Learning News Kindergarten

Miss Sophie Goodman

Kindergarten

Please remember to continue reading the home readers and tricky words with your child every night! If your child has mastered their tricky words, please begin to practice spelling them.

Reading & Comprehension

As we progress with our reading, it is really important to work on our comprehension skills as well. When we practice comprehension, we move beyond sounding out words and focus on the meaning of the text. This practice helps us develop crucial skills like making predictions, asking "why" and "how" questions, and retelling the main events of a story. Here are some strategies that we focus on in class that you can use at home!

Question prompts for each comprehension strategy:

Making Connections	Does this text remind you of something that has happened to you? How is it similar? (Text-to-Self) What other book or movie have you read that had a similar character or problem? (Text-to-Text) Does this story remind you of a real event or something happening in the world today? (Text-to-World) How would you have felt or acted if you were the character in this situation?
Questioning	What question did this text make you wonder about the topic or the world? (Beyond the text) What is the author trying to teach or explain in this section? What part of the story or information is confusing or unclear to you right now? What do you think is the most important question the author answered in the whole text?
Predicting	Based on the title/cover/heading, what do you expect this text will be about? What clue makes you think [specific event] will happen next? Do you think the character will solve their problem? Why or why not? What do you predict the author’s main message will be by the end?
Visualising	What is the main scene you see in your mind right now? Describe it in detail. If you were drawing a picture of the character, what colours would you use and why? What does the setting smell or sound like? Draw a quick sketch of what the author just described. Does your image match what the author wrote?
Monitoring	Stop and Check: Right now, what is the most important thing you just read or learned? (If they can't answer, they weren't monitoring effectively.) Identify Confusion: Is there anything in the last paragraph/section that is unclear or confusing to you? What is it—a word, an idea, or the whole sentence? Fix-Up Strategy: If you found something confusing, what can you do right now to try and figure it out? (e.g., re-read, look up the word, read the sentence before/after). Prediction Check: Does what you just read make sense with what you read before? Does it match your previous prediction? Focus Reset: If your mind started to wander, where do you need to go back and start reading again to get back on track?
Summarising	If you had to tell a friend what this section was about in one sentence, what would you say? List the three most important events that happened in order. What are the main ideas the author wants you to take away from this passage? Who is the story about, what did they want, and what happened in the end? (Fiction summary)

Another tricky comprehension skill that students are tested on is their inferencing - here are some question prompts that you can use at home to support your child!

Inferencing

The author didn't say the character was sad, but what clues in the text suggest they are sad?
Why do you think the character made that choice? (What does the text suggest about their motivation?)
What is the theme or lesson the author wants you to learn from this?
Based on the description of the setting, what time of year do you think it is? (Find the clues.)
How do you know that the main problem has been solved?

Writing

We've officially kicked off our new writing unit, focusing on information texts! The students did a wonderful job on their first project, creating an information reportall about Kangaroos, complete with fantastic illustrations.

Maths

For the next week, we will continue to learn how to form equal groups by sharing and counting collections of objects. Before your child tackles math problems with the division sign, they first need to understand what division means. We teach division by relating it to two simple, everyday ideas: fair sharing and equal grouping. This helps turn an abstract number concept into a practical life skill. Here are some tips you can use at home!

Can you think of any objects at home which are in groups? If yes, what are they?Walk around the kitchen with the student and identify any groups of food, cutlery, etc. Discuss that some groups may have different objects in them (knife, fork, spoon).
Can you think of any groups you may have in the bedroom? Show me what they are. Find some toys which come in groups. Discuss the different groups and compare toys which don’t come in groups. Choose one group of toys. Draw and colour this group in the space below or take a photo of this group.
“I would like you to help me set the table before we have our breakfast/lunch/dinner. We are going to share the cutlery, plates and glasses so that everyone has the same items in their place on the table. How many people will be eating?”
Hand your child the table items and let them have a go at sharing them to set each place at the table. How many cutlery items will each person need? How many plates will each person need? Once the table is set see whether your child is able to identify the total number of cutlery items that were shared.
Give your child a fixed number of beads, and tell them to divide them equally between a certain number of tins. Start with showing the child how to divide the beads into two tins, using different numbers of beads each time, then gradually move to dividing by different numbers. When the child has beads left over from the exercise, you'll have the opportunity to explain remainders to them.