Mrs. Peshka's page

February

January was another busy month in the kindergarten! 

 

                January was Catholic Schools Month.  There were fun activities all month.  We decorated our classroom doors with snow and snowmen. It was the most  snow we have seen since October!!  Justin and Matthew were chosen as the kindergarten act for  the St. Thomas Idol contest.  They did a great break dance routine.  Those boys can dance!!  The whole school made valentine candy boxes to send to the Veteran’s hospital for Valentine’s Day.  Some of us went to the Ice Cream Social and the pancake breakfast at the end of the month.  There were many more things happening, but these were our favorite events.

               

                We learned about polar bears and penguins and the North and South Pole.  We made “Polar Bear in a Snowstorm” pictures.  They are all white!

 

                We also learned about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King.  Mrs. Peshka read some books about his life. She also read a book about peace.  We made a “Peace Tree”.  Each of us had to think about what we thought peace was.  Mrs. Peshka wrote our thoughts on a leaf.  All of our leaves together made the tree.

Mrs. Peshka has tons of Jan Brett books.  We compared Jan Brett’s “Gingerbread Baby” story with two other versions of the gingerbread man story.  Mrs. Peshka read one of the stories  from her IPad.  We also compared the Jan Brett’s stories, “The Hat” and “The Mitten”.  We got to design our own hat and mitten.  We also checked out the Jan Brett.com website.  There are all kinds of fun things to do on the site.  You should take a look!

 

Now on to February...

 

                In reading we have finally met all 14 of the Superkids!  We are almost done with Level One.   The workbooks are so much fun.  They are becoming more challenging.  In the books we practice beginning, middle and ending sounds.  We have learned all of the  vowel sounds and there is also a lot of practice blending words and reading sentences.  Everyone loves the take home readers.  They are great for practicing blending at home.

In Math we finished the topic on Geometry where we learned all about plane and solid shapes and the topic about fractions and ordinal numbers.   We leaned how to cut a whole into halves with vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines.  We are now on the topic about measuring.  We are learning how to measure by size, length, weight and capacity. 

                               

                Everyone is excited about the Super Bowl!  Mrs. Peshka and Mrs. Harrold are big football fans.  They have some fun activities planned for Super Bowl Friday!

This month we will learn about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  It is also Black History month.  Mrs. Peshka has books about Ruby Bridges and Rosa Parks she is going to read. 

               

                February 14th we will be celebrating  Valentine’s Day.  There will be a small party in the afternoon.  We will make Valentine mailboxes the week before.  The 100th Day of School also happens in February, but that date will be determined by the number of snow days.

More Info       

 

                *Please send in a shoe box by Monday, February 6th.  We will be making Valentine mailboxes.

 

                *If your child is sick or will be out of school for any reason, please call the school and let us know. 

 

                *Please remember to sign all math and reading tests marked, “Parent Signature” and return them to school.  I need to keep them here for my records. 

 

                Thank you soooooo much to the parents that are practicing blending words at home with your child.  The additional practice is really paying off!!  We are about to start level 2 in Superkids and the books become more challenging.  Keep up the good work Mom and Dad!

 

Things to work on at home

 

                Everyone could use some extra handwriting practice at home.  I did not give anyone an M (meets grade level expectations ) on the report cards.  Some children are still having trouble forming the letters correctly, especially the lower case letters that start with backward circles. (a, d, e & g).  The more they practice, the better their writing will be. 

 

                Keep practicing blending the sounds together to read the words.  Have your child read the take home readers over and over.  You can also try books like Dr Seuss’s, “Hop on Pop”, “One Fish, Two Fish”, etc.

 

                Here is a list of sight words the children should memorize.  In Superkids they learn to blend sounds together, but there are not many sight or “memory words” as they call them.   They are words that can not be sounded out using the sounds the children have learned.  If they can sound out words & have these memorized, I feel they will be better readers.

a

do

to

my

we

the 

you

see

like

have

look

that

here

what

little

Thank you for all you do!!!