Mrs. Bernal's Kindergarten Classroom

  Dear families, These kindergartens are finally mastering all the routines and procedures. They can spend the entire day at school without being tired. They are working hard on all subjects! At home, when they answer a question, encourage your child to answer in a complete sentence, not just yes and no answers. Read daily to them, and then go back and retell the story using your own words. Let them be independent by carrying their own things and help at home with chores. Mrs. Bernal Notes: Phonogram test will include the phonograms taught that week, and on the back of the page the phonograms from the previous week. The purpose of this is to check for retention. Keep practicing all the phonograms at home! Next week, new phonograms will be tested. Also, at the end of the quarter (towards the end of September) students will have a cumulative test for the 26 single letter phonograms. What we learn this week! Spalding:  This week, students were introduced to phonograms:...

Dear families, I am so proud of these scholars! Their first week with Spalding phonograms went well! They are so excited about doing the hand motions! Thank you for your support at home! For the next several months, we will be going through each of the seven continents of the world and many of the countries within them. We started with our own continent and our own country this past week. Next week we will move on to Mexico. I love the continents-study because we have an opportunity to learn about different cultures from around the world. Every year, I have several students in the Kindergarten class who have parents from different countries. It is wonderful to invite parents to come in and share a presentation about the countries they are from. If you are from a country other than the United States and are willing to give a short presentation (15 minutes) about your country, please email me, so we can set up a day for you to share with us. Parents have brought in pictures, costumes...

What we learn this week! Notes: Students will test every Friday for the phonograms learned that week. Neat handwriting will be considered. Remember, these are the foundations for a nice and clean handwriting. Spalding phonograms will start next week. Spalding: For Spalding, we are still practicing the clock stroke, reinforcing to start on “2 on the clock”, go up and around. For the short and tall line, we reinforced to start on the top line or midpoint and go down. These two strokes (short and tall line) are written from top to bottom. Also, we learned the horizontal and diagonal line stroke. Finally, students shown all they have learned during our Friday quiz for strokes. Literature: This week for literature we read the story of “Chester’s Way”. After the reading, we talked about how to be a good friend and how to practice friendship. Students were able to identify when someone is a “Sweet friend” or a “Sour friend”. On Tuesday, we read one of the classicals, “Little Red Hen”. Stude...

  Notes:  Your child should bring a daily snack to school placed in the front or side pocket of the backpack. On Wednesdays, students can bring two snacks since it is half day and they will have their lunch later for that day. Remember, no juices/liquids, or food that will need utensils like forks or spoons. If you want your child to tell you more about school, this are some ideas on how to ask them about their days: o    “Tell me two things you learned today.”   o    “What was the best part of your day?”   o    “What was challenging today for you?”   o    “Tell me about what you did at recess today.”   What we learn this week! Spalding: This week, students were introduced to Spalding. We explained that spoken words are made of individual sounds called phonograms, and we will learn how to hear and write those sounds. Students learned how to sit down with head high, back straight, hips back, slant the paper, and the p...

  What we learn this week! Literature: Students read “The Kissing Hand”. We talked about Chester’s first day of school. Ask your child about him and something special about his hand. Math: We discussed the difference between a letter and a number, paying close attention to the letter “o” and number zero. Science: We talked about which animals can be good pets and why. We watched a video with different pets, their behavior, and the sound they make. History/Geography: We learned that our classroom is a community and we are part of it. Students identified their two teachers, Mrs. Bernal and Mrs. Thareja. We discussed how we can help our community. Students learned many rules, procedures, and routines in the classroom. We all still need to practice them! We were all exhausted at the end of the day! Looking forward to learning more next week!