Thank you!

 I want to start by saying THANK YOU for an amazing Teacher Appreciation Week!

A special thanks to Kayla Hagedorn who has been our room parent this year!  She decorated our classroom door and arranged for the group photo gift you see below.  She also helped arrange all classroom parties this year! THANK YOU!

We are blessed at BEU to have an amazing PTA and so many amazing students and families!  The children loved spoiling me this week!  It's great to see the joy they get out of GIVING and not just receiving!  Not only did they spoil me, but I made sure they thought of the specialists teachers as well.  They are amazing teachers, and although they may not have their own classroom, they impact many children's lives every day!  We made a special book for every specialist we see to let them know how thankful we are for them as well!  If you included the specialists in your giving this week, they also thank you and expressed how much it means to them! I let them know that I would pass on their thanks!

Now it's time for me to buy new pants from all the good food and drinks this week! 😂

A look at our learning...

Fundations: at this point in the year students should know how to correctly form ALL letters and should be doing so every time they write, not just during Fundations.  This week I have noticed many friends not putting forth their best effort in regards to forming their letters correctly and neatly.  We have talked about what good writers they are becoming, but if it isn't neat, others (or themselves) can't read their work.  Please help hold your child accountable when writing at home as well.  Their first grade teachers will also thank you! 

Please check your child's Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning at home.  I encourage you to use the extra lined handwriting paper to have them show you how to correctly form all their lowercase letters from a-z. 

Next week's spelling words:

not

from

Next week will be the last week of introducing new spelling words. We will take a normal spelling test next Friday.  We will take an end of Kindergarten spelling test on Wednesday, May 18th that will include ALL 37 words we have learned this year. These will be sent home with their report cards on the last day of school.

Writing Workshop: this week we worked on the special books I mentioned above for our specialists teachers.  We wrote about why we love that teacher and their class.  We made one for Coach Robison in P.E., Mrs. Hamisak in Music, Mrs. Starbuck in art, Mr. Heidlage in Media and Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Canepa and Mrs. Groner in the library.  

Math: we did more surveys and graphing and simple addition and subtraction. Today we made bead bracelets to help with addition! We found ways to make 10 with our bracelets and recorded the ways in our math notebooks.  Your child is bringing home their bracelet today!  Ask them to show you how they used it to do math!   

Check your child's Friday Folder for ways to extend their learning at home!

Makerspace: Thursday afternoon we visited Mrs. Fitch in the library and participated in Makerspace activities!  So many hands on, creative things in action! Coding, problem solving, teamwork, building, etc.! Ask your child about this! Every child (who was at school) was able to make a button with her button machine as well!  So cool!

Science: we have had caterpillars in our classroom and we watched them make their cocoon/chrysalis!  We have moved them from their cup they arrived in to our butterfly net and are excited to soon see them turn into painted lady butterflies and release them!

Library Check out: This coming Tuesday, May 10th is our LAST library check out.  ALL books are due back to school by Monday, May 16th.  Late slips and fees will be sent home with students who do not return books by this date. 

Mothersingers: on Thursday we enjoyed a performance by the Mothersingers.  They are a local group of mothers and grandmothers who perform all around, including CPS schools!  We learned they have been a group for 75 years!  Such a fun, yearly tradition we are happy to have back! Even more photos and videos are on our class Facebook page!

A to Z Countdown: this week we celebrated letters H-L.  We had fun with hat day, ice pop day, joke day (honestly, we had many good jokes!), Kindness day and lunch outside day!  On Kindness day I listened and watched for extra acts and words of kindness and we surprised two adults in our building with a bouquet of flowers. We brainstormed adults in our building and voted on which two we'd like to surprise!  They chose our classroom paraprofessional, Ms. Smith, and 2nd grade teacher (and Breven's mom) Mrs. Good.