Happy New Year 2012!  We start back on January 3rd and have lots of new things to learn!

We start the new year off with a mini-inquiry about winter and I have chosen "Penguins" as our main field of inquiry.  The learning will be guided by your children and the questions they have about penguins.  We will do a variety of art projects and read some lovely literature both fiction and non-fiction about pengiuns. 

In the middle of January, we will begin another major inquiry about Materials and our Five Senses.  A parent letter will come home shortly explaing this inquiry in more detail.

During this term we will begin letter sound mastery.  This is where children will begin to associate the letters with individual sounds.  We should be through the alphabet by spring break in March. I introduce about three sounds a week.  The children brainstorm words beginning with each sound and find items beginning with a specific beginning sound.  They learn how to print the letter correctly but this takes much practice.  At home you can help by making sure they form the letters correctly by making sticks from top down and circle letters by starting like a letter "c" as in a,d,g,o,q,s,.  

In journal, the children will begin using invented spelling as their knowledge of letter sounds increases.  In kindergarten we do not correct spelling or give them the letters to print.  They are practicing the letter sound correlation and only print the sounds they hear in words.

In math, this term we will be counting and identifying numbers beyond 10.  We will continue to show numbers in a variety of ways.  We will continue patterning, shapes, sets and addition.  I will be doing a district assessment of the children's math skills some time in January.  I will contact those parents whose child might need extra time and practice in math. 

I will continue to update this site as new things come up.  You are always welcome to come in the room and look through your child's booklets and ask me for information.