Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Week of  May 22-26, 2017

May 26  Fun to be Fit
May 29  NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
May 30 Kindergarten Concert at 1:30
May 31 trip to the Kettunen Center
June 1  3/4/5 Track and Field
June 2 K/1/2 Track and Field after lunch
June 2 Sophomore carnival
June 2  3rd Grade to Mackinaw Island
June 3  Bike-a-thon
June 6 half day
June 7 last day (1/2 day)

Fun to be Fit is this Friday!  Plan to meet us on the track at 1:15-1:20-we will be just to the left of the gate.  Walk begins at 1:30.  Please watch the weather and dress your child accordingly.   Best to have the children wear tennis shoes with socks as we walk or run the track for 30 minutes.  All pink Fun to Be Fit shirts will be handed out on Thursday if you ordered one.  If you did not order one, wear a pink shirt or our Kindergarten shirt. 
All are welcome to join us up on the track—strollers work great for younger children! Once the walk begins children do not have to stay with me—the DO have to stay inside the fenced track area.  Once the walk is finished we ALL meet back at the beginning spot and will walk back to the classroom together.  At the end you are welcome to walk back with us to the classroom and check your child out to go home.  Water bottles are ok to send in but we have been asked to leave them in the room for after the event.  If it is sunny consider putting sunscreen on.

Tuesday is our Kindergarten program at 1:30 in the Elenbaas Performing Arts Center.  Children are encouraged to wear a Disney shirt.  Please park in the big parking lot  (football field end.) and meet us in the auditorium.  Once the program is finished you are welcome to come back to the room and check your child out to go home for the day. 

Wednesday is our field trip to the Kettunen Center.  Please have your children wear long pants (mosquitoes are nasty this year!), tennis shoes with socks.  Bring/wear a jacket.  We will be bringing our backpacks—please make sure your child has an extra set of clothing inside their backpack just in case!!!!!!
Please no toys in their backpacks!

If you chose to not purchase a meal from the Kettunen center for your child, make sure your child has a SACK lunch.
 Please NO POP or chocolate!  (makes a mess!)

Also, an FYI for adults—there can be no smoking on the trip.  Kettunen Center is smoke free zone as well.

Friday June 2 is our Track and Field day after lunch!  Come help-- (best to not have younger children with you)



READING:  We are reading stories about sorting things in to different groups.
LETTERS:  ee, ea, e-e (long e) and digraph th
SIGHT WORDS:  come, does (reviewing all 51!)
VOCABULARY:  sort, similar
CATEGPRY WORDS:  opposites


WRITING:  We are looking in to informational books.
                  We also write in our journals every day.  
These will go home the last day as well as their scrap notebooks!

MATH:
This week we are doing our math assessments.  We will be practicing counting and addition/subtraction.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  We will finish our lifecycles.  Unfortunately our Painted Lady caterpillars never arrived.  Order didn’t go through and there is no time left.  Glad we were able to have Monarch Butterflies this fall to observe!  Be watching—I heard they are making their way back north!
Thursday we take our final trip to the Butterfly Garden.  Laura Quist will be there to walk us through the garden and point out spring things!  The children will then write their final observation on their seasonal time line.


This week the children will also be assessed on the AIMS math and DIBELS assessments.


STUDENT OF THE WEEK:  Emelia
Emelia likes to climb trees, swing on swings and play in her room.  She likes to eat tostados and tacos.  Her favorite movie is tangled and favorite book is Teenage Titans.  Her goals are to learn to read and become a teacher.




*********I have lots of kiddos telling me they are playing baseball/softball---someone please email me or send in and I’ll make a copy of their schedule—I’d love to watch a few of their games!!!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

May 8-12

May 12 Muffins with Mom
May 8   3rd & 4th Grade Concert
May 20 Color Run
May 26  Fun to be Fit
May 29  NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
May 30 Kindergarten Concert
May 31 Kettunen Center
June 1  3/4/5 Track and Field
June 2 K/1/2 Track and Field
June 2  3rd Grade to Mackinaw Island
June 3  Bike-a-thon

STUDENT OF THE WEEK:  Lyndon
Lyndon doesn’t like spiders.  His favorite color is red and he shows chickens.  He likes to eat cake.  His favorite movie is Jurassic World and favorite book is Very Hungry Caterpillar and Going on a Bear Hunt.  His goals are to play football and hockey.

READING:
Sight words:  where, look
Letters:  Long O and S blends (sl, st,  sm, etc)
Vocabulary Words: natural resources, create
Category words:  foods made from grain

Our book is Bread comes to life.  We will look in to how to use our natural resources to make new things.  Friday we will be making white bread.

WRITING:   
We are investigating informational writing.  We will investigate butterflies and write what we know about butterflies—what do the have, what can the do what are they?

SCIENCE  and SOCIAL STUDIES:
Continuing our look at life cycles—butterflies, turtles, frogs, birds, chickens, plants…the children have planted flowers for Mother’s Day gifts.  We talked about things plants need.
We are waiting our arrival of the Painted Lady caterpillars.

MATH:  We will continue to practice addition and subtraction.

Field trip notes are coming—please remember if you choose to come, we will be outside for this trip.  We will be investigating and get dirty!  We will have bug spray if it’s needed.


