The Week of March 25th

Planting an array of bloom.

Helping Dr. Bianco with finishing touches.

The Memorial Service dedicating the playground and flower garden in memory of Mrs. Weinman was lovely. Thank you for all the beautiful flowers that the children donated. The class worked hard to help plant many flowers to in her garden. It looks wonderful. Because so many flowers were so generously donated by all the students in the Lower Division, the over-flow were given to our classroom for us to plant in our own garden next to our classroom.

Math: We will focus on learning about the nickel this week. We will learn that nickels are counted by fives, so that four nickels are worth twenty cents, etc. We will combine a nickel with pennies to make change for up to ten cents. We are continuing to work on addition and our introduction to subtraction.  

Word Work: Last week we learned about the “ch” sound. We will learn about the sound t and h make when they work together. Ask your child to tell you the stories about “ch” and “th.” We have added twelve color words to our Word Wall so we now have a total of 72 words. We will be adding fives new words each week from now on.

Reading: We will focus on reading non-fiction books. Last week the children sorted all the “just right” books, pulling out all the information books. We talked about that many non-fiction books have photographs instead of pictures that have been illustrated.

Writing:  We have completed our writing unit on “How To” books and began our next non-fiction writing unit on “All About” by writing an informational book about kindergarten on Monday. Tuesday we will write about our garden. After that, the children will select their own topics that are of interest to them.

Social Studies: Thank you all for sending in snapshots of your homes.  Our discussion of homes will include house around the world and attributes such as the number of windows, front or back porches, garages or carports, cellars, attics, and the many more unique things the children will come up with to add to their descriptions. We will be writing about our dream houses and will be comparing them with our own homes.

Science:  We will sort our 20 solid objects into many categories, including color, shape, size, hardness, ability to float, attraction to a magnet, and many other ways.

Technology:  We are using World Book on Line for Kids to learn about animals, as we prepare for our project-based learning activities about zoo animals.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce is continuing the guidance lessons with productive ways to handle conflict in our daily lives.

Events to Calendar:

Monday, April 1 – 1 yard of flannel or fleece is due to be used as backing for our kindergarten quilts.

April 1- April 5. Wear purple shirts with uniform bottoms all week for Relay for Life.

Friday, April 5. Relay for Life

Friday, April 5. Field trip to the Morean Clay Studio

Monday, April 15. Quilting Day

Friday, April 19. Celebrate the Arts

Reading Week 2013

Our spring party the afternoon before spring break was a huge success! Many thanks to Mrs. Fratello for all her hard work, planning and implementing all the fun activities for our kindergartners. The children rotated between the four K classes. Each room featured a different activity with a spring theme.

Mariana and Sophia share a spring snack.

Math: We will continue to work on learning to identify all the coins and stating their values.  We will be counting pennies by ones and pretending to go shopping with some pennies. We are continuing to work on addition and will be introducing the concept of subtraction.  

Word Work: The focus vowel will continue to be the letter “o.”  We will build words with “o” such as jog and hot. We will learn about the sound t and h make when they work together. Ask your child to tell you the story about “th.”

Reading: This is Reading Week! We will focus on doing lots of reading every day all week. Monday is Favorite Book Character Day. Tuesday is Drop Everything and Read Day where we will be reading for 30 minutes outside with the rest of the lower division. On Wednesday we will listen to a reading of Hello Pizza Man. This was Mrs. Weinman’s favorite title.  Thursday we will read with partners and have a guest reader visit us, and Friday is the Oldie Goldie Book sale. There will be something for everyone. Be sure to send in a dollar or two and your child will bring home a number of gently used books.

Mrs. Minke and all the characters at Town Meeting.

Writing:  As Reading Week progresses, the children will write reflection pieces about the week’s events.  We will also continue with our unit of “How To” books, which we will finish up on Friday.

Social Studies: Thank you all for sending in snapshots of your homes.  Our discussion of homes will include house around the world and attributes such as the number of windows, front or back porches, garages or carports, cellars, attics, and the many more unique things the children will come up with to add to their descriptions. We will be writing about our dream houses and will be comparing them with our own homes.

