Kindergarten Newsletter

March 14, 2025

Religion

Kindergartners are reaching an age when they begin to wrestle with “us” vs. “them.” Some studies show “in-group bias” is commonly seen in children around age 6. This means that from a young age, children wrestle with the question posed to Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus’ answer to the question is simple to understand buy difficult to live. Your neighbor is the person God puts in your path. Even your enemy is your neighbor if your enemy is hurt. Jesus Himself lived out this love. While we were still sinners and enemies of God, Jesus died for us. His love reconciled us to God and fixed a broken relationship.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:31

Special Request

The end of this school year is always a very busy time, and I would like to start getting a jump on some of our end-of-the-year projects. I need your child’s baby picture. Pictures taken around their first birthday tend to be the best. I would also like a current picture of your child participating in a favorite activity or interest. Digital copies are the easiest and can be sent to witek@stjohnsracine.org. Hard copies will be returned. Thanks so much.

End of the Quarter

Today, March 14 marks the end of our 3^rd quarter. Report cards will be going home on Monday. Ice Cream Truck treats were served today. I normally switch table groupings at the beginning of each quarter. With next week being a short week, we will switch on Monday, March 24. Please remember, we do not have school on Thursday or Friday next week. I won’t be sending home a newsletter next week. I hope you enjoy your spring break.

Field Trip

Per the permission slip sent home last week, we will go to the Golden Rondelle on Monday. The show starts promptly at 9:30 and we will be taking a bus. All children will need to be on time on Monday. Just a friendly reminder, school does officially start at 8:50.

Literacy Night

Thank you to all the families that attended the first-ever St. John’s Lutheran School literacy night. I was happy to see that all 10 of our attending kindergarten students successfully escaped the school in order to return again the next day.

What Have We Learned

Language Lesson Focus – Happy St. Patrick’s Day. This fanciful theme may appear to be frivolous and a complete waste of time, but not the case in kindergarten. A disclaimer was given on Monday: Leprechauns are fictional and make-believe. This did not stop the creative imaginations of our class as they designed and built the most ingenious traps to capture those elusive creatures. Careful consideration was given to what would attract a leprechaun and how to best contain him so that we would be able to secure his pot of gold. I loved their excitement as they arrived each day to see if they had caught a leprechaun. Disappointment only furthered their determination.

Phonics – Digraph review

Writing – The final portion of the Unit 4 Benchmark test was to choose a favorite place to take a trip. Why would this be a destination vacation? Take a look for:

an uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence

letter formation, including letter reversals

· Placement on the writing lines

finger spaces between words

spelling of sounds that they hear in words

does the illustration represent the sentences?

Punctuation at the end of the sentence

Math – Joining sets by completing a math sentence _____ and ______ make _____.

Block Play – Amazing Leprechaun traps

Afternoon Sensory Bins – A cup of rice mixed with a tsp. of vinegar and some food coloring made some beautiful colored rice that created a bin of rainbow rice. The sound and feel of rice running through your fingers can be amazingly therapeutic.

Science – We started a unit on Earth science. Our planet is made up of land, water, and air.

Unit 4 Reading Benchmark Assessment – This multi-paged assessment may seem a bit daunting. Please be aware that we completed this over a period of three days. I look at these carefully to determine what skills are mastered by the majority of the class and what needs a bit more work. Listening to the children read the sentences on page 54 was so enjoyable. What started out with just a beginning sound has moved into strong decoding and even fluent reading. Keep up the good work, kindergarten.

Theme: Endure

Verse: "...and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..." Hebrews 12:1-3