WELCOME TO..
MRS. FEENEY'S KINDERGARTEN SITE

☺     November 6, 2009

Dear Kindergarten Parents,

            Thank you for being so punctual for our parent conferences.  I enjoyed meeting with you and learning from you about your child.  I am so very blessed to be working with such a supportive group of parents!  I am truly happy to be teaching at our school!  I credit the children’s success in school to your support!  I value your observations about how our year is progressing, especially since we are in our first year of full day kindergarten.  Please contact me anytime with any questions or concerns.  The children will be receiving their report cards next time in January.

Picture retakes are next Friday, November 13.  The children who need to have their pictures retaken will need to return their original package of pictures.  

Next week, November 9-13, Monday through Friday, our Student Council is collecting non-perishable food for the Brownsburg Cheer Committee which helps local families.  You might consider donating baby cereals, formulas and food in unbreakable (no glass) containers.  Other items that are needed: cake/brownie mixes, canned meats, cereal, paper products, pasta, peanut butter, jelly, rice and soups- your choice!  This is a wonderful way for the children to learn about service to others.   We appreciate your support!!! 

 November 30- December 3 we will have a new toy collection for donation to the Catholic Charities Christmas Store.  You may wish to purchase a toy that a kindergarten aged child would enjoy receiving for Christmas.  No wrapping is needed for the toys!   

On Thursday, November 12, my class will be working with Mrs. Dunn’s third grade class to make a Thanksgiving book together.  We will make Indian hats and pasta pattern necklaces to wear that day. 

§    We will be learning songs and prayers for our Thanksgiving Prayer Services.  They will be held in the Green Street Church on Tuesday, November 24 from 1:00-1:30 and in the evening from 6:30-7:00 PM.   Please have your child at church by 6:15 PM.  Family members and friends are welcome to attend either prayer service.   Please have your child dressed nicely for church!

   On Wednesday, November 25, we will be baking cornmeal muffins.  The children will be mixing their own with the help of the assigned parent volunteers.  The children will have Pilgrim hats to wear that day.  Thanks to Mrs. Unger for making the Pilgrim hats for the children. 

Our Religion lesson has been about caring for God’s world.  We acted out ways to do this by picking up trash, recycling, turn off the water and lights, and water the plants while singing “Mulberry Bush.”  The children drew a way that shows how they can care for God’s world.  They learned that when we do this, they show our love for God.  The children learned that St. Pier Frassati went to Mass every morning and visited the poor each day as a sign of love for others.

In Reading Readiness:

v     we began working with the sound for Tt

v     blending the sound for t with the previously learned letter sounds.

v      We blended the letters with a new word family “at”.

v     We looked for the sound for t at both the beginning and the end of the words.

v     Our new high frequency word is “see.”

v      For listening comprehension, we looked at the story structure to predict what happens next. 

v     We read an article about transportation a long time ago and compared and contrasted it with transportation today. 

In Math:

     We solved addition problems by acting them out with pop cubes and then drawing the problem.  We are not using equations yet, just getting the concept of putting groups together. 

     We pretended to shop with 10 pennies with items priced one through 10 cents.  The children counted their pennies to see what they could buy with the amount they had left each time. 

The children received St. Malachy medals from the PTO for St. Malachy’s Feast day on Tuesday.  You may wish to put the medal on a stronger chain. 

God Bless You,

Mrs. Mary Feeney

Parents Please mark your calendars with these important dates: 

Tuesday, November 24- Thanksgiving Prayer Services in Green Street Church   1:00 PM and 6:30 PM.  Friends and Family are welcome to attend.

Wednesday, December 9- Christmas Program for Kindergarten through Third Grade in the Green Street Church in the afternoon and evening. 

All Day Kindergarten Daily Agenda

Here is an idea of what your child’s daily schedule will look like as an all day Kindergartner.

Arrival-by 7:45 am

Morning Meeting

Reading

Snack

Math

Morning Recess

Religion

Lunch-around 11:05

Quiet Time-about 30 minutes

Writer’s Workshop

Learning Centers

Special Classes

Dismissal- 2:25 to 2:40 pm

Report Card Skills

Mrs. Unger, our classroom Teaching Aide and I will be individually assessing the children on their Readiness Skills for their report cards over the next several weeks:

v      Recite street and town address, phone number, and month and date of birthday.

v      Recite or sing the alphabet and tie shoes.

v      Identify the colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown and black and the shapes of square, rectangle, oval, diamond, triangle, and circle. 

