K-C News
March 24, 2017
What you really need to know
Hopefully, snow days are behind us and we can now begin looking forward to mud season. Our last day of school has shifted to Tuesday, June 20, so please plan accordingly for summer camps and road trips. And if you need a 15 year old babysitter, I have a great referral for you.
Our last sight word homework assignment has been distributed and is due this Friday. I hope your children are feeling great about their exciting reading achievements! I am happy to offer math review and practice going forward, if children/families are interested. Homework is optional (and some say unnecessary) in kindergarten, but I am willing to provide it for those who find it motivating and productive. Please respond here for a ten second survey, and I'll send some math practice home at your request. http://bit.ly/2n4IATi
Also, please remember math backpacks are on loan for one week only. They should be returned on or before Friday.
Many thanks to our last three Eliot sibling mystery readers who helped make Read Across America Week(s) so much fun for us: Luke's brother Ben, Bailey's sister Harper, and Emmett's sister Lily. We also welcomed Simon's dad Sam, and mini-sibling reader Sebastian, to share the classic Harold and The Purple Crayon.
Happy Birthday to Zoey, who just turned six!
Coming Attractions
No AM Kindergarten, Spring Conferences
Thursday, March 30
PE Special Event: Kindergarten Gymnastics Skills Peek
Thursday, April 6 at 9:20AM in the gym
No AM Kindergaten (Delayed start for grades 1-5)
Tuesday, April 11
SPRING BREAK, NO SCHOOL
Friday, April 14 - 23
No AM Kindergarten, Spring Conferences (Early Release for grades 1-5)
Thursday, May 4
Note that our last day of school will now be Tuesday, June 20
instead of Thursday, June 15, due to three snow days.
What we've been up to.
- We have completed a short unit on measurement and are laying more groundwork for addition and subtraction by sorting groups and adding them together. We are also beginning to explore number lines in different ways, including in unexpected objects like rulers and clocks!
- We have recently said goodbye to our visiting turtle Eloise and have welcomed our visiting frog Jeremiah. Please see the link below, or explore on your own, if your student is interested in doing some frog research.
- While making mini-books about sea turtles hatching and learning a poem about a turtle, we realized how those sight words really come in handy when trying to read new texts!
- We built some St Patrick's day sculptures with snap cubes and made fun leprechaun masks.
- We learned the dialogue to a silly leprechaun story and put on our own Reader's Theater play called Have You Seen My Pot of Gold? Ask your child where the gold was hidden.
- We are learning to refine our writing by making spaces (using a spaceman, because, why not?) between words, using punctuation at the end of a sentence, limiting our use of upper case letters, and correcting our letter reversals. Things are getting pretty serious around here during writing time.
- We visited the tech lab to learn about digital citizenship (online safety) and watched this video with Mrs. Martell. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/my-online-neighborhood
Links of the week.
Brainie thinks of a number. You match the number or make a number combination (addends) to add up to his number (sum).
http://www.mathplayground.com/brainie.html
Help the monkeys find the sight words in the popcorn! Start with Level 1
http://www.fun4thebrain.com/English/popcornWords.html
Reading CHALLENGE! Play against other online players to get your kittens race past challenging words. (You get a generic, identity-free player name.)
http://www.arcademics.com/games/kitten-hop/kitten-hop.html
Another Chance for Homework Alert!
Learn about frogs and share with the class on Monday!
The things kids say. For real.
Mrs. Cohen: Will you please push in that chair?
Student 1: But it's not my chair.
Mrs. Cohen: I know, will you please push in that chair? It's in the way and someone might bump into it. (Attempts at logic sometimes work.)
Student 1: But it's not my chair.
Mrs. Cohen: I know, but we are a team and we help each other. So you can help even if it isn't your chair.
Student 2: I can do it.
Student 1: No, she asked me to do it. I was here first.
And that is why they pay me the big bucks.