March 30th

This will be a shorter week, but we will pack a lot of learning and fun activities in!  

Welcome Kysenia!  We were so excited to have a new friend join our class last week.  The children did a terrific job showing Kysenia all around our classroom and school.  We are so happy to have a new friend.

Last week we wrapped up our unit on the solar system. We had so much fun learning all about the moon, the stars, and the many different planets.  The children asked so many smart questions and did a great job during this unit.  

Our next unit is all about dinosaurs!  During the month of April we will read many books and create many different crafts and activities to go along with our dinosaur learning.  Please be sure to mark your calendars!  Our Kindergarten Dinosaur Exhibit is on Thursday, April 16th at 2pm!  You do not want to miss this event.  We will display all of our work in our classroom and hallways for families and friends to see.  

Below is a sneak peek at this week's learning!

Literacy Activities:  We will spend time reviewing words from our Word Wall, reading in small groups, practicing reading and writing heart words and word families, and wrapping up our 'How To' teaching stories as writers.  The children's literacy skills have grown so much since our early days of September!  Be sure to continue reading and writing at home too...especially during our break.  :)

Math Activities:  We are working on reading, writing, counting, and building numbers 10-20.  Using ten frames, playing games, and working with various manipulatives helps us practice these numbers in many different ways each day.  We will continue this work all week long.

Recess:  I am hopeful that our snow days are behind us and that snow pants can be left home.  Please continue, however, to have the children wear boots to school and to pack sneakers in backpacks.  The playground can be very wet and muddy during the spring.  Boots will keep kindergarten feet dry & our classroom rug clean! Thank you. :)

As always, please contact me with any questions or concerns.  I hope that you have a great week off with families and friends!

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne 

March 16th!

Last week we had a blast going on our field trip to The Egg.  We were so excited when we saw the building from our bus!!! :)  During the performance we were able to see glow in the dark puppets and scenery from three of Eric Carle's stories.  After the performance, we were able to ask questions about how the puppets move and work.  It was a great experience for us!

At school we have been very busy learning all about science.  We are working on our 'properties' unit and have been conducting experiments with solid objects, liquids, and gases.   One of the main things we have learned as scientists is that our predictions are not always correct!  We will wrap up this unit during the week.  We are also learning all about our solar system.  Mrs. Montalvo's third grade class helped us to begin this unit by inviting us to see the constellations inside 'Star Lab'.  Be sure to ask your child all about it.  It was quite a treat!

This week, we will continue working as readers, writers, and mathematicians each day.  We are in the swing of guided reading each day and 'Daily Five' literacy activities.  The children are doing a terrific job remembering to take care of our books.  As writers, we are continuing to work on our 'how to' stories.  We are trying our best to make sure our writing is filled with details and is easy to read for our peers and writing partners.  The children are doing a nice job writing many different kinds of teaching books.  'How to Wash Your Hands' seems to be a new favorite in our kindergarten classroom! :)

Please note that our class has filled up our 'warm and fuzzy jar' for making good choices!  They would love to have a 'Game Day' this week as a reward.  We talked about bringing in some easy to play games such as:  Sorry, Trouble, Connect Four, Chutes and Ladders,  Candy Land, & Memory/Card type games.  If you have some of these games... we would love to borrow them!  We will have our first 'Game Day' on Thursday! :)  I will send home a reminder, but I'm sure your children will all remind you all week long!  Also, please write your name on the outside boxes of any games that are sent in.  Thank you!

I am looking forward to another fun week in our kindergarten classroom.

Sincerely,
Eileen Browne
PS... Wear Green on Tuesday! ;)