Please refer to this and practice them with your child.  Learning to tie shoestrings is one of the hardest skills and requires practice and the development of the coordination to do it, similar to learning how to walk.  We have all year to accomplish these skills.  Children often forget their address and phone number if they haven’t said it in a while.  If your child hasn’t learned them yet, try putting it to a song like, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”    The kindergarten children do not receive progress reports as it takes a large amount of time to individually assess each child.  Other skills I will be checking for the report card are:

Make the Sign of the Cross

v      Name all of the capital and small letters in the alphabet in random order

v      Recognize high frequency words- “I, can, we, the, like, a, see, go,”- depending on how far we get in the reading program

v      Say a word that rhymes with a given word

v      Count to 25 or higher-100 by the end of kindergarten

v      Grip the pencil correctly with three fingers

v      Color within the lines neatly

v      Accurately cut on the lines

Kindergarten Curriculum Information

Religion     

Call to Faith is the title of our Religion Series. This kindergarten program gradually introduces the children to the simple truths of faith at their level of experience and understanding.  It helps them to see life and Religion as an integrated whole and initiates them into Catholic traditions.  We enable the children to sense God’s presence, to encounter Him and enter into communion with Him, through prayerful experiences.  The kindergarten program prepares the children to participate in the liturgy in simple, small steps.  It fosters the awakening of a Christian conscience and good decision making skills. The children will engage in activities that will make them aware of the needs and feelings of others.  The kindergarten children will not be attending the weekly grade school Mass until second semester, at which point, they will attend with a prayer buddy. Mrs. Feeney’s class will lead the Thanksgiving Prayer Service and Mrs. O’Connor’s class will lead the Valentine Prayer Service.    

Reading Readiness        

Here is an overview of the McMillan/McGraw Hill Reading Readiness Program:

☺     Read aloud fiction and nonfiction trade books as well as big books introduce the theme and build on prior knowledge. Contemporary and traditional tales develop comprehension skills, reading strategies; facilitate oral language development and vocabulary expansion.

☺     The unit themes are connected to social studies, science, math and fine arts.

☺     The phonics library supports phonics instruction, practices high-frequency words, and develops reading fluency.

☺     Leveled books meet a range of individual reading needs in small groups, beginning in October.

☺     Alphafriends are shaped like small letters to help with letter sound associations.  We sing a song for each character.

☺     Practice books include letter identification, handwriting practice, letter-sound associations, comprehension and literature response, and informal assessments. 

First we will be introducing all of the letters of the alphabet in alphabetical order, how to print the capital and small forms of the letters, listening to stories, singing songs, reviewing nursery rhymes, and learning routines. 

Writer’s Workshop

Our school has implemented a writing workshop at all grade levels.  For the kindergarten children this goes together with learning to read as they apply sight words and sound/letter associations to their writing.  All writing on the children’s pieces will be their own.  We believe it is important you know there are several stages to spelling and composition development.

Spelling Development. 

Scribble Writing- As you may remember from their younger years, children begin to imitate adult writing by “scribble writing.”  This looks like up and down squiggles, hopefully from left to right and top to bottom.

Inventive Spelling-This is the next stage and probably the stage your child is in currently.  This stage also has several stages of growth within itself.  First, they may begin with a string of letters in a row.  They are moving from scribbles to the knowledge that letters are what make up words.  During our kindergarten year, we will be striving for the children to begin using the phonics tools and sight words they are learning to move them into more book spelling.  As they are doing this, you will see their growth in reading and writing.  For example in the beginning of the year, they may write, “GILKMKLDSE” and tell us that says, “You are my favorite.”   Later in the year that same sentence may look more like, “you are mi favit.”  As you are reading your child’s writing this year, please don’t tell them that something is spelled wrong!  Please ask them to read it to you or say, “Tell me what this says.”  Then when you see a word in Inventive Spelling praise them for all the sounds they did hear or ask if they would like to see the word in Book Spelling.

Book Spelling-This is where they are spelling words conventionally as we would expect.  Please keep in mind that they will not reach full Book Spelling for many years to come!  (Think about how many times we, as adults, have had to use Spellcheck, the dictionary, or ask a friend!)  J  However, during the course of this year, you will see words spelled more frequently in book spelling, so it’s important you know the term we will use in our classroom.

