Weekly update

Wow!  What a busy, fun week and it's only just beginning!

We are on the downhill slide of the school year, which is so hard to believe!  Please keep up with this blog, take home folders, Friday Folders and emails to keep up with the fun!

A look at our week...

Fundations: we have almost wrapped up our Fundations unit.  For the rest of the year it will focus on sentence structure, using punctuation and fluency when reading!  Check out the Friday Folder for the latest Fundations note and ways to help support their learning  in this area at home.  

Shared Reading: this week we read the big books He will not jump, Allie & Ollie, and What is for dinner?  All 3 books featured our new word wall words, not & but.

This was our last week of new spelling words to practice!  The kiddos have learned all 25 Kindergarten spelling words, plus many of the First Grade words!  

They are wonderful spellers, thanks for all of your work at home and practicing with them each week.  

On Friday, May 19th we will have a test with ALL of the spelling words they have learned this year.  Check their take home folder for the up-to-date word wall list to help you review.  While the test will be long, it should be super easy as it is over all the words they have learned throughout the year and should already know!  Practicing over the next couple of weeks is recommended though to help them review.  

Writing: the kiddos are loving the opinion writing unit.....5 and 6 year olds have LOTS of opinions! They are learning to state their opinion and give at least 3 reasons why they feel that way.  

Math: next week will be our last week focusing on addition.  We will spend the rest of the school year learning about subtraction.

Science: next week we will be doing a fun science unit on Pushes and Pulls (force and motion) with our media specialist, Mrs. Fitch.  Each day we will spend at least an hour, some days two, doing fun lessons with her!  I will have pictures to share next week!  

On Monday we celebrated April birthday's at the morning meeting

We celebrated Secretaries Day on Wednesday

Every child at BEU signed a lego.  The lego's will be put together and spell BEU.  This is a special way to commemorate the first year at our wonderful school!

Rock Bridge High School Planetarium field trip on Thursday.  The kids loved it!

A few reminders...

*Flash's Big Top Circus tomorrow!  Thanks for working a shift at our classroom game!  Click here if you need a reminder as to what time your shift is. 

*April Reading Logs are due next week.  The May reading logs are in the Friday Folders.

*Field trip to Mizzou on Monday.  Please take time to read the note in the Friday Folder about attire, lunches, etc. 

*Miss Nemechek's last day is on Thursday.  We have been so lucky to have her in our classroom this semester and know she will make a great teacher!

See you at the circus tomorrow!!

Chick-sitting

Today we baby-sat Miss Rutledge's adorable baby chick's while they took the MAP test.  They thought all of their sweet chirping might be a bit distracting during the test.  The looks on the kiddos faces sum up how excited and in love they were with the baby chicks!!!  What a fun day!

Worn out and napping after a morning with Kindergarten!!

Caterpillars to Butterflies

Our sweet little Kinders have blossomed from tiny caterpillars into beautiful (and smart) butterflies this school year! 

I am SO PROUD of their adorable spring concert performance on Thursday evening and hope you enjoyed yourself as much as they did!  They have been so excited this week to sing their songs to you, "sell" their Monarch feeders and show off their Service Learning project that decorated our hallways and classrooms.  

Thank you SO MUCH for coming, we all loved having you!

The kiddos were ecstatic to hear that Kindergarten, as a grade level, raised over $500 to donate to the Monarch Conservation Programs at MDC.  This doesn't even count the penny drive that is on-going through the end of the school year.  Thanks for supporting their Service Learning Project over the last few months.  Giving back and helping others is such a wonderful thing to learn at an early age!  I love that Beulah Ralph is involved in Service Learning Projects!

A few reminders and upcoming events..

*please sign up for a 30 minute shift to work at our classroom game during the BEU Circus on April 29th.  Anyone can work: parents (your children can work with you), older siblings, grandparents, etc.  Each classroom game needs 12 volunteers or else it will have to be shut down.  Thanks in advance and to those who have already signed up!  You rock!

Click here to sign up for a shift. 

