Thank you

 

Thank you SO MUCH for spoiling me for my birthday this week!  I think it is safe to say that everyone knows I'm 40 now lol!  The kids loved celebrating with the streamers, party hats, big balloons and of course cookie cake!  Celebrating your birthday in a kindergarten classroom really is the best!  I also appreciate you being understanding of me taking off two days.  Cardinal baseball has been my families special thing ever since I was born, so it was just perfect that Opening Day fell on my actual birthday.  Thank you for allowing me to spend time with my family and close friends.  I even ran into one of our classmates at the game!  So fun to see Hudson and his family!

A look at our learning...

Fundations: we continued to work on tapping out/reading/writing words with diagraphs in them.  In the pictures below we are being diagraph detectives and finding the words that have diagraphs.  Check your parent packet in the Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning at home.  

Spelling: they took their spelling test with Mrs. Bechtold on Friday, but I told her to leave them for me to grade when I return.  They will bring them home on Monday.  

Our new words for next week are tricky, but used so much in daily reading and writing, please practice nightly!  

New spelling words:

said

you

Writing Workshop: we have returned to narrative writing during writing workshop.  This week we shared about our spring break and will be writing stories about our break.  We are working on telling more detail (at least two things), using two finger word spaces, spelling words more accurately since we know all of our letters and sounds and using punctuation (at least at the end of our story). 

Ask your child what they wrote about this week. 

Math: we learned more about addition and subtraction in the form of games called "Disappearing train" and "Growing Train."  They had to make a "train" out of 20 snap cubes. Then they roll two dice.  One dice has the numbers 1, 2, 3 on it and one dice has the plus and minus sign on it to tell them if they add that many train cars or subtract that many train cars.  They keep going until they have no train cars left.  This is also a game in the CPS portal they can play in the Connect Ed/Every Day Math app.  

We are beginning unit 7 in math.  Check your child's Friday Folder to learn what unit 7 will entail and how you can support their learning at home.

Science: the kids loved visiting the Rock Bridge planetarium on Wednesday to learn more about space, planets and the sun!  Below are some pictures of the show they saw.  Show them the pictures and they should be able to tell you more about it! 

March Citizen of the Month for Specials:  we were lucky to have another March Citizen of the Month!  Sawyer was chosen by the media center teachers (Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Canepa and Mrs. Groner) for the Kindergarten Citizen of the Month for specials!  He was surprised with his award during our library check out time on Tuesday!

Happy Spring Break

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: we started unit 4 this week, which will focus on diagraphs (wh, ch, sh, th, ck), learning more trick words (words that can't be sounded out) and reading sentences fluently. Check your parent packet for trick word flash cards to use at home.  

Shared Reading & Spelling Words: we cleaned out our book boxes this week.  Your child brought home many of the Shared Reading books I have mentioned in this blog each week. Your child should be able to read these books to you because we practice them in the classroom.  They should also be able to read them because they are full of word wall words and words that aren't word wall words they should be able to decode/figure out using the strategies I showed you/listed on their detailed progress report I gave you at parent teacher conferences.  I recommend having them read some of these books to you over spring break to count towards their Pizza Hut reading log.  

Spelling words when we return from spring break

me

be

Writing Workshop: this week we ended our opinion writing unit by writing opinion pieces to give to another adult in the building.  We wrote reasons why we like or appreciate that person and hand delivered them.  I hope it made the person receiving them as happy as it made us writing them! Check out a few examples below. Ask your child who they wrote to. 

Math: this week the kids were super excited to learn about subtraction....they thought it was "big kid" math and were super into it!  We learned that subtraction means: to take things away, see what is left, you have a smaller number and involves numbers.  We also learned about the minus sign.  In Kindergarten we don't focus on solving math facts written on paper, but rather practice it through modeling and hands on approaches.  For example: we practiced sitting at the carpet and having kids leave the carpet (subtract/take away) and see how many are left.  We also used math counters and did this individually at our table.  Here is a fun video we used to learn about subtraction.

Check your child's Friday Folder for more ways to extend their math learning at home.

Science: it was so fun to have KOMU 8 meteorologist Tim Schmidt visit our classroom on Thursday to discuss the weather and wrap up our weather science unit!  It's always fun to meet and learn from someone "famous!" He said he might share a picture of his visit on Monday at 6:29 a.m. if you want to watch or record it.  The severe weather special that he is visiting classrooms for will be a news special on April 6th.  He wasn't sure what all would be shown or included, but might be worth watching! Ask your child to tell you more about his visit.

Counselor: this week Mrs. Bergeson's lesson was about small problems (something you can solve yourself/no one is getting hurt/in danger) vs. big problems (someone is or could get hurt/in danger).  This is a tough topic for children this age as they think everything is a big problem.  It also ties into "are we tattling or reporting?" Tattling is to get someone in trouble.  Reporting is to help them.  

Class goal met: we met a class goal and enjoyed sneaky reading/flashlight day on Tuesday!

We are now working towards earning a picnic lunch.

 Citizen of the Month: yay Hudson!  He was chosen, by his peers, as our March Citizen of the Month!

We sure do love our Beulah Ralph Chickens