The final stretch

A look at our learning...

Fundations: using the knowledge we have gained this year, we are really focusing on building and reading sentences independently.  We have learned that we don't need a grown-up to tell us how to spell or read something and that's pretty cool!  It is still their natural urge to ask an adult "how do you spell..." or "what does this say?" but I challenge YOU, the grown-up, to stop doing this.  When they ask you this, remind them that they know all of their letters and sounds and are readers and writers now!  Encourage them to tap it out and try!  There will always be new words that they don't know, but many they do!  Phonetic spelling is age appropriate unless it's a word wall word they have previously learned. 

Please refer to the parent packet in the Friday Folder to practice this.  I encourage you to use these activities over the next week. You will be impressed by what your child can do!  They have learned so much this school year and I'm so proud of them!

Shared Reading: we read the Big Book What Has These Feet? and had to make predictions about what animals have the feet shown.  We also read the silly poem Have you ever seen a sheep in a jeep? I think this might be one of their favorite poems this year!  I'm sure many of you have heard them singing it at home, as they do it often at school!  If not, ask them to sing it to you!  It features many of our word wall words and helps us identify rhyme.  

Next week's spelling words:

from

not

Writing Workshop: we continued our opinion writing unit this week.  There are so many fun books that tie in with this unit of study.  This week we read the book I wanna iguana, about a little boy and his mother writing letters back and forth about why the boy should or should not get a pet iguana.  In the end, he was able to convince his mother to let him have a pet iguana.  We shared our own opinions about a pet we would like to have and wrote our own letters about why we think our parents should let us get that pet!  

We also read the book Too Many Toys! about a child who has WAY too many toys and his mom thinks it's time to go through them to donate.  The little boy is having a tough time with this, as I'm sure many of you can relate! They are sharing their opinions about why certain toys should stay or go. We shared our opinions in regards to if the little boy did indeed have too many toys! 

Math: our main focus again this week continues to be addition and subtraction within 10 using a variety of games and story problems.  It is important that students can not only know the correct answer, but show and explain their thinking as well.  

Science: our caterpillars have formed their chrysalis and we are anxiously awaiting their change into butterflies!

Countdown to summer: next week we are on letters J, K, L, M, N.  On Monday, students will need to come prepared to tell a joke.  Please practice their joke with them over the weekend so they are confident to stand up and share it with the class in a "loud and proud" voice.  Wednesday is Lunch outside day.  They may bring a lunch from home or purchase a school lunch.  Please send a towel or blanket for them to sit on, as it will be picnic style.  They will probably want to bring sunglasses or a hat as well for when we are outside.  M is movie day.  They may bring a pillow and blanket.  
Here are a few photos from this past week.  Even more are on the class Facebook page!

Principal's Day: Monday is National Principal's Day.  We are making a special class book for Dr. Woods and Mrs. Nickens.  If your child would like to make a card for them at home this weekend, they can bring it to school on Monday.  If you would like to purchase a gift for either, totally optional, their favorite items are listed here. 

They do SO MUCH for our school and I hope we can show them just how appreciated they are on Monday! 

Kindergarten Celebration:  Due to a scheduling conflict created by the calendar changes enacted by the Board of Education, we need to move our Kindergarten End of Year celebration to Monday, May 22. The time and format will remain the same (beginning at 10:00 a.m. in the gym). Sorry for the confusion with the timing of this event. We appreciate your flexibility and we are looking forward to seeing everyone on Monday, May 22^nd!

Thank you,

Seth Woods

Principal

Fun at school

A little bit of the crazies

Whew! Spring has sprung in many ways!  There are a little bit of the crazies going on.  I don't think this is just in our classroom, but an overall theme at BEU this week.  I know I've seen some uncharacteristic behaviors from many and hope together we can nip that in the bud.  While the end of school is near, it's not THAT near to be able to continue like we did this week.  While we are going to have lots of fun these last two months of school, we also have lots of learning left to do and we can't have fun if we can't do our learning.  The biggest issues in our classroom have been knowing when it's a time to be silly vs. when it's a time to be a learner, passive learners (sitting, staring into space and not participating) and following directions the first time.  While there are times to be loud and silly, there are also times to be serious and learn.   I will always give reminders, but I should not have to give an excessive amount of reminders for simple things.  These are things we've chatted about and I thought it would be helpful if you knew the conversations. I have been coming down pretty hard with consequences to try and alleviate this, so many of you will notice walking slips in your child's take home folder. Sometimes we have to have a consequence to help us see that we need to fix a behavior issue. Thank you, in advance for your help with this. I'm hopeful next week will be better.  

