Weekly Newsletter 4

¡Hola a todos!     ¡Feliz abril! We are looking forward to a wonderful week in kindergarten! Please  mark your calendars for Friday, May 3rd for our next classroom open house 8:15-8:45  AM.      La contraseña secreta (secret password) to come into the classroom this week will  be ​ ​“hola abril” (hello April).     A peek at our  week 

In ​Spanish Language Arts​, we will move on to reading and  creating very simple sentences using our “a” and “e” syllable  words i.e. “Ella sale.” “Pepe llega.”    In ​Math​, we continue our formas geométricas (geometric  shapes) two month unit! This week we will be focusing on 3D  shapes and their attributes.     In ​Social Emotional learning​, as part of our Open Circle  curriculum, we will self-reflect on how we are doing with our  classroom rules:  1. Respetar a tus amigos y a las maestras (respect your  friends and the teachers)  2. Cuidarse (take care of yourself)   3. Cuidar las cosas del salón (take care of classroom and  everything in it!)  We will revise or add rules as necessary.  

Friendly  Reminders 

If your child is sick or will be absent, please continue to email  myself, Señora Ponce ([email protected])  and the school ([email protected]) so that  everyone is in the loop!  

Action items 

Many students already have personal headphones at school  but not all. I was able to borrow a few pairs from our tech lab  but do not have enough for the students who do not have  their own. If you could check with your child and please send  in headphones for them to use, it would be greatly  appreciated!  

Conference  wisdom!  

*These are very involved topics and I’m just offering a few quick  suggestions*   

  Reading in English with your child at home:  1. Reading to and with them nightly and asking them  comprehension questions as you go (i.e. How is the  character feeling? Why? What might happen next?  Why? What was your favorite part? Why?).   2. Take a trip to the library to find “good fit” books for  your child to try and read themselves or with your  support. Encourage them to use picture clues,  letter/sound recognition, and help them to problem  solve when they struggle with a word.   3. English phonics app: Lexia. Login and password are  your child’s four digit student ID number.     Reading in Spanish with your child at home:  1. If you do not speak Spanish yourself, choose books  that you are already familiar with in English so that you  will understand the plot and characters well enough to  ask your child questions. Searching the books on  youtube to hear how they are read aloud in Spanish is  also an option.   2. (Almost) every week we read a Let’s Find Out  (Scholastic) magazie in class together that goes home  with your child. Take advantage of the resources  online to talk about it more using class password:  claypithill2019 h ​ ttps://letsfindout.scholastic.com/  3. The app, Raz-kids has a “reading room” with books in  Spanish that you can listen to with your child and then  read together!     Handwriting (pencil grip and hand strength)   1. Many students are working on handwriting and part of  this is related developing fine motor skills. I reached  out to our occupational therapist for some tips and will  include them in an attachment in tonight’s email.     Being a flexible thinker and having a growth mindset  1. Even at this young age, many students can develop  “fixed” mindsets when it comes to learning. They get  frustrated when they can’t figured something out the  first time and think that they a “good” at some things,  “bad” and others and that this will never change. Be  patient with them and encourage their efforts more  than their successes (“wow you were working really  hard to stretch out all the sounds in that word, you 

almost got it!”). Model making mistakes yourself, and  point out that making mistakes and “failing” is often  the path to learning and success. ​ *Our guidance  counselor will be sharing more specific resources  with me soon!     Incorporating  more Spanish at  home 

Many card and board games can easily be adapted to be  played in Spanish. Some classroom favorites are: Uno,  Monopoly, and Go Fish (a pescar).     Encourage students to use the past “contraseñas secretas”  with you at home! Previous contraseñas: Gracias, por favor,  buenos días, puedo ir al baño, puedo tomar agua, permiso,  buenas tardes, me gusta, no me gusta, feliz año nuevo, yo  tengo hambre, tengo sed, hace frío, hace calor, día del amor y  la amistad, día del presidente, lectura por toda América,  buena suerte, hola primavera     Palabras con poder (high frequency words)     Week 1: quiero, él, en, ir, tiene  Week 2: quiere, voy, sé, gusta, ella  Week 3: eres, una, hay, el, está  Week 4: veo, allí, tengo, un, esa