January 30, 2012
Dear Parents,
Although we are still working on letter recognition and sounds, we are at the time of the school year now where the children should know most of the letters and the sounds associated with them. As you can see by the increase in the number of sight words and word families, in the second half of the year we will spend a lot of time teaching the children how to connect the sounds to sound out words. This skill is necessary to be successful in first grade. Most of you attended the Open House. By now you may be seeing what I was talking about when I said that Kindergarten is not what it used to be (reading sight words and word families, geometric solids, ordinal numbers) whew!!! :-) I just love teaching this age because everything is new and they get so excited when they can "do it"! Whether it is learning the sound of a letter, reading a word, writing a number, or their whole name, their eyes just light up! It is great!
Every child learns at a different pace. If your child already knows his or her letters, I would suggest making flash cards with the sight words and word families. Practice these with your child. Make a game of it by turning them over and having them pick one and say it or put them different places in the house and have your child find them. Have your child tell you a sentence with the word. Have him or her write the word or a short sentence with the word and draw a picture. Practice does not have to be tedious and should be fun! Pick a few each day so they don’t get burned out.
If your child does not know all their letters and sounds yet, concentrate on these. Learning the sounds and letters is a basic skill that all other Reading depends upon. Children who don’t know their letters and sounds will have a considerable struggle in first grade. Children are expected to go to first grade knowing all of the letters, the sounds they make, and some sight words. They also must know all the numbers 0 - 20. The beginning chapters in the first grade math book are about addition and subtraction. If they don’t know the numbers, they won’t be able to add and subtract. As I said before, when you practice with your child make it fun.
If you need any ideas or just want to touch base with me to see how your child is progressing toward first grade, please send a note or call the school and set up an appointment. I can meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays at 3:05. If that time is not convenient for you, we will work out a time to meet or we can have a phone conference. I am usually available to have a conference by phone while the children are at P.E. from 12:15 - 12:40. If I am not available to talk at that time, leave a message and I will call you back the next day. Scheduling the phone conference ahead of time would be helpful. Kindergarten is the basis for your child’s entire school career. I want to make sure we give him or her every opportunity to "fly".
Sincerely, Karen Adams
MY LINKS MY CALENDAR
NAVIGATION »
