Transitional Kindergarten News 

 

🎃 What We’ve Been Learning in TK!

🎨 Yayoi Kusama – The Queen of Polka Dots!

We learned about Yayoi Kusama, an artist famous for her colorful polka dots and pumpkin sculptures. We watched a video about her life, learning how she grew up in a small village in Japan, dreamed of becoming an artist, and eventually moved to New York City to pursue her passion. Our students created their own pumpkins in Kusama’s signature polka-dot style and designed backgrounds filled with triangles, working hard to cover their entire sheets of paper with patterns. If you’re feeling adventurous, take a trip to the Sculpture Garden downtown to see one of Kusama’s pumpkin sculptures in person!

🎃 Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate

We practiced reciting Five Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Gate, which we proudly chanted during our parade around the school! Students also created a beautiful fall evening scene using crayons and liquid watercolors, watching the watercolor paint resist their crayon designs. Next, they mixed red, yellow, and white paint to create different shades of orange for their pumpkins. After cutting out their pumpkins and adding jack-o’-lantern faces, students assembled their masterpieces. This beautiful, multistep project took several days to complete, and the finished artwork is proudly displayed on our lockers! Students also illustrated the poem in their journals.

🔤 Letters, Sounds, and Syllables

We continued reviewing the letters we’ve learned so far and revisited syllables. Students practiced matching uppercase and lowercase letters and listening carefully for the middle vowel sounds in words, focusing on a, o, and i. We’re building those early reading skills one sound at a time!

👻 The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything

We read The Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything and discussed the characters and setting of the story. Students then used Halloween stickers to create their own spooky characters and drew a setting for their characters to bring their ideas to life. We had some wonderfully creative Halloween scenes!

✏️ Handwriting and Writing

We reviewed all of the letters that begin with a magic c and added d to our handwriting practice. Students also practiced spelling short CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words while focusing on correct letter formation. We are working hard to make those letters look just right!

🔢 Math

We used number lines to help us find the numbers that come before and after a given number. Number lines are a great tool for helping us understand number order and build our counting skills.

🎉 Halloween Party!

We had a wonderful Halloween party! A HUGE thank-you to our homeroom moms and all of the volunteers who helped make the day so special. Our students had a fantastic time, and we appreciate everyone who helped make it happen!

🍂 Snack and Sharing

Our sharing theme for November is A Fall Treasure. Students may bring something special they have found outside, such as a leaf, rock, shell, pinecone, or other little treasure from nature. We can't wait to see what everyone discovers!

The November calendar was also sent home this week. Here is our Snack and Sharing schedule:

• Monday: Andrew
• Tuesday: Roman
• Wednesday: Jackson
• Thursday: Rho
• Friday: Elle

Have a wonderful Halloween weekend!

Amy Simmons