can help at home by asking your child their shape names and attributes! We will also learn to count by ordinal numbers (first, second, third...). 

Leadership: For the month of September, our whole school will be focusing on the first R of ROAR: Respect. We will discuss ways that we can respect ourselves, others, and our school. 

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE HOMEWORK POST TO SEE ALL OF THE HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK.

Homework: September 2-6

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our sight words (LOOK, HERE, THIS), our letter team of the week (CH and OO) and our word family (AM - Pam, Sam, ram, etc.) Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. I would suggest making a little flashcard box that you can add to throughout the year and reading through those flashcards a few times a day. Make a game of it. Put the sight word CD on and sing and dance to the sight words. We will have a Reading Test on these sight words, letters and letter sounds, and letter teams each Friday. We will also have a Sentence Test on our sight words every Friday. A sentence test means we will be asking your child to write a sentence that we give them using our sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for correct spelling of our sight words, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, a proper punctuation at the end. An example of a sentence is, "We can see a man." It may be a good idea to have a practice Sentence Test with your child on Thursday night. 

Phonemic Awareness: Our Friday video this week features Mrs. Stanley and myself going over blending and segmenting. These are the beginning stages of being able to read and write and can be done before your child even knows letters or letter sounds. Please work on these skills this week. Check out our ParentSquare video for how to help your child! 

Reading: Reading at home is SO IMPORTANT! My hope is that you are reading TO your child every night and discussing the stories you read. When reading with your child, have them point out the front cover, back cover, spine, title, author, illustrator, and title page. My hope is that your child is also playing on Smarty Ants for 10-15 minutes at least a few times a week. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ. Another part of reading homework can be RAZ-KIDS. You can also find the link for RAZ-KIDS on the right side tab of our website. The teacher username is: JBESS1 and your child's password is: ABC.On Friday, your child will be bringing home some of their little books we have been reading in class. These little books can live in your special book box that you made together. 

Writing: Practice writing your name. Practice writing ABCs (both uppercase and lowercase). Practice writing sight words of the week. Practice writing a short sentence. A good idea is to keep an at-home journal and just practice writing something every day. We learn to write by writing, writing, writing! 

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher. Make number flashcards and have your child identify numbers out of order. Practice number writing 0-30. Have your child identify shapes and practice drawing shapes or building shapes out of sticks. Review our "Daily Math" pages coming home. Have your child play Dreambox on your computer or tablet every day. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Dreambox on the right side tab of our website. Our school code is X2we/inlandlcs and our class code is 83093.

QR Codes: Download and print those QR Codes each week from ParentSquare and have your child work on those at home!

Weekly News: August 26-30

News: 

We had a great second week of kindergarten! 

This is our first week of electives. I will have a list of all our students staying for electives and they will receive little stickers saying what elective they are attending. If your child is staying for electives, they will have lunch on the playground from 12:45-1:15. Electives are from 1:15-1:50 then they will be dismissed on the ramp from their elective teacher. If your child is not staying for an elective, but would still like to stay for lunch, they can join friends on the playground for lunch from 12:45-1:15 and will be dismissed on the ramp at 1:15 by a member of our yard duty staff. Please remember to email me or let me know if your child is staying for lunch. 

Save the Date for our Parent Workshop on Thursday, September 5th from 6:00-7:00. We will meet in Mrs. Stanley's classroom next door and go over all of our kindergarten standards/goals for the year, exactly what they mean, and strategies for how you can help your child with these goals at home. 

There is no school on Monday, September 2nd due to the Labor Day holiday. Enjoy the time off with your families!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: I, like, my. 

Letters and sounds: l, k, y, x, and the long and short vowel sounds a, e, i, o, u, y (the vowel sounds e or i)

Letter Team: sh (like in "she" and "push") and er (like in "her" and "mother") - ask your child to tell you about Mr. er - he is one crazy driver!!!

Word Family: ip - like in dip, chip, rip, sip, tip, etc.

