Countdown to Summer

 A look at our learning...

Fundations: we completed unit 4 and will begin our final unit next week.  We continued to work on the diagraph ck and how it typically appears after a short vowel at the end of a word.  In our final unit we will reinforce sentence structure, reading and writing short sentences with fluency/expression, using punctuation and learning some final spelling words. 

Check the Friday Folder for the parent packet to extend their learning at home.  Even though we are on the downhill slide of Kindergarten, we want to keep reinforcing skills at home to help them stay on track for first grade.  The same goes for throughout the summer as well. 

Shared Reading: they are really blossoming into little readers!  I've enjoyed those of you who have messaged me or told me personally how you have noticed your child reading more independently at home now.  I love this time of year when it really begins to "click" and I'm so glad you notice! I love snapping photos when they are reading! 

Next week's spelling words

or

for

We had our spelling test today, but it will come home on Monday since I was absent and had a substitute teacher.  I asked her to leave them for me to look at.

Writing Workshop: we continue to work on narratives, many are writing about spring break or Easter, and working on the writing goals we set for ourselves.  

Ask your child what their writing goal is and what they wrote about this week. 

Math: this week we learned how we can use dominoes to help with addition.  If you have dominoes at home ask your child to explain how they can do this! They had fun using them!

We also worked on teen numbers and how a teen number is a group of ten and some left over. 

Check the Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning at home. 

Author visit: we were excited to have Minh Le, children's book author, visit Beulah Ralph on Friday.  He spoke to Kindergarten-third grade.  We read several of his books this week to prepare for his visit!  Ask your child to tell you all about it! 

Monday Morning Meeting: it felt so good to bring back the BEU tradition of "Monday Morning Meeting" in the gym.  I think the kids had a great time as well!  This is something we used to do every Monday, grades K-5, but then the pandemic happened.  We are easing back into it and will alternate weeks we meet in the gym vs. viewing in our classroom on Zoom.  Since K-2 was in the gym this past Monday, we will be in our classroom this upcoming Monday and continue to alternate.  I loved seeing all of the students wear their BEU spirit wear on this day!

Countdown to summer: hard to believe it, but we have started our countdown to summer!  A note came home about this in last week's Friday Folder.  This week we had an A for art day and B for bubbles day!  

Please make sure you view the countdown calendar that came home last week to know if you need to send your child with something special each day.  Some items are provided at school and some from home.  

A little bit of the crazies

 Whew! Spring has sprung in many ways!  Not only have we had crazy up and down spring weather, but the kiddos have had a bit of the crazies as well! lol!  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 noise, 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.  We have a noise meter in our classroom that we use daily and they know the expectations.  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: this week we focused on the diagraph ck. We learned that when you hear the /c/ or /k/ sound at the end of a word, it will most likely be ck together.  We practiced reading and writing words with this diagraph.  Check the Friday Folder for the weekly parent packet to help extend your child's learning at home. 

Writing Workshop: we have learned many skills this year in writing and now it is time to refine those skills.  This week we have talked about how we are always learning and perfecting skills, even as adults, and it is always good to set goals.  Each child now has an individual writing goal to focus on.  I chatted one on one with each child this week and we discussed things they are great at in writing and things they could focus and work on.  We talked about how it takes a lot of practice to become an expert at something and in order to move their name to a new goal, I have to consistently see them doing their current goal for quite some time.  If I see them improving then after a couple of weeks we will choose a new goal.

Check the chart to see your child's writing goal.  You will notice that MANY need work on writing their letters correctly the Fundations way.  We learned how to form all of our letters correctly during the first half of the year in Fundations, so this is definitely a skill to work on if their name is there.  We are going to start doing some lowercase letter handwriting sheets (like earlier) in the year as morning work again to hopefully help fix this as well. 

Spelling words: they did a great job with our tough spelling words this week!  I appreciate you helping them practice!  Next week are tricky words too!  They are almost first graders after all!

Next week's spelling words:

they

had

Math: we continued to focus on addition, subtraction and story problems this week.  There are not any parent packets this week for math as we got a bit ahead with sending them home.  

School wide awards: we continue to try and bring a bit of normalcy back to BEU.  Things that we did pre-pandemic.  Two of those things we brought back this week were the "Golden Broom" award and the "Fast Pass" award.  There are two winners for each awards.  A K-2 winner and a 3-5 winner.  To earn the Golden Broom you must keep your classroom and bathroom clean.  The custodians choose the winner and that class earns a reward of their teachers choosing.  This week we were chosen as the K-2 Golden Broom winners!  We earned an extra recess! 

The "Fast Pass" award is chosen by principals and lunchroom/recess supervisors.  They are looking for the class that does the best job of following expectations at lunch.  Their reward is being the first to go outside for lunch recess for an entire week.  

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!