Mrs. Schettone's News!
Weeks of March 21st-25th AND March 28th-April 1st
Week of March 21st-25th: Easter Week!
Check out all the great things we did during our "mini-week" prior to Spring Break!
- We started off our week completing a "Peep" writing! Students received a marshmallow peep that they had to draw a picture of, give it a name, give it an age, and share what it likes to do! Students had a lot of fun!
- We read "Rechenka's Eggs" by Patricia Polacco and afterwards, students wrote about how many beautiful eggs Rechenka gave to Babushka and the special gift the last egg provided. Students then designed a beautiful egg themselves!
- We read "Duck's Easter Egg Hunt" and afterwards, students went outside and had an Easter egg hunt with the other two Kindergarten classes! Inside the Easter Eggs were sight words! Students then sat in a circle and read their sight words and used them in a sentence! Students then went and hid their eggs and hunted them again! Afterwards, they partnered up with a friend from a different class and read their sight words together!
- We read "Jellybean and the Unbreakable Egg" and then students sorted and graphed jellybeans!
- We read "The Easter Egg" by Jan Brett and afterwards, students dyed their own Easter Egg!
- We read "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes" and then students wrote about what they would be like as the Easter Bunny! They gave themselves a name, designed an egg that they would leave for children, drew a picture of what they would look like, drew a picture of where they would hide eggs, and drew a picture of what kinds of treats they would leave children.
- We completed a Peep experiment where we put a peep in four different liquids: water, soda, soap, and vinegar. We then predicted which liquid would cause the peep to dissolve. We let the cups sit for three days and then checked to see what the results were. The winner was...Vinegar!
- We ended our short week by watching "Hop!" with our other Kindergarten friends!
Such a Fun Week!
Mystery Reader, Mr. Dickson, Ethan's Dad!
Mystery Clues: "I have three sons", "I am one of three brothers", "I like to go hiking"..who am I? Ethan's Dad, Mr. Dickson, visited us on Tuesday, March 22nd as a Mystery Reader! Mr. Dickson read us "Yertle the Turtle" and several poems from "Where the Sidewalk" ends! He then treated us with goodie bags to take home! Thanks for visiting! We loved having you!
Week of March 28th-April 1st!
What did we do this week in Language Arts and Math?
We had a very busy week in Kindergarten! Let's check out what we did in Language Arts!
- We learned three new sight words: that, are, and do
- We learned six new amazing words: world, trip, lonely, journey, horizon, and homesick. We then analyzed the word "trip" on our vocabulary web! We wrote the definition, characteristics of a trip, we drew a picture of our favorite trip, and then we drew a picture of something that was not a trip. We did a great job!
- We read the concept book "What Do I See?" and then we looked around the room and outside our windows and drew a picture of four things that we saw. Students then wrote a sentence for each picture. For example: "I see four cars in the parking lot" or "I see two computers on the table." Students did an awesome job with this writing!
- We read the big book "Rooster's Off to See the World" and sequenced four events that happened in the story. Students then illustrated a picture of all the animals that joined Rooster on his journey!
- We had Week Three of Word Study! This week, we focused on the -it family and sight words! Students did a very nice job all week on their word study activities as well as their final word study test!
- We had Reading Groups and Literacy Centers! While Mrs. Schettone read with Reading Groups, students rotated through centers focused on sight words, rhyming words, opposites, and Word Study.
- We went to the Innovation Lab and completed our I-Ready lessons!
- We learned that April is Poetry Month and we read our first Poem in our A-Z Poem Packet called "Apples." Students then circled all of our sight words in the poem, colored all of the A's in the poem, practiced writing the words apple, ant, and and, and finally, drew a picture of something that started with A.
What did we do in Math this week?
- We were introduced to Chapter 10, Position! We took our chapter pre-test and learned our new math vocabulary words: above, behind, below, beside, in front of, next to.
- We completed lessons 1-4 where we learned to identify objects in a setting that were above, below, in front of, behind, Next to, and beside.
- We completed our Check My Progress, Review, and then we had our Chapter 10 test!
- We reviewed addition and number sequencing!
