Hello Kindergarten Families!

Our first three days of Kindergarten have been a huge success! I am truly SO impressed with the easy transition your children have made.  As parents, you have all done an amazing job at raising confident, independent, and respectful children. You should all be very proud of them!

Next week we will continue to focus on building a kind and caring classroom community by learning each other's names, singing songs, playing games, doing fun art projects and most importantly learning and reviewing our classroom rules and procedures.

We will begin our "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" theme which focuses on the letters and sounds of the alphabet through themed books and art activities. We will begin daily practice of our Zoo Phonics Program which also focuses on letter names/sounds. Lastly, we will begin a short unit of familiar Nursery Rhymes to practice rhyming and segmenting of simple words. We will do some fun nursery rhyme art projects and practice that tricky skill of cutting with scissors. :)

REMINDER: Afternoon Kindergarten starts at 10:35. Beginning on Monday August 22nd, the drop off will be different. Please drop off your child at the library to the right of the classroom. Please have your child place their backpack along the wall and put their folder in the yellow bin. We will begin our days Monday - Thursdays in the library. On Friday please bring your child to the classroom for our "Fun Friday time". Wednesday, August 31st and all other restructured Wednesdays, the morning drop-off routine will be different. All kindergarteners will go directly to the upper playground before school begins instead of their classrooms. We will continue to practice this routine with the students so they fully understand the playground safety rules and know where to line up. Our yard duty helper, Beth Catesi, and a teacher will be supervising in the morning beginning at 7:40. If you arrive earlier between 7:30- 7:40, please walk your child to the lower playground where the yard duty helpers will be, and they will walk all students to the upper playground at 7:40.

Each week I will send you an email to update you on all of the fun and exciting things going on in my class. I'll do this as soon as I have everyone's email address. Until then this same information will be posted here on our class blog which can be found through our school's website.  If you prefer to NOT be on this weekly email list, please let me know and I won't include you.

Please remember to send your child's "Homework Folder" (the plastic folder that was provided on the first day of school) EVERY day in your child's backpack. I use this every day to send school work and important information home to you.  Also, if your child is going home differently than their regular routine, please send a written note in their homework folder so I can make sure everyone gets home safely.

Thank you for all of the wonderful supplies that were donated this week! I am so happy to have such a supportive group of families this year!

Have a great weekend,
Cathy Werner