During Writer’s Workshop if they need help in spelling a word that we have not learned yet, we will use several strategies: giving it to them on a post it note for them to copy, referring them to their Dazzle Word paper kept in their Writing folder, encouraging them to use the Word Wall for sight words and words learned in class, and allowing them to confer with a partner.  We will be sharing together our writing pieces each day in order to praise new learning and take a moment to learn from our peers.  Our hope is that the children will understand that their writing has meaning to them and that conventions allow people to understand what they are writing. They will be writing about their lives, not making up stories, as that is more difficult to make the words come alive.  The writing pieces that the children work on in class will be kept in a “works in progress” folder or a “completed work” folder.  The completed works will be sent home at the end of each grading quarter, and you should be able to see progress over the year.           

            Dimensions of Composition Development

Writing workshop consists of the children making picture books.  This involves two processes going on at the same time- composing and spelling. We ask the children to do the best they can with drawing and spelling as five and six year olds.  Most children will start composing picture books by only drawing pictures with no letters/words in their books and then develop from there. We will nurture and support your child to grow from whatever point he/she is starting, through side-by-side teaching, read aloud literature, and share time. These are the dimensions we will be encouraging as your child grows in his/her composition development.  As we work with children, we will focus on only one or two issues at a time.  The children are also inspired by and learn from their classmates during writing workshop. 

Understanding about Texts

      Is the child’s book about something?  The picture books should become more focused over time and the connections between ideas should become stronger and more meaningful. 

      How has the child organized the book?  Does it move through time –tell what happened next (narrative) or through a list of ideas about something (nonnarrative)-and keep it consistent through the whole text?

      When the child reads it does it sound like a book, using picture book language or talking about it?

      How is the child representing meaning in the book-is it all in illustrations or a combination of invented spellings and illustrations?

      Does the child read the book basically the same way over time-hold it’s meaning through drawings and/or invented spelling?

      Is the child making the book in the manner of other picture books he or she has seen-but using his/her own ideas?

      What does the book show the child understands about genre: informational books about topics of interest; how-to books about things they know how to do; counting books; ABC books?

continued

Understandings About Process

      Is the child making decisions about what is being represented on the pages?

      Does the child engage in revision while composing a picture book- change something, add something, take something out, move something around, or scrap it all and start over?

      Is there any evidence that the child is thinking ahead/has plans about what to write next, while thinking about what the whole picture book is about?

      Has the child made any intentional crafting decisions in the book-make their writing more compelling and engaging for the readers of his/her book- for example- make the size or color of an illustration match its meaning or use repetition?

      How long has the child worked on the book?  In one sitting? Over time?  Is he/she building stamina for the act of writing?

      Does the child show a willingness to solve problems (markers don’t work, run out of pages, etc.) on his/her own while writing?

Understandings About What it Means to Be a Writer

      How and for what reason has the child decided what to write about in the book?

      How interested is the child in an audience’s response (what a reader will do or say) to his/her book?

      Has the child composed in a way that leads to new meaning while writing-did he/she learn about how to write better as well as the topic he/she is writing about?

      Can I see in the book that the child is willing to take compositional risks- do things that are challenging for him/her when composing?

      Does it seem that the child has a sense of identity as a writer? A sense of history of the books he/she has written before?

      Does the child show he/she understands his/her powerful position as author of the book-to decide everything about his/her book and accepting responsibility for the content?

From:  Already Ready 2008 by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Math

The Saxon Math program starts each day with the children participating in a beginning of the day math activity called “Meeting Time.”  During this time, they practice skills related to the calendar, counting, patterning, number recognition, time, money, and estimation.  Each month, “Meeting Time” changes slightly as the children acquire additional knowledge and skills. “The Lesson” occurs later in the day with new objectives or increments of skill which are introduced through carefully selected group activities.  The children use materials, engage in discussions and work together to help one another learn. 

School Behavior

            Please discuss our classroom and school rules with your children so that they know what is expected of him/her.  These three classroom rules cover many behaviors. 

1.      Do what is right.  (Do what the teacher tells you to do, be honest, participate in activities, clean up after yourself, use a quiet voice.)

