The week of May 8-12.

We are winding down on lots of things in Kindergarten.  The walls will begin to look cleaner and my desk may look cleaner too!  LOL!

All of our butterflies hatched out and we will let them go tomorrow!  Unfortunately, our butterflies, the Painted Ladies, only have a life-span of 2 weeks!  So, we want them to be able to reproduce and have time to lay eggs before their life-span is over.  Other butterflies have a longer life-span.

This week we will learn about how a butterfly and moth are the same and different.  We will have fun reading, The Hungry Caterpillar, while doing an activity.  Then, we will make a Butterfly Life Cycle sequence book to make sure we understand the order.

Our last life cycle to learn about next week will be that of the Frog.  :)

Farm Day frames that the kids made on Friday were sent home that day.  A picture of your child was taken holding an animal from our petting zoo.  When it is given to me, I will send it home to be put in the Farm frame.  Please keep the frame in a safe place until you receive the picture.

Check out the adorable pics. below of your child holding one of our chicks, along with pics from Farm day!  

Sight words!  We will be reviewing color words and number words this week!  

A reminder that I will have my parent helper test your child on subtraction facts from 5, any missed sight words from our 50, and tying shoes if they are ready!  They are also being tested over reading color words and number words.  Most only have a couple to pass.

Tying shoes--Keep in mind if you find a video on tying shoes an easier way than the "old" way we all probably learned, it may not be the way you would want your child to be tying shoes when they are a teenager or an adult.  

We just took our last Topic math test over Decomposing numbers 11-19.  Those will be returned tomorrow.  The rest of the week we will work on telling time to the hour and being able to write the time to the hour. Example:  9:00.

Poems-- We are just about done with our Poem packet that we read, look for sight words, label nouns and verbs, and color a picture about the poem.  They are fun poems that your child may be able to read to you when it comes home!  

On Mon. May 22, we will have a class yearbook signing party and enjoy checking out our yearbooks.  Then, Mrs. Hammond's class and Mrs. Casper's class will join us to sign their books!  Thank you so much for purchasing a yearbook for your child!  I believe everyone bought one!  They will go home that day!

Kindergarten certificates--I will pass out Kindergarten certificates and a gift from me on the last day.  It is not a graduation.  I will have a snack while we watch our Kindergarten power point with pics from the whole year!  Thank you to Brooke and Brandon Riffel, Andrew's mom and dad, for putting it together!  You will be sent the Power Point to enjoy at home! I'd like it to be a surprise for the kids!

Coming up!
Fri. May 12         Field Day (it lasts all morning) Wear blue tshirts!

Tues. May 23      Last day of school for Kindergarten!  Awards assembly. Wow!

Chick pictures

Farm Day pics

Petting Zoo!

Yummy milk flavors!

Painting sheep

Flavored milk tasting!

Horse relays!

 Learning about what grows on a farm!

 Lassoing a horse!

Milking!

Milking a cow!

Planting our sunflower seed!

The week of May 1-5.

Open House!

Singing Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

It was so fun to watch my special Kindergartners sing some of our songs from the year!

We named our chicks!  

We named the oldest, yellow chick that hatched, Bry, Bry after Brylee who is the oldest in our class!

The brown striped chick is Stripey

The light yellow chick is Peanut Butter

The black with a yellow belly is Banana

The black chick is Little Chick

Spelling this week!  Our spelling words are definitely harder.  Hopefully your child began studying these over the weekend!  I'll give a few tips to help them study.  Only this week and next week! Remember the test is on Thursday.

1.  there (the word "here" is inside)

2.  use (the silent "e" on the end makes the "u" long)

3.  an

4.  each (the two vowels make the long "e" sound, we act like we are "chopping" when we say the "ch" sound.

5.  which (the "wh" action is pretending to blow a whistle, and the "ch" is the chopping action)

Sight words:  go, car

Our last letter of the week!  Zz  We will keep reviewing all letters and sounds we have learned!

Farm Day is Friday! Volunteers should be here by 9:00 to get their instructions!  I'm so excited that the weather looks beautiful!

