OKAY- nuts and bolts- cut right to the chase- no frills- update

WE ARE WORKING SUPER DUPER HARD on many new skills and reading helps.  We have learned what a silent e does to words and what happens when we see two vowels together.  (Here is a little prompt for your child: When two vowels go walking...... and then see if they can tell you the rest)

We have also revisited quotation marks and have really been hitting WORD FAMILIES hard.  Each morning we have a word chunk that we challenge ourselves with coming up with words to fit the chunk.  Our record is 17 words for the chunk -ip!    We have learned about er, ir, and ur (making the same sound) and will hit -or, -ay, and y at the end of words this week along with contractions.

Mrs. Moen came in on Monday and we made cards for her to thank her for helping us this year.  The kids each read their card to her, which was almost always followed by a big hug- I think Mrs. Moen was giving the better end of those hugs and the kids were on the "getting" side! :)

She has been an AWESOME help to me this year (an extra pair of retired teacher eyes...ALL GOOD!) with so many kiddos to reach at so many different levels and the kids look forward to her weekly visits.

 I appreciate her and her expertise immensely and am hoping I can convince her that she needs to help me EVERY year!  These beautiful little faces should help me with my plot!! :)

Ava was our WOW this week.  She brought in lots of fun pictures to share with us including one very silly one that the kids all giggled at!  Ava was a very small baby but had on a rainbow wig!  When Ava explained it to us, we found out that Emmitt's mom used to babysit her (and Belle) and HIS MOM PUT THE WIG ON HER!  Thank you, Ava for sharing your pictures with us.

Ryker had the Word of the Week this week and it was QUARTET!  Ryker told us that a quartet is when 4 people sing the same song but different notes and it all goes together!  Surprisingly, that led to an entire discussion about duets, trios, choirs, choruses, ...... you just never know what is going to spark up a conversation!  Thank you, Ryker for telling us about QUARTETS!  (he also brought in a CD that was of a quartet, but I guess my CD player figured it was the end of the year and it was "checking out" so we didn't get to hear it- SORRY, RYKER!  GREAT IDEA!)

TUESDAY: Kindergarten Program at 2:00 New Gym.
THURSDAY: Field Day.  This is just a fun day for our students with different stations set up outside.  Obstacle course, inflatables, tug of war, ......  not really a "parent" day, just a fun day for kids to enjoy special time outside with their friends doing different activities.  It IS outside, so you MAY want to send along sunscreen for your child.  I will help your child put it on before we go outside for field day.  Labeling is always helpful!

NEXT WEEK:  I CAN'T BELIEVE IT IS OUR LAST WEEK!!!!
WOW: Maleya
MONDAY: Snack: Shaylyn  Music
TUESDAY: Snack: Carter  PE
2:00  KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM
WEDNESDAY: Snack: Ava  ART
THURSDAY: Snack: Maleya (field day- you may want to send along sunscreen?)
FRIDAY: EARLY OUT 11:40

                   READING IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!!!

The kids were surprised to walk into our Kindergarten Hallway on Monday morning and see that the Reading Committee and elementary teachers had transformed it into the surface of the moon!  The walls were covered with 3 giant astronauts, the Space Shuttle taking off, a rocket flying through space, UFO's flying from the ceiling, and STARS EVERYWHERE!  The BEST part of the transformation was the addition of BLACKLIGHTS!  Most of the objects had some kind of fluorescent paint on it that made it GLOW in the blacklight!  It has been a HOOT listening to kids walk through the hallway- and since ALL of the kids use the bathrooms in this hallway, the Reading Committee decided that this would be the best hallway to do this in!

The excitement didn't stop there on Monday!  As you know, we also got to go see the Star Lab.  There were 2 Star Labs set up in our gym and since each lab only holds so many kids, OUR class divided up and went with the other 2 Kdg. classes.  The Labs are made out of hot air balloon material and inflated with blowers.  We CRAWLED inside the dome through a tunnel and inside there was a projector that had a cylinder on it with the constellations drawn on it.  When the instructor turned the projector on, it was like being outside!  It was really exciting and fun!  Our instructor told us about the different constellations, some of the myths that went along with it and used a laser pointer to show us EXACTLY what he was talking about.  THEN, he switched the cylinder to the stars ONLY.  No lines- just the stars!  And we got to try to figure out where the constellations were.  I have a feeling it will be one of those things that the kids won't soon forget- if ever!