2.      Do your very best.  (Ask the teacher for help when needed, listen carefully to directions, pay attention, and work carefully and neatly.)

3.      Be kind to others. (Touch others nicely, take turns, say kind words to others, listen to others, and be helpful.)

A stop light system will be used.  Everyday, all children begin their day with a clothespin with their name on it on the green light.  If children are not following the rules, they are reminded.  If they continue to have difficulty following the rules, their clothespin will be moved to a yellow light.  If they intentionally hurt someone or do not change their behavior after a yellow light, his/her clothespin will be moved to a red light.  He/she will be given a five-minute time out, and a referral will be sent home to be signed, to be returned the following day. Learning center time may also be withheld depending on the severity and frequency of the problem. If there are frequent episodes of yellow or red lights with your child, we will talk with you to share ideas about how to help your child to improve his/her behavior.  At the end of each day, all the children will have an opportunity to look at their clothespin and place a sticker on their Reward Chart if their clothespin is still on the green light.  When your child has filled their Reward Chart, your child may choose from a list of privileges.  Your support at home makes the biggest difference!  All teachers in the building, especially the Specials Teachers may use the stoplight system with the kindergartners, as good behavior is expected throughout our school building.  We strive to watch for children who are  following the rules and praising them for this behavior.  Their natural reward is being able to fully participate in all activities and receiving good conduct marks on their report cards.  Most importantly, they will be happy and so will their parents and teachers! 

PROCEDURES THAT HELP OUR DAY RUN SMOOTHLY

Please be sure that both parents as well as child care providers are aware of these routines! 

MORNING ARRIVAL-7:15 a.m. -7:40- tardy

The school opens at 7:15 a.m. The children wait in the gym until the rest of the school children go to their classrooms.  Kindergartners will be in the gym with their teachers from 7:30 until 7:40.  Attendance will be taken at 7:40.  Then we will go to our classrooms across the parking lot together.  Children arriving after 7:40 a.m. need to report to the office through the front doors for a tardy pass.   A staff member will then escort your child to the classroom after reporting to the school office.  Our outside kindergarten doors are kept locked for our security.

Car Riders-Children are dropped off at the North (football field side) gym door.  Please see School Arrival in the Parent Handbook for specifics on the car traffic patterns around the school. There are staff members at that door to help the children to know where to go.

Bus Riders- Children enter through the front doors of the school and walk through the lower hallway to the gym. 

AFTERNOON DISMISSAL-STAGGERED

The kindergarten children will be dismissed from the main school building. 

2:30- St. Malachy buses- bus riders exit from the south gym door and southbound walkers and bikers leave from the main door

2:35- Brownsburg bus riders exit from the front school door, gates for cars are closed

 2::38-Car Riders-are dismissed from the North gym door.  You need to arrive before then because that is when the gate is closed to the back parking lot on the football field side.  Please see School Dismissal procedures and traffic patterns in the parent handbook.  Northbound walkers leave from the main door

2:40-Extended Day children report to the gym.  

Brownsburg Bus buddies may arrive two minutes early for the first two weeks of school to meet their kindergartner at the front doors.  If you need help finding a bus buddy for your child, please check with our office staff. 

TRANSPORTATION CHANGES

If your child is going home with someone different or a way that is different than usual (ie.from bus rider to car rider), send a written note in your child’s folder. Call the office if it is a last minute change by 2:00 for the so there will be time to get the message to the teachers. Please do not use our voice mails or e-mails for this.  This is for your child’s safety.

ABC’s for KINDERGARTEN PARENT INFORMATION

ABSENCE PROCEDURES

CHILD OF THE WEEK

ORDERS FOR BOOK CLUBS

RECOGNITION AWARDS

SNACKS FOR BIRTHDAYS

SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS

And much more general information!

ABSENCES

Parents must call the office by 8:30 a.m. to report an absence.  Upon returning to school, students must present a written note specifically stating the reason for the absence.  We will make up any essential work with your child, a little each day during learning center time.  Anything sent home does not need to be returned. It is our school policy that students absent for family vacations will not be given work before the absence.  

BE PUNCTUAL and BIRTHDAYS

It is a good habit to be punctual and it starts your child’s day off right! 

