Happy New Year!

Kindergarten Homework packets are sent home on Tuesdays and are due back on Thursdays.

  Math Home Links should be completed as assigned.

Literacy bags are sent home on Thursdays and returned on Tuesdays.

Library books are due back on Mondays.

Read to your child daily!

Additional Activities for Practice

Social Studies and Language Arts

• Read a book with your child. Let the child read the words he or she knows and you read the rest. Most kindergartners already have a bank of sight words-- the, and, to, go, we, my, with, etc. It makes some interesting reading!
• Take out some old newspapers or magazines, scissors and glue. Write a heading at the top of a large sheet of paper: Words I Can Read. Have your kindergartner cut and glue words she can read from the magazines or newspapers. This little project can last over several days or even weeks. Display it in her bedroom and invite her to show off her reading skills to friends and relatives.
• Tell your child a bedtime story instead of reading it.
• Find interesting places to read. Make a fort with a blanket over a table. Read in the attic, garage, or bathtub. Take a flashlight and read in the closet.
• Invite your child to help with a shopping list. S/he can write the words phonetically, copy them from packages, or cut them out of sales flyers.

 Math or Science

• Identify and count money with your kindergartner whenever you can.
• The grocery store is full of great math practice experiences! Show the produce scale, what it is for, and how it works. Compare the sizes of packages. Compare the weights of different sized cans-- is the bigger can always the heaviest? Why does a small package of rice feel heavier than a big package of noodles? Point out the different ways things are measured and packaged: a dozen eggs or rolls, a quart or gallon of milk, a ten pound bag of potatoes and a five pound bag.
• The grocery store is full of great science learning experiences! Tell your curious kindergartner where food comes from. It is important that they understand that Rice Krispies are from rice, Cheetos are from corn, eggs are from chickens, and hamburger used to be alive. Yes, we do eat dead animals! Gross!! Eeewww!!
• Explain what parts of the plants we are eating when we eat vegetables-- roots for carrots, stems for celery, seeds for peas, flowers for broccoli, leaves for lettuce, etc.
• What can you find in the grocery store that is food for animals? Challenge your child to name an animal that might eat some of the things you've collected in the grocery cart.
• Plant some seeds indoors and monitor their growth. Talk about what seeds need to grow and that we need many of the same things.

Social Studies and Social Skills

• Take some time to name emotions. Children (and many adults) tend to have very limited vocabularies when it comes to explaining feelings. When asked "How do you feel about that?" a typical child may respond with such simple words as "good' or "bad." Research shows that children who are taught the proper vocabulary are able to express their feelings more accurately than those who are not. Talk with your child about what frustrates you, worries you, and excites you! Your child will pick these words up in the proper context and begin to use them to express his own emotions. Act out emotion labeling words like frustrated, furious, annoyed, embarassed, excited and surprised. Make illustrations and turn them into a book. What fun would a digital camera add to this project?
• Help your child review their day at bedtime. What was one thing they did that made them feel proud? One thing that made another person happy? One thing that surprised them? One thing they learned today? Choose two or three questions and always ask the same ones. This may be hard for them at first, but after several days they will become very good at it and look forward to the bedtime ritual. It is an excellent way to develop self-reflection skills and beginning goal setting even for 5 year olds!
• Conflict is inevitable between children. Help your child develop negotiation skills by pretending and role playing. Puppets or stuffed animals are very helpful. You and your child can pretend that two stuffed animals are fighting about something. It is easy to set up and try out different scenerios when the stuffed animals are the ones being mean to each other!