Goodbye to a sweet friend

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 refrain from 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!

The optional homework in the Friday Folder this week is also an activity that will show off what they have learned.  Please make sure they are the one reading it and not an adult or older sibling. 

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 are butterfly experts and each child has began writing their own informational text about butterflies. Each book will have a cover with a title they create, an opening sentence/page telling the reader what they will learn about in the book, 3 pages of facts (one fact per page) and an ending.  Their books will also have labels and headings, just like real life non-fiction books!  I can't wait for you to see their final product! 

Ask your child what facts they are writing about in their butterfly book! 

Math: this week we focused on surveys & graphing, estimation and number stories.  When doing number stories, we focus on not only showing the answer to a simple math problem, but also showing how we know. 

Science: The Force & Motion unit in Kindergarten is one of the most fun science units!  We learned that a force is a push or a pull.  On Wednesday, we had a full day of science! All 5 Kindergarten classrooms rotated through each classroom doing various Force and Motion stations.  It was so much fun!  Unfortunately, I don't have pictures from all classrooms, but here are a few!

Our classroom: bowling

Miss Eagle-building and testing ramps

Miss Bruflat-push and pull cut and paste activity & story

Mrs. Croom-Hard pushes and soft pushes with various size balls

Ms. Williams-Marble art

We ended the day with a Peep & Chirp video about Force & Motion.  Ask your child to tell you more about each station. 

Counselor: this week Mrs. Bergeson's lesson was about resilience and not giving up when things are difficult.  They were also able to explore and play with some toys and materials she keeps in her office that encourage using age appropriate social skills. 

Administrative Professionals Day: on Wednesday, we showed our appreciation to Mrs. Barb Lambert, Ms. Grace Lambert, Mrs. Cara Lenger and Mr. Cameron Dunn in the office.  We are so lucky to have them at BEU.  They work so hard and do so much for our school, students and families.  Thank you to all of you who took time to show them your appreciation as well! 

Countdown to Summer: this week we ate yummy cookies and drew beautiful masterpieces on the sidewalk with chalk on C day (and were lucky to have a surprise visit from firefighters and EMT's driving by who stopped and gave us stickers), enjoyed donuts and were archeologists and dug up dinos on D day (one of my favorite days), did science experiments on E day, learned by flashlight/lanterns and headlamps on F day and played fun board and card games on G day.  Check out the fun below, but there are even more photos and videos on our class Facebook page!

Next week, you will need to send a few things from home.  Monday is H for Hat day and students may wear a hat.  Wednesday is J for Joke day; please practice a joke with your child at home the night before that they can tell to the class.  Friday is L for Lunch Outside day; please send a beach towel for your child to sit on as we enjoy our lunch outside.  Students may still get a school lunch if needed, but if they bring a lunch from home that day it would make things easier and helpful.  

Goodbye to Carter: today we said goodbye to our sweet friend Carter.  Carter and his family are moving to be closer to family out of state.  While it is sad for us, as we will miss him dearly, we are happy for him and his family!  Carter brought treats for everyone today to say goodbye!

                                                           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.  This ties in wonderfully with being independent writers during writing time as well. 

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.  

We are also learning about non-fiction text features, such as: table of contents, index, glossary, captions and labels.  This ties into our informational writing unit as well. 

Next week's spelling words:

of

have

Writing: due to our class spending a week with Mrs. Fitch learning all about weather, we did not have a dedicated writing time.  When we had free moments, we did continue to listen to books about butterflies to learn more facts for our informative writing unit. Next week, we will be back in action and begin writing our book of facts about butterflies!

Math: this week we learned all the ways to make 10 and how a rainbow can help us find all the ways (ask your child about this), took a survey about our favorite summertime treat and graphed our information and continued to tie in addition and subtraction when we could!  

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. 

Science: Mrs. Fitch, our media specialist, visited our room every day this week to team teach a science weather unit.  We learned about the sun's warming effects on the Earth and how the sun can affect our weather.  We observed the weather and collected data this past month.  We used this data to notice weather patterns and make predictions for upcoming weather.  Students had to work together to design a structure that would protect a pretend character, Milo, from the sun.  They were excellent engineers this week!  Here are a few photos from our week and the big project, but even more are on our class Facebook page! 

