Dear Parents,

Welcome back. We hope everyone had a wonderful and restful break. Mrs. Palm, Mrs. Barbuto and I are looking forward to this last trimester. We will be very busy and have many exciting things to do. On April 27th we will visit the Audubon (Burr Street location), on May 10th we will visit Sport Hill Farm, and on June 2 we will venture to the Bronx Zoo with the Pre-K. We will also celebrate Earth Day on April 21. The day will be exciting, with visits from the Audubon, New Pond Farm and the Maritime Museum. The students will also lunch outside with an Upper School student, so please be sure to send your child with a blanket or towel to share. We are also finalizing our Discovery Room in kindergarten. The new furniture and activities are coming in and the students are really enjoying the activities we have already received.

Our literacy theme will be “Spring is Here”. April is also National Poetry Month. We will be reading books about spring and writing stories relating to spring. We will also be reading poetry and writing our own poetry. We will complete our study of long vowels with the letter U. We will also complete our unit of study on Dr. Seuss, by writing our own “Seuss-like” rhymes in the form of poetry. We will continue our study of word families, but  we will also begin our study of blends and digraphs. Please note that we will no longer have show and tell, because we have completed our study of all of the letters and their sounds. Please continue to read your child’s word cards and books with them at home. Always return these items to your child’s book bag when you are finished reviewing them.

During May, in the Writer’s Workshop students will be spending a lot of time writing fairy tales. We will be reviewing structural elements like beginning, middle and end. We will also be focusing on conventions like spelling and capitalization and continue to work on the editing process. We will introduce story elements like characterization, setting and plot. The culminating event will be students reading their finished fairy tales outside on the stage for their classmates and parents.

Dear Parents,

We are happy to announce that Mrs. Barbuto gave birth to baby Sylvia on March 1. Sylvia weighed 9 pounds 3 ounces and is 20 inches long. Congratulations to Mrs. Barbuto and family! Kindergarten has had a smooth transition with Mrs. Palm filling in for Mrs. Barbuto. Mrs. Palm is a wonderful addition to our kindergarten team!

March is an exciting month in kindergarten. March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and this is the month we focus on Dr. Seuss and his books. The students will be creating their own Dr. Seuss stories that will be compiled into a book.  His books also review many of the short vowel sounds and word families. Dr. Seuss is a wonderful transition into poetry, which is our unit of study in April.  The students are currently working on long vowel sounds at the beginning, middle, and end of words. The students are learning about silent letters, like “Sneaky E” that help to make the other vowels say their name.

In math, the students are working on telling time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour. The students are also working on place value, which should help remedy any number reversals that still exist. The 100th day of school is Friday, March 4 and the students are presenting posters that display 100 items in different ways. The students will be creating many writing pieces based on the number 100.

In social studies, the students will study different land formations, regions, and biomes. They will continue to work on their mapping skills. They will learn to read a map by using symbols. We will discuss similarities and differences between a globe and a map. The students will work to create their own community, and they will also work in groups to create different biomes in our Discovery Room.

In science, the students are studying dinosaurs. They are learning about the different types of dinosaurs, their eating habits, habitats, and why they became extinct. The students are also learning about fossils and are going to make their own fossils.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Spring Vacation.

Thank you,

Mrs. O’Connell, Mrs. Barbuto, and Mrs. Palm

Dear Parents,

Happy Chinese New Year! We hope everyone is continuing to have a great 2011. The children are still very excited about school and they are working very hard in school. Mrs. Ann Palm will be joining Mrs. Barbuto three mornings a week starting in the first week of February, as she will be filling in for her during her maternity leave at the end of the month. Mrs. Palm has had a long career in early childhood education, most recently at King School in Stamford where she taught kindergarten for ten years before retiring. We are happy to have her with us.

