**We are one week closer to becoming First Graders! This week, the students took a look at their third trimester portfolios and were in awe of what they have accomplished. Their portfolios are now in their back packs to share with you. Check them out!! All writing journals, math process journals and our last science journal will go home next week. Keep sending a backpack with your child even on the last day. Thanks!
**Our All School Olympic Day was great! Lots of skill demonstration and good sportsmanship. A BIG SHOUT OUT to Aidan--he almost beat Mr. Packer in the running relay!! Our class continued their physical exercise during Pacers at lunch time. All students participated. Many students even ran instead of walked! The students will take home their Pacer Feet bracelets on Friday.
**All of our final assessments are completed. If you would like me to share with you your child's end of the year assessments, please email me and we can set up a time. The final report card for Kindergarten will be sent home Friday, May 31st, along with some suggestions for the summer. Stay tuned for information on our summer reading and math on line programs. I am also encouraging my students to sign up for Maze Library's summer reading incentive called--"20,000 READS UNDER the SEA." The students saw a presentation on Monday about it.
**CHANGE IN TIME--Please note the change in time for our last day Family Hour on Friday, May 31st. The new time is 1:00-2:15 pm. At 2:15 pm, Mr. Hodge has asked all students to come out on the black top for a special send off. During our Family Hour, students will be signing autographs in their autograph books, having some refreshments provided by our awesome Room Parents and listening to a final story. All family members are most welcome to join us.
**BIG REMINDER--PIZZA and PLAY--is Tuesday, May 28th!! Our permit is from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Ms. Cummings has an online sign up sheet that you probably have seen. All items can be brought to school the day of the trip and placed on the kindergarten patio. Vans will be transporting 2 giant juice/water containers, sand toys, your blankets and card tables, t- ball stand, bat/ball, jump ropes, garbage bags and cups, napkins and plates. We will beginning walking to Rehm around 9:30 am, play and eat pizza, fruit and veggies around 11:00 am., have a bit more playtime and then cleanup and head back to school around 12:15 pm. Let's keep our fingers crossed for pleasant weather. If you do not want pizza, just bring your own lunch. There is a port-o-potty on the park premises. We will also have wipes and hand sanitizer. In the event of rain, we will picnic somewhere inside our beloved school!
**Our Barrie Park Lunch very superb! We had a perfect day, good lunches and great peer interactions!!
**The students really enjoyed our field trip to see Kanohi's chicken coup. The students listened to Kanohi's mom talk about egg production, hen facts, chicken coup construction and showed us the eggs. The students got to take some grass to feed the chickens. Their lovely backyard also featured a cool water pond. Back at school, the students reflected in their journal on their experience.
**Money Madness was fun, Thanks to all those who attended.
**Please join me and the other staff members for our Volunteer Thank You Tea. There is an invitation in your child's backpack. All of our volunteers have been tremendous! It is what makes our program so successful.
**"Queen Day" was very regal!! The queens for a day decreed 2 choice times--one inside and one outside. The servants wrote kind notes and the queens gladly and kindly accepted them.
**We love our SIBLINGS!!! SIBLING DAY was extremely cool. The students interacted with their siblings and shared some treats. I have to admit, it brought a tear to my eye seeing such love.
**Ms. D.'s last day was Tuesday. The students thanked her by writing kind letters and presenting her with flowers. She was very touched by the gesture and wished all the students well. We were so lucky to have her. She certainly brought out the best in our students!!!
**BUSY READER CLUB has concluded. All books are due back now. Also, ALL LIBRARY BOOKS are DUE NOW . Ms Noonan has sent information to you if you still have books out.
**NO SCHOOL--Monday, May 27th-Memorial Day observance.
**Please be so kind as to complete the End of the Year Parent Questionaire. This will be very helpful to me in shaping my program for next year.
This week:
It was all about worms and gardening. The student continue to study worm life and contributions to our environment. The students took a closer look at the worms in our compost bin. They used their magnifiers and the microscope. The worms were pretty squirmy! The students could see the segments, saddle and head structure. Their bristles were too tiny to be seen. Many students had viewed the website for Herman the Worm over the weekend. The students worked on their worm paragraph drafts. Our outside garden plot is germinating!!!! The students observed baby cucumber leaves and tiny carrot leaves. Our basil plants look healthy and our nasturtium seeds have germinated too. With all the rain we have had, it is looking very good. Stay tuned!
Reading/Social Studies: The students continue their review of the the years skills. They reviewed all letter sounds including short and long vowels, consonant blends and digraphs. They use their dry erase boards for practice in blending and segmenting 3-4-5- and even 6 phoneme words. The students worked on substitution activities changing sounds to create new words. The student reviewed all the Kindergarten sight word vocabulary and the first half of the First Grade list. Student small groups chose their own literature and activities to go with it. Most groups chose a story elements format. They read to each other and discussed the text. They completed the activities and went over them with me during their workshop conferencing. The last 30 minutes of their group time was spent either in independent reading or playing a reading game. Their top favorites this week were: "Very Silly Sentences," "What's Gnu?" "Spot a Word," "Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives Cookie Jar" and working on their teams with the iPad app Teach Me. There were many opportunities for shared partner reading. It's great that the students could choose what they wanted to read. Lots of stellar discussions about story story content!
Math: The students are reading their own story problem and recoding their process illustration, equation and number relationship in their process math journals. WOW! We are using stories that contain addition and subtraction using numbers 0-10. They continue to work on reading and writing 2-3 digit numbers, counting on from a random number, counting by 2's, 5's and 10's and rote counting as high as they can. We also used a game format this week which included selected iPad apps and the games, "What's My Rule? "Dice Addition," "Race Car Addition and Subtraction," "Place Value on Calculators," and "It Takes Two and Three."
Writing: The students continue to put into practice all the elements of writing good sentences. They worked this week on composing and writing 4 sentences on a given topic. The topics this week were: "Queens," "Chicken Coop" visit, "Olympic Day," "Thank you to Ms. D." and writing and illustrating a page for our end of the year storybook. The students also began their draft for their final paragraph--the topic: "Worms." Stay tuned!
Science: The students finished their experiments with seed sponges and seed bags. In each case, they observed roots and shoots sprouting without the benefit of water. The students all thought that no matter which way or how they are planted, a sprouted seed will always have shoots that grow up and stems that grow down. The students reflected in their science journal their findings and illustrations and any remaining questions that they had. We continue to observe the growth in our inside classroom garden. We currently have pumpkins, chard, cosmos, grass, peas, marigolds, nasturtiums, cantalope and beans growing, I will be looking for some home gardens to take these plants next week, It you are interested--email me. Worm study is in progress! Our outdoor garden plots are germinating also. They students did sketches of the garden with 7 days of growth. They will do another sketch next week. It is fun to analyze the changes!
Technology: The students continue to use a variety of apps to enhance their reading, math, science and problem solving pleasure. Currently, they are using the app Story Kit to photograph and record their words for our end our the year storybook.
Literature: "Earl the Worm Digs for his Life," "A Worms Life," "Say Hello to Zorro," "How Do Seeds Grow?" "E-mergency," "The Curious Garden," "Planting a Rainbow," "I Can't Said the Ant," "What Do Principals Do When No One is Looking?" "Rah Rah, Vegetables."
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