Kindergarten Newsletter- Week 1

Dear Kinder Parents,

This week has been so memorable. As St. Luke's Episcopal Church and School joined together to celebrate Episcopal Schools Week, we reflected upon what it means to have such a powerful community supporting your desire to raise your children in a Godly way. Whether you were able to attend last Sunday's 11:00 service, Tuesday's Blessing of the Pets, or this morning's school-wide Chapel, we hope you felt the love that each of our SLES faculty and staff feels for your child, and indeed, for your whole family. We believe in nurturing children through joyful learning and moral development, grounded in the grace and love of God. Our Kindergarten strives to inspire curiosity, challenge intellect in age-appropriate ways, nurture spiritual growth, and create a community of learners whose lifelong values will be rooted in wisdom, faith and grace. As your child's teachers, we strive to practice our faith and embody the SLES mission every day. Please pray for us, that we may each bring the Lord's goodness and light to each of your children, every day...

Thank you for discussing with your child their specific successes and opportunities for growth we shared with you at last Friday's conferences. Continue to help your child develop independence and practice cooperation and responsibility through behavioral accountability at school and at home, and by assigning them developmentally appropriate, achievable chores on a regular basis. This will not only benefit their classroom efforts, but also give them confidence and pride through their meaningful contributions to your family life. When report cards come out at the end of this First Quarter, the various academic skill assessments (S for secure, D for developing, B for beginning, and NI for not yet introduced) will reflect your child's progress and opportunities for growth, as we discussed in our conference. The citizenship grade (E for excellent, S for satisfactory, P for progressing, N for needs improvement, and U for unsatisfactory) is a direct reflection of how your child's behavior aligns with our St. Luke's Way ("...conduct is guided by love and respect for God, our school, our neighbors and ourselves...demonstrated through behavior that is courteous and cooperative.")

"We must act out of love, teach love, model love, and love one another in our community above all else, or all else will be meaningless..." from The Idea of an Episcopal School

Blessings,

Mrs. McIntire and Mrs. Pruitt

In addition to our Singapore Math resources, students explore math using various math manipulatives, singing number songs and playing math games to build mastery of concepts. Ask your child to practice grouping objects in sets of 10. Look at a (print) calendar and ask them to notice which months have 30 days, 31 days, etc. Taking time to build a firm foundation and confidence in early math skills will help your child find joy when exploring higher level math concepts and applications.

Sight Word Review

Phonogram Review

By the end of this first quarter, your child should have absolutely accurate mastery of letter identification in both lower and upper case forms, phonogram mastery (sounds made by letters/groups of letters) which we have been covering in recent weeks, sight word recall (read instantly, without pausing to think) for the ten Frye words recommended for mastery over the summer months-the, of, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it-in addition to the UFLI words covered in this quarter- am, as, at, an, if, I. Please help your child practice at home, for fluency and confidence. (Always read the Friday newsletters, as we tell you what sounds and words your child is practicing at school and might need additional practice at home.)

Next week we learn about nouns and will continue developing listening and comprehension skills, along with a review of fact vs. opinion, real/make-believe, and story elements (characters, setting, plot/problem & solution, and theme/big idea. Ask your child to identify these elements when you read fiction selections to them at night. When your scholar brings home their reading folders, we ask that they practice reading the stories with you at least three times, or even more if needed to develop word mastery and confidence. This does not replace the time that you spend reading with/to them each evening! Research shows us that time spent reading with your child is the single most significant indicator of their future success and enjoyment as readers!

Kindergarten is excited to get into the "spirit" of the season as we begin our fascinating science unit, Bats! Bones! Spiders! Next week we will turn our attention to that fascinating flying mammal of the night, bats. Your child will learn that there are many different varieties of bats, that they can be found on many different continents, most bats use echolocation to find food, and that although there IS a "vampire bat", there is no such thing as a vampire. ;)0

We need your help for our next exciting creativity project! Each fall we ask our dads/ significant father figures to join in the fun of inventing, along with their child...Here's the catch: Based on the poem, "The Do Nothing Machine", these inventions have no purpose or function, other than to bring joy to the creators! The SLES Innovation Lab (thank you, Mrs. Weller) will partner with us to guide our scholars as we sort through assorted objects that no longer serve their intended purpose. Now's the time to do a little fall cleaning...Please send in any of your broken, no-longer-functioning, unused and/or outdated gadgets, gizzmos and thingamabobs! (Think toys, tech, small appliances, etc.) With the help of their dads, your children will be extending their knowledge of recycling and repurposing through the creation of "machines" that do absolutely nothing! They will have so much fun dismantling/sorting/grouping those pieces of "stuff"to be used in the construction of their "Do Nothing!" machines, and will be bringing home a bag of parts to be used, along with a complete explanation of the project, in the next few weeks...Stay tuned for more information!

List of Important Events:

Oct.12 - School Holiday

Oct. 13-15 - Pruitt's class acolytes

Oct, 23- Fall Family Fling

A huge Hilltop THANK YOU to our wonderful parent volunteers for serving as your grade-level Class Captains! Please be sure to join the Kindergarten Group on the St. Luke’s App to stay connected and receive important updates and communication throughout the year.

Rebecca Allen - Rebecca.allen0706@gmail.com

Katy Ray - Kateray922@gmail.com