Welcome to Kindergarten!

We are very excited to begin this new year in kindergarten!  We are looking forward to all of the new adventures and learning that will take place throughout the year. 

The Meet and Greet is on Tuesday, August 20.  You may choose to come during the morning session 10:00-11:00 or afternoon 3:30-4:30.  We are very excited to meet you!  Don't forget to bring your school supplies so that you don't have to carry them to school on the first day. 

Below is our contact information:

Karen Gallucci  330-562-6199 ext. 2218 or kgallucci@aurora-schools.org
Cyndi Haughey 330-562-6199 ext. 2199 or chaughey@aurora-schools.org

Summer Notes

Dear Families,

We would like to take this time to thank you for everything this school year.  It has been a great year and we thank you for all of your thoughtfulness and support throughout. 

We have been working hard this year in literacy stations and have learned so much about how letters sound, reading strategies, and fluency.  We have been practicing in small groups 4-5 times a week with each child at their instructional reading level to make sure they met the end of kindergarten benchmark (Level D.)  Therefore, we would like to ensure the students maintain their level as they enter first grade.  (Each child will have their reading level noted in the comments section of the report card.)  Please practice reading for a few minutes several (3-4) times a week.  Here are the following areas that you can work on:

1. Reading strategies--When your child comes to an unknown word, they need to "TRY SOMETHING!" Don't tell them! They can try one of the following strategies:

• Get your mouth ready to make the first sound in the word and then look at the picture.
• Chop the word, sound out the word, slide through the word
• Go back and reread
• Look for chunks in the word (find -at within splat)
• Think:  Does that make sense?  I say to the students "I heard you say...is that what it says in this story?"  See if they can fix the mistake without you showing it to them.
• Skip the word and come back
• Try a different vowel sound (try short vowel sound and then long vowel sound)

2.   Comprehension--Ask your child questions when they are finished reading a story.  Who was in the story?  Where did it happen?  Retell the story to me. Was there a problem in the story?  What happened in the beginning?  Middle? End?

3.  Fluency--phrased reading, not word by word reading.

In Math, we have been working diligently on becoming fluent within 5.  This means that we can be automatic with adding and subtracting numbers up to 5.  Please continue to practice these flashcards over the summer if you find that this is not yet automatic for your child.

Thank you again for all of the support you have given us and your child throughout the year!  We hope you have a relaxing and fun summer!

May 28-31

Reminders for next week

• No School on Monday!
• Thursday is our end of the year party.  Remember to wear your tie-dye t-shirt, sunscreen and a bottle of water.
• Friday is our last day of kindergarten!  Report cards will come home with your child.  Your child will not be able to purchase a school lunch or milk on Friday.  Please make sure your child has a packed lunch!
• We are collecting all of the "book in a bag".  Please make sure you return them to school. 
• Please make sure you return all library books.

May 13-31

Important News

• Please remember to send back your "book in a bag".  We will be collecting all of the books since we are close to the end of the year!
• Please remember to turn in your library books.
• Wear your tie-dye t-shirt on Thursday, May 30 for our end of the year party.

Field Trip

• We will visit Craddock on Wednesday, May 22 for a tour of the school and to meet a first grade teacher.  Look for permission slips to come home this week. 

Language Arts

• We will be learning about living and non-living things.  We will begin a unit on seeds.  We are planting a seed in our classroom and are watching it grow!

Math

• We will be reviewing all concepts learned this year. 

Tie-dye t-shirts!

We are excited to see how our tie-dye shirts turn out!  Please remember to wear them on Tuesday, May 7 and Thursday, May 30! We can't wait to see everyone in our class color! Mrs. Haughey's class is red and Mrs. Gallucci's class is purple.

April 29-May 3 & May 6-10

Important News

• Please wear old clothes to school on Monday, April 29 for Tie-dye day!  The tie-dye t-shirts will come home on Monday.  It will include washing instructions. 
• Spring Music Concert is Friday, May 3 at 9:30.
• Field Day is Tuesday, May 7.  Please make sure your child is wearing tennis shoes and has a water bottle. 
• We will being completing end of the year assessments during the month of May.  Therefore, please make sure your child is well rested and eats a healthy breakfast. 
• Please continue to work on sight words and math facts. 
• Please return your "book in a bag" as we are going to be concluding this program for the year and we would like to have all of our books returned.  Thank you!

Language Arts and Science
We will begin a unit on insects.  We will learn about all types of insects!  Have you heard about the caterpillars that we have been observing in our classroom?  We have been writing in our journals about our observations.  Now, we are waiting for them to make a chrysalis.

We will continue to talk about long vowel sounds, and adding -s and -es to make plural nouns.

Math
We will continue our unit on place value and practice our math fluency facts to 5.  We will solve addition and subtraction story problems. 

Earth Day

Today, we were Earth Protectors and picked up trash along the trail behind Miller School.  We filled 4 garbage bags with trash!  We want to keep our Earth clean!