Thursday, March 28

REMINDERS:
**Tomorrow is hat day!!!!!  Wear a cool, funny, cute, or crazy hat and send in a donation (up to $1) for the Edgerton Community Fund.
**I am missing several snack bags.  If your child brought home a bright green Piggly Wiggly bag, please return it to school with a healthy snack for 20 students!

This week:
We have been finishing up our Dr. Seuss unit.  We are also talking about bunnies, eggs, and chicks.  Your child brought home the Dr. Seuss journal that we have been working on this month.  Take a look through it and ask some questions about the Dr. Seuss books that we read.  In math, we have started chapter 11 which is all about addition.  We have been practicing simple addition all year, so this will be a review for us.  We are also reviewing topics such as symmetry, graphing, and patterns.  We made some fun art projects this week.  On Tuesday, we painted eggs and made them open up into either a bunny or a chick.  We made bunny bags to hold our projects from Friday.  We also printed eggs in computers.  We wrote clues for our classmates to guess whose picture and name were hidden beneath the eggs.  These turned out GREAT!!!  Some of our class' clues included "I am Irish" (Sam), "I have a lot of headbands" (Bella) and "I love horses" (Ellen).  We had a fun time reading this clues and guessing who was hiding.

We have a fun day planned for tomorrow.  In the morning, we will be joining the rest of the kindergarten classes to do fun spring projects in all the kindergarten rooms.  The projects will include a cotton ball sheep, a chick, a bunny, foil flowers, egg-dying, and some other fun things.  It is also hat day, so don't forget to wear your favorite hat.

April 2-6 is spring break.  Classes resume April 9!  Don't forget to write about your spring break in your journal and send it back to school.  We had such a fun time reading the journals from winter break.  I can't wait to hear about all the fun adventures when we get back!

After spring break, we will be starting our Mo Willems author study.  Mo is one of my VERY favorite authors.  I hope that our class enjoys his Pigeon, Piggy & Gerald, and Knuffle Bunny books as much as my kids and I do!  We have some fun projects planned to go with this unit!

Here are some pictures from some of our projects this week:

A chick in an egg

A bunny in an egg



Jelly bean patterns



Jelly bean measuring



March 23

This week we have been discussing healthy habits.  We talked about the importance of eating good foods, exercising, sleeping, brushing our teeth, and washing our hands.  You will see your child's health fact journal coming home tonight, so be sure to take a look at it and discuss it with your child!

In centers this week, we have been working on reading, making words, reviewing sight words, writing -an words, and writing sentences.  In math, we have finished chapter 10.  Chapter 11 will be on simple addition.  I have sent home a family involvement packet to work on at home!

Next week, we will be learning about eggs and doing some fun spring projects.  If you are able to donate cotton balls, google eyes, tape, staples, water bottles, jelly beans, or plastic grass please let me know as soon as possible! 

There are only 5 school days left until spring break.  I will be sending a spring break journal home next week.  Please have your child use "kid writing" to write about what you do on spring break.  Return these journals after break and we will read them in class!

March 13

We have been reading MANY Dr. Seuss books over the last two weeks.  We are having a great time with the silly characters and rhyming!  This week, we made a class book based on Dr. Seuss' One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.  Centers this week include rhyming practice, reading words, drawing, writing sentences, finding numbers on a hundreds chart, making -an words, and listening to a book on CD.  There is also a handwriting activity to go with the assigned centers. 

I have been pulling my small reading groups 3 times each week.  We are having such a great time as the stories become a little more complex and interesting.  We have read many realistic fiction books with lots of dialog.  I am so impressed with the readers in this room!  Your reading practice at home is important to our work in the classroom!

In math, we are finishing up our chapter on measurement and comparisons.  We continue to practice counting coins, telling time, graphing, and simple addition throughout the day.  We have also done some fun Dr. Seuss activities for math.  One exiting game that we will play later this week involves throwing coins onto a bullseye and adding the numbers!

Other fun events this week include a short concert by the middle school band and a trip to the high school for the FFA's petting zoo.  Playing outside has been wonderful as well with the warmer weather!  Let's hope it sticks around for a while.

Reminders:
Library books are due each Tuesday.
Check the snack calendar!
Be sure to have your child read the books in his/her reading bag each night.

Friday, March 2

This week we started our Dr. Seuss unit.  We read the books The Foot Book, 1 Fish 2 Fish, and If I Ran the Zoo.  We have spent a lot of time identifying rhyming words and coming up with our own rhymes.  We have also written story responses in our journals!  Today, we designed a new type of animal.  Some of them are very crazy!  Next week, we will be writing some details about our new animals.

In math this week, we have been practicing measurement using nonstandard units such as paperclips, feet, and cubes.  We also practiced some simple addition and subtraction and reviewed patterns and graphing. 

Our centers this week included making -at words, practicing our sight words, practicing handwriting, cooperative game activities, and reading.  We also met for our reading groups.  In every reading group, we have been reading books with the word said and talking marks ("  ").  We have been learning how to read sentences with talking marks and have been practicing the word said, even though it is not a kindergarten sight word!

Next week we will continue reading Dr. Seuss books and doing many fun activities!