The week of April 16-20!

We will continue our farm unit this week and next week!  This week we are learning more about chickens before our chicks begin hatching next week!  Did your child tell you that we "candled" our chicks last Friday?  I have a candler that has a bright light to see inside the egg shell for most eggs.  The white eggs are the easiest to see through.  Unfortunately, I didn't see the black embryo that I look for to see growth.  We could see it in two of the tan eggs, but the darker brown eggs are too dark to see inside.  The blueish-greenish is also too dark to see.
So we for sure have two chicks growing!  Probably more, but we just won't know for sure until they begin hatching!

It really is amazing how fast they grow!  One child was gone Friday, so we candled an egg on Monday that we looked at Friday. It was already too big to really see the embryo, air sac, and membranes that we saw on Friday!

Each animal that we learn about we learn the male and female names, where they live, what they eat, their baby's name, how old they are when they are an adult and can have babies, how many babies they can have, and their life cycle.

Today, we got our new animal study in the mail!  In the mail?!  Yes!  We just received five caterpillars!  We will be writing about their growth and metamorphosis (changing from an egg to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly) in a journal every few days!  Many things are happening in kindergarten!  

Just a reminder that our spelling test will be on Friday instead of Thursday!  I have been so proud of the kids for trying the challenging words!  For the most part, I let them choose to take the challenge words.  Monday we always read through them and sound them out.  We look for words inside of the word and the kids are so good at that now!  Or-an-ge, in-cub-at-or

Reading this week!  We are reading nonfiction stories.  One is about Balto the sled dog.  Can your child tell you why he was so important to people in Alaska?  

The other is called, "Up in the Air".  We will find out how hot air balloons rise and fall with the light and heavy air.

Sight words:  this, need
Letter of the week:  Long i, ph sound

Math this week!  Topic 10--Composing Numbers 11 to 19.  This is a short topic on adding numbers to 10 using ten frames.  Look for a math review packet to come home on Thursday!
They will have the long 3-day weekend to get it done by the following Wednesday!

Coming up!
Apr. 23      No School--Professional Development for teachers

Apr. 27      Kindergarten Open House (2:30-3:15)  Please come! 
May 4        Farm Day in the AM for Scott's Class 
May 18      Field Day
May 24      Last day of school-1/2 day