                                                          A look at our learning...

Fundations: our focus has been building sentences.  I will say a short sentence, such as: "The cat is on the mat." and they will have to say the sentence, count the words and help me write it.  If a word isn't a word wall word, they have to tap it out to tell me how to spell it.  We also make sure we begin with an uppercase letter and end with punctuation.  Once our sentence is built, we practice reading it fluently.

We are also working on saying the "th" sound correctly.  Watch your child's mouth when they make this sound. Do they have their tongue between their teeth? If so, they are saying it correctly.  Are they biting their lip?  If so, that is the /f/ sound and they need to work on making this sound correctly.  A great way to see if they are using this diagraph correctly is listening when they count and get to the 30's and 40's.  Many say "firty" instead of "thirty" and we want to work on correcting this.  

Check the Friday Folder for your parent packet and ways to help build and read sentences fluently at home. 

Shared Reading: this week we read the books Tools and These or Those? to help us with our new spelling words.  The kiddos are really becoming great readers and reading longer books with more words on each page!  We are working on being problem solvers when we come to an unknown word and NOT skipping the word or mumbling over it.  We can look at the picture, tap it out and think about what makes sense to help us solve it, but we DO NOT skip it.  

Next week's spelling words

of

have

Guided Reading Groups:  they are becoming great little readers!  Every child is in a small group working on skills at their own levels.  Some are working on letters/sounds/tapping out words and many are in books at various levels.  

Writing Workshop: during our opinion writing unit we have discussed the difference between a fact and an opinion.  We read a cute story called Not Norman: A Goldfish Story and shared our opinions about what pet we think is the best and why.  We also read the fun book Duck! Rabbit! and shared our opinions telling if we thought the main character was a duck or a rabbit.  

Math: we had so many fun lessons this week!  Creating 2D & 3D shapes with toothpicks and marshmallows was a huge hit, as well as making bracelets to help us make 10 in various ways.  The bracelets came home earlier in the week for your child to use at home.  

Can your child do the following?

*Count to 100 by ones and tens

*Count a set number of objects, up to 10, with one to one match

*Count backwards from 10

*Count on from a given number that IS NOT 1

*Identify the following shapes: triangle, square, rectangle, circle, hexagon, trapezoid, rhombus, cylinder, sphere, cube, cone, pyramid

*Write numbers 0-20

*Identify numbers 0-20

*Add and subtract numbers to 10

These are all end of Kindergarten goals and will be assessed for their end of year report card. 

A to Z Countdown to Summer: the countdown is on and we are having so much fun! On A day we created art, B day enjoyed bubble gum and blew bubbles outside, C day the rain held off so we could draw with chalk outside and enjoy cookies and today on D day we enjoyed donuts and being paleontologists! We found dinosaurs frozen in ice and had to get them out!  This is one of mine, and the kids, favorite days every year!  These are the days they will remember as they grow older and one of the many magical parts of Kindergarten!

Here are a few pics, but I will post them ALL on the class Facebook page. 

Social Studies: one of our end of year social studies units is "History: Then and Now."  This is a very broad subject in Kindergarten, but one that ties in nicely to the end of the year.  We incorporate this learning into calendar time daily (days of the week, months of the year, etc.) and when reflecting on things we did in the past in kindergarten, are doing in the present and will do in the future.  A nice little way to look back and reflect on all we have done this school year! 

Science: as Bella said, "we have a class pet now" lol!  We will be watching caterpillars go through metamorphisis over the next couple of weeks.  When they turn into butterflies, we will release them! 

Fun with friends