March 21-25
The Buzz in Room 615!
Last Week
Writing: We worked (a little bit) on our NF books, but those, as previously stated, are a very slow process. We'll hopefully have time to finish some next week and the rest after spring break. There just isn't enough time in the day! Otherwise, we did some leprechaun-themed writing (what we would do if we found a pot of gold, our luckiest day, and making smaller words using the letters in "St. Patrick's Day"). I've been very impressed with the improvement of everyone's handwriting and writing skills in general lately! We'll all keep up the hard work!
Reading: Most of reading invovled reviewing all that we know about reading in general, and then practicing various skills in stations. These skills range from sight words, to individualized skills on the iReady program, to guided reading activities. We've also been doing a lot of reading aloud in science and shared reading whenever possible.
Math: As a wrap-up week for measurement, we have worked on telling the difference between when to use height, length, weight, and capacity and the various ways we can measure each. Most students have a firm understanding of this! We used play doh to do some comparing of lengths, paperclips to measure height and length of various objects in the room, and have gotten to play some cool measurement games from PBS kids.
Science: Wrapping up the seasons with a quick overview of fall on Wednesday, we are beginning to delve into the "whys" of weather. Friday ended with a rainbow experiement, and we'll continue to learn about why and how the many kinds of weather occur throughout the next few weeks.
Other: My apologies for there being no homework sheet this week, or new books! Several circumstances prevented me from being very productive or helpful to the substitute on Monday, and as you know, there was no school on Tuesday. For those reasons i decided to forego any official homework. Keep doing what you're doing - I appreciate all of the work that you do with the kids at home. :)
Rhyming/Word Families
Lucky Charm Graphing
Ireland Posters
Looking Forward
The Week Ahead
Reading: A lot of shared and guided reading will be done this week, with texts about the holiday season and other relevant topics. There will be no new sight words this week - we have actually completed the full list I created at the beginning of our sight word journey! I will begin looking into a new list for after break. For the students who have missed some along the way, please practice ALL previous sight words because I plan to go back through and see how many they can recall at this time before moving on again. After break, I plan to create more personalized lists of sight words for each student, so keep an eye out for that!
Math: We are beginning to launch into a place value unit once break is over, so we are starting by practicing counting to 100 and understanding the patterns of our base-ten number system this week.
Science: I hope to tackle a couple of science experiments this week, along with using some of this time for seasonal crafting. It is hard to tell what will be going on in our classroom at the end of each day, especially during a crazy week like this one is going to be!
Other: Tuesday the 22nd will be our Easter/Spring Break celebration. We will be spending most of the day outside doing relay races, an egg hunt, and picnicing. In order for this to be a success, I need your help! Here is what the day will look like:
We'll start our day normally, doing some Easter/Spring-themed activities in the classroom. At 11:15, our class will go outside to find Easter eggs! Once they've found their designated number, they'll be able to go in the classroom and open them up. Miss Bellino's room will then be using that same area for her egg hunt, so we'll have to get out of there quickly! Once we've gotten our eggs situated, we'll go outside for some relay races and games until about 12:10. At 12:30, we'll meet the rest of the Kindergarten classrooms on the front lawn for a picnic. After lunch, we'll continue with our regular day - recess, science activities, etc.
What I need from you:
- A towel for your child to sit on outside
- A bagged lunch OR a note saying you'd like your child to get a bagged lunch from the cafeteria that day
- Each student to bring in an Easter basket of some sort for the egg hunt. It can be a plastic one from the dollar store, a decorated paper bag, or anything that will hold several eggs. I wish I had the time and resources to make some in class, but I simply do not. So, any kind of basket will do. :)
- Someone to donate a dozen hardboiled eggs. These will be used for relay races and potentially other games
- Each student to bring in at least 10 plastic eggs filled with candy, erasers, tattoos, stickers, etc. for the hunt. Anything you'd like!
- 2-3 parents to come in and hide the eggs for our classroom in the grassy area right outside of our Kindergarten hallway around 10:30
I tried to keep this as simple and at minimal cost for everyone involved, and to make it fun for the kids! All kindergarten classes are doing similar activities - an egg hunt, a picnic outside, etc. Thank you SO MUCH for your help. I attached a googledoc below for the parent volunteers and hardboiled eggs. Feel free to send in any kind of special treat if you'd like to as well. :)
Reminders/Miscellaneous
Students will dismiss at 12:00pm. Please be sure to return the early dismissal forms regarding transportation that were sent home.
2. Friday, March 25 - No School
I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter holiday and spring break. Safe travels to those of you going anywhere!
3. Jumprope for Heart
All Jumprope for Heart pledges are due Thursday!