Announcements
Save the Date: May 22nd Student Led Conferences
We are already thinking ahead to our end of year Student Led Conferences! Can you please sign up for a 30 minute time slot that both you and your child can attend. Conferences will take place May 22nd. Please Sign Up Here.
These conferences will be 30 minutes long with three ten-minute stations (the order may vary): 1) your child will share with you selected samples of learning; 2) your child will share with you reflections of learning with courage, acting with passion and changing the world; and 3) your child will share their learning in expedition. The format of the student-led conference allows three conferences to occur simultaneously.
Parents:
-It is preferred to not have younger siblings present so that the focus is on the student.
-Please ask probing questions! Students will have prepared to speak about their selected works, but it is very beneficial to ask them questions about why they were selected.
-If you have any outstanding concerns or questions, please request a meeting for another time. This is purely a celebration conference.
***Looking forward to celebrating your child and all of the growth from this school year!
Save the Date: Ms. Lauren’s Crew will be performing Elephant & Piggie plays on Friday May 31st at 8:45-9:45. This will be a delightful event that you won’t want to miss!
Community Reading: We will be pausing our Community Reading for the next two weeks, as we do not have school on those Fridays. Thanks and see you for Community Reading next on May 3rd.
Calendar
April 19: No School- Comp Day
April 24: Mandatory Camp Elim Information Meeting 4:30-5:30. One parent or guardian from each family must attend, we have tons of information to share! Chaperone meeting immediately following from 5:30-6pm. Please Sign Up Here
April 26: No School- Professional Development
May 1: Art Walk 4:15-6, more info to come!
May 15-16: Overnight Voyage to Camp Elim
May 17: Day of Rest (No school for kindergarten)
May 22: Student Led Conferences- Here is the sign-up for reference.
May 31: Elephant & Piggie Plays 8:45-9:45am
Crew Highlights:
In phonics, we were working on the letter K. We added look and me to our sight word list. We have worked on phoneme addition, for example, “if I have -it and I add /k/ it becomes… kit!” Our phonics and reading unit are about Weather & Seasons, which parallels our new expedition. In our phonics booklets, students are decoding and writing about weather-related topics. For reference, here is a list of the sight words that students should have mastered, as well as a look at what is coming up next.
In reading, we used the mentor text Weather and The Seasons to learn more about cause and effect. When the weather is cold (cause), people wear jackets (effect). We continue to work on identifying the main idea and important details of a text, both in whole group and in small group.
In writing, we are celebrating the end of our Personal Narrative Unit. In addition to telling a story that has a beginning, middle, and end, students have experimented with writing elements, such as the setting, speech bubbles for dialogue, and having a 1-3 word title. Students worked on thoughtful illustrations to match their words, that included details to help tell more about the story, have non-stick figure characters, and all parts colored in. This week, students looked through their folder of work and selected one piece that they wanted to “publish.” To publish, students spent time on editing and cleaning up their writing (adding periods, capitals, making sure sight words were spelled correctly, and adding more sounds to unknown words). Students added their Title Page and “Meet the Author” page. On Thursday, students did a self assessment using a rubric to reflect on themselves as writers, while looking at their published writing. Then, they had some time to put finishing touches on making their writing even better and ready for an audience. Over the weekend, I plan to assess these as well. Their published writing will be sent home next week, so it is no problem if you were not able to join us today. As one last piece, students did a learner reflection on Friday to pause and record what they are proud of, how it went celebrating with an audience, what was a challenge in this unit, and a writing goal to continue working on.
*A huge THANK YOU to those who were able to join us for our writing celebration. How wonderful to celebrate their hard work in their unit and their growth as writers in kindergarten!
*We cleaned out our writing folders, so you can see samples of all of our Personal Narrative Unit. There is a page directed to parents that gives you some ideas of probing questions to ask as you look at these samples with your child. (Published writing will go home next week).
In math, students were working on the units called Counting Within 100. We have been rote counting up to 100 by ones, 10s and by grouping objects. This week's lessons build on that by developing strategies to keep track of what we have already counted, learning to group by 5s or 10s to simplify, and going back to count again and check our own work. Doing our "How many days have we been in kindergarten" count every morning as part of Calendar time has really shown to deepen their understanding! Then we started a unit called Compose and Decompose 6 and 7. Students used ten frames, manipulatives, and drawings to show different ways to make six and seven. Students would record these equations as 3+4=7 or 1+5=6. You can tell their number sense is growing!
Our new expedition starts off with a study of the Weather. Students described what they already know about weather and what questions they have. Then we did a pre-assessment which will help capture growth from this unit of study. To begin investigating patterns of weather, students have started a Weather Log, where each day we record the temperature and a description of the weather in words and pictures. I have created a class Weather Graph so that we can look at trends of the type of weather and the temperature. Today, we learned more about wind, as we made and launched paper airplanes with our 4th grade buddies!
Learning in action!
On Wednesdays, students will be riding bikes with Mr. Doug. They are learning about different motions to push off with their feet which helps develop skills and confidence. Then, when students demonstrate they are ready, Mr. Doug will add pedals. Our Crew loved their first experience with bike riding!
Volunteers from our Crew have been presenting to other Crews about our service project. We are collecting old markers, pens, and pencils in a box outside our classroom. At the end of the year, we will weigh the box and see how many pounds of markers we are saving from the landfill. The box will be sent to a recycling program through Terracycle.
Have a great weekend!
~Ms. Lauren