Field day is Friday, May 12.  We are to wear blue tshirts.  Each class is wearing a different color.

Math facts test!  Please study the addition math facts to 5 with your child. I sent home the flashcards a while ago. They will be tested over them this week, beginning tomorrow! I'm not opposed to them using their fingers to add, but would love it if they would memorize them!  

We will work on subtraction facts from 5 next week!

Please continue to work hard with your child the last few weeks!  It will make you feel good too, to know your child is ready for first grade!

Tying shoes!  Don't forget to work on this too!  My helper will be having them practice here too! It is an important skill for all kids to be able to do before first grade!  There are different poems and rhymes you can find on the internet to help!  

Science!  We are going to begin the "Forces and Interactions" unit.  We will read about pushes and pulls and do a couple of fun activities demonstrating both!

Plants--We will also read about how plants grow. We will wrap a lima bean seed in a wet paper towel, put in a baggie and watch it grow.  We will log what we see every few days!  I believe the kids will plant a sunflower seed at Farm Day and take it home to watch it grow!

Math   This week we are decomposing the numbers 11-19.  So, our answers are at the beginning of the math sentence instead of the end.  The kids are doing great with breaking the number down to a ten and ones.  You can practice with your child at home by asking them what ten and ones make up a number between 11-19.  Example:  15 = 10 + 5.  Just like on our worksheets coming home!

Math at Calendar:  we are reviewing how to count money and beginning on telling time to the hour.  

Coming up!

Fri. May 5           Farm Day (it lasts all morning)
Fri. May 12         Field Day (it lasts all morning) Wear blue tshirts!

Tues. May 23      Last day of school for Kindergarten!  Wow!

Baby chicks!

Here are our first four chicks!  There's one more getting stronger in the incubator.  

We are so excited!  Stay tuned for their names!

The week of April 24-28.

What a gorgeous day yesterday!  I was a soccer tournament, 2 games both days.  My daughter's team won the tournament so my sunburn was worth it!  :)  The nicer weather is much more pleasant for all of the games all are going too!

Eggs!  No chicks yet.  We were a little bummed not seeing chicks YET!  Today is Day 21, so hopefully we'll have some by tomorrow.  

Spelling--the test is Thursday instead of Friday.  We have our Open House and program on Friday so I'd like to focus on that.  I found some spelling lists left in Friday folders today.  Please make sure to study these words hard the next few days.  we, when, your, can, said, brown.  Remind your child that the word "you" is inside of "your".

Small Groups:  There will not be small groups this week.  I will be bench marking your children to see if they are getting to be where they need to be in reading.  We want them at a level D by the end of the year.  Level C is a hard book, but it has our 2 sight words in it this week.  "Read" and "school" are our sight words this week.  

Our last farm animal study will be about chickens!  We will write details we learned.  We will also write sequential sentences on the chick's life cycle using transition words like; first, next, then, last.  

Little paper books--please make sure to always have your child read the paper little books to you and someone else when they bring them home.  These are right on their level and are great practice for them. 

Field Day is May 12 

Our class will wear blue tshirts on field day.  Please mark it down on your calendar so no one forgets!  I will too!

Open House   I would love it if the class would wear something nice for our Open House.  It helps them know it's an important day and really shows in their behavior too!

Math this week!

We took our Topic 10 math test today.  Topic 11 is next and it is our last one.  I will introduce telling time to the hour, reviewing our addition and subtraction facts, and reviewing money.

Coming up!
Fri. April 28       Mrs. Scott's Open House--11:00
Fri. May 5           Farm Day (it lasts all morning)
Fri. May 12         Field Day (it lasts all morning) Wear blue tshirts!
Tues. May 23      Last day of school for Kindergarten!  Wow!

The week of April 18-21.

What a beautiful weekend for Easter!  At least we could enjoy it without too much rain to damper the activities!  Hopefully the kids were able to get outside and enjoy some fresh air!

Are there really only 25 days left in Kindergarten?  We have many things to do and so many fun things coming up!  I hope you all have April 28 on your calendar for our Open House from 11:00-11:30ish.  You will be able to take your child with you afterward.  You will see their farm projects, meet our baby chicks and watch our program!

