April 22nd - Newsletter Updates

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, April 26th—No School for Kindergarten

-Wed., May 8th—NWEA Testing—Math

-Monday, May 13th—Dibels Testing

-Wed., May 15th—NWEA Testing—Reading

-Thursday, May 16th—Fieldtrip—Midland Center for the Arts & Plymouth Park

-Monday, May 20th—Delayed Start

-Mon., May 27th—No School—Memorial Day

-Wed., May 29th—K-2 Track & Field Day—pm

STUDENT OF THE MONTH:

Our April Student of the Month is Johnny Roberts. Johnny is a kind and thoughtful young man. He has 2 pets—a dog and a fish; his favorite food is pizza and he enjoys playing football.  His favorite color is green which corresponds nicely to his favorite book—The Hulk.  This year Johnny wants to learn how to read, which he is mastering nicely; when he grows up, Johnny would like to become a police officer. Congratulations to Johnny on being our Student of the Month.

  

FIELDTRIP: 

Last week I sent a yellow slip home with all the information regarding our Fieldtrip to the Midland Center for the Arts on Thursday, May 16th.  Please be sure to return the permission slip ASAP, so we know how many parent chaperones to plan for.

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about our country’s national symbols, monuments, & national parks. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—country & travel—If you have any photos of family vacations where you have visited national parks, monuments, or landmarks (Washington D.C., Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, The Liberty Bell, Statue of Liberty, etc.) please send them in or email me a couple of photos to share with the class.

· Sightwords—what & his—Write sentences with these words and practice reading them together.

· Category Words—ordinal numbers—Line up stuffed animals, cars, or other toys and have your child practice identifying which one is first, second, fifth, last, etc.

· Phonics—Letters Yy & Zz—Practice reading and writing words that begin and end with y & z.

· Take Home Reading Folders—This week we will be shopping for new books—many students will be moving up to the next level of books.  You should notice that these books are a little more challenging—please sit with your child and encourage them to use their strategies for figuring out tricky words.

WRITING:  

This week we will continue our Opinion Letter Unit. We will be writing letters about our favorite kind of pet.

MATH: 

This week we will work with pan balances as we experiment with leveling/balancing/equaling out both sides. We will practice skip counting by 2’s and take some surveys of our class and then graph out the results so we can analyze the data.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

In celebration of Earth Day, we will continue to learn about the Earth and how we can be responsible stewards of our planet. We will also be learning about some important American monuments & symbols that represent our country’s heritage, principles, & values.