Kindergarten

It’s hard to believe that our first year at St. ELizabeth is coming to an end!  We’ve only a few weeks left, but many activities are still in store!

Monday, May 17th, will be our last Buddy activity.  We will have our end of the year picnic at Palega Park to celebrate our year together and our “graduations.”  We have shared so many good times with our Big Buddies this year.  We are making our buddies good-bye gifts and wish them well as they begin high school.  The lunch of hot dogs, assorted chips, juice, watermelon, and cookies will be provided…you do not need to send in a lunch on the 17th.  Please sign the field trip form for the picnic at the end of this letter and return it with $4.00 by Monday, May 10th.  Parents are welcome as always! (see note)*

Our school year ends with the Kindergarten Graduation Service held at St. Elizabeth Church 10:00am on Thursday, May 27th.  An “Information Sheet” contains details regarding our special day.  Please call (468-3247) if you have any questions.  May 27th is also our last day of school.  This includes the daycare program as well.

*Note: We are also in need of a few parents to help us cook the hot dogs for the picnic. If you have an hour or so at 11:00 on May 17th and can help us out, please check the bottom of the permission slip.

Kindergarten Graduation Information:

Our Kindergarten Graduation Service will be on Thursday, May 27th at St. ELizabeth Church.  This will serve as an “information sheet” for our graduation.

Time: Our service begins at 10:00 a.m. Children should meet me in the back of the church no later than 9:45 a.m.  Parents, friends, and family should find seats close to the front of the church.  The children will process in together and sit together at the altar.

Dress: Children should wear “Sunday Best.” Girls should wear nice dresses, but please, no long dresses! Boys may wear suits, slacks with a shirt and tie, sweater or vest, etc. No jeans, joggins or sweat suits, or tennis shoes.

Photos: Picture taking (including video cameras!) is prohibited during the Service. However, pictures may be taken during the distribution of diplomas and after our closing song at the altar.  Pictures may also be taken in the church foyer after the Service.

Reception: Each family will receive a letter from our S.S.G. parents requesting items for the reception in the school auditorium after Graduation.  All items should arrive at the auditorium before 9:45 , as our families who are setting up will close up at that time to go over to the church.  The reception will immediately follow the service.  Questions concerning the reception should be directed to our S.S.G. representatives.

THURSDAY, MAY 27, IS YOUR CHILD’S LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!! (Including daycare)

There will be no classes for Kindergarten after May 27.  If you have any questions, please call me at 468-3247.

See you on the 27th!

Valentine’s Day is almost here and there is much activity in our classroom!  We have begun our 18th letter book (P,p) and our reading skills are really improving! An updated phonics word list will be sent home next week. These words should be phonetically sounded out, not memorized. As you know, along with our phonics instruction, we are using the Whole Language approach with our Readable stories that have been coming home every few weeks. Many of the words in this program do need to become part of your child’s sight vocabulary. I have included them on a separate sheet along with the phonics list. These sight words should be put on flash cards and committed to memory. Please keep all phonic words cards and memory word cards together with the stories that come home in a reading folder for your child. Your support is invaluable in helping your child become a great reader!

In Science we have just finished how people move and the exploration of water floatation. We will finish up this section with the investigation of magnets, which is always a fun topic to explore!

In Math, we are exploring larger number groups, including the math skills of adding and subtracting, graphing larger numbers, ordering, problem solving and critical thinking.

Lenten activities will begin on Feb. 17^th with our Ash Wednesday service. Art activities will be included within the instructional program to enhance the children’s understanding of Lent as the most important season of our Catholic faith.

Our Valentine party will be on Friday Feb. 12^th. The Kindergarten will exchange valentines (procedure for filling out cards was sent home last week) and have lots of fun making Valentine art projects and enjoying special activities. If you are one of our “party helpers” you should send in your special food treats the morning of the 12^th.

As we get closer to Easter, the children and I will be working on a special Easter gift for you. We hope you will enjoy our “bunny” made just for you!

KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION BULLETIN

The Kindergarten class of 2010 will graduate at 10:00a.m. on Thursday May 27^th. Please keep this date calendared…. More graduation news will follow, as we get closer to the date!

Sincerely,

Ms. Macchia

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. The children seem to have had a good rest, and are ready to forge ahead in class!

We have reviewed letter sounds C,O,G,A,D,S,L,I,T,F,E,H, and U. Introduced this week is the sound for B. I will be testing for competency in this area as well as memory word recognition, word and sentence reading (phonetically), numeral recognition (to 20), number sets, and patterning. Report cards will go out at the end of January. Please go over it with your child, sign the Second Report signature box on the back and return it to school within the week.

