Newsletter Updates for the Week of April 30th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Fri., May 4th—No School for Kindergarten Students-Kindergarten Round Up

-Tues., May 8th—NWEA Testing—ELA

-Fri., May 11th—Muffins with Mom

-Mon. May 14th—DIBELS Testing

-Fri., May 18th—Muffins with Mom

-Sat. May 19th—Color Run

-Mon. May 21st—Delayed Start

-Wed. May 23rd—Fieldtrip to Kettunen Center

-Fri. May 25th—Fun to Be Fit @ 1:30

-Mon. May 28th—Memorial Day—No School

-Tues., May 29th—Kindergarten Concert @ 1:30

-Fri., June 1st—Track & Field Day (K-2) - afternoon

-Mon. June 4th—Half Day—Dismissal @ 11:35

-Tues. June 5th—Half Day—Dismissal @ 11:35

-Wed. June 6th—Summer Break Begins

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Weston Howey.  Weston likes to play outside, build with blocks, and he really likes Spiderman!  His favorite foods are taco salad, pizza, watermelon, & chips. As he grows up he aspires to become a good hunter like his daddy and to play basketball.  Congratulations to Weston on being our Student of the Week!

PROGRESS REPORTS:

Kindergarten does not have a formal progress report for this time of year; however, I’m sending home a couple of things this Thursday to show their progress:

1) Sightword Assessment—so you can see how many of their 51 sightwords they know and which ones you can work on at home.

2) Word Assessment—last week I asked the students to write down some words they knew from memory in a 15 minute time span.  It was fun to see their handwriting and spelling abilities!

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about how people work together to solve problems. Children will also learn ways to make decisions, including the concept of voting. Here are some activities you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—decide & opinion —Discuss how your family works together to make a decision. Explain that people have different opinions, or ideas, and that voting is one way of making a decision.

· Sightwords—who & good—Take turns writing sightwords on each others backs and guessing what the word is—the children love doing this quiet activity with a friend while waiting in line.

· Category Words—question words (who, what, when, where, why, & how)—Think of a decision your family needs to make, such as what book to read before bedtime or what foods to prepare for a meal. Then help your child form questions that will help the family make the decision.

· Phonics—Long U & the digraph wh—practice spelling words with the long and short u sounds (hug/huge, cut/cute) as well as words that begin with wh.

 SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

This week we will continue our study of lifecycles as we focus on reading and collecting informational about tadpoles & frogs.  We are also working on the character trait - Responsibility!

MATH:

We will continue to work on addition & subtraction.

WRITING:

This week we will begin planning & writing our 1st individual informational texts about a person, place, activity, or thing that we know a lot about.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of April 23rd

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Fri., May 4th—No School for Kindergarten Students-Kindergarten Round Up

-Fri., May 11th—Muffins with Mom

-Fri., May 18th—Muffins with Mom

-Sat. May 19th—Color Run

-Mon. May 21st—Delayed Start

-Fri. May 25th—Fun to Be Fit @ 1:30

-Mon. May 28th—Memorial Day—No School

-Tues., May 29th—Kindergarten Concert @ 1:30

-Fri., June 1st—Track & Field Day (K-2) - afternoon

READING:

This week our class will be reading stories about natural resources. Children will learn how they can use things in nature to create new things. Here are some activities you can do with your child to help reinforce the skills we will be practicing:

· Vocabulary—natural resources & create —Discuss different natural resources with your child. For example, talk about how we use trees to create, or make new things that people use every day.

· Sightwords—where & look—Write the words where & look, then ask your child to write each word. Read the sentences together and have your child underline the words where & look.

· Category Words—foods made from grain—Find different food items in your kitchen made from grains and make a list together. We will be making homemade bread in class early next week as we wrap up this week’s lesson—we are a couple days behind due to snow days and K round-up. :)

· Phonics—Long O & S blends (sl, sc, sk, sm, sm, sp, st, & sw)—make a list of words with short o and long o sounds—hop/hope, rob/robe, etc. Also, think of words that have s blends in them.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

In observance of Earth Day (April 22nd) we will be reading several informational texts about the Earth and discuss & write about how we can take good care of our planet.

WRITING: 

This week we will use the information we’ve collected on ducks, birds, & chicks to create a class book. We will also complete a journal related to Earth Day and tell how we can help to take care of the Earth.

