April 29th - Newsletter Updates

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-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

CLASSROOM VISITOR: 

We are excited to open up our classroom to Miss Gulish; she is entering into the Teacher Education Program at Indiana Wesleyan University and will be spending the next two weeks observing and interacting with us, as part of her training.  She will be a nice addition to our classroom for sure!

FIELDTRIP: 

If you haven’t already, please be sure to return your permission slip, and money, ASAP for our Fieldtrip to the Midland Center for the Arts which is scheduled for Thursday, May 16th. 

CAPS, CAPS, CAPS: 

We are currently collecting caps—bottle caps, milk caps, shampoo caps, etc. for both our Math & Science lessons.  We are trying to fill a large jar for math and are keeping count of how many caps we’ve collected.  In addition, once the jar is filled, we will be reusing the caps for a fun art project which is part of our Earth Day festivities.  So please save a few caps, wash them up, and send them in to be repurposed:)

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about the sky during daytime and nighttime. Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—distance & recognize—Take your child outside during the day and at night. Help them identify the sun, moon, clouds, stars, sunrise, and sunset.

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

· Category Words—opposites—Use gestures to act out words that are opposites such as up/down, open/close, in/out, etc.

· Phonics—Letter Review—u, g, x, w, v, j, qu, y & z.

· Comprehension—problem & solution—Discuss different problems that come up during the week and brainstorm possible solutions together.

· Take Home Reading Folders—As we approach our final month of school, we will be assessing many skills with the students.  Keep reading together,  practicing sightwords, and other fluency skills in their take home reading folders.  The goal is that they will be reading at or above a Level D by the end of Kindergarten.

WRITING: 

This week we will wrap up our Opinion Letter Unit by writing letters to The Earth telling how we will take good care of it.  Then we will begin learning about Informational Texts, as we read some mentor texts about the moon and begin collecting information that we can use to write our own informational pieces next week.

MATH:  

This week we will learn about ‘estimating’ and we will practice making ‘smart guesses.’ We will continue to practice addition within 10 and subtraction within 5.  We will be illustrating our own number stories and writing an equation to match, as we create a Class Number Story Book together.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

In continued celebration of Earth Day, we will be planting sunflowers along our playground fence, demonstrating how we can make a positive impact on our environment. We will also be learning about how animals change and impact their environments.