Updates

You may be wondering what we have been up to lately since it has been too long since I last posted! Sorry about that! Here is a look at this week:

Reading and Writing:

Q is our letter this week, so we are working on an alphabet quilt where the kiddos write one word for each letter of the alphabet and illustrate it. This is a fun activity because they get to think of things that are important to them for each letter and make a cool quilt all about what they like. Another Q activity that we will do this week is Q-tip painting. It's always a fun time when Mrs. Toppel brings out paint! We are also working on some non-fiction writing where the kids read information in non-fiction books (mostly about animals) and then write down information that they learned in a "four-square" organizer. This helps them practice writing multiple sentences on a single topic.

I am seeing lots of improvement in the children's writing as they work on different writing projects and in their journals. If your child writes at home, it's always good to remind him/her to use spaces in between the words, to use a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, to use a period at the end of the sentence, and to write down the sounds they hear in the words they want to write. Spelling does not need to be accurate for emerging writers, but I do look to see that they are writing the sounds that can be heard. At this point, the children should be able to hear all of the sounds in short 3-letter words and should be able to correctly spell the sight words we have been working on. Longer words are more challenging, so we will continue to spend a lot of time on different writing activities.

Math:

This week we are focusing on graphing. Each day the children will poll 10 other students in order to find out their answer to the daily question. They will color their graph according to the answers their classmates give and will be able to tell which answer they got the most of and which answer they got the least of. The questions for the week are:

• Which team do you prefer? The Ducks, The Beavers, or a different team?
• Which special do you like the most? PE, Music, Library, or Computers
• Do you have a Brother, Sister, Both, or No Siblings?
• Do you prefer Choice Time or Outside Recess?

The kids did a great job today of asking each other the daily question and coloring their graphs to show the results. They especially loved being out of their seats and active during math time! 

Science:
We have caterpillars in our classroom! We are learning about butterflies, so I got caterpillars from amazon.com so that we can watch them as they change and see the lifecycle of a butterfly in action! It's pretty cool to be able to order live caterpillars from the internet and have them delivered two days later! The children have been really excited to see the caterpillars each day and to notice how they are changing. I am heading to the library after school, so I plan to check out some additional books on butterflies so we can learn lots of interesting information.

Fun Stuff:

Our second field trip will be on Tuesday June 14th and we are going fishing!
Tomorrow night is Family Reading Night starting at 6:30 pm and you can also visit the Book Fair as well! Books are buy one get one FREE! What a deal!

I cannot believe how quickly the end of the school year is approaching! Time has flown by this year and I am just amazed at all the growth I have seen from both of my classes. I was looking back at some photos from the beginning of the year thinking how little the kids looked back then and how grown up they seem now! (I think I will make sure to have a few extra boxes of tissues by my side on the last day of school!).

Speaking of the last day, the last day of Kindergarten is June 15th. This is different than the last day for other grades. There will not be any 1/2 Kindergarten on June 16th even though other children will be at school.