The week of April 29-May 3.

Wow!  May came fast!

Thank you all for coming to our KDG Open House program!  We had so much fun sharing what we have been learning about in our Farm Unit.  I know it meant a lot to your child to be here and me too!

Farm Day this Friday!  Please check the sign up genius to see if any more spots are open if you are able to help us out!  We appreciate any help you can give.  Keep in mind, if you have younger siblings, you are able to come watch, but you won't be able to "man" a station.  Thank you!

We can get back to our routine this week!  In reading and science we are learning about Force and Motion, along with push and pull.  We will have fun using hot wheel cars with various ramps to show what level makes cars go faster.  We will also push the cars to see which cars go farther.  Then we will discuss how pushing and pulling can change speed and direction.

Caterpillars--I hope you had a chance to see our caterpillars Friday in the container!  When we came back today, they had spun their chrysalis!  More excitement in our classroom!  We will continue to follow their life cycle the next 2 weeks!

Letter of the week--Long Ii   Here are the different long i combinations we will talk about more this week!  (ie, i_e, igh, y)

sight words:  this, need  ( the class wrote sentences today in their journal using "need" in each.  They can just whip them out so fast now!  

Spelling this week!  Week 9!  
Tips:  which and what and white begin the same with wh .    The words: to, of, or... all have an "o" in them.  Seven has two e's, no i's.  Eight is just hard!  
The main thing I want is for the spelling tests to help them learn the words to read them.  I am not at all looking for perfection on spelling!  They are hard!

to, which, of, what, or
Bonus words:  white, seven, eight

Math this week!  We are on Topic 12 Measurement.  Today we learned about the attributes-length, weight, and capacity.  We measured length using linking cubes ( We learned that we need to line up the items so measure the length correctly).  We measured weight using a balance scale ( we learned that when the scale is lower on one side--its heavier.  When it's higher on the other side--that's the lighter weight.  So, when it's balancing in the middle--they are the same weight.

Capacity is our last attribute.  We found out that we can use a measuring cup to measure capacity of liquids and powders. We also found out that linking cubes cannot be put in a measuring cup to get an accurate capacity measurement.  
We sure learned a lot about measuring today!

Coming up!
May 3  Farm Day in the AM

May 17  Field Day

May 24  Last day of school will be a half day.

Chick pics!

We enjoyed watching Mrs. Casper's ducks swim today!

The week of April 23-26.

We finally made it to our Open House week!  The kids are so excited to sing our songs for you and show you their projects!  Please be here as close to 2:30 as possible, so we can begin our songs.  One student is a triplet and her parents will have to get to three classrooms, so I would like to sing first and view projects after.  Let me know if you are running late, so we wait for you.  Also, let me know if no one can make it for your child, so I can ask another parent to be a "sub" parent.  :)

Farm Day sign up genius-  Please consider volunteering any way you can!  I emailed it today!

Our newest living thing has arrived in our classroom!  Caterpillars!!!  We have six Painted Lady caterpillars eating and growing, eating and growing!  We will learn more about the life cycle of a butterfly the next few weeks!  Check them out when you come on Friday!

It looks like we have one chick "pipping" so far!  There is a tiny crack in the egg, since this morning.  I'm hoping it will progress over night.  We are anxiously waiting for more to start pipping!  Tomorrow is day 21!

This week we are reading about Sink and Float.  We will be doing an experiment on Thursday with items that sink or float.  Please send one item with your child in a baggie with their name on it by Thursday to experiment with.  Thank you!  

Reading groups this week!  Each group will have a Reader's Theater book to read with parts.  Enjoy having a part in the play and participating with your child!  Have your child take turns reading each part!

Letters of the week--ou and ow
sight words (not the required 50)  play, come

Spelling this week--week 8 words and tips for learning how to spell:  

there (the word "here" is inside)
word (the word "or" is inside)
when (action for /wh/ is pretending to blow a whistle)
your  (the word "you" is inside)
they  (the word "the" is inside)
Bonus words:
brown (ow inside)
five  (silent e makes the i long)
six

Math this week!  We took a test on decomposing today. Our next topic is on Measurement.
We sure don't have very many math topics left!

Coming up!
Apr. 26    KDG Open House at 2:30  --Please plan on being here if possible!  We will sing songs, view our projects, and meet our chicks that are hopefully hatching this week!

May 3  Farm Day in the AM

May 17  Field Day

May 23  Last day of school will be a half day.

The week of April 15-19.

I hope you all had a great weekend!  This week we are continuing with our Farm/animal unit.  The kids are learning a lot about farm animals!  I grew up on a farm, so I love this unit too!  My dad farmed crops along with raising cows and pigs.  Yes, the pigs were stinky!  My mom would always say when we complained about the smell, "It smells like money!"  Ha!