                                       

Tuesday was ALIEN DAY and we had LOTS of participation.  So much, that the HS Journalism class came down and took a picture of us!

Followed by Dress Like A Star Day on Wednesday and the ever popular PAJAMA DAY on Thursday.  We also got to go watch the 6th Graders do a rocket launch on Thursday afternoon!  It was SO FUN!!!  The 6th Graders made rockets and then used a homemade launcher (pvc tubing and a 2 liter bottle) to launch them!

Here is a picture of the LUNAR CUPCAKES James brought for us on Tuesday for snack!  (I know.... I just shake my head when he brings them in.  His mom is a wizard!)

Our WORD of the WEEK was : SOLAR SYSTEM!  Rier made a color cardboard diagram of the planets in our solar system.  He did such a good job on it we hung it on our board to be amazed by!  Rier told us that the Solar System is the planets rotating around the sun.  THANK YOU, RIER for helping us with the word SOLAR SYSTEM!

Hopefully the kids have been dazzling you with their new way to remember the planet names?!?  Mallorie, Valerie, Emily, Meetzah, just, sent, us, nine hundred ninety-nine, pizzas.  I hear them chanting it all of the time- I'm hoping they are saying it at home too!~

We started a new book/workbook series called STARFALL.  In the past, we have had more time to do this series, but with the new reading series we got this year, our timing just wasn't the same and we are having to PICK AND CHOOSE what we are covering these last few weeks.  We will review the short vowel sounds and then next week learn some LONG VOWELS and "rules" (like silent e and 2 vowels together, quotation marks, commas, etc.) to help the kids with their summer reading.  These are not things that have to be mastered, but many of the kids are ready for more strategies when they are reading and get stumped on a word.

In Math, we continue to work on addition.  We will begin doing some subtraction next week.

BOOKS IN A BAGGIE:  I thank so many of you for being so diligent about these books!  The kids have made some great progress!!  WOW!  Isn't it fun to hear them read?  I am going to keep the books now here at school.  It is getting to the time that I need to get them all back in and I am missing a considerable amount of books.  If you have a baggie at home with one of my school books in it, please send it back and do not think that your child is holding out on you if they don't bring it back home.  I am not sending it home again with a new book any longer!

Carter was our WOW for this week.  Carter has 5 kids in his family (including a set of twin brothers in First Grade)  His mom is a teacher here at West Lyon in the High School and his dad is a Lyon County Deputy.  Carter has been around West Lyon since he was little, so if someone needs to go somewhere obscure in our building....Carter is the go to guy!  Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, Carter and for always being my RIGHT HAND TOUR GUIDE!!!

FRIDAY:  I'm not sure if you have ever heard that KIDS can tell the weather???  Sorta like cattle?????  It is a well known fact amongst teachers that KIDS can DEFINITELY TELL THE WEATHER and Friday's storms did not go unnoticed by the little people in this building!  Okay, okay, we did it to ourselves with the stations and Read and Feed, but to say things were crazy around here would be a VAST understatement!  It was SUPER fun and exhausting all at the same time!  The morning was filled with the kids traveling through 4 stations: Moon Walk and Scratch Art, Story and Mural drawing, Space Bingo, and finally, watching a MAGIC SCHOOL BUS video!  We didn't exactly do READ and feed, since sticky, cheesy, chocolatey fingers do not fare well with paper pages and books,..... so we did READ AND WATCH A STORY! (on a video)  The kids didn't seem to mind since it was "LIKE SITTING AT THE MOVIE THEATER WITH SNACKS AND DRINKS!!!"  

Matteo's dad was our Mystery Reader Friday afternoon.  He read us two silly stories and Matteo was very surprised to see him!  The kids always want CLUES as to who is coming and when I said it was a DAD.....YOU ALL WERE CANDIDATES!!  EVERYONE WAS SURE IT WAS GOING TO BE THEIR DAD!!!!  :)  

Thank you, Casey for coming to read to us!

