Wow! It's already a new year! I hope everyone had a great break and is ready to get to work! We will begin our month with review, then jump right back in to learning new material.

Kindergarten will continue Unit 3 in the Phonics to Reading Curriculum. Unit 3 focuses on short o, as well as letters Hh, Rr, Bb, and Ll . Each lesson builds off the previous lesson, so that students can start to decode words and read before learning all the letters/sounds. Each lesson incorporates decodable texts and high frequency words (sight words). These decodable texts will be sent home for added practice. Sight words for Unit 3 are: do, you, what, this, and, under, or, are, up, down. This list of sight words will also be sent home. Unit 3 will continue to focus on initial, medial, and ending sounds. Isolating these sounds will help students decode and read words more accurately and fluently.

For handwriting, students will continue practicing learned letters through Phonics to Reading and the Handwriting Without Tears program.

Pre-Kindergarten is following the same sequence of letters as Kindergarten. We are focusing on Uppercase letter formation and letter-sound using the Lively Letters Program and Handwriting Without Tears. Whole group instruction is used for introducing letters, then small groups for differentiation based on grade and skill level.

PreK will continue working on the theme of Amazing Animals throughout the month of January. Different focus areas (All Kinds of Animals, Animal Homes, Creepy, Crawly Insects and Animals Grow and Change) will be discussed using a variety of literary texts and activities.

Kindergarten has been working on completing Chapter 3: Positions. We focused on position words, such as above, below, under, over, between, etc. The concepts of Left and Right have been thoroughly discussed and practiced, using songs, movements, videos, etc. After completing Chapter 3, we will move onto Chapter 4: Numbers 0-10. We will move quickly through this lesson, focusing mostly on ordinal numbers and comparing.

PreKindergarten has also focused on positional words, especially left and right. We will then move on to comparing objects by size and length. (biggest, shortest, tallest, longest, etc.). Instruction, when appropriate, will be whole group. Areas of counting and number recognition are included daily.

January 10: 1/2 day; Ski Club

January 17: 1/2 day; Ski Club

January 20: No School; Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 24: 1/2 day; Ski Club

January 31: 1/2 day; Ski Club

This month we will begin our Wit & Wisdom curriculum. Wit & Wisdom is a comprehensive K–8 English language arts curriculum crafted to help students build the knowledge and skills they need to be successful readers, exceptional writers, and effective communicators. Wit & Wisdom is one of only six knowledge-building curricula crafted to ensure that students build critical ELA skills while also building knowledge of the world. Students dig deep into each module's topic, exploring literacy, informational, and fine arts genres to create layers of knowledge that they will build on across lessons.

Each Wit & Wisdom module includes carefully selected text sets of grade-appropriate, complex texts. These text sets include full-length, published texts that serve as exemplary models of craft for students and intentionally build knowledge of the module’s topic. The core texts and supplementary texts in each module include informational and literary texts and a full range of genres—including fine art. For students to progress to higher levels of comprehension, they must engage in the joyful challenge of reading grade-appropriate, complex texts. We will begin with Module 0.

Module 0 is a brief module that introduces students to Wit & Wisdom’s key components and features. Students are invited to experience the joy and power of reading as they explore the world of knowledge available through books. Focusing on suggested texts for Kindergarten, the six lessons in Module 0 guide students through the Content Stages for reading and the types of questions, practices, instructional routines, and strategies they will encounter in Modules 1–4. Module 0 builds students’ joy of reading as it sets them up for successful encounters with texts and offers opportunities to practice new routines and strategies they will later use to achieve curricular goals.

Ms. Christina Engwer

PreKindergarten/Kindergarten Teacher

Emma. L. Miller Memorial Elementary School

cengwer@savoyelementary.com