Your child’s birthday will be recognized by singing to him/her and have a special sticker and crown to wear.  Summer birthdays will be recognized in May.  Due to state guidelines, birthday treats and treat bags are not allowed.  Our school policy is not to pass out party invitations. You will receive a school directory with the addresses and phone numbers of your child’s classmates. 

CHILD OF THE WEEK

The order of the names on the list is made by drawing names randomly. One day during the week your child will share their page from the Classroom Book.   Monday, Curious George materials will be sent home with the special child.  During the week, the class will draw pictures of the special child and dictate something that they like about the special child and this will be bound into a booklet.  On Friday, the special child will bring the  Curious George materials, and we will read the story about what they did at your house during that week.  The special child will also be able to visit with Mrs. Sullivan, our principal, sometime during the month of their special week. 

*If either or both parents would like to come in sometime during your child’s special week to read your child’s favorite story that would be great! You may read two short books, or one longer book- for about 10 minutes.  You may come together or on separate days. Please check with us about the time and date beforehand.  If you wish to stay for a short time after, the children would enjoy it!  Younger children may only stay while you read the story.  If you are unable to visit our classroom or do not feel comfortable reading to the class, just send in your child’s book and we will be glad to read it to the class as time allows during the week. 

DRESS your child in uniform.  Please see your handbook for specifics.  The only change is that Kindergartners do not have to wear belts and girls need to wear shorts under skirts.    

EXERCISE is an important part of learning and it truly wakes up your brain!  We do exercises that cross the mid-line of the body to help the two sides to the brain to talk to each other better! 

FORGOTTEN ITEMS-DO NOT GO BACK HOME TO PICK UP items such as book bags, library books, gym shoes, etc.  Your child will save face with their classmates, even though they may be upset about it.  The children need to learn responsibility by the natural consequences of their mistakes and there isn’t anything that we can’t live without.  If you bring those items in late, it is disruptive to our classroom. Your cooperation is appreciated!  If a library book is forgotten, a new book may still be checked out, but please return the old book the next day to me.  We will get it returned to the library. 

GYM class will be once a week.  Please have your child wear athletic shoes that day so that we don’t have to take class time to change shoes.  You will receive a schedule of our weekly classes soon.

HELP your child to be prepared for school the night before!  This will help them learn the days of the week and remember whether they need to return a library book, wear gym shoes and it will help prevent scrambling before school.

INSIDE the school office is a Sign-In book.  All parents and other visitors are asked to sign in each time they enter the main school building only through the front doors and wear a security badge.  The office will notify the kindergarten teachers when we have visitors to be admitted. 

JESUS is present in our classroom and the reason for our school.  It is our hope that He is the main reason that your child is attending our school.  The kindergarten children’s hearts are very receptive to learning about God!  

KINDERGARTEN names are written with a capital (upper case) letter at the beginning, but all other letters are small (lower case) ex- Jennifer O’Connor.   Please encourage your child to print his/her name in this form.  

LABEL all jackets, boots, backpacks, etc. with your child’s name. 

MONEY and checks should always be sent in an envelope labeled with your child’s name and what purpose the money is for. 

NOTES to us should be sent in your child’s folder in the book bag.  Your child will open his/her backpack upon arriving in the classroom to check the folders daily and it is expected for you to check it as well, for correspondence, projects, papers, and newsletters from me.  Please empty the folder daily.  The children learn responsibility by bringing the folder back and forth every day.  Please have your child choose one folder so that your child doesn’t have to look through multiple folders for your notes. 

ORDERS FOR BOOK CLUBS

We place monthly orders from Seesaw Book club.  These orders are optional.  Seesaw is from Scholastic Books and they offer good literature selections and are reasonably priced.  If you wish to order, we will send home instructions how to order online with the monthly selections. Watch the due dates on the order forms.  Your ordered items will be sent to our classroom and we will place them in your child’s backpack.  The best part for our class is that we earn free books and materials through these orders. 

PERMISSIONS SLIPS- the children will ride on the St. Malachy bus and will need a permission slip for each trip.  PTO funds our trips!  Some of the trips that we may attend are: Beasley’s apple orchard in September, The Animal Den kennel in October, Day of the Dead celebration by walking to St. Malachy cemetery in early November, Sally’s Ceramics in December, Comfort Dental office in March, Mexican grocery store in April, and  a farm in May.  Chaperones are limited to six parents per class per trip. You may indicate your interest in attending on the permission slip, a couple of weeks before the trip.  You will be notified if you will be chaperoning for that trip after the due date.  We will keep track of how many trips you have attended to give families at least one turn to chaperone during the school year.  Please keep in mind that siblings are not allowed to attend field trips.  Some visiting class speakers may be: police officer, firefighters, and a doctor.  If you have any suggestions for field trips or guest speakers, feel free to share them with us.

