September 18-21

What a beautiful weekend! Hope you had a chance to relax and enjoy the warm weather while it's still here.

Reminders:

• Feel free to send a bag/box of snacks to keep in your child's locker so that you don't need to send one every day! 
• Directory forms are due Tuesday. 

Upcoming Events: 
September 19, 5:30: Family Night, Hot Dogs and How to Help

September 20: School Picture Day
September 22: No School for Students
September 22: Fox Cities Marathon Kids Fun Run, Click Here to Register (be sure to specify New Directions in the drop-down when you register)
September 27: Homecoming Parade at 4:30 (4:00 line-up)
October 8: Ride to Read bike event  10:00-1:00 (more information to come)

Here's what's happening in Kindergarten this week:

Reading: This week we will be starting a new bend in our reading unit, meaning the focus shifts a bit. We have been reading learn-about-the-world books (informational texts) to practice rereading and thinking about how pages go together. This week, we will begin to focus on reading old favorite storybooks. We have been reading books such as Mrs. Wishy-Washy, The Carrot Seed, and The Three Billy Goats Gruff throughout the last couple of weeks. Now, we can “read” by retelling the story using the character’s voice and saying more and more of the story. Have your child practice reading a familiar book at home! They are great storytellers!

Writing: In writing, we have started to create books! Students are using packets of three or more pages to write about things they know about. First, they plan what they are going to write about by pointing to the page and talking through their book. Then, they draw and write! Later this week, we will be working with writing buddies that will ask questions about our writing; this will help students to look over their writing and start to think about revising. Finally, we will continue to stretch out words to label our work.

Math: Mathematicians will learn about adding and subtracting this week. We will also discuss the partners of a number. Partners are any numbers that work together to make another number (i.e. 3+1 and 2+2 are partners of 4). We will build numbers using many different materials including our purple, blue, and red tiles
   Here are what they look like!



Social Studies: Now that our classroom rules are posted and ready to help us reach our hopes and dreams, we will spend some time practicing! Students will learn what it should look like, sound like, and feel like to follow the rules in our school. By creating rules together and reflecting on what each of them means,  we will create a safe and friendly place where we can learn!