This week marks the conclusion of Unit 8, where we’ve been exploring animal habitats. Our focus questions are: How do habitats help animals meet their needs? and Why do people protect animal habitats? We’ll investigate these questions by reading stories such as Turtle Beach and Day and Night in the Desert. Students will also work on identifying key story elements, including plot, main idea, key details, and summarizing.

In phonics, we'll review the long /o/ sound—listening for it at the beginning and middle of words, blending it into new words, and matching words that share the same sound.

Please continue practicing the April sight words at home! You can find some fun practice ideas here.

This week in Literacy we will be starting our 8th unit, which talks all about Animal Homes.This week specifically we will be focusing on how animals are different, and where different animals live. We will also continue to read and write words and sentences, as well as make the connection between the letter a, and its long sound (heard in words like: April, make, sale). 

This week we will focus on phonological review. We will practice final sound deletion (ex: the word is cat now delete the /t/ → the word becomes ca) and practicing initial sound deletion (ex: the word is stop now delete the /s/ → the word becomes top). We also will read some spring themed stories to get everyone excited for the spring season. 

We will be finishing Unit 7 in our Literacy Curriculum. Students will continue to explore what plants (living things) need to survive and grow, and how plants are able to get what they need from their environment.

For phonemic awareness, students will practice blending CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. We will introduce the letters “Yy” and “Vv,” as well as review the letters “Ww” “Kk” “Qq” and “Ee.”

Students should have received their sight words for the month of March, so please continue to practice those at home. If you’re looking for some fun activities to try, try some of the one’s found here! 

We will be continuing unit 7 of our literacy curriculum investigating the question of: What do plants need to grow? They will expand their knowledge of how living things get what they need to survive from their environment. For phonemic awareness, students will continue to work on blending CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words and phoneme segmentation (breaking apart words into sounds). We will work with the letters short ‘Ee’ and ‘Qq’ this week. 

We will be introducing unit 7! Time is going by so quickly! In unit 7, students explore what living things, mostly plants, need to survive and grow. In addition to this, they will learn how these living things get what they need to survive from their environment. 

For phonemic awareness, students will continue to work on blending CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words and will work with the letters ‘Kk’ and ‘Ww’. We will dive deeper into what are digraphs (a combination of 2 letters that make 1 sound - example: ‘sh’). 

This week we are going to explore culture with two stories: Pass it Down and Cultures and Holidays around the World. In these two stories, we will learn about how traditions are continued through families and take a closer look at how specific holidays are celebrated like Kwanza and Harvest festivals. Alongside this learning, we will also be practicing our letter sounds J and F. We will also continue to practice blending cvc words with vowels o, i, u, and a. Lastly, please continue to work with your kindergarten on their sight words. We will be sending home the February sight words this Friday in their Friday folders. 

This week we are going to continue our previous explorations of homes! This week, we will read a book about the steps of constructing a house and pondering the essential question, ‘What makes a home?”. We will be introducing the sounds of /Gg/ and reviewing the sound of /Rr/, and /Oo/. The goal is for your students to isolate those sounds at the beginning of a word, in the end of a word, and eventually in the middle of a word. Please practice sight words at home with your student.

This Week, we will begin Unit 4 of our literacy curriculum. Your students will be introduced to the letter sound of /b/ and /c/ and practice phoneme segmentation, which is breaking apart words into their individual sounds (ex: bat  → /b/  /a/  /t/). We will be learning about homes during this unit and answering the question, what makes a home? Your students will read a variety of texts that teach them about different types of homes and why homes are important. They will begin to understand why we need homes and how homes are built around the world.

This week in Literacy, we will be finishing our last lesson in our unit about pushes and pulls! In this lesson, we will dive into two realistic fiction books. One about fun ways to move and the other about rides at an amusement park.  For Phonemic awareness, we will identify words that begin with the same sound. For phonological awareness, we will be introducing a new superhero letter… the letter i! Feel free to ask your kindergartener the other superhero letters we’ve learned so far! Lastly, don’t forget about our November sight words! We’ll be adding our December sight words soon!