The kids are enjoying learning about all the family traditions in our class! We have everything from family movie nights, to cookie baking, to international travel! If you have not gotten a chance to do this project with your child, that’s ok, go ahead and send it any day this week!
I came across this article about helping your child eat more veggies. There were several ideas I had never heard before! Hope you find this useful!
We are learning all about weather! One of the best ways to learn about weather is to become a weather watcher! Today we went outside to do just that! We noticed what was in the sky, the temperature, the wind, and if there was any precipitation! We drew about what we learned.
Reading- We are working hard to memorize sight words to help us read books and write simple sentences. We are working on capital letter formation as well as reviewing lower case formation. This is a tricky skill for kindergarten and most kids need quite a bit more practice with letter formation so it becomes effortless and automatic. We read stories this week and practiced identifying story elements like characters, setting, problem and solution. We continued to play sound games to help us break apart and put sounds together which are essential skills for reading.
Writing- We worked on doing our very best writing. We are working on completing a piece of writing and making sure we draw, show who, what, and where, label, add details, write words and sentences, and color. We learned that it might take a few days to finish a piece of writing and writers reread and check their work before moving on to another story.
Math: We focused on teen numbers this week as well as combinations that make 10. We had fun making a class favorite colors graph as well as exploring how to use a calculator.
Science/ Social Studies- We enjoyed a Mystery Science video about the coldest place on Earth. We began our weather science unit and became weather explorers!
Another great group of kinders enjoyed lunch with Mrs. Rogers today! 
Here is the link to sign up to buy some snow globes for our winter party if you would like. Thanks for your help!
December 6th- Ugly Sweater Day
December 13th- Respect Celebration- Dress to Impress Day (Fancy Dress- more info to come)
December 20th Winter Party (2:30-3) All parents are invited to attend and help with the party. Sign up for supplies needed is coming soon.
December 20th-Kindergarten Cozy Day- Kids wear pajamas to school and do fun cozy activities. More info to come.
December 23rd First day of winter break
January 6th- Return to school after winter break
January 6th- 10th Kindergarten Spelling bee week (More info to come. For now, practice sight word list from conferences to prepare!)
January 9th PTA Meeting at 6:30
January 10th- Favorite Sports team day- wear your team gear
January 20th- No School for MLK Day
January 29th- Early dismissal at 12:50
January 31st Beulah Ralph’s birthday
Our amazing PTA Outreach Committee and our awesome school counselors and home school communicator have organized a holiday gift drive for some families here at Beulah Ralph. Here is the link if you would like to contribute. Thank you!
We enjoyed learning about Thanksgiving! We read some funny, silly, and inspiring Thanksgiving books. The Thankful Book taught us how to be thankful for something everyday. Duck for Turkey Day taught us that everyone can celebrate Thanksgiving in a special and unique way.
Thanksgiving is a tricky holiday to teach about because of it’s historical context. There is a lot of mythology around the history of “the first Thanksgiving” that is untrue and disrespectful to Native Americans. Here is an article that adults can read to learn a little more about this The class talked only briefly about this history because it is pretty gruesome and pretty violent. We did not dwell on that but it is important for kids to know that Native Americans had been living in North American for thousands of years before Europeans decided they wanted the continent for themselves. It is also important for students to know that Native Americans still live in the United States!
Instead of dwelling on the history, we spend a little time learning about Native American history on this interesting website. Here is a link to another article written for teachers you may find helpful if you are interested in socially responsible ways to teach your child about Thanksgiving or if you would like more information for yourself.
We also enjoyed a Cherokee story of gratitude!
I am thankful for these cute little turkeys!
