A New Year...2010-11

Welcome to this blog. This is where you can come each week (Hopefully, I will write at least once a week if not more.) to find out what your child is learning and how you can help support his/her learning. I am so excited to have your child in my class this year! I know it will be exciting and you will be amazed at how much your child will learn! Some students come to me not knowing any of their letters or numbers. That is fine because they will learn them quickly. Your child may get frustrated at first because he/she is over whelmed but help him/her to stick with it and have fun because it will get easier for him/her. On the other hand, some students come to me knowing how to read and count to 100. This is also fine. If your child is frustrated at already knowing what we are learning, help him/her to stick it out because very soon things will get harder. One of the wonderful things about kindergarten is that that kindergarten children are eager to learn and usually love being at school so are very open to anything we do.

We are very fortunate to have small reading groups so that I can place children in groups that will best fit their needs. The groups usually start off pretty simple but the higher groups then start going at a quicker pace to get to a place that is more challenging.

Our first three weeks in phonics we will learn the letters and sounds for "l," "o," and "g" (and the word "log"). The first week in Reading Mastery we will learn the letters and sounds for "m" and "a." These would be great sounds to practice now if your child doesn't know them.

Math starts off with 1 and 2. I know this sounds simple but we will do many things with these two numbers and then go on to 3. The math we are doing starts off with the numbers 1-5 and then 6-10. It spends a lot of time on these numbers because totally understanding these numbers (not just recognizing the digits and counting in order but taking them apart and putting them back together and exploring them in pictures, stories, and various ways) gives children a stronger base for math and problem solving throughout their school careers.

If you ever have any questions please ask me. Communication is one of the keys to your child's success.