K-C News
May 5, 2019
Kindergarten. Teamwork. Upside down. On the floor. Whatever works.
What you need to know
We are in the home stretch now with 7 weeks of kindergarten to go! If you already know your child will be unable to attend the final days of school due to early summer plans, please let me know. I want to be sure everyone's collection of memorabilia is packed up and ready for them on the day of their departure.
Our parent-teacher conferences are finished for the year. All families will receive an updated end of year progress report via student backpacks on the last day of school. Thank you for making time to come in to hear about your child's amazing growth over the course of the year.
Our end of year ABC countdown begins next week in celebration of the last 26 days of school. Look in your child's folder this week to find a short list of Alphabet themed events for which you can help your child prepare. We will kick off with stuffed "A"nimal day on Tuesday, May 14.
Thank you to our mystery readers this month, Nina's dad, Jim (To the Sea), and Nicholas' dad, also Jim (Frog and Toad). Thank you to all for participating in our mystery reader program this year. Your children really benefit from the time you spend reading with us.
Happy birthday to Genevieve and Ady who turned 6 this month!
An opportunity for you to lend a hand for our Spring/Summer craft day will be published soon by our room parents. Come join us for some crafty fun.
Coming attractions for the end of the year
Wednesday, May 15
Final book order due (flyers to come home this week)
Thursday, May 23
"Early" Release at 12:15
No PM KASE in session
Monday, May 27
No School
Memorial Day
Tuesday, June 11
"Early" Release at 12:15
No PM KASE in session
Wednesday, June 12
School wide Boosterthon fundraiser (more info to follow)
Monday, June 17
Kindergarten Portfolio Day at 8:45-9:05 in our classroom. All Families and siblings are invited to see our collections of work.
Wednesday, June 19
Last day of School. Dismissal at 12:15
Thursday, Jun 20
SUMMER VACATION
All in a days work...
- This year, honestly, I have to keep thinking of more challenging things for this class to do, because they can do anything and everything!
- We are learning addition and subtraction on the number line, have been working a lot on counting fluency up to and beyond 100, have almost mastered our number facts to 5 and are extending beyond that too, and we are continuing to practice "counting on" as a strategy so we don't have to go back to the beginning and count the whole collection again. So basically, we are all math wizards.
- Our writing is just amazing, across the board. We have been paying careful attention to middle vowel and ending consonant sounds to help us become fluent spellers and readers. We hope you can see the difference in our News stories that have been coming home in recent weeks! We were recently inspired by videos Emma shared of her gymnastic and dance accomplishments. Please feel free to email me any short videos of your kindergartners to inspire our narrative storytelling!
- We learned some new card games this month that focused on speedy number recognition and sequencing. Try them at home: Spoons and Sharks are Wild (can be played with any traditional deck).
- We created a beautiful earth day bulletin board featuring our smiling faces. We also have been hammering away in our tool shop, creating original works of art.
- Our science center is bursting with live insects. The good kind (in captivity). We are observing ladybug and mealworm behavior, and are anticipating developments in our praying mantis egg sac before the end of school. We also recently welcomed two tree frogs to help inspire our developing tadpoles to reach for the stars.
Links to explore
Read about earth day with this interactive book
http://www.starfall.com/n/holiday/earthday/play.htm?f
Marble addition. Drag the marbles into each box for the addends. Then count to find the sum!
http://www.abcya.com/addition.htm
CHALLENGE:
number line addition and subtraction race:
http://www.toytheater.com/kayak.php
Challenge frog life cycle labeling activity!
http://www.turtlediary.com/game/frog-life-cycle-labeling.html
The things kids say. For real.
Mrs. Cohen: For earth day we are going to clean up our garden. There are lots of old leaves and some trash to pick up. Can you all help?
Student 1: What about the rocks. Should we pick up the rocks?
Mrs. Cohen: No, the rocks can stay.
Student 2: How about the dirt?
Mrs. Cohen: The dirt can stay too. Just pick up things that don't belong in the garden.
Student 3: Leaves belong in a garden.
Mrs. Cohen: OK, Do-over! Everyone pick up three old brown leaves and that's it. Forget everything else.
Student 4: Are we doing composting?
Mrs. Cohen: I really need to think these things through.