| Seasonal Themes | | Science and Social Studies continue to be integrated into the Language Arts curriculum. In November, the children learned about Pilgrims and Native Americans and the ways that families celebrate the holiday today. They worked hard to prepare for Grandparents’ Day. In December, the children will learn about healthy foods that fuel their bodies. We will learn about all of the Winter holidays including Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Diwali and Bodhi Day. Holidays will be explored with stories and crafts. December’s character and value focus is RESPECT. |  |
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| | From the Teacher's Desk | | Dear Parents,
Where did October and November go? It seems as though Halloween was only yesterday! November was a very busy month, with Thanksgiving and Grandparents’ Day activities adding to our already packed schedule. The children especially enjoyed making Thanksgiving decorations. We loved imagining what a turkey might say as it got closer to the holiday and we created turkeys holding signs encouraging us to eat more of something else. We were lucky to sing on the stage for our Grandparents. Having our Grandparents here with us was a pleasure. I hope that the grandparents enjoyed their visit, and that you had a joyful and safe Thanksgiving.
This month we are learning about all of the Winter holidays and are busy making decorations for each of them to help reinforce what we have learned. We started by learning about Hanukkah and will move on to Christmas, Kwanzaa and Diwali. The children are being taught the real meaning behind each of the holidays.
Best wishes to all of you for the happiest of holidays and a peaceful New Year.
Sincerely,
Ellen Landriau | |
| Language Arts | | In December, Squiggles will be introduced to the children. They are each given a paper with an openended line or squiggle drawn on it. Using their imaginations, they turn the squiggle into something and color it. Then on the lines below, they write sentences using the sight words they have learned to tell about their creation. Doing squiggles develops creativity as well as helping to develop handwriting and sentence writing skills. Later the squiggles can have multiple sentences or stories written about them.
We also created family trees to go along with our November reading theme of Families. We discussed things we like to do with our families and all the things that we are thankful for.
In December, the children will be working on a unit on Friends. They will meet four new Alphafriends. They will continue to practice putting words together (blending) and taking them apart (segmenting). New high-frequency words will be introduced to make sentences with the previously learned words I, see, my, like, and a. Using the consonants that they have learned so far, the children will make words with short –a. Some books we will be reading are Best Friends for Frances, Chester’s Way, and Frog and Toad are Friends. | |
| Mathematics | | In November, we focused on numbers 0-6 and this month we will work on 7-12 by recognizing, counting, representing, and comparing sets of numbers. In December, children will also identify, extend, and solve problems with number patterns. They will use more and less to compare sets of objects and numbers that represent more and less. They will also make and recognize reasonable estimates for the numbers 12 and less. Answering questions about information depicted in picture graphs will be reinforced. | |
| Music | | The Kindergarten students have started to listen to the sounds of music from the Renaissance Music Style Period (1430 --1600)! We have started with recorder music, and will soon be hearing how a lute sounds! The students are working on their songs for the Lower School Holiday Show coming up on December 19th; the theme for this year's program is "Winter Scenes". Look for details regarding this important school event in Bits.
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| PE | | Kindergarten is continuing to work on different ways to maneuver around the gym. They have been working on combination skills and have been playing tag and fleeing games like Pac-Man. They have been working on different throwing skills, and preparing for different Net Games. They are going to continue using their new skills in the many different Holiday Games! | |
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| Cover Title | | In Kindergarten we have had a wonderful time learning about artists whose name begins with the letter of the week introduced in the classroom. Thus far we have done a Pointilist fall tree mural in the style of Georges Seurat and a relief painting with cardboard pieces in the style of Frank Stella. We learned about Impressionism by doing a water lily painting in the style of Claude Monet and puppy and kitty pastels in the style of Auguste Renoir. For the letter T we learned about the confectionary Pop art of Wayne Thiebaud by decorating cupcakes, cakes and lollipops using patterns and sparkles, glitter and paint. Through December we will learn about the following artists: Charles Burchfield, Louise Nevelson, Hans Hoffmann, Vincent Van Gogh, Mary Cassat, Alexander Calder and Karl Appel. Some of your child's artwork will be kept for a gallery exhibit in May. So he/she may not always be bringing home an artwork about these artists at the end of the week, but be sure to ask him or her what artist they learned about in class! | |
| Spanish | | Kindergarten students are showing great interest in beginning our next unit, called The school. We will begin by learning vocabulary related to school such as supplies, some objects, people who work in the school and different places inside the school. During this unit, we will also include an introduction to different Winter Celebrations and how people celebrate these festivities in different ways.
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| Upcoming Events | | December 15- Holiday Shoppe @ 9:20 am
December 19- Lower school Holiday Show @ 7:00 pm
December 20 - Noon Dismissal, no Kid's Club
December 20- January 2- Winter Holiday Break
January 3- Classes resume
January 5- Field trip to Kennedy Center for Knuffle Bunny
January 9- 13 Peace Week
January 16- M.L. King Holiday- No school | |
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