THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Thank you ALL SO MUCH for all of the gifts, cards, pictures, flowers, and kind notes you sent in for Teacher Appreciation Week. I felt so special!!!

Upcoming Dates

*May 20- In class assessment day--make sure your child is here and on time :)

*May 27 No school

*May 31 Lincoln Field Day-all day

*June 4 Kiwanis Park Day-send a sack lunch in a throw away bag

*June 6 and 7 Half Days

This Cycle

We went to Sarett Nature Center yesterday. It was a beautiful day!!! We saw turtles, frogs,
an owl, and a salamander.  We went on a nature walk and saw and heard other animals!

In Handwriting we are finishing up the year with a review of how to form our numbers
properly.  In reading we are “Drawing Conclusions” about a text using the text and
pictures. Recently we have been working on the sounds of the letters K, V, and Y.  
In Writing we are again focussing on how to write a story, telling it in order using
First, next and Last. In Math we continue to work on ‘fact fluency’ when adding
numbers within 10.  We continue to practice naming 3D shapes, counting base ten blocks,
and practicing subtraction with games and centers. The children are also now expected
to write their last names on their own.  Please check with your child on this task.

Field Day May 31st

I will need at least 5-6 parent/grandparent helpers to take groups of kids around to their
Field Day events in the afternoon of Field day, May 31.  Please email me if you are
available for this help from 1 pm -3:30 pm. Also Mr. Pfahler is looking for volunteers
to run the games that the kids choose on Field day in the morning and the afternoon times.  Please call the office to volunteer for this job. Please watch the weather the day before Field Day.  If sunscreen is needed (your child will be outside all afternoon) please apply it in the morning before sending them to school.  I will not be able to apply sunscreen. Also, make sure your child has on appropriate play/running clothes and shoes for the day. Also, a filled water bottle will be help! Let me know if you have any questions about this day.

Kiwanis Park Day

We will walk down to Kiwanis Park with our Buddy Class on June 4.  We will take our
bag lunches with us and eat and play for a few hours. If you would like to walk with us
or meet us at the park for part of the day, that would be great!!! Please email me and
let me know your plans.  Younger siblings are welcome to join us at the park, however,
it gets very crowded! :)

Have a good week!

Here are our last two leader calendars for the year! 

Our field trip to Sarett Nature Center 

will by on Tuesday, May 14th. 

We will leave right after lunch recess, 

around 12:40pm and will return around 2:30pm. 

If you are assigned to come with us, please bring $3 for yourself and be at school by 12:35 if you are riding the bus with us. 

Please let me know as soon as possible if you are assigned and are not able to attend. Also let me know if you plan to meet us out there rather than ride the bus.

Thanks so much!!!!

Kindergarten Newsletter

**We are in need of napkins and Kleenex. If you could send a box or package in, we would appreciate it! Thank you!**

Important Dates

*April 19 Half Day 12:05 dismissal**Dress in your favorite color

*Happy Easter

*April 22 Earth Day-Dress in green and each class will clean up the school yard

*April 24 Late Start

April 26 Donuts with your VIP

April 29-NWEA Testing begins-teacher will let you know what days we are testing

This Cycle

In Reading we have been reading Readers Theater books about A Farm and People At School.  We are all learning how to use an expressive voice while reading!!!  Your child brought home the new list of sight words in these books. In writing we continue to write letters and are now focussing on writing our opinion in these letters. In Handwriting we are reviewing all uppercase and lowercase as we write out the whole alphabet for practice.  In Phonics we practiced the Jj sound and practiced telling the beginning sound of a word , then changing the beginning sound to a different sound to make a new word.  (bat starts with /b/, change the /b/ to /h/: hat)  In Math we continue to become fluent with addition and subtraction to 5 and then memorize the facts to 10.  We all should know our 2D and 3D shapes! This week we will make 3D shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks.  In Centers we made a bunny for spring, we read books/songs on the ipads in the EPIC app, we played Popcorn sight words, we wrote three letter words and changed the beginning sound or ending sound to make a new word, and we walked around the room to find sight words to read and write!  In Math Centers we played Subtraction Bowling AGAIN! It was a fun game to get back out again. We played Bingo with numbers that were described as “2 tens and 3 ones”=23! We used ten frames to show addition to 10 and played a  ‘friends of 10” game to practice adding to ten. Lots of good practice, since the school year is flying by.

We went to the Planetarium on Monday and learned about the sun, moon, and some constellations!   In Science we are doing an experiment to see if plants NEED sunlight to grow. Hopefully we will be able to find out on Monday!

Weather

Make sure your child has a light jacket in their backpack even on days when the forecast is for 65 or above.  Michigan temperatures often drop drastically when a front comes through or the weather changes during the school day. We will always go outside!

Guest Readers

 Please let me know if you didn’t get to read to us or a Grandparent would like to read to us.  We will work it into our day usually at 3:20pm right before we leave school!

ONLY ONE MORE SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDER IN MAY...STOCK UP FOR BIRTHDAY PRESENTS AND $1, $2 books for SUMMER READING!

