The Weekly Update #4
February 22nd, 2026
Dear Kindergarten Families,
Welcome to the April newsletter! This edition covers academics, special classes, and important April dates. We look forward to watching the children grow and flourish throughout this spring season!
Warmly,
Kindergarten Teachers
Phonics
Fundations
Your child is well on the way to reading and writing. We are getting ready to begin Unit 4 in Fundations.
Your child will continue to practice:
- how to blend and read more three-sound words
- how to segment or pull apart sounds in a word
- how to spell three sounds words
Your child will also learn how to read and spell words with consonant digraphs. A consonant digraph is two consonants together that make one sound as “s” and “h” together make the sound of /sh/. Your child will learn the following consonant digraphs.
wh - whistle - /w/
ch - chin - /ch/
sh - ship - /sh/
th -thumb - /th/
ck - sock - /k/
Heggerty
In the Heggerty program, we will be focusing on:
- Isolating Initial Digraphs
- Isolating Initial Phoneme of a Blend
- Isolating Initial constants and short vowels and long vowels
- Medial sound Isolation: Short vowels and Long vowels
- Blending three sounds
- Segmenting words into three sounds.
Module 7: Zoom In!
Essential Question: What can I learn when I look closely?
Kindergartners are natural explorers. When we guide them to stop and look closely at new things, or at familiar things in new ways, they make rich discoveries. The texts in this module inspire children to zoom in, whether it’s exploring a fascinating corner of nature, like the world of ants, or appreciating beauty in everyday experiences, like a man strumming his guitar on the bus. Children will look closely, think differently, ask questions, and make connections.
Students will work on their academic vocabulary, work on listening comprehension, describe connections, make predictions, build their listening comprehension and learn how to identify the author’s purpose through various genres.
How you can help at home!
Make a special time and place to read with your child every day. When you read, ask your child to make connections:
• Who does this character remind you of?
• Where have you been that is similar?
• Have you ever felt this way?
• This part makes me think about another book.
• We learned about this when we _______ .
Students will be working on features of narrative and poetry writing, understand structure (beginning/middle/end) and compose their own narrative as well as poetry.
Support your child to write stories and poems:
• Read aloud and enjoy collections of poetry together. Look for any rhyming words.
• Sing songs together and have children tap along to the beat.
• Encourage your child to use the five senses to describe experiences and objects. What do you see/hear? How does it smell/feel/taste?
Math - TERC Investigations for K305, K311, and K313
Math: Ten Frames and Teen Numbers: Addition, Subtraction and the Number System 2
Students will be working on understanding subtraction and fluency within 5, complements of 10 and the teen numbers as well as measuring and comparing weight
Math - Illustrative Math for K205, K211, and K309
Composing and decomposing numbers to 10
Students are learning to compose and decompose numbers up to 10. They build fluency with addition and subtraction within 5, then use tools like 10-frames and their fingers to explore different ways to make 10. These strategies help students understand number relationships and quickly determine what number is needed to make 10.
Try at Home: Counting objects around the house. How many doors, windows, closets, chairs are in your house? Ask the children to arrange the objects in different ways.
Social Studies
Families, Change, and Time
Essential Question: How are families the same and different?
Students will be learning about family structures, roles, and traditions, both historically and in the present, to understand both the similarities and differences between various family types.