We are studying sound, heat and light in Science this month, as well as winter and penguins. The children will also be learning how certain animals hibernate, migrate, store food, or hunt for food in order to survive the cold winter climates in various parts of the world.

The life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be the focus of our Social Development Unit this month. It is also part of our Kindergarten Bulletin Board outside the classroom. Drop by and take a look at the “dreams” your children have for themselves and our world. Social Studies curriculum this month also focuses on the symbols associated with our state and country (flags, animals, etc.) and the significance of these symbols.

Religious studies this month center on how God gives us many gifts. We will focus on the gifts of our families, friends, teachers, neighbors, community helpers, etc. We are truly blessed with a wonderful community!

REMINDER: Crayons for many of your children have been reduced to tiny pieces. Please check in with your child to see if they could use a new box. The 48-count box seems to be just about the right size for most of the kids.

Have a wonderful January!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Macchia

MERR-R-R-RY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas and the New Year are just around the corner! Our class has been busy working on many new projects!

The children are learning the meaning of Advent during this special time of the year.  Advent prayer services will be held each week as we “light” the appropriate candle on our Advent wreath.  Your child will bring home and Advent box to be kept on the kitchen table, or other location easy for your child to see.  The Advent boxes do not need to be returned to school until after the new year.  Our class will celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 4th with all the school students.  We will put our shoes outside our classroom and perhaps St. Nick will leave us a treat!

We continue to progress in our mastery of letter sounds and reading.  Your child has already brought home his/her first two phonetic reading stories.  We are all very excited!  Please provide a special folder for all of the reading stories. They will accompany each new letter book we master.  The children are encouraged to be the “illustrator” of each of their stories. Each story should be read along with the words from the Word List each night.

Math instruction focuses on numeral formation, number sets, ordinal numbers, concepts of patterning, thinking and problem solving skills.

In Science, we are working on the concept of Matter.  We began with the definition of matter, explored light and heavy objects, and we are continuing with concepts of sounds, heat, and light.

The Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd Grade family Mass and Social will be this coming Sunday, Dec. 6th, 9:30 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Church.  More information will be sent home this week.  We look forward to seeing all our wonderful family members at church and sharing a lovely social after mass!

The students in grades K-8 are also preparing a wonderful Christmas Show for family, friends, and parishioners on  Tuesday, December 8th at 7:30 p.m. in the church.  A special letter will come home this week regarding “show” attire for our Kindergartners.

Our class Christmas party will be on Friday, December 18th.  If you are scheduled for party treats they can be sent in to school the morning of the 18th.  Reminder letters to those families scheduled will be sent out before the party.

I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday for our Family Mass and Social, and also on Wednesday, the 8th for our wonderful Christmas Show!

Wishing you all a wonderful, joyous Christmas and a happy new year!

October rushed by so quickly!  We enter November ready to learn and grow!

Letter sounds C, O, G, A, D, S, L, and I have been introduced thus far.  We will add letters T and F by the end of the month.  Your children are learning to blend the letter sounds into words.  Please use the Phonics Word List (sent home last week and also during our conference time) to help your child practice at home.  The words can be printed on 3×5 cards and used as flash cards, and then go on to other activities.  A break time between skill building activities make the learning process less stressful for our “new” readers.

This month we focus our attention on the first Thanksgiving in Religion, Art, and Social Development activities. The children have created their own bulletin board illustrating what they are personally thankful for, and will be creating murals of the Plymouth colony by working cooperatively in small groups.  Other activities include reading Pilgrim and Native American stories to create our own “story boards”, sharing a Thanksiving art project with our 8th Grade Buddies, and singing for the Seniors of St. Elizabeth Parish.

Math concepts continue to stress classification skills, sets and numerical value, ordinal numbers, patterning, and of course, thinking skills as evidenced in problem solving. Concepts in all academic areas that have already been introduced wil be reviewed and assessed.  Science concepts continue in our theme of the Living and Non-Living as we continue to investigate plant life.  We will also use the scientific method to explore a pumpkin, culminating with a wonderful hands-on cooking project (Pumpkin Chocolate Chip squares for all to enjoy!)

The Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd Grades will go on a walking field trip this month to the Portola Library. We will bring our library cards to take out a book.  Books will be kept at school for individual and class literature, reading and writing projects.  If your child has just sent in a form for a library card, they have already been delivered to the library for processing.  They will have them on hand at the library on the day we visit.

A huge thanks to all the families who helped make out Halloween party so much fun! We are blessed to have such a loving and caring parent community.

Have a wonderful November!

