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Teacher Newsletter
Kindergarten

  
                                                                                    27 January 2012
Dear Family,
            Our classroom project for the SHAgala auction is a decorated hope chest. The parents who are helping are also donating ‘surprise’ items to go inside the chest. If you would like to donate something ($5 to Tim Horton’s, $10 gas card, car wash gift card, etc.) please send it in an envelope to be included in the chest. We already have 2-3 neat surprises! Thank you for your generosity.
            Our SHAgala ‘Bird Lover’s’ basket has many really nice items. I think next Thursday will be the last day to bring in anything. Thank you again for your contributions.
            HOMEWORK will begin next Monday. Your child will bring home a Homework Folder with a page in it Mon.-Thurs. He/she will practice (a few times) reading it to you or some one responsible and bring it back the next day, Tues.-Fri. I will put a red ‘ink’ stamp on it, return it to your child and give out the next one. I do not give homework sheets for over the weekend!
            During Catholic Schools Week (next week) we are asked to perform a service project. As a school we will be collecting money for the Soup Kitchen and the Parish Food Pantry project.   Christ asks us to feed the hungry. We will collect money through Friday, February 3. Thank you for any help with these noble causes. 
            Now I’ll explain the report card that is coming home today in the folder. Please return the folder to me I have all the papers stapled together, hopefully they are in order:/ Remember 3 and 2 are good and 1 means the child needs to work on something, try harder, stay focused, etc. The cover is page 1.
 
Page 2—At the bottom on the left I have circled all the capital and lower case letters: a,A through p,P and the sounds that he/she could give me.
            Makes prediction-mouse/snowman (some said make it again but there is just grass, no snow.
            Retells a story-monkey/banana page
Next column:
            Uses illustrations-How to make a snowman-4 distinct steps
            Prints-a,A to p,P –this page also shows how they print their names
            Recognizes 10’s-dot to dot
            Prints 10’s
            Rechecked telephone number (just one number) some do not remember any
            Ordinals to 10th—the train
            Extends a pattern-stars and circles
            Relation/Position-the hats (this also counts for directions!)
            Graphs-toy shelves-directions, too
            Sense of time-Girl sharpening pencil and girl drawing a picture
Page 3—Stairs-observation
            Hop-observation
            Catch this time-the mark is a little to the right in the box but it’s in the 1st marking period.
            Social/Emotional section
                        The Camel story—directions
                        The rest of the section is observations in class
           
            Right side of the page
Science-
            Compares-Wet/Dry
            Seasons-Clothing choice (I messed up on the PM kids’ page. I told them the wrong color—red for blue—oops! I associate red with hot! I should read the directions.)
            Weather charting
           
Soc. Studies—
            Recheck addresses—some people have forgotten
 
Fine Motor skills
            Color—letter O
            Cut—the items on the ‘Snow Mobile’
            Glue—wet/dry page
            Tracing—the ‘Loops’ page
           
Music—observations—if they try (or don’t even) to sing
Art—Our lovely snow scenes in the hall
 
Page 4—Religion/Behaviors
If you have any questions, I would be happy to meet with you in the morning or after school. This is the half way point. They will still improve but by now your child should have mostly 2’s and 3’s with only a few 1’s.
            Enjoy the weekend and your child.
                                                                                    Sincerely,
                                                                                    Janet Maddocks
WE ARE LEARNING ABOUT:
Lang. Arts—p,P—Pointy Patches and Peewee Penguin
Math—We will begin a new chapter on time (on the hour) and money 1, 5, 10 and 25 cents—the coins anyway. Any help at home will be appreciated. This is a hard chapter.
Science—finishing bugs; looking at rocks this week
So.St.—next month—Famous people
Religion—Jesus comes to us

About Mrs. Maddocks

I began teaching Kindergarten at SHA in 1980. That was only the 3rd year of kindergarten at SHA. I am a Shepherd High School graduate. I graduated from Central Michigan University with a Bachelor of Music Education degree, and later returned for an Elementary Endorsement with an emphasis in reading.
 
My husband and I have three children who are graduates of SHA. Our oldest daughter teaches post-graduate special education in Midland. Our son lives in Seattle and is still working on his 3 majors in science and engineering degrees. Our youngest daughter is still undecided but has been working for the cruise ship industry in Alaska for the last two years.
 
I was a Girl Scout leader for 19 years. I have been a 4-H leader for the last 20 years, focusing in the areas of cats and dogs.
 
I became the Sacred Heart Parish choir director in 1973. I taught junior high/high school choir for 5 years.
 
I have been nominated and listed in "Who's Who Among American Teachers" for at least the last 10 years. In 2005, I was nominated for Disney's Teacher of the Year Award. The truly gratifying fact about these awards is the person must be nominated by a former student/s.
 
In my kindergarten sessions, I concentrate on all the academic areas. We have language arts, math, social studies, religion, science, music, classroom computers, stories, art and behavior lessons. We also work each day on developmental tasks like, tracing, cutting and printing. My lesson plans are aligned with the State of Michigan and Diocese of Saginaw guidelines.
 
I feel blessed to be able to work at SHA in the career I chose.