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April/May

This is my favorite time of year in kindergarten.  All of the children now have the skills they need to read, write, and spell.  We are reading daily from our chart and will be breaking out our whisper phones and books at the end of next week, we are well into the four square writing, using our who, what, when and where to write in our journals, and of course you've seen the spelling come home each week with the spelling pattern for the week. Of course we are using our phonics to accomplish all of this, thanks to the sheer genius of the Open Court Reading Program.

At the moment we are learning to collect data, graph the data collected using concrete and picture graphs, using problem solving skills to predict probabilities, and learning how to use tally marks. THEN the children will have all of the skills they need to begin to add and subtract. As I mentioned when I gave out report cards in January, the addition and subtraction papers the children complete will be completed using counting sticks and other hands on methods. 

We will be talking about how the Church is the family of God, Baptism, Eucharist, how prayer is the one way we can show our love for God, and how Jesus showed us how to pray. Of course we talk to God daily during our daily prayer services,  and starting  May first the kindergarten will join  the other classes in the school daily as we gather around the statue of  Mary to recite a decade of the rosary each morning.  We will learn all about the rosary before we go over the first morning.  The children already know all of the prayers they will need, we just need everyone to bring a rosary so they can all participate.  If any of you can stay and not have to rush off to work, you are most welcome to accompany us over to the statue any morning you can make it.  It's a lovely 50 year tradition here at St. Mary's.

It's been a wonderful year.  All of you are doing a wonderful job raising your children.  They are well behaved, polite and  good students.  I look forward to a big finish for the year. Have a great summer!!!