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Teacher Newsletter
Kindergarten
  

 
 
8 June 2010
Dear Family,
          Our trip to the museum was great!  We saw two huge brown (grizzly) bears, two black bears (like the ones in Michigan), a bobcat, fish, ducks, owls, the Kirtland’s Warbler, the Mastodon bones that were dug up Southwest of Mt. Pleasant.  It is always an interesting and enjoyable trip.  Thank you to the parents who accompanied us.
          There are lots of papers to look at.  They are mostly related to the report cards.  Most of them are stapled together in order of the report card lists, but a few are notL  I will go through the order:
          Letters/sounds (at the bottom of the left hand side)
          Predictions—the muddy dog and man—I am looking for logic here, either the man became mad, changed his clothes or the dog got a bath.
          Retells story—the bakery page—sequencing
          Homework—long strip with stars;  A=absent; a dot =did not return the page
          Color words—colored shapes page
          End sounds—pages with circles
          Can read______words—page that starts with a, and, apple, are, at; these are all Homework words
          * Understands ‘Concepts of Print’—this is an MLPP page for each child’s file.  MLPP stands for Michigan Literacy Project Profile.
          *Recognizes rhyming words--ditto
          *Blends sounds--ditto
Uses illustrations—colored page with a book title written on it
          Printing a,A—lined page
          Last name—on lined page above
          *Writes________words
          *Writes sentences
         
          Recognizes 0-100—Dot-to-dots
          Prints 0-100—number page
          Capacities—page with containers, box, crate, spoon, cup, etc.
         
          Listens to/follows directions—Nick the Clever Chick and any other that has ‘directions’ written on it.
         
          Classifies—Rough and Smooth—small page with glued pictures
          Habitats—a matching activities individually completed in class
          Plant growth—the sun flower
         
          Colors—Michigan book and the ‘star’
          Cutting—the star
          Eye-hand coordination (tracing)—the dotted figures page
          Visual Perception—the page with 5 different figures to complete
 
          Art—the light blue page with flowers, they did this is Mrs. Roberts’ class.
          This is the end of grading for the report card.  All * pertain to the MLPP and the pages are kept in school files.
 
          There is a large green farm picture that we made using all the farm animals we colored in April. 
          We made a ‘Happy Father’s Day’ card.  I hope you enjoy the way your child drew the face and what he/she chose to put inside the cardJ  This is a favorite project of mine.
          Please, do not bring a book bag (unless your child needs one for latch-key) on Wednesday.  Many get left behind at the picnic.
          This has been a pleasant year.  Thank you for sending your child to Sacred Heart.  I know it is a sacrifice for some.  God bless you.
                                                                   Sincerely,
                                                                   Janet Maddocks

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 CentralMichiganUniversity 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.