DON'T FORGET OUR KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM ON TUESDAY, MAY 15 at 2:00!  This will be in the big gym so there will be plenty of room for extended family!  We will be sharing some poems and songs that we have learned throughout the year.  There will be a time for class pictures  (so bring your cameras! Like I had to add that! HA!)  after each student in each of the 3 classes has been announced and receives a certificate from Mr. Snyder (not a diploma)  It is always a fun time to celebrate!  We hope you can join us!  You are welcome to take your Kindergartener home with you after the program (usually 30-40 minutes)  We want to get you here and OUT OF HERE before school is dismissed, so you do not fight the traffic of busses and HS cars.  For that reason, we ask that you not take older students out of class for this short program or for a ride home (as it will probably be well before 3 when we are finished).  If you want to take your child home, you are asked to wait until the 3:25 dismissal time.

NEXT WEEK:
WOW: AVA
WORD: RYKER
MONDAY: SNACK: RIER  PE
TUESDAY: SNACK: ALAN  ART
WEDNESDAY: SNACK: BELLE  MUSIC
THURSDAY: SNACK: ANA  PE
FRIDAY: SNACK: COURTNEY  ART

BUSY BUSY BUSY!  AND THE TIME IS TICKING AWAY ON US!!!  I cannot believe that we are down to our last 3 weeks of school!  UGHH!

We had a wonderful week at school- BUSY and action packed, but still our crazy, unpredictable, never a dull moment typical week in Kindergarten!

We worked on our last letter Q- which almost always (and for OUR purposes- ALWAYS) has U with it. As you know, we had a little WEDDING SHOWER for Q and U.  It was fun to see all of the creative gifts that were brought on their behalf.  The kids had fun opening their gifts and showing them to the class.  We did the "shower" with the other 2 Kindergarten classes, so we got to see MANY different Q, QU and U gifts!  Quaker oats, Quick oats, Urn, Ukulele, umbrellas, Q-tips, quarters and quilts were just a few of the items brought in.  There were MANY more, but to be honest with you, I don't remember them all!

Our field trip was a huge success!  The weather was PERFECT for a field trip.  A little cool with sunny skies is FAR better than warm or hot weather with sun.  It didn't seem to phase the kids one single bit as the parents who were able to meet us at the park can attest to!  They ran, jumped, swung, dug, and played for the entire time we were there!  The kids were FANTASTIC!  You can be very proud that your children represented you and our school very, very well!  The Pavilion has a NATURE UNLEASHED exhibit which is all about weather.  We were lucky enough to get to have our own presentation on a few of nature's wonders.  It was a great day!

FRIDAY we had a wild day as we celebrated Cadence's summer birthday (she will be 7) with a treat and the birthday song add on of SCOOBY DOO!  HAPPY SUMMER BIRTHDAY, CADENCE!!

We also had a very special show and tell from Carter on Friday.  As many of you know, (and hopefully it isn't from personal experience :) )  Carter's dad is a Lyon County Deputy.  Deputy Ver Meer got a new partner!  His name is Ethos and he is from Slovakia.  Oh, and he has 4 legs and sniffs out drugs and will protect Deputy VerMeer if he needs to.  He does lots of other things, and obeys commands that Carter's dad says.  Many of the commands are in Ethos' foreign language, so the kids learned a few new words! :)  It was really fun to have Ethos come visit, I just wasn't sure how to tell you that "TODAY WE HAD A DRUG DOG VISIT OUR CLASSROOM!" :)

And finally, Ryker's mom, April came to read to us as the Mystery Reader.  She read a really great book about 1 million and even had a poster with 1million dots on it- and it was a very large pull out poster!  It was a little chaotic when April came in, but since she is a good friend of mine, I just piled it on her as I had to dash to the office and do a READER'S THEATER about our upcoming READING WEEK for a couple of minutes!  She did great monitoring as she just continued with her book and the kids were given BOMB POPS as a special treat to KICK OFF Reading Week!



READING WEEK:  Keep track of the minutes you and your child read this weekend and during the week.  Each night write the minutes down, cut off the bottom portion of the READING LOG and send it back the next day.  We will be keeping a SCHOOL WIDE MINUTES TABULATION!  The kids are earning inflatables for the last day of school.  It is a tradition at West Lyon that the kids all pull together to earn these inflatables and the kindergarten kiddos are included in this challenge!  Every minute helps us get closer to our goal- so please do your part!
DRESS UP DAYS:
TUESDAY: Alien
WEDNESDAY: Star (TV or Movie)
THURSDAY: Pajamas
FRIDAY: READ AND FEED (kids should bring a snack and drink to enjoy during our special reading time.  Child's name on drink is especially helpful!