The children are setting in nicely, as we are finishing our first month of school.  I am looking forward to a great year with your children.  I am sure we will see much growth -  socially, spiritually, and academicaly.

Reading Readiness skills that we will concentrate on this month include Listening and Speaking skills (expressive and receptive), Visual and Auditory Discrimination, Rhyming skills, Thinking skills (classifying, inferences, sequencing, recall, etc.) and Vocabulary (contect clues, positional words, etc.). Phonics instruction continues as we begin blending first, medial, and ending sounds into words.

Mathematics instruction continues to work on skills involving position, classification and comparision, with problem solving skills focusing on classification and sorting. Religious instruction focuses on God and our world. Science concepts are drawn from teh Science text as we explore living and nonliving things, especially plants and animals.

Our new season, Autumn, approaches, and we will do many activities associated with it. We will also learn about fire safety, and of course, work on many Halloween projects.

Mandatory Parent Teacher conferences will take place during the week of November 2nd, when report cards are distributed.

Our field trip to Pastorino’s Pumpkin Patch in Half Moon Bay will take place on October 8. If you have not returned the field trip form with the $8 payment, please do so by Friday, September 25th. Directions and details will be following soon. If you are driving, please remember to send in a copy of your car insurance and drivers license along with your consent forms by the 25th.

Have a wonderful October!

Kindergarten Bulletin

Spring is almost here and there is much activity in our classroom!  We have begun our 19^th letter book (V, v) and our reading skills are really improving! An updated phonics word list will be sent home this week. These words should be phonetically sounded out, not memorized. As you know, along with our phonics instruction, we are using the Whole Language approach with our Readable stories that have been coming home every few weeks. Many of the words in this program do need to become part of your child’s sight vocabulary. I have included them on a separate sheet along with the phonics list. These sight words should be put on flash cards and committed to memory. Please keep all phonic words cards and memory word cards together with the stories that come home in a reading folder for your child. Your support is invaluable in helping your child become a great reader!

In Science we have just finished how people move, and are beginning the exploration of water floatation. We will finish up this section with the investigation of magnets, which is always a fun topic to explore!

In Math, we are exploring larger number groups. Included in these chapters are the math skills of adding on, graphing larger numbers, ordering, problem solving and critical thinking.

Lenten activities began on Feb. 25^th with our Ash Wednesday service. Art activities will be included within the instructional program to enhance the children’s understanding of Lent as the most important season of our Catholic faith.

The Kindergarten will be attending 8:00a.m. Mass each Monday during Lent. The children should be at church by 7:55a.m. We will all sit together. When mass ends, I will bring the children back to the classroom with me. Children who arrive after 8:00 should follow regular tardy procedures at school. Mrs. Gaddini will be in class to receive any student who is late.

As we get closer to Easter, the children and I will be working on a special Easter gift for you. We hope you will enjoy our “bunny” made just for you!

KINDERGARTEN GRADUATION BULLETIN

The Kindergarten class of 2009 will graduate at 10:00a.m. on Thursday May 28^th. Please keep this date calendared…. More graduation news will follow, as we get closer to the date!

I wish you all a joyous Spring!

Sincerely,

Ms. Macchia

Kindergarten Bulletin

January 2009

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. The children seem to have had a good rest, and are ready to forge ahead in class!

We have reviewed letter sounds C,O,G,A,D,S,L,I,T,F,E,H, and U. Introduced this week is the sound for B. I will be testing for competency in this area as well as memory word recognition, word and sentence reading (phonetically), numeral recognition (to 20), number sets, and patterning. Report cards will go out at the end of January. Please go over it with your child, sign the Second Report signature box on the back and return it to school within the week.

We will be studying sound, heat and light in Science this month, as well as winter and weather in general. The children will be learning how certain animals hibernate, migrate, store food, or hunt for food in order to survive the cold winter climates in various parts of the world.

The life and teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be the focus of our Social Development Unit this month. It is also part of our Kindergarten Bulletin Board outside the classroom. Drop by and take a look at the “dreams” your children have for themselves and our world.

Religious studies this month center on how God gives us many gifts. We will focus on the gifts of our families, friends, teachers, neighbors, community helpers, etc.

The children and I anxiously await the opening of the new Portola Library in February. It is just a few blocks away from our school. I hope to be able to arrange times for us to visit and have story time with the librarian as well as take out books to read in class. Stay tuned!!

REMINDER: Crayons for many of your children have been reduced to tiny pieces. Please check in with your child to see if they could use a new box. The 48-count box seems to be just about the right size for most of the kids.

Have a wonderful January!!

Sincerely,

Ms. Macchia