Spelling!  Remember we only have 3 more days to study for the test on Friday.  The kids have been doing well on them!  The words this week are:  but, not, what, all were, orange.  I told the kids that two words are inside orange--or, an, and then add ge.

Progress Reports will go home on Friday.  Please work on any missed skills at home.  Sight words and letter sounds are mainly the skills that are needing extra review.

I would really love for the kids to accomplish these four things by the end of the year.
1.  learn all 50 sight words
2.  tie shoes
3.  know their addition facts to 5 fluently
4.  know their subtraction facts from 5 fluently.

So, please be practicing the math facts and tying shoes.  I will begin testing them the beginning of May.  I feel like tying shoes is a skill to know before leaving KDG.  If they don't have shoelaces, they can practice on your shoes.

Farm Unit--this week we are learning about sheep.  We will write details we learned and draw a sheep in our barn book.  The barn books are so cute!  We can't wait for you to see them at our Open House!

Math this week!
This week we will continue to focus on Composing numbers 11 to 19, using a ten and ones.  Ask your child how many tens and ones are in the numbers 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 ,19, and 20.

Coming up!
Fri. April 28       Mrs. Scott's Open House--11:00
Fri. May 5           Farm Day (it lasts all morning)
Fri. May 12         Field Day (it lasts all morning)

Tues. May 23      Last day of school for Kindergarten!  Wow!

The week of April 10-13.

Whew!  Did anyone blow away last weekend?  March and April have been "in like a Lion"!  Hopefully "out like a lamb" will come soon!

This week we will be learning about pigs in class!  I have a few stories to share with the kids about growing up with pigs on a farm!  We made "flying" pigs in our classroom!  They are so cute!  I will read a nonfiction pig book that we will list details about what we learned.  Then we will draw a pig picture and write the details in our barn book we made.

We will do a compare and contrast over 2 versions of "The Three Little Pigs".  The first book we read is "The Three Little Pigs" and the second will be "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig".  Later we will listen to a fun rap version called, "The Three Little Pigs Rock Out".

This is Day 7 for our chick eggs.  Every few days we draw a picture of what the chick may look like inside in our Chick Flip book.  It helps us picture how the chick is growing inside!

Letter of the week:  Yy (Our capital Y in handwriting looks just like the lowercase y)
Sight words:  me, my

Please make sure your child can read the spelling words just as much as being able to spell them!
Remember there are spelling games on the side column of my blog called, Spelling City.
It is also helpful to practice spelling through tactile learning such as; putting dry jello on a cookie sheet and spelling the words in it, (licking fingers makes it more fun), writing in shaving cream, or using playdough to roll out the letter and form them.

Book it calendars!!  Parents, thank you so much for your support on the book-it calendars!  It really helped the kids learn how to be responsible for their reading!  I'm sure you are seeing huge growth in their reading too!  What a great program!  I will be rewarding our class for their hard work reading at home this whole year!  Keep it up!  We don't have anymore incentives for April and May, but the best incentive is being great readers coming out of Kindergarten!  They are all doing amazing!

Math this week!
We will take our Topic 13 test over Sorting, Classifying, and Graphing.  Our next Topic 10 is over Composing numbers 11 to 19, or adding!

Coming up
Fri. April 14       No school--Good Friday
Mon. April 17     inservice day--no school
Fri. April 28       Mrs. Scott's Open House--11:00
Fri. May 5           Farm Day
Fri. May 12         Field Day
Tues. May 23      Last day of school for Kindergarten!  Wow!

Our new chick eggs!

Here is our incubator.  It holds seven chick eggs!

We are so excited to learn about chicks!  We learned that the white eggs are called, "leghorn", the brown/tan ones are "Rhode Island Red", and the little one you can see between the white and 

brown ones in front, is called a "Banni" egg.  The temperature needs to be between 99.3-99.6 degrees.

Hopefully they will hatch in 20 days.  Incubation period is 21 days.  I put them in after the kids left yesterday.  There is an automatic turner, so the yellow platform they are on will turn every 60 min.
Welcome to our class little chicks!