Dear Parents of Kindergarten Students,

This week we will continue our unit on folk tales. The story of the Gingerbread Man kicked off the unit. We will be reading many different versions of the book and discussing a variety of topics including character comparisons, and illustration and author differences between story versions. We will include several writing and reading activities telling of the joys of the holiday season. By incorporating science experiments throughout the unit, we will discover that our five senses help us enjoy the season. Sharing an afternoon with you as we decorate gingerbread houses will be a highlight of this unit.

December 16th is “Make a Gingerbread House” day. I am excited about it and so are the children! Each child will need a can of vanilla frosting and an ice cream pail with lid. If you can donate one or two decorating goodies it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your generosity! Please remember to return the slip stating if you or a guest are able to come to our gingerbread house decorating party or if we need to find a person to help your child make their house. We want each child to have a special friend beside them to create this special memory.

The children are working so hard, I see such amazing growth in all areas. It’s so exciting! We will be working on recognizing numbers up to 100, counting to 120, counting by 10’s, recognizing coins, and adding and subtracting through stories. A literacy goal is to recognize and read color words using guided reading stories. We will identify the last sound in words, learn how to make new words by changing the beginning letter of words, continue to practice high frequency words, print our first and last name accurately, and improve our reading and writing skills.

This month will fly by. Before we know it, it will be January 2012!

Julie Duberowski