*our class visits the Rock Bridge High School planetarium on Thursday.  We will leave school at 9:00 and return in time for lunch at 11:00.  Please make sure your kiddos are at school on time so they don't miss out on the fun!  This trip is just for the kiddos and teachers due to limited space, thank you for understanding.  They will go every year and learn something new each time.  They always enjoy it so much!

*May 1st-field trip to Mizzou

*May 4th-Ms. Nemechek's last day

*May 22nd-field day (more info coming later)

*May 25th-last day of school, Kindergarten lunch and short program with parents, early dismissal. 

Next week's spelling words:

but

not

We have a new friend!

We have a new friend!

Say hello to Amelia!

We are so happy she is here and a part of our school family!

Today we practiced on the risers on the stage for the first time as an entire grade level to get ready for our spring concert on Thursday evening!  

We can't wait to perform for you!  

Please remember that all Kindergartners are expected

 to attend this performance.

Weekly update

Fundations:  please check the Friday Folder for the Fundations packet and things you can help work on at home.

Shared Reading: this week we read 2 big books to help us with our word wall words, am  and are: Who will be my mother? and The Frog is Hungry?

Next week's word wall words:

for

from

Math: we continue to work on addition through story problems.  We also learned a few new addition math games this week:  7 Up and Bump. 

Writing: this week we began our last writing unit, opinion writing.  We read the fun book I want an iguana to help us learn what an opinion is.  Ask your child about the book, they LOVED it!  Right now we are just verbally sharing our opinions on various topics and will learn the writing structure next week.  

Makerspace: today we learned about coding during our Makerspace time with Mrs. Fitch by using Dash & Dot.   Learn more about this here

April Lunch with the Principal

Yay Zephyr!

He was chosen to have 

Lunch with the Principal for April!

Happy April!

Important Kindergarten dates to remember:

*April 20th-Kindergarten music program @ 6:30 p.m. 

(more details in Friday Folder)

*April 27th-Class trip to Rock Bridge High School Planetarium at 9:00 a.m. (students and teachers only)

*April 29th-BEU circus (more details in Friday Folder)

*May 1st-possible Kindergarten field trip (more details later)

*May 4th-Ms. Nemechek's last day

*May 25th-last day of school/early release & short Kindergarten program and picnic lunch with families beginning at 10:00 a.m. (more details in Friday Folder)

A look at our learning...

Fundations: our focus continues to be on digraphs (sh, th, ch, ck, wh).  The kiddos know what sounds these digraphs make in isolation, but many are still having a hard time noticing them in words when reading and making the appropriate sounds or when sounding out words when writing.  For example:  they know that the digraph sh goes sh like ship when seeing it alone, but when they see a word in a book with that digraph (maybe the word is sheep) they still want to make the s sound like snake and h sound like hat rather than blending them together.  Then they can't figure out the word "sheep" because they aren't blending their sounds correctly.  When reading or spelling at home, please work on them becoming more aware of these digraphs.  

Shared Reading: we read the big books Bonkers likes to bark and Do you Play? to help us learn our new word wall words, do and to. 

Next week's spelling words:

*am
*are

Math: we are continuing to work on addition, but now in the form of story problems.  We are learning how to show our thinking with pictures, numbers and words.  Knowing the answer to a math fact is great, but being able to explain and show their thinking is even more important.  In their Friday Folder you will see some of the story problems they have worked on this week. 

Writing: since February we have learned about informational/non-fiction writing.  They have learned all about penguins, caterpillars/monarch butterflies and then whatever topic they chose for their video projects we sent home before spring break.  This week we reviewed all they have learned about informational writing and took their writing assessment on Thursday.  Next week we will begin our third and final writing unit, opinion writing.  

Service Learning Project: this week we we planted milkweed seeds.  We will water and give them sunlight in our classrooms over the next few weeks.  Eventually the kiddos will get to bring them home to plant in their yards.  Milkweed plants are essential for Monarch Butterflies and we hope we can be successful at growing them!  

We are continuing to collect pennies (or any monetary donation) for the Missouri Department of Conservation so keep sending them in!  Thanks to everyone who has donated to our Service Learning Project so far!  

If you would like to further help our project, please check out the link below. 

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050f4ca5aa2ca02-help