Reading: We will continue to learn that vowels make 2 sounds - a short sound and a long sound. Ask your child to sing you the vowel songs! We are reading a new class book this week titled, "My Five Senses". We will learn all about our five senses as we practice reading our sight words of the week. We will also introduce non-fiction text and begin reading Scholastic News magazines each week. 

Writing: This week, we are learning how to choose a writing topic. We will learn that good writers write about what they know and what they love. We are continuing to use an uppercase at the beginning of a sentence, finger spaces between our words, and a period at the end. We are also learning to use our sight words in our sentences and to listen for the sounds in all unknown words using our sound chart.

Math: Last week, every student received a number counting and number writing goal. We are working hard on counting to 30, 50, and 100 and on writing numbers to 20. Have your child practice counting and writing numbers at home! We are also discussing shapes in class. We are learning 2D flat shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, etc.) and 3D solid shapes (sphere, cone, cube, cylinder, etc.) We will learn that kindergarten mathematicians can name shapes, draw shapes, build shapes, and identify the attributes of shapes. When I ask "What is the attribute of a triangle?" I want to hear, "A triangle is a flat 2D shape that has 3 sides and 3 vertices." You can help at home by asking your child shape names and attributes! 

Leadership: We have been having so much fun discussing Growth Mindset and reading our new Class Promise together: 

#1: We are smart! 

#2: We can get it!

#3: We belong here! 

#4: We won't forget it!

This week, we read a book, "Giraffe's Can't Dance" and then we made a giant poster of all the things that we can't do YET. I am so proud of all of my students for having a growth mindset and telling me, "I can't count to 100... YET! But I'm going to keep trying!" What an awesome class of leaders! 

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE HOMEWORK POST TO SEE ALL OF THE HOMEWORK FOR THE WEEK.

Homework: August 26-30

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our sight words (I, like, my), letters/sounds of the week (l, k, y, x, long and short vowels a, e, i, o, u, y) our letter teams of the week (sh and er) and our word family (ip - tip, lip, chip, etc.) Study these flashcards every day. 

Phonemic Awareness: We have been playing a few phonemic awareness games in class every morning that I'd like for you to also try at home. The beginning sound game: I give the students a word (dog), and have them shout out the first sound they hear (D-D-D!). The blending game: I give the students three sounds very slowly (SSSSS-UUUU-NNNN) and they shout out the word it makes (SUN!). The rhyming game: we are trying to make real-word rhymes AND identify the part of the word that rhymes. I will say the word CAT and the students answer (BAT, RAT, FAT - the rhyming part is AT!) 

Reading: Reading at home is SO IMPORTANT! In a few short weeks, your child will be bringing home little books that we have been reading in class to read at home for YOU! Reading to your child is also important. Children need to hear frequent fluent reading to become a reader themselves. This week, we are learning Parts of a Book - when reading with your child, have them point out the front cover, back cover, spine, title, author, illustrator, and title page. Part of reading homework is also Smarty Ants. Have your child play Smarty Ants every day on your computer or tablet. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ. Another part of reading homework can be RAZ-KIDS. You can also find the link for RAZ-KIDS on the right side tab of our website. The teacher username is: JBESS1 and your child's password is: ABC.

Writing: Practice writing your name. Practice writing ABCs (both uppercase and lowercase). Practice writing sight words of the week. Practice writing a short sentence. A good idea is to keep an at-home journal and just practice writing something every day. We learn to write by writing, writing, writing! 

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher. Make number flashcards and have your child identify numbers out of order. Practice number writing 0-30. Have your child identify shapes and practice drawing shapes or building shapes out of sticks. Review our "Daily Math" pages coming home. Have your child play Dreambox on your computer or tablet every day. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Dreambox on the right side tab of our website. Our school code is X2we/inlandlcs and our class code is 83093.

QR Codes: Our class uses a LOT of QR codes in our learning.  Mrs. Stanley has created many QR code activities for all of our kindergarten students to scan and work on at home. Each week, these will be uploaded on ParentSquare. You can print these pages for your child to work on at home each week. One great idea is to put these pages in sheet protectors and add these pages into a binder for your child to refer to all year long. 

