K-C News
April 27, 2018
FINALLY! Remember those bulbs you planted for your children in September? Every year I learn it again. Patience. Everything happens eventually.
What You Really Need To Know
We are halfway through conferences and our end of year ABC countdown is about to begin. Look in your child's folder tomorrow for a short list of Alphabet themed events we will need your help preparing for as we celebrate the final 26 days of school. We will kick off with stuffed "A"nimal day on Thursday, May 10.
Our mystery reader, homework program and sharing calendars are winding to a close as we welcome the month of May. Thank you to everyone for participating in keeping these programs running! Your children and I really benefit from your interest and support. Your contributions make it all work for every student. It takes a village.
We've enjoyed a few special programs at school in recent weeks. We met a Chinese Ribbon dancer and learned to ribbon dance ourselves! We made our own ribbons for dancing at recess, too. We also met a Therapy dog named Ozzy who was sweet and calm and very good at his job of comforting, listening and understanding. He was superb at following commands. And students who attend PM KASE recently attended Eliot's Earth Day assembly!
Coming Attractions
No AM Kindergarten/Spring Parent Teacher Conferences
Thursday, May 3
May/June book orders due. Visit https://clubs.scholastic.com Use class code HVXFH, to create an account for your first order.
Friday, May 11
No AM Kindergarten/Spring Parent Teacher Conferences
Thursday, May 24
NO SCHOOL: Memorial Day
Monday, May 28
EARLY RELEASE at 12:15
Tuesday, June 5
Summer Birthday Celebration (You didn't think we were going to leave out the summer birthday kids, did you?)
Thursday, June 7
PORTFOLIO DAY - Come see your child's collected work to celebrate the end of kindergarten!
Thursday, June 14 at 8:45am in our classroom
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL
Early Release at 12:15
Monday, June 18
Summer Vacation!!
Tuesday, June 19
All in a days work...
- Since our last update, We have read many books by Dr. Seuss, both as a class and independently. One of our favorite activities was to find the word NOT in his books in as many places as we could. We also enjoyed hearing stories about and doing crafts projects highlighting some of his characters like Gertrude McFuzz and the snitches.
- We recently celebrated Earth Day by taking a nature walk around our school. We looked for living things (we have some neighbors who keep chickens in their yard!), growing things (the bulbs you planted in September have bloomed into daffodils!), compared rocks by size, and collected trash and recycling items. We also made an awesome bulletin board highlighting photos of US doing our part to lift up the earth.
- In math we have been studying subtraction and measurement. We have learned to use rulers and balance scales to compare length and weight.
- In Science before Spring Break, we hosted zebra finches named Marge and Homer. We are also growing tadpoles in our classroom! Our next pet is still a surprise to your kids, but just arrived on Friday. It is a gecko! We will be learning a bit about reptiles and other oviparous animals.
- Our writing is looking awesome! Recently we made poster of an earth day poem that we all composed together! We are preparing for first grade by reviewing and practicing our lower case letters, printing lots of sight words, remembering that we know hard sounds like ch/sh/th and ing, and enhancing our illustrations to include backgrounds, labels and realistic details. Our weekend news of late has been nothing short of spectacular!
- We are all readers. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. Lately we have learned a short Reader's Theater called Have You Seen My Pot of Gold? Your children have also ALL demonstrated that they know how to navigate a book, can find high frequency words, can use beginning sounds to guess at unknown words, and can use illustrations to make good guesses about the story. YAAAAAY!
Links of the week.
Your children have mastered all Kindergarten math games at http://toytheater.com/category/math-games/kindergarten-math-games/
Click on first grade to try other favorites include Bowling, Cavern and Pool.
http://toytheater.com/category/math-games/first-grade-math-games/
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.
Student 1: An Oregon?
Mrs. Cohen: Close. This one is a hexagon. It has 6 sides. Oregon is in the pacific northwest.
Student 2: How many sides does it have?