Newsletter Updates for the Week of April 24th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, April 28th—K Round-Up—No School for K

-Friday, May 5th—Muffins with Mom

-Friday, May 12th—Muffins with Mom

-Monday, May 15th—Delayed Start

-Saturday, May 20th—Color Run

-Friday, May 26th—Fun to Be Fit

-Monday, May 29th—Memorial Day – No School

-Tuesday, May 30th—Kindergarten Concert @ 1:30

-Thursday, June 1st—Fieldtrip to Kettunen Center

-Friday, June 2nd—K-2 Track & Field Day (pm)

-Friday, June 2nd—Sophomore Carnival

-Saturday, June 3rd—Bike-a-thon

END OF THE YEAR ASSESSMENTS & FUN: 

May and June are extremely busy and jam-packed with testing and many special events.  I’m hoping you have plenty of time to get some of these special dates on your calendars so that you can join us for the K Concert, Fun-to-be-Fit, our Fieldtrip, Track & Field, etc. Look for more details to come.

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about how children can help at home. Children will learn about taking responsibility for cleaning, caring for a pet, doing errands, and other chores. Here are some activities you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—chores & contribute—Discuss different ways your child can help out at home. Create a list of jobs on a chore chart.

· Sightwords—help, too, & him—Write the words help, too, and him, then ask your child to write each word. Think of sentences that use these words. Write the sentences down and read them aloud. Have your child underline the words help, too, and him.

· Category Words—household furniture

· Phonics—Long A & sh —make a list of words with short a—cap, can, etc. then rewrite the words with a magic e and ‘flip’ the vowel sound to make a new word—cape, cane, etc. Make a list of words that begin and end with the digraph sh.

· Take-Home Reading Folders—Several students are very close to having 20 books read and will soon be receiving a subway certificate—keep up the great reading!!

WRITING: 

This week we will begin a new unit of study for writing—Informational Writing. We will look at some mentor texts to find out what text features informational texts have and begin researching and collecting information about ducks, birds, & chicks.  We will also complete a couple of journals related to weather and baby animals.

MATH:

This week we will learn about the concept of time and review our 3D solid shapes by building them out of toothpicks and marshmallows. We might even email a photo of our creations to our parents.  Our ‘Count by 2’s Wall of Fame’ is up in the classroom and the students are excited to put their star on the Wall.  Please help your child achieve this milestone by practicing skip counting by 2’s—the goals is to get to 30.  We already have 16 students who have made it—great job!  We are still collecting bottle caps as we try to fill our big jug—so keep sending them it!

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will begin our study of lifecycles as we focus on reading and collecting information about ducks, chicks, and birds.