The WORD of the WEEK was ASTRONAUT!  Alan told us that an astronaut is a person that trains to go into outer space.  Boys AND girls can be astronauts!  Alan brought in a great picture of what an astronaut looks like in his/her space suit!  Thank you, Alan!  You did a great job of helping us learn about something that will enhance our SPACE READING WEEK!!!

Belle was the WOW this week.  She lives with her mom and dad and has one little sister.  Belle's unique situation here at school, is that her GRANDMA works here!  She is a Preschool Aide and we get to see her nearly every day at lunch!  Thank you for sharing your pictures with us, Belle!

I sent home a new book order this past week.  I am going to need to get those in by this Wednesday, MAY 2, so I can get them ordered and get them back before the end of the year.
CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE BOOK ORDERS

NEXT WEEK:
WOW: CARTER
WORD: RIER
MONDAY: Snack: Tara  ART  We will visit the Starlab
TUESDAY: Snack: James  MUSIC  Dress like an alien
WEDNESDAY: Snack Evan  PE  Dress like a "star" TV or Movie
THURSDAY: Snack: Lauryn  ART  Pajama Day
FRIDAY: Snack: Ryker  MUSIC
READ AND FEED (kids should bring a snack and a drink to enjoy during our special SCHOOL WIDE reading time

YOU WILL NOTICE THAT OUR NEWSLETTER HAS A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT LOOK!  THIS WAS DUE TO THE GREAT PEOPLE AT THE BLOGGER WEBSITE!  I DIDN'T CHOOSE IT AND IT HAS TAKEN ME EXTRA LONG FIGURING OUT THE INS AND OUTS AND AS YOU WILL SEE LATER IN THE NEWSLETTER-  I don't have it all figured out yet! :)

It dawned on me that I had forgotten to write about our WORD OF THE WEEK from April 9, when I was sitting at GRAND MARCH last Friday night! Ana did such a good job telling and SHOWING us about it too! Her word was TUXEDO! And it was JUST IN TIME FOR PROM! Ana told us that a tuxedo is a fancy suit that men and boys wear. We usually see them at weddings ( so she brought in a picture of her aunt and uncle's wedding) and the High School boys were sure to have them on for Prom......and THEY DID!! We talked about getting to see them at Grand March, and like I said before, that is when I remembered I hadn't written about it in our last newsletter! SORRY, Ana! You did a great job of preparing us for what we would be seeing this past weekend!

THIS week's word of the week was YOLK!  Shaylyn told us that the YOLK of an egg is the yellow part inside of the egg.  She brought two eggs for us to check out.  The first one was a hard boiled egg that we could cut into and see the yolk without making a gynormous mess.  The SECOND egg was.....are you ready????  BLUE!  It had a light blue-ish, green-ish shell!  Her grandpa raises chickens that lay eggs that are colored!  Thank you, Shaylyn (and mom.....and grandpa) The HARD BOILED EGG was a great idea for us to get to see that yolk and how it is in the egg as a solid and the blue shelled egg was especially unique and fun to see!

We worked on the letter Y which can be a tricky one- BECAUSE sometimes it is used as a vowel, sometimes it is used as a consonant, sometimes it says /y/ like in yolk, and sometimes it says EEEE when it is at the end of a word.  One of the fun activities we did for the letter y was practice doing YO YO's!  YoYoing can be very frustrating- but the kids really gave it a whirl and there were quite a few of the kids that were able to get it to go up and down once or twice (without having to wind that string up everytime! :) )  We also touched on Z, but it is pretty straight forward so we hit it and moved on!

In math we have been working on measuring. ALL different kinds of measuring including weight, length, time and volume.  Most of the activities we do for this unit are HANDS ON including weighing objects on our homemade balances!  We are now tackling addition- no mastery required in Kindergarten- just an introduction!:)

Alan shared his HOMEWORK VACATION JOURNAL with us this week!  He went to CALIFORNIA and wrote about all of the things he did while he was there.  He had fun seeing the ocean but of course, his favorite activity was going to DISNEYLAND.  He told us he got to see many of the different characters while he was there!  Thank you, Alan, for sharing your journal with us!  You did a great job on your homework while you were on vacation!