Weekly News: August 20-24

What a great first full week of school! We are having so much fun getting to know one another and adjusting to this crazy little thing called kindergarten :) 

Thank you to all of the amazing parents who signed up to volunteer in our classroom. Our Daily Folders and Friday Prep Parents have already started and our Reading Conference and Fun Friday Helpers will begin after Labor Day. Please make sure you have your Megan's Law form completed. 

On Friday your child took his/her first spelling sentence assessment.  Please take some time to go over the spelling sentence with your student and reinforce any errors your child may have made.  We will have a spelling sentence assessment each Friday that will include our current and often previous spelling words.  We are looking for correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as well as appropriate spacing between words.  We understand this will take time, but with reinforcement and practice they will all achieve this standard.  Your students are off to a great start!!

On Friday your child also took his/her first sight word/letter/letter team reading assessment.  Please take some time to also go over this assessment with your child.  We will have this assessment each Friday and it will include current as well as past words, letters, and letter teams.  These quick weekly assessments are a great way to check in on your student’s progress and to monitor where support may be needed.  Thank you so much for your support!!

On Friday your child also came home with their Daily Math paper. We complete these papers Monday through Thursday and on Fridays, we use the Daily Math as a quick “check in” assessment for the math standards covered during the week.  On Fridays you will see a score recorded on this paper indicating how many problems your child missed on the assessment.  During the week we work together to complete the problems and reinforce these standards with hands on activities during our math rounds.  On Fridays your child will have the opportunity to complete this activity on their own to demonstrate mastery or needed support of a standard.  Again, please take a few minutes to go over any missed problems.  Thank you!!

Save the Date for our Parent Workshop on Thursday, September 5th from 6:00-7:00. We will meet in Mrs. Stanley's classroom next door and go over all of our kindergarten standards/goals for the year, exactly what they mean, and strategies for how you can help your child with these goals at home. 

There is no school on Monday, September 2nd due to the Labor Day holiday. Enjoy the time off with your families!

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: is, the, me, or.

Letters:i, t, h, m, o, r, p

Letter Team: th (we are learning that TH has two different sounds - a hard sound, like in MOTHER and THE, and a soft sound, like in THUMB and WITH). 

Word Family: ap (cap, tap, rap, etc.)

Reading: We are learning the vowels! Ask your child about our special vowel song and what sounds the vowels can make! We are learning that each vowel can make 2 sounds - short and long. We are also learning the parts of a book, including title, author, illustrator, and title page. You can help at home by having your child point to each part of the book before you read. We are reading a new class book this week titled, "More Shapes". We will learn various shapes and colors as we practice reading our sight words of the week. Students will continue one-to-one matching, and we will learn a few more reading strategies, including, "Get your mouth ready for the first sound", "Know the Letter Sounds" and "Make Your Finger Match the Words". 

Writing: We are learning that writing is just telling on paper. Some of us are "telling" stories using just pictures. Some of us are already starting to tell with words and sentences. No matter where we are at, we are ALL learning that our ABC Sound Chart helps us to identify sounds/letters in words. (You will also find the ABC Sound Chart on your child's Take Home Folder!!) You will see your child's writing paper come home in your take home folder. Ask your child to "tell" about his or her pictures or attempted writing. This week, we are also practicing writing our name with an uppercase ONLY at the beginning. Please reinforce this at home.

Math: We will practice number identification, number writing, days of the week, months of the year, and shapes. This week, every student will receive their very first "Math Goal". Some of our goals are "I can write my numbers to 10" and some of us are working on "I can count to 30" or "I can count to 100". We will also focus on identifying what number comes next without having to go back to start counting at 1. In class, we call this "Counting Forward" and "Popcorn Counting". For example, if I ask a student to count on from the number 7, I would like them to say "8, 9, 10" and the numbers just pop out of our brain like popcorn. We sing a song about this called: Popcorn Count ....