STEM!
This week in STEM, students learned about all of the materials they would be using to make their sail. Students got to feel and examine each material and then we made a properties chart about each item. Students then planned what they were going to use and the shape they wanted their sail to be! Afterwards, students built their sails and then got to test them on the air raft track! Our track is propelled by a fan, which allows our sails to "catch the wind" and travel along the track. After we measured how far our sails went during our test runs, we went back to the classroom and analyzed how far our sail traveled, how floppy our sail was, and then we drew a picture of it! On Monday, we will plan our redesign to improve our sail! We had a great week and loved building and testing our sails!
We had a guest speaker visit our class! Alyssa's dad, Mr. Hepburn, visited with Mrs. Schettone and Mrs. Schwartz's classes on Friday and taught us about his job as an engineer! He works with Mrs. Dickson, Ethan's mom, who visited our class a couple of weeks ago! Mr. Hepburn actually followed up from Mrs. Dickson's lesson (who taught us about identifying if someone is sick by testing their blood) and shared what happens next! Mr. Hepburn walked us through the steps of the Scientific Method by showing us what he does each day. He brought in several test tubes that contained "mystery liquids". When he put a powdered substance into each tube, each liquid was to respond the same way, but one test tube bubbled up! We had to figure out why that test tube bubbled up by following the steps of the Scientific Method! At the end, we learned that the last test tube contained vinegar, not water causing it to bubble up once the powdered substance was added! Thank you for visiting and teaching us about what you do! We had a great time learning about your job as an engineer!!!
We had a guest speaker visit our class! Alyssa's dad, Mr. Hepburn, visited with Mrs. Schettone and Mrs. Schwartz's classes on Friday and taught us about his job as an engineer! He works with Mrs. Dickson, Ethan's mom, who visited our class a couple of weeks ago! Mr. Hepburn actually followed up from Mrs. Dickson's lesson (who taught us about identifying if someone is sick by testing their blood) and shared what happens next! Mr. Hepburn walked us through the steps of the Scientific Method by showing us what he does each day. He brought in several test tubes that contained "mystery liquids". When he put a powdered substance into each tube, each liquid was to respond the same way, but one test tube bubbled up! We had to figure out why that test tube bubbled up by following the steps of the Scientific Method! At the end, we learned that the last test tube contained vinegar, not water causing it to bubble up once the powdered substance was added! Thank you for visiting and teaching us about what you do! We had a great time learning about your job as an engineer!!!
Week of April 4th-8th
- Sight Words: that, are, do
- Word Study: -ug family and sight words
- Concept Book: My Lucky Day
- Big Book: My Lucky Day
- Comprehension Skill: Cause and Effect
- Math: Chapter 11-2D Shapes
- Stem: Sail Redesign and Test, Introduction to Windmills and Wind Turbines
- Special Events: Mystery Reader, Character Counts (Citizenship), Pre-K Concert
- Tyler Arboretum permission slips are due WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6th!
- Dress down in PURPLE on Wednesday for Character Counts Citizenship!
- Wednesday, April 13th is Kindergarten Spirit Day! Students are to dress down in their favorite color!
- Tyler Arboretum Field Trip will be on Friday, April 15th! Dress in Spirit Shirts and appropriate footwear (sneakers, rain boots). Field Trip will be Rain or Shine!
- Report Cards will be emailed on Monday, April 18th!
- Kindergarten Spring Play "Winnie the Pooh" will be Thursday, April 21st at 9:30am!
- Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, April 21st from 4-7pm and Friday, April 22nd from 8-1pm. A Sign-Up Genius will be coming on Monday! There will be NO SCHOOL on Friday, April 22nd!
- PAC Bingo night will be held on Friday, April 29th!
We need your help for our Community Helpers Project!
Students will be working with Mrs. Seltzer in Art to build their very own class neighborhood as part of our Community Helpers Project Based Learning Unit. We will be collecting paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, Paper Juice Cartons, Cereal Boxes, Wooden Blocks, and Cracker Boxes! If you have any of these items and would like to donate them to our class as we build our neighborhood, that would be wonderful! Thank you in advance!