Newsletter Updates for the Week of May 9th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Friday, May 13th OR 20th—Muffins with Mom

-Monday, May 16th—Delayed Start

-Friday, May 27th—Fun to Be Fit

-Mon., May 30th—No School—Memorial Day

-Thursday, June 2nd—Kindergarten Program

-Friday, June 3rd—Fieldtrip to Kettunen Center

-Saturday June 4th—Bike-a-thon

-Friday, June 10th—Track & Field Day (K-2) pm

-Friday, June 10th—Sophomore Carnival

   

ASSESSMENTS: 

As we prepare to wrap up the school year, we will be assessing student growth in many areas. This Friday we will be going back to the computer lab for our NWEA assessment in Reading and then again next Thursday for Math.  In two weeks, students will complete their Spring Dibels & Aimsweb benchmarking assessments, so keep practicing those nonsense words.  All month long we’ll be assessing for report cards. Please make sure you child is well-rested and remind them to ALWAYS do their best! :)

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about how children can be good citizens. They will learn how to listen, share, help others, respect one another, work together, and take turns.

Here are some activities that you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing.

· Vocabulary—citizen, respect—Discuss ways your child can show good citizenship and respect for others at school and in the community.

· High-Frequency Words—play, has, & all— Write the words play, has, & all on paper. Then have your child write each word. Think of sentences about good citizens that include each word. Write down the sentences on paper.

· Category Words—farm animals—During the week, your child will read about farm animals. Reinforce farm animal names by singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”

· Phonics—long I & ch—think of words that have the long I sound; also think of words that have the ch sound in them, at the beginning or end.

· Reading Folder—I’m working on completing a final running record with each student so that I can reassess their reading level.  This time of year students seem to grow by leaps and bounds with their reading—it’s amazing!  Keep reading at home and returning those reading folders.

WRITING: 

This week we will finish up our first informational book on chicks, ducks, and birds.  We will also be learning a new app called Story Buddy that allows us to write digital stories.  We’ll experiment with it this week as we write about caterpillars and butterflies.

MATH: 

This week we will focus on subtraction using various manipulatives to visualize this process.  We will also begin learning about the 'concept of time' and review our 3D solid shapes by building them out of toothpicks and marshmallows.  We might even be emailing a photo of our creations to our parents.

We are still collecting bottle caps as we try to fill our big jug—so keep sending them in!

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES: 

This week we will continue our study of lifecycles as we focus on reading several informational texts related to tadpoles and frogs.  Our caterpillars are very big now and should be going into chrysalis form very soon.