Courtney was our WOW for this week!  She brought in many fun pictures to share with us but the one that intrigued the kids the most was a picture of her riding a horse.  Upon closer examination, one of the kids wasn't so sure that it was a REAL horse, so they ALL had to have a gander and Courtney just quietly sat by while everyone decided if it was a real horse or not.  Courtney settled the argument when she told us all it was NOT a real horse, but a fake one that she got to sit on on her way to Mt. Rushmore!  Thank you, Courtney, for bringing in your pictures and sharing them with us!

Saturday will also be Courtney's birthday, so we celebrated on Friday!  She chose CHA CHA CHA for her birthday add on!  Happy Birthday, Courtney!

We finished reading CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (YAY!  LOOK AT ME WITH THE UNDERLINING!  New feature that makes this easy...hopefully!)  and we are now in the process of watching the ORIGINAL version (not the creepy Johnny Depp version) of the movie in 15 minute snippits.  So far, the movie has stayed pretty close to the book, however we have found that the book gives more indepth descriptions of the boat and the Buckets and even the oompa loompas.  I told the kids that their imaginations are far better movie makers than any actual movie.  More differences are coming as we make our way through the movie.

Continue to work on the sight words and keep those BOOKS IN A BAGGIE coming back!  Isn't it amazing what they are reading?  I am SO EXCITED for them!   Thank you for your support and encouragement on the home front!  It is so important for the kids to know that we are ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!

WEDNESDAY (4./25) :   You should have found an invitation to a wedding shower for Mr. Q and Miss U.  As the note says, your child should bring a WRAPPED gift that begins with the letter Q, U or qu. Your child will unwrap the gift and show us what they brought.  We open gifts with the other 2 Kdg. classes.  It is always fun to see the variety of "gifts" that the couple gets! :)  Your child will bring that gift home Wednesday afternoon!

WEDNESDAY 4/25 is also WACKY WEDNESDAY!  Please send 12 individually wrapped treats to be sold by the elementary student council as it is the KINDERGARTEN'S TURN to provide the treats!  THANK YOU!

THURSDAY (4/26) :  Our field trip!!!  We will be going to McKennan Park to start our day.  We should be at the park around 9:30 or sooner.  We will play and EAT before we leave for pur 11:00 arrival at the Washington Pavilion.  You are welcome to join us at the park if you would like.  LUNCH: Please send a completely disposable lunch on Wednesday.  We will be eating soon enough that your child's lunch will be safe without an ice pack- or if you are worried about it....maybe just save that particular item for a lunch at school.  We will be throwing everything away- even uneaten food.  It is very difficult to keep track of 1/2 eaten lunches, bags, silverware, etc. especially when we are not at school and in different locations.  Your cooperation with this is GREATLY appreciated!  (I also have a few unreturned permission slips and if possible the 50 cent donation.  PLEASE RETURN THE SLIPS and DONATIONS on MONDAY!)  PS Thank you to many of you who have sent extra $.  It is very much appreciated and will be turned into the office to help cover the costs for the kiddos who were not able to do so.

NEXT WEEK:
WOW: Belle
WORD: Alan
LETTERS: Y & Q
MONDAY: Snack Aidan  MUSIC
TUESDAY: Snack: Mea  PE
WEDNESDAY: Snack: Robbyn  ART
WACKY WEDNESDAY - 12 individually wrapped treats
WEDDING SHOWER FOR Q and U
THURSDAY: FIELD TRIP
 FRIDAY: Snack: Emmitt  PE  LIBRARY

This week we read quite a few VEGETABLE books- the favorite, by far, was TOPS AND BOTTOMS by Janet Stevens. The kids had fun figuring out what kind of vegetables Hare would plant (after they found out Hare's plan for giving Bear the TOPS) for Bear when he said he wanted the BOTTOMS and then we really had to think when Bear said he wanted both the TOPS AND THE BOTTOMS! We classified some vegetables and garden tools, sequenced making vegetable soup and did a character study of Bear and Hare. We also hit our favorite topic "VACATION" this week. We made both a CLASS BOOK and a take home book about vacations!