Popcorn Count (Popcorn Count)

It’s what it’s all about! (It’s what it’s all about!)

It helps us add up numbers (It helps us add up numbers)

Really Quick!

Lickety Split!

Leadership: The first few weeks of school, we really talked about having a growth mindset and how to help our brain grow, even when something is really hard. We read several books about how mistakes help you grow and how to NOT give up! We even wrote a Class Promise together that we will read every morning: 

Fact 1: We are smart! 

Fact 2: We can get it!

Fact 3: We belong here! 

And 4: We won't forget it!

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE ENTIRE HOMEWORK POST BELOW!!!! 

Homework: August 19-23

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our sight words (is, the, me, or), letters of the week (i, t, h, m, o, r, p) our letter team of the week (th) and our word family (ap - cap, tap, rap, etc.) Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. I would suggest making a little flashcard box that you can add to throughout the year and reading through those flashcards a few times a day. Make a game of it. Put the sight word CD on and sing and dance to the sight words. We will have a Reading Test on these sight words, letters and letter sounds, and letter teams each Friday. We will also have a Sentence Test on our sight words every Friday. A sentence test means we will be asking your child to write a sentence that we give them using our sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for correct spelling of our sight words, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, a proper punctuation at the end. It may be a good idea to have a practice Sentence Test with your child on Thursday night. 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, beginning/middle/ending sounds, and adding, changing and deleting sounds in words.  Please see our Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips. 

Reading: Reading at home is SO IMPORTANT! In a few short weeks, your child will be bringing home little books that we have been reading in class to read at home for YOU! Reading to your child is also important. Children need to hear frequent fluent reading to become a reader themselves. This week, we are learning Parts of a Book - when reading with your child, have them point out the front cover, back cover, spine, title, author, illustrator, and title page. Part of reading homework is also Smarty Ants. Have your child play Smarty Ants every day on your computer or tablet. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ. Another part of reading homework can be RAZ-KIDS. You can also find the link for RAZ-KIDS on the right side tab of our website. The teacher username is: JBESS1 and your child's password is: ABC.

Writing: Our writing homework will change throughout the year and may look different for each student since each student may be at a different place developmentally. I would like all students to practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. A name writing paper is coming home this week/ Feel free to make copies of this paper or place it in a sheet protector and use an expo marker so that you can reuse it every day! Practice writing your ABC's both uppercase and lowercase. Take a look at the ABC Writing Assessment that came home last week so you can see what your child needs to practice. You can also practice writing your sight words of the week in a short sentence. We are learning to start our letters at the TOP! 

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher. Make number flashcards and have your child identify numbers out of order. Practice number writing - take a look at your child's number writing assessment that came home last week so you can see what needs to be practiced! Practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Ask your child to name different attributes of shapes. For example, "What shape has three sides?" or "How many vertices does a rectangle have?" Your child will also be bringing home "Daily Math" practice pages that we do every morning in class. Please take a moment to go over these practice pages to see if there is anything specific your child needs to work on. Math homework every week also includes Dreambox. Have your child play Dreambox on your computer or tablet every day. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Dreambox on the right side tab of our website. Our school code is X2we/inlandlcs and our class code is 83093.

QR Codes: Our class uses a LOT of QR codes in our learning.  Mrs. Stanley has created many QR code activities for all of our kindergarten students to scan and work on at home. Each week, these will be uploaded on ParentSquare. You can print these pages for your child to work on at home each week. One great idea is to put these pages in sheet protectors and add these pages into a binder for your child to refer to all year long. 

First Weekly News

We had a great first two days of school! It has been so nice to meet all of you and your awesome kiddos! I have a wonderful group of students and I am truly looking forward to a fantastic school year! 

There is always a LOT of information at the beginning of the year. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through our entire post. 