In math, we are continuing our study of measurement and will begin a new unit on time. Please continue to practice counting money with your child. In social studies, we will continue our study of famous African Americans. We will discuss slavery, civil rights, and we will focus on the geography of the slave vs free states and the Freedom Trail. We will also learn about the origin of the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. We will discuss the US Presidents, especially Washington and Lincoln. In science, the students are finishing up our study of animals in winter by learning about groundhogs. We are learning facts about real groundhogs as well as exploring folklore that surrounds them. We will then return to our study of animal groups and learn about fish, amphibians, and reptiles. We will study the life cycles and common characteristics of each class of animal. In literacy and writer’s workshop, we will practice using the writing trait of voice and begin to understand how it personalizes one’s writing. Our letters of the month are Y, Z, W, and X. Our short vowel of the month is O and the O word families.We are also focusing on characters in stories and reinforcing comprehension.

Please note our trip to the Garbage Museum has been changed from February 2 to February 9. We will have a simple Valentine’s Day Celebration; children may bring in Valentines for all of their friends in kindergarten and they will pass them out during class.Snow Day packets have been sent home with your children. These activities incorporate the braiding of literacy and mathematics with problem solving and critical thinking. Please feel free to complete a few of the activities on the snow days.

Thank you,

Mrs. O and Mrs. B

Happy New Year and welcome back to Kindergarten! We hope everyone had a wonderful restful break. We will be taking our field trip to the Audubon to look for, identify, and learn about animal tracks. In Science, the students are learning about animal groups, habitats and how animals survive in winter. In Social Studies, the students will  learn about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and we will begin our study of influential African Americans. Students will learn to discern between fact and fiction and will create a fact book about themselves. They will present their books to the class. We will also discuss land formations, regions, and city life versus farm life. In Math, we are starting our unit on measurement, both standard and nonstandard units. In Writer’s Workshop, the students are working on the word choice trait. The students are learning to use different and more exciting adjectives in their writing. The students will work on writing winter stories. In literacy, we will focus on the letters L, Q, D,  J, and U. The children will listen to many winter stories and poems, specifically  stories by author and illustrator Jan Brett.

Happy Winter!

Mrs. O’Connell and Mrs. Barbuto

Happy fall! Kindergarten is off to a great start! Our first field trip to Blue Jay Orchards was a success, even with our detour! This month we will visit the Discovery Museum for a program on the Five Senses. All of the children should be practicing their word cards and reading their books.

In literacy, we will learn the beginning, middle, and ending sounds for  letters T, B, N, and H. Please remember Riddle Time Share is the first day of the school week! We will be working on the short e sound for the entire month and working with the short e word families.

In Writer’s Workshop, we will be reading and writing  stories about our families. We will also begin our 6 + 1 Traits of Writing Program. We will begin with generating ideas for our writing.

In Math, we will continue our study of graphing and numbers one through ten. We will write the numbers and consider the value of each number. We will also introduce the concepts of symmetry, patterning, and fractions.

In Social Studies, we will continue our unit on Citizenship. We will be working on reading and understanding maps and discussing national symbols, our leaders, voting, and living with freedom.

In Science, we will continue our study of apples. We will begin our study of living and nonliving things and our unit on worms.

Have a great October!

Welcome to kindergarten. We are so excited to have the privilege of teaching your children. We are off to a fast start this year and the children are already learning their new routine. This month we will work on becoming acclimated to our classroom and our new schedule. Riddle Time Share will be every Monday. We will remind the children of the upcoming letter for the next week, so they will  be able to find their item they would like to share over the weekend. The letters we will be studying this month are S, M, T. Each week we will introduce five new words for the children to learn to read. These words will come home in the word box and are to be returned at the end of the week for the children to be assessed. Please practice these words with your child every night.  Your child will also bring home a book to read each week, please practice reading the book with your child. Please make sure your child returns their home folder each morning. Please look in the folder every night and empty the contents. Back to School Night for the Lower School will be held on Tuesday, September 28, 2010. Our first field trip will be to Blue Jay Orchards on Wednesday, September 29. A field trip permission field will be coming home in the next week. We are looking forward to a wonderful school year. Please email us with any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Mrs. O’Connell and Mrs. Barbuto