UGHHHH! TAKE HOME BOOKS just reminded me that I didn't get the THURSDAY GROUP DONE!! IT IS MY FAULT! Thursday Mrs. Moen came to do DAILY 5 with us, and today we had DIBELS TESTING, so we were playing "catch up" all day and I never thought of our book baggies until JUST NOW AS I WAS TYPING! Your child is correct when they say they don't have their baggie! I HAVE IT HERE AT SCHOOL! SO SORRY AND WE WILL DO IT ON MONDAY.....probably! :)

Shaylyn's big sister, Alyssa, came to read to us on Friday afternoon! It was a great surprise for EVERYONE as the kids now want me to give them CLUES!!! "is it a HE OR A SHE?" "WHAT COLOR IS HER HAIR?" "WHAT DOES HER NAME START WITH?" I only answered the SHE question and the letter "A" knowing that there were a few moms with names that started with A- It was fun to have Alyssa walk in as nobody knew who she was, except for of course, Shaylyn! Thank you for stopping by on your way HOME from school and on your way TO work, Alyssa!

MATH: Coins were sent home on Tuesday afternoon- hopefully you got it!? We started working on MEASUREMENT this week. First up: Capacity! We compared weights of different objects. I set up 3 different balance scales around the room and the kids experimented weighing objects and guessing which object would weigh more BEFORE they tested their hypothesis!

We took a little time off of our timed tests the past few days but hit it again on Friday! We now do it for TWO MINUTES and then they have to STOP! Even if they aren't done. The kids enjoy the new challenge and I have now made 4 more tests using even LARGER numbers, so there are 14 tests in all!

There is a purple 1/2 sheet telling you about WACKY WEDNESDAY that will be APRIL 25! Each Kindergarten student is asked to bring 12 individually wrapped treats for the student council to sell. We will need everyone to remember so we have enough for the k-6th Grade students to each purchase 1 treat. The kids were excited about getting their turn at bringing the treats and I heard a couple of their ideas.......some of you may want to get started on it soon! A week and a half may not be enough time to get it done! :)

Our Field Trip will be on April 26. We will be going to the Washington Pavilion and you will be getting a permission/info sheet next week about it. We don't like to send it TOO early since it's easy to set aside- so look for that early next week! If you would like to meet us for playing in the park and BRUNCH- we will be going to McKennan Park and PLAN to be there around 9:30. Our APPOINTMENT time at the Pavilion is 11:00, so we will need to load up and head out by 10:45, so lunch will probably be in that 10:20ish spot! We had 4 moms volunteer, so next week we will pull some names out of the hat and see who the "lucky" moms are! :) that will be going on to the Pavilion with us!

REMINDER THAT THE KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM WILL BE ON MAY 15 at 2:00!

NEXT WEEK (4/16)

WOW: Courtney

WORD: Shaylyn

Letters Z & Y

MONDAY: Snack: Maleya PE

TUESDAY: Snack: Cadence ART

WEDNESDAY: Snack: Kira MUSIC

THURSDAY: Snack: Matteo PE

FRIDAY: EARLY OUT 2:00

Snack: Cole ART LIBRARY

The big news this week was the EASTER EGG HUNT we got to go on that was sponsored by the National Honor Society! The big kids hid the eggs on the football field and then we came out and snatched them all up. Each of the Kindergarteners got to pick up 11 candy filled eggs! We gave the eggs back to the NHS, but we got to keep the candy!! THANKS, NHS! IT WAS GREAT!

Friday, March 30, Rier's mom and two of his 3 younger sisters came to surprise us as the MYSTERY READER! Rier's mom read a story called the TICKLE MONSTER and it had a monster glove that she put on and she would tickle whoever was close to her (the kids started jockeying to the front so they could get tickled!)

Thanks, Jessica (and girls) for coming to read to us! It was great fun!

THEN! The following TUESDAY, we got to have a "MAKE UP" Mystery Reader! James' mom came to read to us! She read a few of James' favorite books- and even one that the kids begged her to read a 2nd time! They were very funny books!

Thank you, Susan (or Mrs. Bullerman as the kids around here know you as!) for reading to us! It was a fun surprise and they were fun stories!

Kira was our WOW for the week! Kira moved here from Idaho (as many of you remember) earlier in the year! Kira has one little sister and her cousin is in our class too- ANA!

Thank you for sharing your pictures with us and telling us all about you, Kira!

