January 12-16

Happy New Year to all the KA families, 

We spent the week celebrating the start of 2026 here in KA. We wore our New Year’s best on Monday and participated in the school-wide countdown. Our literacy centers followed along with the New Year’s theme and we wrote a New Year’s acrostic poem together as a class. Students made resolutions and we posted them in our hallway. It has been a fantastic start to the year and I am so excited to get to work with this group of students.

As part of our numeracy learning, we have started to learn the part part whole strategy. This strategy is a building block for future addition and subtraction. We have been using cube links to practice this strategy and will continue to focus on this strategy for the next several weeks. Students will have a stronger grasp of the vocabulary after next week’s lessons, but this week they were introduced to the format of this strategy. If you would like a better understanding of how this strategy works, this is a quick video that explains to help you talk to your child about their learning.

Students were introduced to tapping as a decoding strategy this week in FunDations. This is a strategy to help students use each individual sound in a word to help decode (read) and code (write) CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. We have practiced this strategy each day this week and will continue to practice this for the next several weeks. You can encourage your child to tap out simple CVC words you see around your home as a way for them to practice, show-off and celebrate their new learning. This video gives you a better understanding of how tapping works. 

West Kent is in the middle of a hallway challenge, and the students have really bought into this challenge. In order to encourage tidiness, organization and safe hallways, each class is competing against other classes on their floor for the neatest coat hooks. Classes are awarded points for tidy coat hooks throughout the day with small Wessy’s on a scoreboard in the hall. Students have been very motivated to keep their hooks tidy and check the scoreboard regularly. A popcorn party will be awarded to a class on each floor next Friday if they have the highest amount of points. 

Wild Child has rescheduled our session that was cancelled before the Christmas break due to weather. It will now take place in the afternoon of Friday, January 23. The permission forms that you signed in December are still applicable for this new date. I will send out reminders as we get closer to that date so that families can make sure that students are well prepared for an afternoon of outdoor learning. 

Family Literacy Day will take place on Tuesday, January 27. At West Kent, one of the ways we celebrate this day is by inviting students and staff to dress as their favorite book character for the day. This will help strengthen student’s connections and engagement in literacy which provides a strong foundation for their current and future education. Please keep in mind that costumes should be something that students can manage independently, that are appropriate for recess and Phys Ed, and little pieces/accessories are better left safely at home so that they have less chance of getting lost. 

Next Week in KA:

Monday, January 12, Day 1: Music

Tuesday, January 13, Day 2: Mrs. Mac, Phys. Ed & Library

Wednesday, January 14, Day 3: Music

Thursday, January 15, Day 4: Mrs. Mac & Phys. Ed

Friday, January 16, Day 5: Music

Be sure to check the homework bags to find examples of some of our center work from this week and to make room for other items to come in the future.

I hope you all have a great weekend, and please continue to reach out with any questions. Children thrive best when home and school are one team together. 

Lisa 😊