MATH: 

This week we will focus on subtraction, building numbers using base 10 blocks, and counting on from different starting points.

Newsletter Updates for the Week of April 16th

Enjoy your Snow Day - Stay warm and safe!

This weather is unbelievable! 

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Fri., April 20th—No School for Kindergarten Students—Kindergarten Round Up

-Fri., May 4th—No School for Kindergarten Students-Kindergarten Round Up

-Sat. May 19th—Color Run

-Mon. May 21st—Delayed Start

-Fri. May 25th—Fun to Be Fit @ 1:30

-Mon. May 28th—Memorial Day—No School

-Tues., May 29th—Kindergarten Concert @ 1:30

-Fri., June 1st—Track & Field Day (K-2) - afternoon

SPECIAL DATES:

Please note some special dates/activities that we have planned as the year draws to a close. More info will be coming, but I thought you’d like to get these dates on your calendars if you’d like to join us for any of these special events. We also have a field trip planned to Kettunen Center that last week in May, but I need to confirm the exact date that our class will be going:)

STUDENT OF THE WEEK: 

Our student of the week is Gracen Short.  Gracen enjoys painting and making friends. Her favorite foods include pizza & cucumbers and her favorite movie is Descendents 2.  This year she aspires to be a good student and a great friend—which she can check off her list! Congratulations to Gracen on being our Student of the Week!

KINDERGARTEN ROUND UP: 

Just a reminder that this year’s Kindergartners will NOT be coming to school on Friday April 20th and Friday May 4th as we will be holding Kindergarten Round-Up for incoming students:) We apologize for the inconvenience!

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 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.

· Sightwords—play, has, & all—Keep on practicing reading and writing those sightwords from memory using flashcards and/or their fluency chart in their take-home reading folder.

· Category Words—farm animals—practice naming farm animals and their babies (cow/calf, pig/piglet, etc.)

· Phonics—Long i & ch—make a list of words with short i  - fin, pin, etc then rewrite the words with the magic e and ‘flip’ the vowel sound to make a new word—fine, pine, etc. Make a list of words that begin and end with the digraph ch.

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 journal related to the weather.

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. :)

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

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

Please keeping saving and sending in those bottle caps:)

Newsletter Updates for the Week of April 9th

DATES TO REMEMBER:

-Tues., April 10th—H.S. & GSRP Preschoolers Visit

-Mon., April 16th—Delayed Start

-Fri., April 20th—No School for Kindergarten Students—Kindergarten Round Up

-Fri., May 4th—No School for Kindergarten Students-Kindergarten Round Up

NEW STUDENT: 

We’d like to officially welcome Desteny to our classroom.  The students were so excited to welcome her last week; they all went out of their way to be sweet, kind, and helpful. 

McBain Youth Sports

Baseball & softball league for kids

We now have a website to sign up on, just go to

http://www.mcbainyouthsports.org

Print out the forms, fill in, sign and return by

April 10, 2018

If unable to print forms please stop by McLain Transmissions to pick one up

REPORT CARDS:

You should have received your child’s 3rd Quarter Report Card on Friday. It’s amazing how much these kiddos have learned and I’m impressed with their reading and writing every day! As you look over their report card, anything marked with a 2 means they currently meet that standard, anything marked with a 1 means they are performing above in that area, and anything marked with a 3 means they are currently performing below that standard.   Also, be sure to look ahead to what the end of the year expectations are as we prepare for 1st grade. I have a hard-working group of kids this year and I can tell many are working on these foundational skills at home, so keep up the great work!

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 sentences with these words and have your child write the sightwords they know.

· Category Words—household furniture

· Phonics—Long A & Sh—make a list of words with short a  - cap, can, etc then rewrite the words with the 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 finish up our very first Opinion Letter about a familiar book and begin a new letter to the incoming Kindergartners, so that they can be shared with parents and preschoolers at Kindergarten Round Up.

MATH:

This week we will be starting our class collection—please send in caps—milk jug, bottle, etc. for us to count and add to our collection jug. We will also play several addition games using dice, beans, and number lines.

SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES:

We will continue our Science Unit on the Sun and it’s important role in sustaining life on Earth.