Mrs. McLeod's Early Start

The letter this week is letter Vv.  We will be making a vase with flowers in in it. We will also be making a volcano erupt and doing a volcano craft. We will also be doing some problem solving. Please continue to review all the letters and letter sounds that we have studied this year. 

          Please make sure you send back a change of clothes for your child if your child has used his/her clothes.  This way, we always have something for them to wear in case they need it. 

Home Activities:

*Vv Van – draw the outline of a van on a piece of paper.  Help you child find Vv in magazines and newspaper headlines.  Circle the letters and cut them out.  Help your child paste the letters on the van.  You can also find pictures of things beginning with the letter V to glue on the van.

*Reading together – make reading together a priority. Talk about the pictures, sentences, and words on the page.  Ask questions about the characters, setting, problem, and solution.  Most of all, have fun!!  Enjoy this special time with your child. 

This week we are learning about seeds, doing experiments with seeds, and planting seeds.  We will also be making fruit dip and tasting different fruits with the dip.  Our new letter this week is letter Qq.  Please review the letters and letter sounds that we have learned this year with your child. 

Home Activities:

*Qq Hunt – Look at magazine and newspaper headlines with your child.  Circle the words that begin with capital Q and lowercase q.  Count the number of letters you find.  You can also cut out or draw pictures of words beginning with Qq.

*Continue to read every night!

*Practice position words (between, behind, above, beside, below, front, in, back, out, under)

*Practice counting to 20

*Practice personal information

The letter of the week is letter Cc.   Keep reviewing all of the letters learned.  Knowing all letters and letter sounds will give your child a good start in kindergarten next year.  We will also be talking about animals.  We will talk about how different animals move and our favorite animals.  This week we will be getting a fish as a class pet!

Home Activities:

*Practice personal information (name, birthday, parent’s name, address)

*Practice cutting

*Practice writing first and last name

*Read – look for pictures, letters, numbers, words and sentences when you read

 The letter of the week is letter Mm.  We will sort M&Ms by color, count them, graph them and then eat them! We are working on sorting and grouping objects in class.  Please continue to review the letters and letter sounds that we have learned so far.  It is important for your child to know all the letters and letter sounds when he/she goes to kindergarten next year.

Home Activities:

*Mm Hunt – Look for Mms in newspaper and magazine headlines.  Underline the Mms you find and count them together.  Encourage your child to trace the letters so he/ she can familiarize herself/himself with their shape.  Find pictures of things that begin with the letter Mm, have your child cut them out, and glue them on a paper.

*Compare objects at home.  Have your child tell which one is longer, shorter, bigger, etc.   Have him/her sort objects into categories (same color, size, shape).

*Please practice your child’s personal information with him/her.  This is important information for your child to learn.

Valentine Exchange

We will be exchanging valentines in class next Friday, February 14.  Please send in a card for each child in the class.  We will be making our Valentine bags for the cards in class this week.

Wednesday is World Read Aloud Day. Your child can dress up as a favorite book character. We will be going to an assembly that day as well.

This week we will look at how things move.  We will test to see which surface ice will slide on faster (the floor, carpet, bubble wrap, a table, or rubber mats).  We will also play a game called the ice dice game. We will also count mini marshmallows to put on our hot chocolate craft and taste hot chocolate too.   Our new letter this week is letter B.  Please review this letter as well as the letters and letter sounds that we have learned this year (S, T, P, O, Y, W, U, X, F, A, Z).

Home Activities:

*Bb Poster – Gather Bbs from newspaper or magazine headlines.  Help your child make a Bb poster.  You can decorate the poster by adding pictures, photographs, or drawings of things whose names start with Bb.

*Learning the ABCs – Your child will listen to the alphabet book Alphabet Under Construction this week,  Page through other alphabet books together, paying special attention to the ABC order.  Encourage your child to predict what letter you will read about next in the book. 

The letter of the week is letter Zz. We will be making a zoo craft and reading a zoo book.   Please continue to review all the letters and letter sounds that we have learned so far this year.  Daily review makes a big difference.  We are also practicing sorting objects.  We sort shapes by size, color, and shape.  Have your child practice sorting things at home and tell how he/she sorted the objects. 

            Suffolk Reader Program – We hope that you are enjoying the books that are sent home each Wednesday.  Please return the books each Tuesday.  We will give you new books each Wednesday.  You can have your child picture read the books, find letters, or tell you what is happening in the story. 

Home Activities:

*Zz Collage – write Zz at the top of a large piece of paper.  Help your child find Zz and pictures of objects whose names begin with Zz in magazines or catalogs.  Glue them onto the paper.  You can also draw your own pictures of Zz objects.  If you do a collage, please send it in to share with the class.

*Play letter and letter sound games to review letters.

This week, we will be talking about feelings.  We will emphasize imagining how someone else is feeling and responding to their feelings.   The letter of the week is Aa.  Please review all of the letters and letter sounds that we have learned this year:  S, T, P, O, W, X, Y, U, F. It is important to review letters regularly so that your child can master the entire alphabet this year.

Home Activities:

Aa Hunt – Look for words that begin with capital and lowercase Aa with your child in magazine and newspaper headlines.  Circle and count the letters you find.  Encourage your child to write the letters on a blank of piece of paper.

Counting Books – Your child will listen to the counting book One Moose, Twenty Mice this week.  Ask him/her to tell about the animals in the book.  Look through other counting books with your child.  Encourage him/her to count the objects on each page and to predict what number will come next. 

Alphabet Books- use alphabet books to review letters and sounds with your child.  You can check one out of the library or make one of your own.

Alphabet Concentration – use letter cards of the letters that we have learned so far (uppercase and lowercase) to play concentration with your child.  When you pick a letter, you have to name the letter before you pick another letter. 

What we are learning:

          We hope everyone had a restful and fun winter break! This week we talk about how things work.  We will use sticks and playdough to build structures and measure sticks using unifex cubes. Letter Ff is our new letter this week.  Please continue to review all letters learned so far (S,T ,P, O,  X, Y,U,W). 

Home Activities:

*Ff animal poster:  draw a picture of a fish on a large piece of drawing paper.  Tell you child that the word fish begins with the letter Ff.  Children can decorate the poster by adding pictures of animals whose names begin with Ff. such as a frog or a fox. 

*Continue to review name, address, parent name, and birthday with your child.

*Read every night! 

Dates to Remember:

Monday, January 20– Martin Luther King Holiday – no school

January 24-29 Early Dismissal

This week we are reviewing the letters that we have learned so far this year and reviewing the five senses.  We will be reviewing the numbers to 10 by drawing number cards and making a block tower using the number on the card.  We will be sending home all of the crafts that we made this month on Thursday.  We hope that you enjoy them!  We hope that you have a blessed holiday season!  

This week we will be learning more about our five senses.  We will make sound makers for the sense of hearing and do a water and oil experiment to use our sense of sight to see what happens and record it.  We are also working on different crafts that we will be sending home next week.  The letter we are studying is letter Ww.  Continue to review the other letters that we have learned this year (S, T, P, O, X, Y).

Home Activities:

*Ww Collage:  write Ww at the top of a large piece of paper.  Help your child find pictures of objects whose names begin with Ww in newspapers, magazines, or catalogs.  Make a collage with the pictures.  You can also draw your own pictures.