**Our time in kindergarten is getting shorter and shorter! The students had a wonderful week. They had lovely weather, poetry, nature and the community of classroom friends!
**All assessments are complete and I continue to work on final report cards. We have begun chatting about expectations for first grade. In the final week of school, the students will visit each of the first grade classrooms and meet the students and teachers. When speaking on the subject of first grade with your child, have them write down any questions they might have. We will take all questions to the first grade students themselves for the answers. I know my class is looking forward to the visits.
**Our trip to the conservatory was both pleasant and informative. After a great walk there, the class was divided into 2 groups each lead by a knowledgeable docent. We toured each room and learned about the particular ecosystems of the desert, rain forest and fern rooms. Some of the the highlights were ferns (they have been around since the time of dinosaurs), Spanish moss, George, little mice, Ponderosa lemons, bananas bush (not tree), fish, turtles, a cool bridge, bromiliads, rosemary plant (mmmm), lots of cool cactus plants, the century plant and jelly bean cactus and the scented geranium (go away mosquitos!) The students review the parts of a plant and function of the stems, roots and leaves. It was very cool to observe all the different types of leaf structures. It was our lucky day when a large Ponderosa lemon fell off the tree and we got to take it back to school. Lemonade next week, anyone???? After our tour, the students were able to spend some time sketching their favorite cactus plant in the Desert Room. Their sketches are up in our hallway. Come, take a look. Thanks to our volunteers, G. Garcia, Yaya's Grandma, K. Mikos, M. Chlebek and I. Henry.
**The Irving Arts Fest and Poetry Slam was the bomb!!!! Amazing art, singing, movement, recitations, poetry breaks, Spanish interviews and of course THE POETRY SLAM. What a great night! A big shout out to our own little slammers--Ben, Alex, Mateo (an orginal work!), Yaya and Salome (in French!), Mei-Li and Reuben.
**The Taste of Irving was Friday, May 18th. I was not able to attend, but I can't wait to hear about it from my students. It is always a great event for all.
**Don't forget--Irving Family Math Night-"Messy Math," is Thursday, May 24th from 6:30-8:00 pm.
**Keep sending in your permission slips for Pizza and Play End of the Year Family Picnic at Rehm Park on Wednesday, May 30th from 10:30-12:30 pm. I will be contacting room parents for some assistance.
**Please read the info sheet concerning the All School Olympic Day on Friday, May 25th. Kindergarten will participating from 8:30-10:30 am. Stop by and observe super team effort and fun!
This week:
It continues to be all about seeds, plants and the wonders of nature. The students are not only monitoring the growth of their plant at home but continue to monitor our indoor classroom garden. We have a birch tree, watermelon, corn, lavender, basil, beans, and peas growing so far and added crocus, strawberry and tomato seeds this week. Our potato plants are ready to plant outside. Some students have begun using part of their lunch recess to search for nature finds on our playground. They have brought in tiny baby pine cones, various leaves, interesting twigs, fur and rocks to put under our microscopes. I love listening to their discussions on what they observe as they take a closer look! Our station day activities this week included a creative writing assignment with the sentence starter--If I were a seed......, creating simple addition equations using animal pictures and using pattern blocks to create a flower. This was our last official station day.
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue to demonstrate what they know in Unit 10 I Know A Lot in our Treasures Reading series. This our final unit. I have changed the format for this unit. The students are working in small groups, leveled groups and individually to review all vocabulary pertinent to kindergarten. They are reading story literature with partners and discussing story elements, cause and effect, making connections and drawing conclusions. The students are also working on grammar which includes recognizing nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. Many students have become curious about the use of articles and adverbs. The students are using a variety of games and Ipad apps as reinforcement. The students themselves have been called upon to "be the teacher" in many review situations. The students also continue to review phoneme blending, adding, deleting and substituting phonemes and work on blends, digraphs, vowel teams and silent e. They have come so far!!!! The students listened and responded to a variety of different poems. We had many poetry breaks during our day.
Math: The students continue to review counting beyond 100, counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's, recognizing and writing 2-3 and even 4 digit numbers and place value. The students continue to use the "function machine" to play "What's My Rule?" They continue to work in their math process journals listening for information in story problems to determine the operation and them illustrating the process and writing their number sentences (equation). The students are using a game format to review coins and values, telling time and counting down. Wow!
Writing: The students have been putting into practice all the elements of writing a good sentence. They continue to reflect in their journals about daily topics. They are writing thank you letters to people that have had an impact in helping to shape learning and behavior in kindergarten. This week, the students learned about types of poetry and that poetry can be about how you are feeling or what you know about a certain subject. It can be silly or very serious. Poetry can be very emotional! The students took a fabulous art activity they did with Ms. Linne and wrote a poem about. I found myself getting emotional as I read their poems and looked backed on this past year. Stop by if you haven't already and read them. They are on display in our hallway. Next week--Worm paragraphs!
Science: A companion piece to our Conservatory trip was the Traveling Seeds Experience Box sent over by the Oak Park Conservatory. The students took a hands on look at ways seeds travel or are dispersed depending upon their shapes and sizes. The box contained experiments to show--blowing in the wind, floating on water, popping from pods and how they can be carried by animals. Lots of fun!! The students also continued their study on seeds and how they can sprout without soil. (hydroponics!) They currently are observing seed growth on wet sponges and in plastic bags. Stay tuned! We continue to "feed" our compost. The students continue to bring in fruits and veggies and paper. Some great soil is being made. This week, we began to study in depth the life and times of a worm. This amazing creature is so vital to our earth. Ask your child to tell you a fact or two! The information we are collecting will be the basis for our final paragraph. The students are enjoying watching our wormy friends as they wiggle around the compost. They have viewed the worm's body structure (What--no bones??) and how it moves in the soil (where are the bristles?) The students learned a most compelling fact---What does the worm do that helps make great, vitamin rich soil??? Ask your child!
Technology: The students are finishing up an end of the year project using the apps ITalk and Story Kit. This week they also were able to choose their own format to deliver their reading work to me. Story Kit, Doodle Buddy, ITalk and use of the camera app were the most popular. In math, some students used Doodle Buddy to illustrate the process of their story problem and write about it. Math Bug Lite, Zombies, Top It and Find the Sums were used by small groups, partners and individuals along with the ever popular Labyrinth. In science, students used the Lifecycles app and Enchanted Learning to seek out supplemental information on plants and insects. Small group student work centered around the story, "The Seed Grows," on our Book app.
Literature: "How Seeds Travel," "Hot Rod Hamster," "Hey Little Ant," "Bugs, Bugs, Bugs," "Earthworm," "Earl the Earthworm Digs for His Life," "Roots," "Diary of a Worm," "Counting in the Garden."
Poetry Books---"Hip Hop Speaks to Children," "Anna Banana Jump Rope Rhymes," "Where the Sidewalk Ends," "A Pizza the Size of the Sun," "Random House-Poetry for Children," "One Love," "Langston Hughes-Poetry for Children, "Poems for the Very Young Child."
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