I saw a few of you at the Fish Bowl Auction!  My breakfast winners are Allison and Bentley!  Congratulations to them!  I hope you had a great time if you went!  Our basket looked awesome!  I want to thank Amy Mayhugh and Jessica Robinson once again for their time collecting all of the items!  Also, thank you all for your generous donations!

Our KDG Open House is coming up next Friday, April 26!  We are hard at work to prepare a great program for you!  Our chicks should hatch by the time you come, so we will love telling you about them too!  Please keep in mind, we will have a packed house, so please find a sitter for any younger siblings, so you can focus your attention on your kindergartner.  Also, if for some reason at least one parent cannot be here, you are welcome to invite another family member to come!  Every child would like to show their projects, so please have someone here for your child.  If by chance no one can make it, please let me know, so I can ask another parent to also check out your child's projects.  Let me know if you aren't able to be here at 2:30.  We will begin singing as soon as all are here, but would like to begin as close to 2:30 as possible.  You will need to check in at the office.

Reading/Science-- This week we are learning about chickens.  We have been drawing chick diagrams of their growth in our chick flipbook every few days.  The kids love doing this!  
Last Thursday we "candled" our chick eggs to see if we could see the chick growing.  Our candler is a special box with a bright light in it that can see inside the eggs pretty well!  We have one white egg and the rest are tan/brown as you can see below.  The white egg was the easiest to see through.  It was so fun to see the movement of the chick, the eyeball, veins, and air space!  However, not all of the eggs seem to have growth in them, so we will anxiously wait to see which ones hatch!  

This week we are learning more about the dipthongs-oi/oy.  Usually the "oi" is found in the middle of the word and the "oy" is found at the end.  Of course that rule doesn't always follow our English language but it's helpful to remember most of the time.

sight words--this week we are adding some extra sight words, not part of the 50, but are used a lot.  The words are:  here, want

Spelling list--I hope you all were able to print off or copy down the spelling list for this week.  

The words are:  have, how, said, all, it   Bonus words:  orange, three, four

For the word orange I like to tell them the words "or" and "an" are first then "ge".

Math this week!  Topic 11--Decomposing numbers 11 to 19.  

Goals!  Please keep practicing addition facts to 5 and subtraction facts from 5.  We keep testing on the addition facts to 5 and will test on subtraction facts to 5 when your child brings home a certificate for the addition facts.  

I will be sending home their sight word tests so you can see what words your child needs to keep working on.

Tying shoes.  Only a few have passed this skill.  I know it's difficult but it will sure help them in first grade if we work on it now.  Thank you for attempting it!  It is challenging!

Coming up!

Apr. 22    Inservice--No School

Apr. 26    KDG Open House at 2:30  --Please plan on being here if possible!  We will sing songs, view our projects, and meet our chicks that we are incubating in April.

May 3  Farm Day in the AM

May 17  Field Day

May 23  Last day of school will be a half day.

The week of April 8-12.

I'm back!  It's working again!  I was a little worried it wasn't going to work anymore.

Book Fair--Today is our library day. The class will get to look at books in the book fair, but we do not let KDG bring money to spend by themselves, as they don't quite understand how it works.  But there are after school hours for you to bring your child up to buy books if you couldn't make it to the Fish Bowl Auction.

We are on day 6 for our eggs in our incubator.  We are taking good care of them, making sure the temperature and humidity are just right!  We have 7 eggs--6 brown and 1 white.  The brown ones are from a Rhode Island Red Hen and the white ones are from a Leg horn hen. We are anxious to see how many hatch after 21 days and what color they are!  Every few days we are drawing what the chicks should look like at that time in a chick flip book that you'll see at Open House!

Reading this week!  We are reading a fiction book called "No-Tech day Day of Play" about kids that lose electricity at their Grandparents and learn other games to play that do not need electricity!

We will also be learning about sheep this week and making a sheep with our handprint!  Then, we will write details in our "barn" book and illustrate a picture!  The "barn" books are so cute!

sight words this week:  what, or
letter of the week:  long o

spelling words this week:
one, from, that, are, an  
Bonus words:  black, two
Your child should always bring home a spelling list on Fridays.  If they don't, please look at the list I gave you at conferences and work on them.  I think it really helps them to get a headstart over the weekend.  Don't forget about Spelling City too!

Math this week!  We are taking our math test Wednesday over Composing numbers 11 to 19 by adding numbers up to 9 to the number 10.  Please review the worksheets and make sure your child is understanding it.

Topic 11 will be Decomposing Numbers 11 to 19.  The answer will be first and the addition problem after it.

Coming up!

Apr. 22    Inservice--No School

Apr. 26    KDG Open House at 2:30  --Please plan on being here if possible!  We will sing songs, view our projects, and meet our chicks that we are incubating in April.

May 3  Farm Day in the AM

May 17  Field Day

May 23  Last day of school will be a half day.