A to Z Countdown to Summer: the countdown is on and we are having so much fun! On A day we created art and on B day enjoyed bubble gum and blew bubbles outside.  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. 

Next week, students will need to bring a few items from home for the countdown: a flashlight, headlamp or lantern on Thursday for flashlight day and a board game or card game on Friday for game day! 

More fun at school!

Countdown to summer...

 A look at our learning...

Behavior at school: since we have returned from Spring Break, I have noticed a decline in focus, attention span and effort.  This is not abnormal for students at this point in the year as we are on the downhill slide to summer, however, we still have SO MUCH learning to do. I'm sure there are several factors that play into this: it stays lighter later, so many students do not go to bed on time due to this, spring sports are beginning and affects bedtime as well, summer is on the brain, etc.  When students are late to school (even a few minutes), picked up early, or absent for reasons other than being sick or things that are excused, this also affects their focus, effort and stamina.  Continuing to have consistent bedtimes and attending school are a few ways to help with this.  

We have chatted as a class about expectations and how they are almost first graders.  They will always receive several reminders to focus and be engaged in learning (they are kids, after all), but after they receive multiple redirects, it begins to affect their learning and those around them.  At this point, walking tickets or safe seats will be utilized.  I am hopeful that receiving a consequence or two, will help students reflect on their choices and it quickly becomes a non-issue.  If you notice more walking tickets in your child's Friday Folder each week, I wanted you to know why.

I am seeing a great deal of staring off into space, out of tune with what is occurring, mouth open and glazed over looks on their faces.  I hope this helps you understand at home what I am seeing at school and how it is affecting their learning.  While it is not everyone in the class, there have been enough that I thought it might be helpful to address as a whole.   

I will be the first to say that I run a tight ship, but children thrive on high expectations and a structured environment.  They can focus, they can be engaged and they can do it!  They've shown me all year long and now is the time to shine!  We have a lot of fun events coming up, but if they cannot focus on their learning first, they may have to miss out on some of the fun things. I'm hopeful that won't happen!  We can learn AND have fun!  Thank you, as always, for your support. 

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.

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! 

Next week's spelling words

or

for

Writing Workshop: this week we began our informational writing unit and are learning about butterflies.  Before we can become expert informational writers, we have to do the research!  We have read several books this week about butterflies, as well as used resources such Pebble Go and Mystery Science to fill our brains with knowledge about butterflies. We are taking notes that will help us when we go to write our informational books in the coming weeks.  Check out the class Facebook page for a video of their learning today! 

Math: this week we worked more on addition within 10, how teen numbers are a group of 10 and some left over and 3D shapes.

By the end of Kindergarten, all students should be able to identify the following 3D shapes: cylinder, sphere, cube, cone, pyramid.  A great way to practice these at home is by making flash cards!  Do a quick google search of images, print them out and practice them each night!  

Counselor: this week Mrs. Bergeson continued her lessons on careers.  Students learned about different careers, talked about things they like, things they are good at and careers they might like to have in the future.  

We were also introduced to one of our new counselors for the 2023-2024 school year, Ms. Otto!  We are excited to welcome her to Beulah Ralph!

Countdown to summer: hard to believe it, but we are ready to begin our countdown to summer!  Please check your child's Friday Folder for a detailed note about this.  Some items are provided at school (food, materials, etc.) and some you will need to do at home (dress up days, picnic materials, etc.).  We are so excited to continue this Beulah Kindergarten tradition!  Such a fun time and memory for the students! 

Packmate of the Month: yay Mae! She was chosen, by her peers, as April Packmate of the Month!  

Class Goal: we met our goal of 20 compliments from specials teachers or substitute teachers and celebrated with a technology day.  We took 10-20 minute breaks sporadically throughout the day on Wednesday and students were able to play on their technology from home or school! 

Math Night: Family Math Night was a huge success and so much fun!  It was great to see so many students attend from our class! Way to represent! We hope you had fun and learned a little as well!

Fun at school