Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from Kindergarten! I'm spending some time at school today gearing up for the students to return tomorrow. The rugs have been shampooed, the holiday lights taken down and the calendar changed to January.... I sure am ready to send my own kids back to school, and I am ready to have your kids back here at school :) Please remind your child to pack some indoor shoes in their backpack for tomorrow. I had everyone take home their cubby shoes over vacation incase they needed them.

Along with a new year, January brings a new sense of routine and normalcy to our routine and schedule. It will be nice to settle back in and get back to work on further developing academic and social skills. In January, we will be focusing on...
* Reviewing classroom rules and expectations
* Writing first and last names 
* Opinion writing
*Making connections in our reading and writing
* Addition and subtraction (included written notation)
* Muscle words: want, went, like, love, down & up
* Capital letters

During the month of January, we will also begin our winter assessments. These are the same assessments that students were given at the beginning of the year. By readministering these assessments, we are able to use data to measure students academic growth. The window to give these assessments in January and February so we do our best to spread them out and not put to much on the kids at one time. 

As of right now I will be out of the classroom 3 days during the month of January. 
*Friday, January 17th for an all day kindergarten math meeting at Hyde Park Elementary School 
*Wednesday, January 22nd to administer reading text level assessments to students
*Tuesday, January 28th to travel to elementary schools in the district to kick off the Big Change Roundup Campaign for the UVM Children's Hospital 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Mrs. McKnight
802-521-5611
cmcknight@cesvt.net