I hope you have a Wonderful Easter Weekend!

Keep reading this week and be ready to turn in those passports! 

Friday is a half day of school and it's also pajama day! 

Here is a link to our January- March slideshow.

It is also posted on itsLearning! 

January- March


Here is our April Snack Calendar!

March is Reading Month!

Upcoming Events

*Feb. 28- March 1 – ½ Days of School

*March 6- Late Start

*March 7- Kdg./Y5 Round Up

*March 13- Late Start

*March 20- Late Start

*March 29- ½ Day of School

Important Reading Month Dates

• Kick Off Video Played on News/Passports passed out - Friday, March 1st
• BOOK FAIR: March 11 - 15

• Book Fair Family Night: Thursday, March 14
• Reading Month Celebration Movie(s):  Friday, March 29th (Movie and Times TBD)

Fun Friday Dress up Days!

• Dress like a World Traveler Day - Friday, March 8th
• Dress as your favorite book character - Friday, March 15th
• Flashlight Friday & Fuzzy Socks - Friday, March 22nd
• PJ Day - Friday, March 29th

This Cycle

We have had a very busy couple of weeks. I have spent lots of time assessing your child’s growth in math, reading, and writing.  EVERYONE has made SO much progress this year!!!  In phonics we worked on the letter Ee sound, which can be the most challenging vowel sound.  We are now spending extra time on the short vowel sounds in words.  It can be easy to get the vowels confused so extra practice on these is a good idea at home too. In math we are working on drawing addition and subtraction number stories, as well as representing them using numbers and the plus, minus, and equal sign.  In writing, we are finishing up our ‘All About’ books and will begin writing opinion pieces in the next week! 

Report Card Scoring

Your child’s report card was sent home yesterday.  Please remember that the scores are based on the end of the year expectations.  A lot of students will have a 1 in sight words since we haven’t learned all of our words yet. Keep practicing as the words come home and your child will be at or near a 3 by the end of the year. A 3 is where we want them to be by the end of the year, so a 2 right now in any area means they are progressing toward the final goal, as they should be.  I tried to make sure I wrote in the comment section if there was an area that needed extra practice or was of more concern. If you have any questions after reviewing the report card, please let me know. 

Thank you!

Upcoming Events

*February 20, 27- Late Start

*February 22- ½ day of school

End of the Trimester

*Feb. 28, March 1- ½ days of school

*March 6, 13, 20- Late Starts

This Cycle

Isn’t it hard to believe we have been in school for over 100 days now! Our focus this week in phonics
was the ‘Uu’’ sound.  We talked about how the letter Uu is a vowel and can make many different
sounds. We are learning the difference between needs and wants in social studies. Please remember
to practice sight words at home. We will be assessing them in the next couple of weeks.   

100th Day

We had a great 100th day of school!  The children had a ton of fun writing their numbers to 100,
counting out 100 pieces of snack,  matching numbers to 100, recognizing 3D shapes in the number 100,
and playing a Race to 100 game.   

Thank you so much to the parents who donated items for 100 pieces of snack.  We couldn’t
do this fun activity without you! Thank you also to all of the parents that came to help with the centers.  Your help and involvement are so valuable!

We had so many great 100’s day projects.  We loved seeing the creativity and imagination each
child used in this project.  I am so proud of each of them.

Snacks

When you and your child are deciding what snack to send in, especially for a birthday, please
remember that we have a child with allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, and another child with
an allergy to red dye in our class. Some families choose to send in a separate snack if the class snack
contains those ingredients. We do have alternative snacks in the classroom if needed but a
separate snack helps the child with the allergy feel thought about. Thank you!

Valentines Day

Please send in your child’s Valentine cards on Wednesday or Thursday of this week. We will hand
them out during our party on Thursday. We will be decorating bags in the classroom so there is no
need to send in a Valentine box.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

It’s hard to believe that it is time to start planning for the last scheduled conference for this
school year.

The end of second trimester is February 22nd.  Our spring parent-teacher conferences are the
week of February 25th.   This year’s spring conference window is formatted differently than the fall
conferences.  The change reflects the ongoing nature of electronic communication between parents
and teachers throughout the school year and our efforts to provide ‘just in time’ responses to parent
questions and concerns about their child’s progress as they arise. As a result, conferences will be
scheduled with parents on an ‘as needed’ basis.  The goal is to schedule conferences with parents of
children needing additional academic, social, or emotional support and those with ongoing improvement
plans.   To ensure you have the most up-to-date information about your child’s progress, report
cards will come home the week of February 25th.  If you have questions about your child’s progress
at any time, please let me know.  

Solid Shape Museum

We will start learning about the 3D shapes cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, and pyramid.  If you have items
at home that have any of these shapes, please send them in with your child so we can practice
recognizing these shapes in our environment by making a solid shape museum in our classroom.  
(Please label the items if possible and please do not send in fragile and/or valuable items as the
children will be touching these).

Have a fabulous week!