Science:  The sink and float exploration was a fun learning experience.  Predictions were made and results were recorded. This week we will be checking the 20 solid objects to find out which ones are attracted to magnets. First we will predict, then we will test, and finally we will record our results for our science journals.

Fiona, Lili, Jake, and Nicholas work as partners with sink and float inquiries.

Noah, Sophia, Sasa, and Franco take turns predicting and observing results.

Technology:  We are using World Book on Line for Kids to learn about animals, as we prepare for our project-based learning activities about zoo animals.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce is continuing the guidance lessons with productive ways to handle conflict in our daily lives.

Events to Calendar:

March 4-March 21. Bring in extra or old children’s books to donate for the Oldie Goldie Book Sale.

Friday, March 22. Bring in a small amount of money and buy lots of books at the Oldie Goldie Book Sale.

Monday, March 25. Dedication for Mrs. Weinman. Bring in a small potted flower to donate for her garden.

Monday, April 1 – 1 yard of flannel or fleece is due to be used as backing for our kindergarten quilts.

April 1- April 5. Wear purple shirts with uniform bottoms all week for Relay for Life.

Friday, April 5. Relay for Life

Monday, April 15. Quilting Day

Friday, April 19. Celebrate the Arts

News for the Week of March 4th

Our field trip to Lowry Park Zoo was perfect! The weather was ideal, our many chaperones helpful, and the children fascinated with all the animals on exhibit.

Duran and Franco at the manatee tank.

Nicholas, Mariana, and Lili pose with the giraffes.

Waiting for the gates to open.

Math: The children are making progress with learning to identify all our coins and stating their values. We are continuing to work on addition. As the children show a strong understanding of all the combinations of adding two numbers together to make a given number family, they are assessed and are able to move forward to higher numbers.

Word Work: The focus vowel is the letter “o.”  We will build words with “o” such as jog and hot. We are learning to use the Word Wall words to make sentences using correct spelling and sentence formation.

Reading: This week we will continue to read non-fiction books, including everything from books about the planets, animals, famous people, etc. We are practicing oral reading with fluency and proper volume. Each day a different student will demonstrate good oral reading for the class. Duran has volunteered to be our first reader.

Writing: In connection with reading non-fiction books, we have started our new writing unit, on “How To” books where we will teach others how to do things that we already know how to do, such as making a sandwich and brushing our own teeth. We began with how to make a pizza. The children are excited about our new writing unit.

Social Studies: Construction of the houses of our dreams was very popular. The houses are quite elaborate and have many interesting details. The children proudly have them on display in our classroom. We will be writing about our dream homes and will be comparing them with our own homes. Please send in a photograph of the front of your house so your child can compare this with their dream house.

Science:  In upcoming weeks our science investigations will include both solids and liquids. This week we will explore our collection of 20 objects checking them for their ability to sink or float in water. We will compare the 20 items on a Venn diagram as some of the items can do both, depending on how they are placed in the water.

Technology:  We are using World Book on Line for Kids to learn about animals, as we prepare for our project-based learning activities about zoo animals.

Guidance:  Ms. Fierce is continuing the guidance lessons with productive ways to handle conflict in our daily lives.

Events to Calendar:.

Now through the end of the month, we are collecting coins to raise funds for the Relay for Life Links Project.  

Thursday, March 7 is Field Day in the morning. Teams were assigned with colors of shirts to wear on that day. The letters with the children’s team colors went home Friday last week. Spring party rotations all afternoon. Volunteers needed to help.

No school Friday, March 8-Friday, March 15 for Spring Break.

Monday, March 18. To launch Reading Week, bring your favorite children’s book to school and dress as a character from that book.

March 4-March 21. Bring in extra or old children’s books to donate for the Oldie Goldie Book Sale.

Friday, March 22. Bring in a small amount of money and buy lots of books at the Oldie Goldie Book Sale.