Here's the bread recipe we used!  Very easy!
White Bread

5 cups flour
2 pkgs. dry yeast
2 cups warm water
¼ cup Crisco oil
2 TBLSP sugar
1 TBLSP salt
In large bowl, combine 2 cups flour and yeast, add water, cooking oil, salt and sugar.  Beat at lowest speed of electric mixer for ½ minute, scrape bowl.  Beat 3 minutes on high.  Then stir in remaining 3 cups of flour, mix well.  Turn out on floured board and knead 8-10 minutes.  Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1-1½ hours.  Form into loaves or rolls and let rise until double in size.

Bake 350* for 30 minutes or golden brown.  Brush top of bread with butter while hot.  Makes 2 loaves of bread.


For coffee bread or cinnamon rolls, add 3 eggs and ½ cup sugar.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

May 1-5
May 5 Muffins with Mom
May 12 Muffins with Mom
May 8   3rd & 4th Grade Concert
May 20 Color Run
May 26  Fun to be Fit
May 29  NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
May 30 Kindergarten Concert
June 1  3/4/5 Track and Field
June 2 K/1/2 Track and Field
June 2  3rd Grade to Mackinaw Island
June 3  Bike-a-thon

STUDENT OF THE WEEK:  Case
Case loves bugs, riding his bike and going camping with his family.  He likes to eat pizza, Pop tarts and ice cream.  His favorite movie is Jurassic World and favorite book is Bear feels scared.  His goals are to learn all his sight words and his numbers up to 100

We say goodbye to Natalia today!  She is moving to a new town and school.  We wish you good luck and will miss you!!

READING:
This week we are reading Hen Hears Gossip.  We are learning how to be a good citizen by listening, sharing, respecting and helping others, working together.
SIGHT WORDS:  play, has, all
VOCABULARY:  citizen, respect
CATEGORY WORDS:  farm animals
LETTERS:  long i with silent e
Take home reading folders are now ready to go—please read and send back by Friday so I can get them ready for next Monday.

WRITING:  We start our last journal for the year—I have combined May and June together.
We are also learning about informational writing.

MATH:  this week we will practice skip counting, subtracting and adding.  We will be working on number writing as well,  Some are still not understanding teen numbers start with 1, and a few are still writing backwards.  Please help practice number writing to 30 at home.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:  We are beginning our unit on life cycles—frogs, chickens, and butterflies.  I have ordered Painted Lady caterpillars—they should arrive within the week!


Please remember gym shoes on Tuesday and Thursday!!! 

Please send in a sweater or sweatshirt as some mornings it’s cool in the room! 









 


April 24-27

April 28 NO SCHOOL for KINDERGARTENERS ONLY
April 23 Auditorium Grand Opening
May 5 Muffins with Mom
May 12 Muffins with Mom
May 8   3rd & 4th Grade Concert
May 20 Color Run
May 26  Fun to be Fit
May 29  NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day
May 30 Kindergarten Concert @ 1:30
June 1  3/4/5 Track and Field
June 2 K/1/2 Track and Field
            Sophomore Carnival
June 2  3rd Grade to Mackinaw Island
June 3  Bike-a-thon

STUDENT OF THE WEEK:  Brian
Brian likes to catch frogs and toads.  He likes to play with his family.  He likes to ride bikes.  Brian likes to eat oranges, strawberries, steaks and French fries.  His favorite movie is Goosebumps and favorite book is about tractors.  His goals are to become a dirt bike rider and own a cool dirt bike.

READING:
This week the focus is about children helping at home. How can your child help you at home? 
VOCABULARY:  chores, contribute
CATEGORY WORDS: household furniture
SIGHT WORDS:  help, him, too (please practice all 51 at home)
PHONICS:  We have made it through the alphabet and are now focusing on different areas of phonics.  This week we are looking at long /a/ and silent e at the end.  (cap –short a, but if you add an e at the end you have cape and it’s a long e)  Flippy dolphin tells the children to flip from a short a to long a when reading if the word doesn’t make sense or there is an e at the end of a word.
Our other focus this week is /sh/ at the beginning or ending of a word. (ship or fish)

TAKE HOME FOLDERS:
I am very near ready for the children to ‘shop’ for a good fit book—meaning a book they can read.  Once these go home, please have your child read the book every night as well as some of the papers in the folder.  A letter explaining will be enclosed.  Once the week is finished, return the folder and book for a new one.


WRITING:
We finished our opinion writing last week and are venturing to informational writing this week.  We will look at examples to find out more about what information means first.

MATH:
We are continuing our counting practice as well as adding and subtracting.  We will also review 3D shapes by building them with marshmallows and toothpicks.

SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES:
We looked at motion and how things go.  We put together a marble track to see how the marbles would go down different tracks.  We discussed gravity and force.

We will begin life cycles next week.  Painted Lady butterflies are on the way!


May is right around the corner.  Lots of activities coming!  I will keep you updated as I know!  Dates are at the beginning of the newsletter.  We also begin doing our final assessments.  Please continue to practice, counting, ABC’s & sounds, sight words and reading!  I try to also review every morning!