Kindergarten - Summer Letter Home!

Every summer I send a summer letter home to my future kindergarten students and their parents.  I find that it can be difficult to find the right words to say.  I have included a FREE letter in this post for you to download to help you write your own summer letter to your future kinders!

You can download it for FREE at TeachersPayTeachers.  FREE Kindergarten Summer Letter Home

The product you download comes with directions on how to use it.  I only provide one sample letter in a word document format.  You can then edit it as you wish.  You will want to change my name to your name, my school building to the building you teach at, etc.

The product has 7 pages:
Page 1 - Directions
Page 2 - Sample letter - borderless.
Pages 3-7 - Sample letter with 5 different borders

In the FREE download, I included a letter on borderless paper (Page 2 of the product) for a few reasons.  I like to print on colorful store bought paper.  I usually buy colorful decorated paper for a $4-5 dollars and print my borderless letter on that. I think the letter pops a little more, looks exciting, and it appears as if I spent a lot of time on sending the letter.  It is another first look at you from the parents.  The mommies and daddies want to know that you care about their sweet little one and their new experience of school!

Apple Paper - Staples - $4.79 for 25 sheets

In the FREE download, I included the letter on different borders (Pages 3-7 of the product), just in case you don't have time to run out to the store, and you need these letters printed asap. : )  You can print them on card stock and colored paper to make them look more appealing.  Just pick the border you like, the kind of paper you want to print on, print, and send.  You can see the borders below...

 
 

You can download my summer letter for FREE at TeachersPayTeachers.  FREE Kindergarten Summer Letter Home

Enjoy!

Parent Involvement

The National Education Association (NEA) reported in 2009 that high parent involvement results in higher student achievement than students receiving low parent involvement. 

Stay involved in your child’s education. 

• Play games when you are at home. 
• Go on a letter or word hunt
• Read stories together
• Count items in your house
• When you and your child are driving in the car, have your child tell you the letters, numbers or words he or she sees. 
• In the car you can play addition games.  Give you child a math story.  For example, “I bought 3 red apples at the store and then I bought one more.  How many apples did I buy?”  Your child can use fingers to figure it out. 
• Include your child in cooking dinner and use math to help
• At sporting events, go on a number hunt.  Ask your child, "What numbers do you see on the players' jerseys?" or "What is the score of the game?"
• Use money to count and skip count.  Children love money because they can see how it directly relates to real life experiences!

Stay involved!!

Drop and Count - Math Game

Last week we played ‘Drop and Count.’  Play this game at home with your child or play with your students in your kindergarten classroom.  The game works on one-to-one correspondence and number sense.  The variations of the game work on addition and subtraction concepts.  See pictures of the children below!

Materials: 

• Hard small items (pennies, beans, legos)
• A tray (baking sheet, cooking pan)
• Two people

Directions: One person closes their eyes and they must count the items being dropped.  The other person drops the items one at a time.  Once all the items are dropped, ask “How many?”  The partner with their eyes closed now knows they can open their eyes and give the answer.

Variations:  Integrate addition and subtraction problems to challenge your child.  After the items are dropped and counted the partner who dropped the items can ask addition/subtraction problems.  “How many pennies would be left if I took away one?”  or “How many legos would there be all together if I add two?”

Talk! Talk! Talk!

The more talkative you are with your child, the more language he or she will be exposed to.  The average four year old has heard 30 million words addressed to them.  The average four year old from talkative parents has heard 48 million words! Talk! Talk! Talk!Ask your child questions that get them thinking and avoid yes and no questions.  Ask them, "Why do you think that?" or "How do you think that will happen?" Talk! Talk! Talk!