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Thank you for ALL of your generous donations! Don't forget to send personal headphones to school with your child.  These will be their headphones that they use in class all year long. We are beginning to use our ipads on Monday! A few parents have asked if they can donate any other supplies to the classroom. Feel free to check out our class Amazon Wishlist: Bess Kinders Amazon Wishlist. 

Our Take-Home Folders will be sent home on Monday. Please check this folder every day, removing any papers to stay at home, and sending it back to school every day. On Monday, there will be a TON of papers coming home, including ALL of your child's beginning of the year assessment results for letters and sounds, numbers and counting, and phonemic awareness.

We are excited for our first full week of school - we will be learning sight words, reading books, learning math, beginning to share our ideas through pictures and writing, and even starting homework! 

It was wonderful meeting so many of our parents at Back to School Night!  It is so nice to see we have an enthusiastic and very supportive group of parents!  This year will be amazing!! If you were unable to make Back to School Night, I uploaded our slideshow to ParentSquare so that you do not miss the important information that was discussed. I am also sending home a few Back to School Night papers in your child's Take Home Folder on Monday.  

Thank you to the parents that signed up to help us out in the morning with Daily Folders. If you are a Daily Folder helper, please grab our Folder Basket down at the tables on the playground and walk it up to class for us! Here are Daily Folder Parents: 

Mondays: Nancy Caldwell 

Tuesdays: Sherina Kelly  

Wednesdays: Aileen Kang 

Thursdays: Kristin Fuentes

Fridays: Nancy Caldwell 

Friday Prep Parties will also begin this week. Thank you to Lindsey Dalgity, Morgan Saucedo, and Nancy Caldwell for signing up to help with our prep work. I will have a basket marked "To Do" on our small circle table in the classroom on Friday morning. You are welcome to come grab it and take it to the office. Miss Ronica will show you where you can do this prep work. 

Our Friday Center helpers will not begin for a few weeks. I will let you know when our first day will be. Thank you to the parents who signed up to help each week! 

At Back to School Night, I sent home a Sight Word CD with most of our sight word songs. This is a fun way to learn our sight words and reinforce letter identification too. Have your child point to each letter on their flashcards as they sing the letter name and have fun singing! 

What Are We Learning This Week?:

Sight Words: WE, CAN, SEE, A.

Letters: w, e, c, a, n, s

Letter Team: EE (like in SEE and BEE).

Reading: We are reading many books about beginning school! We are reading books about our shapes and catching our sight words as we read. This year, we are learning many reading strategies to become better readers. This week, we will focus on: Make Your Finger Match the Word, and Look at the Pictures.

Writing: We are learning to neatly write the alphabet using correct letter formation. This week we are learning that a sentence starts with an uppercase letter and ends with a period. We are working on putting finger spaces in between our words. We are learning that our ABC Sound Chart helps us to identify sounds/letters in words. (You will also find the ABC Sound Chart on your child's Take Home Folder!!)

Math: We are learning to identify, order, write, and count numbers to 30, identify and name shapes and sort them by different attributes.  We are also learning songs for the days of the week and months of the year.  Each day, your child will be working on a “Daily Math” practice page in class. These pages will be sent home each day for you to review with your child. Please take a moment to go over these pages with your child, reviewing any missed problems they may have. 

Leadership: At ILCS this year, we are ROARING. The acronym ROAR stands for Respect self, others, and property, Own your actions, Act safely, and Rise to servant leadership.  For the next several weeks, we will be discussing the first R in class - RESPECT. We will talk about what it means to respect, as well as what it looks like. Our goal is to have students take ownership of their own behavior as we all strive to be leaders in our classroom and school. 

First Week of Homework

As I said at Back to School Night, our Homework Program in Kindergarten is a little different. Instead of giving out packets, I ask that you work with your child at home at their level on what they need. I want to load you with lots of ideas and tips each week. Nothing needs to be turned in. Please take a moment to read each section of homework. I understand this can be very overwhelming, so please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns. Please plan on attending our Parent Workshop in September for even more strategies and tips! 