QUESTIONS from you are always welcome!  Please save time and ask us rather than your friends. 

RECOGNITION AWARDS

Our school awards are given at the end of each grading quarter. 

ATTENDANCE AWARD-All students who had no absences or were not tardy.  However, please keep ill children home. Children must be free of fever over 100 degrees or stomach flu symptoms-even diarrhea- for 24 hours without the aid of medication, before returning to school in order not to infect their classmates.  

Principal’s On a Roll Award-   All kindergartners who have not had any red lights/referrals.   

ST. MALACHY is our Patron Saint.  St. Malachy was a bishop in Ireland.  He was a wonderful Church leader until his death at 41 years. His feast day is on November 3. 

TOYS should be left at home.  We have so much power-packed learning going on that we don’t want to spend time settling squabbles, looking for lost parts, or mending broken hearts over broken toys. 

USUALLY a newsletter from us will come home on Friday through email, and it will be posted on the school web site.  This newsletter will explain what topics the children will be learning about and upcoming events.  It will give you clues about what to ask your youngster to get him or her talking about what we have been doing at school. 

VOLUNTEERS

Please fill out the PTO volunteer sheet if you wish to help in our school in any capacity.  Our school needs copy room help, cafeteria volunteers, library volunteers, etc.  P.T.O. needs many volunteers for their committees in order to provide support for our school.  Room mothers and fathers help by coordinating helpers for our holiday cooking activities.  Individual or small group recipes are made during each party.  It is our school policy that younger siblings are not allowed to attend field trips or parties so that your full attention can be on the kindergartners.   

WEB SITE for our school is www.saintmalachyschool.org.  We will post our class newsletters on it and you may e-mail us through the link on it. 

EXTENDED DAY is available for the afternoon class until 6:00 P.M. for additional fees.  Please check in the office for more information. Your child needs to be registered with the Extended Day program before attending for the first time. 

YOU are the most important teacher that your child has, especially about Religion.  Your child will mirror your attitude toward school.  Let your child know that what happens in school is a priority for you.  Please have your child get plenty of rest at night –bedtime by 8:00-and eat a healthy breakfast before attending school.  He/she will learn so much better! 

ZIPPING one’s own jacket and pants, and tying one’s own shoes makes a child feel confident and independent, but it comes with practice and the coordination and development of small muscles.  Also practice your address with town/city, phone number, and birth date with your child.   Please help your child to learn these skills! 

We appreciate your taking the time to read through all of this information, and we are looking forward to having a successful year together!

 Mary Feeney                                                            

                  Report Card Skills

I individually assess the children on their Readiness Skills for their report cards:

v      Recite street and town address, phone number, and month and date of birthday.

v      Recite or sing the alphabet and tie shoes.

v      Identify the colors of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown and black and the shapes of square, rectangle, oval, diamond, triangle, and circle. 

Please refer to this and practice them with your child.  Learning to tie shoestrings is one of the hardest skills and requires practice and the development of the coordination to do it, similar to learning how to walk.  We have all year to accomplish these skills.  Children often forget their address and phone number if they haven’t said it in a while.  If your child hasn’t learned them yet, try putting it to a song like, “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”  My son remembered our lengthy country road address because it begins like emergency number 911.  The kindergarten children do not receive progress reports as it takes a large amount of time to individually assess each child.  Other skills I will be checking for the report card are:

v      Make the Sign of the Cross

v      Name all of the capital and small letters in the alphabet in random order

v      Say a word that rhymes with a given word

v      Grip the pencil correctly with three fingers

v      Color within the lines neatly

v      Accurately cut on the lines

I noticed that some of the children are not familiar with using scissors.  Please have your child practice at home, cutting on straight lines into strips.  Have your child keep his/her thumb on top and not close the scissors completely when cutting-take little bites instead.  The other hand is important for turning the paper.   

See below the prayers for general information and curriculum.