Transitional Kindergarten News

Dear TK Families,

What a busy and magical week we’ve had in TK! We’ve been learning, creating, assessing, and diving headfirst into our Fairy Tale Unit. Here’s a peek at all the fun and learning that happened this week:

 

📊 Assessments This Week

To prepare for upcoming conferences, students completed assessments in:

  • Identifying before and after numbers
  • Middle and ending sounds in CVC words
  • Syllables
  • Counting the number of phonemes in words

They worked hard and showed us so much growth—thank you for all your support at home!

 

🔢 Math Fun

  • Created a Cat vs. Dog flip graph
  • Graphed whether we would kiss a frog… or not! 🐸💋
    Lots of great discussions and predictions during graphing time!

 

📚 Fairy Tale Unit Highlights

We are loving our fairy tales! This week we:

  • Read The Three Billy Goats Gruff
    • Acted out the story
    • Discussed and illustrated the characters and setting
  • Read Rapunzel
    • Illustrated creative ways Rapunzel could escape her tower
  • Learned the difference between fiction and nonfiction
  • Read The Frog Prince
    • Discussed whether we would have kissed the frog (strong opinions all around!)

🎨 We also drew and painted castles, which turned out beautifully!

 

✏️ Handwriting & Writing

  • Practiced letters with diagonal lines, focusing on Ww and Yy
  • Made Valentines in the writing center
  • Completed a Direct Draw frog for our lockers
    • Students wrote a sentence about whether they would or would not kiss a frog 🐸
    • These are now proudly hanging on our lockers!
  • Practiced a Valentine poem and illustrated it in our poetry journals

 

🎭 Field Trip: Des Moines Playhouse

We are excited to share that our class will be going on a special field trip to the Des Moines Playhouse for an interactive Snow White performance! This trip will help kick off and enhance our Fairy Tale theme in a fun and memorable way.

📅 Field Trip Details

  • Date: Friday, February 13
  • Time: 1:00 PM
    • Show begins at 1:30 PM and lasts approximately 45 minutes
  • Location: Des Moines Playhouse
  • Transportation: Church bus
  • Chaperones: Not needed for this trip

🚌 Important Safety Reminder:
All students must ride in a no-back booster seat.

  • If you do not have one, Mrs. Smith And Mrs. Heflin have extras available to lend
  • Boosters can also be purchased on Amazon for approximately $20–$30

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you would prefer that your child not participate, let me know and we will arrange alternative afternoon plans.

 

💘 Valentine’s Day Celebration

We will celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 13 💕

Important Reminders:

  • Students will pass out valentines in the morning before our party
  • If participating, please send one valentine for each classmate
    (15 students total)
  • The “to” section may be left blank
  • Please send a decorated handled paper bag or box
    (adult shoe-box size works great; wide/open top is best)

⚠️ Allergy Reminder:
We have a dairy allergy in our class.
Please choose milk-free treats, or consider small toys or fruity candy instead.

🎉 Homeroom parents are planning our Valentine party—
the sign-up link was sent three weeks ago. Thank you for your help!

 

Thank you for all you do to support our classroom. It has been such a joyful week of learning, creativity, and fairy-tale fun!

Have a wonderful weekend,
Mrs. Simmons