Newsletter Updates for the Week of April 13th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Wednesday, April 15th—Next Visit to the Library

-Monday, April 20th—Delayed Start

-Wednesday, April 22nd—Earth Day

-Saturday, April 25th—Kindergarten Round Up

HAPPY SPRING!

I hope you had an enjoyable Easter & Spring Break!  Let’s hope that Spring is here to stay!  Please be sure to watch the weather and dress your child accordingly.  I would suggest layers so that they can start the day off with a heavy coat and hopefully end the day with a jacket or sweatshirt:)  It is hard to believe that we only have a couple months of school left! It really is amazing to look back to September and see how much the students have grown!  :)

ICE SKATING: 

I was absolutely impressed by the students’ skills & stamina for ice skating—they ALL did a fabulous job!  Special thanks to the MANY volunteers who showed up to help out—this trip couldn’t have been a success without ALL of your help!  I am hoping to have pictures to share soon!

  

READING: 

This week our class will continue reading stories about different kinds of pets and how to care for them. Children will learn about grooming, feeding, walking, and caring for pets.

· Vocabulary: responsibility, train - Talk about the responsibilities associated with caring for pets, as well as how people train pets.

· High-Frequency Words: they

· Category Words: pets - Play a game of “Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down.” Ask your child to show thumbs up if what you say is true, and to show thumbs down if what you say is not true. For example, A dog can be a pet. (thumbs up)

· Phonics: Ww & L blends—bl, sl, fl, cl, gl, pl—we will practice reading and writing words with these letter combinations.

· Reading Folders—Before break I was busy completing running records with all of the students to asses their growth in reading.  I’ve adjusted their reading folders and book boxes to reflect their growth, and this week the students will be shopping for new good-fit books.  Therefore, they will not be bringing home their reading folders until the end of this week, when everyone has had an opportunity to shop:)

WRITING: 

This week we will begin our April Journals -  writing about what we did over Spring Break and our favorite baby animals.  We will also be laying the groundwork for our next Writing Unit—writing How-to books.

MATH: 

This week we will continue to work on identifying coins—pennies, nickels, and dimes.  We will practice making fair exchanges as we count by 1’s, 5’s, & 10’s.  We will also continue to work on skip counting by 2’s, which is a very hard skill for Kindergartners—the goal is for them to be able to count by 2’s to 30 by the end of the year.  We will also continue to work on addition, as well as comparing numbers, and dividing groups in half.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will begin our new Science Unit on Motion. We will be learning about different forces—pushes, pulls, gravity, wind/air, and their effect of objects.  We will conduct many hands-on experiments related to motion and forces this week.

Please be sure to return your child’s library book

on or before Wednesday!