Flashcards: Please make flashcards for our sight words (we, can, see, a), letters of the week (w, e, c, a, n, s) our letter team of the week (ee) and our word family (an - can, tan, ran, etc.) Study these flashcards every day. Have your child read the word, spell the word, read the word. I would suggest making a little flashcard box that you can add to throughout the year and reading through those flashcards a few times a day. Make a game of it. Put the sight word CD on and sing and dance to the sight words. We will have a Reading Test on these sight words, letters and letter sounds, and letter teams each Friday. We will also have a Sentence Test on our sight words every Friday. A sentence test means we will be asking your child to write a sentence that we give them using our sight words of the week. We will not only be looking for correct spelling of our sight words, but also for an uppercase at the beginning, spaces between words, a proper punctuation at the end. An example of a sentence is, "We can see a man." It may be a good idea to have a practice Sentence Test with your child on Thursday night. 

Phonemic Awareness: Please work with your child on the following Phonemic Awareness skills: rhyming, blending, segmenting, syllables, beginning/middle/ending sounds, and adding, changing and deleting sounds in words.  Please see our Phonemic Awareness tab for ideas and tips. 

Reading: Reading at home is SO IMPORTANT! In a few short weeks, your child will be bringing home little books that we have been reading in class to read at home for YOU! Reading to your child is also important. Children need to hear frequent fluent reading to become a reader themselves. This week, we are learning Parts of a Book - when reading with your child, have them point out the front cover, back cover, spine, title, author, illustrator, and title page. Part of reading homework is also Smarty Ants. Have your child play Smarty Ants every day on your computer or tablet. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Smarty Ants on the right side tab of our website. Our class username is: JCBESS@INLANDLEADERS.COM and our password is: READ. Another part of reading homework can be RAZ-KIDS. You can also find the link for RAZ-KIDS on the right side tab of our website. The teacher username is: JBESS1 and your child's password is: ABC.

Writing: Our writing homework will change throughout the year and may look different for each student since each student may be at a different place developmentally. I would like all students to practice writing your name with an uppercase only at the beginning. Practice writing your ABC's both uppercase and lowercase. Take a look at the ABC Writing Assessment that is coming home Monday so you can see what your child needs to practice. You can also practice writing your sight words of the week in a short sentence. We are learning to start our letters at the TOP! 

Math: Practice counting 1-30 or higher. Make number flashcards and have your child identify numbers out of order. Practice number writing - take a look at your child's number writing assessment that came home last week so you can see what needs to be practiced! Practice drawing shapes, identifying shapes, or even creating shapes out of play-dough and sticks. Ask your child to name different attributes of shapes. For example, "What shape has three sides?" or "How many vertices does a rectangle have?" Your child will also be bringing home "Daily Math" practice pages that we do every morning in class. Please take a moment to go over these practice pages to see if there is anything specific your child needs to work on. Math homework every week also includes Dreambox. Have your child play Dreambox on your computer or tablet every day. A paper was sent home at Back to School Night with log-in instructions. You can also find the link for Dreambox on the right side tab of our website. Our school code is X2we/inlandlcs and our class code is 83093.

QR Codes: Our class uses a LOT of QR codes in our learning.  Mrs. Stanley has created many QR code activities for all of our kindergarten students to scan and work on at home. Each week, these will be uploaded on ParentSquare. You can print these pages for your child to work on at home each week. One great idea is to put these pages in sheet protectors and add these pages into a binder for your child to refer to all year long. 

Family Project: Our first family project is to make a Book Box! This book box can be made from a shoebox, Amazon box, plastic container - whatever you want! Decorate it with paper, stickers, ribbons - be as creative as you want! Your child will bring this book box into class ANY DAY this week to share with the class, then take it home as this will be your special book box to live at home with you. When your child starts bringing home little paper books, these little paper books can live in that book box. Make this a fun family project and a special place for your child to keep all the books we are learning how to read. Please bring your book box in ANY day this week - I ask that you do not wait until Friday, as it is very difficult to share all 24 book boxes in one day! :)