The word of the week was BLOSSOM! Courtney told us and SHOWED us what a blossom was by bringing in a beautiful daisy that her mom had bought, but not planted yet. Courtney told us that a BLOSSOM is the flower part of a plant! Thank you, Courtney for showing us what a blossom is! (Her grandma brought us an artificial flower with a BLOSSOM on it for us to exchange for the real one- so we pinned it up on our board by the word! :) )

Although we continue to work our way through the letters, most of the kids know the letter sounds pretty consistently HOWEVER, W seems to be one of the obscure ones that we really need to reinforce. We made small windmills (pinwheels) and managed to actually make them on the ONE day that wasn't a gale force wind outside! We had fun experimenting with the "windmill" deciding what direction we could face that would make them go or stop. It was interesting to see a couple of the kids go by the trees- so I asked them why they were there and they said that that's where wind comes from! Taking that teachable moment, we launched into a very basic lesson about where wind comes from and that trees don't MAKE wind, but you can definitely SEE wind in the trees!

Our new sight word was LOOK. I like to put little dots in the two "o"'s of LOOK to make it look like eyes and then I started noticing the kids doing it too! That's fine with me! Whatever helps them remember! :)

We finished up our official unit with MONEY. The coins will be coming home with the kids on 4/10. Thank you for sending the money and for your continued support on identifying the coins and their values. We will continue to work on this every morning in our morning meeting, but it surely doesn't hurt to throw down some change and have your child sort it, identify it and then even do some counting!

WEEK OF 4/10

MONDAY: NO SCHOOL

TUESDAY: SNACK: COURTNEY, MUSIC

WEDNESDAY: SNACK: SHAYLYN, PE

THURSDAY: SNACK: CARTER ART

FRIDAY: LIBRARY SNACK: AVA MUSIC

LETTER: V

WORDS: TAKE, OF, OUT (we are just going to tackle them all in the next 2 weeks)

FYI : We will also be doing Z, Y and Q in the following two weeks (4-16- 4/27) contrary to what your pink calendar says! (we like to keep you guessing! HA! Sorry- just an adjustment we have made since the first of the month!)

We will be going on our field trip on April 26. We will each be needing 3 parent helpers, so if you would like to go (DARE to go:) ) to the Washington Pavilion science center and movie, shoot me back an email and I'll put your name in the hat and we'll draw names later this week. We won't have room for you in the bus, so we will plan on you meeting us at the Pavilion at 11:00. If your name ISN'T drawn, you can still meet us for playing and lunch (starting at 9:30) in the park in Sioux Falls- I would be more specific, but that hasn't actually been ironed out yet. There will be a permission slip coming home sometime this week or next week explaining everything.

WELL? HOW DID WE DO WITH 4 DAYS IN A ROW?

FANTASTIC! The kids are so ready to hit the ground running! We will make great strides these last few weeks! YIKES! DID YOU KNOW THERE ARE ONLY 35 days of school left?

This week we have been working on the letter "L". Most of the kids are aware what sound it makes and if they are going to guess wrong....they usually guess with the /e/ sound. BUT happily, not too many do that still! :) We also added HAVE to our sight words. We pretend like we are bouncing a basketball 4 times as we say the letters H-A-V-E and then we shoot it and say "HAVE" to help us remember the word. (Did you ask your child to show you DOWN?)

We finished up Charlotte's Web last week, so we watched the video to see what kind of differences the movie had than the book. We didn't see many, however ONE difference we saw was that Templeton had babies at the end of the movie and the book never mentioned anything about that. We have now begun reading CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY during rest time. So far, 2 of the Golden Tickets have been found!

Math has us working super duper hard on money. We learned a song about the coins. The kids will be bringing home a book that has the money song in it. It's sorta catchy and I usually hear verses of it being sung in the hallways and at recess! :) We have concentrated on identifying the coins and their values. Pennies are fairly easy to remember since they are copper colored, but after that,.....things get pretty sketchy for most of the kids. We have a couple of champion money counters, but for the most part- this is a MUST CONTINUE TO WORK ON SKILL at home and school. We have begun counting out small amounts of money to "buy" things. Items are labeled with prices and we try to figure out (using our REAL money that we brought) what coins we need to purchase it. The fun comes in (or the torture) when I will say "OKAY!

You now have to buy this 17 cent item using 4 coins. " THAT is where the head scratching really starts. We started with small numbers, like 8 cents and "you can only use 4 coins" instead of 8 pennies, and have now progressed to the more difficult numbers. It is a stretch for many of them, but like I said, I definitely have some kiddos that are enjoying the challenge. We use the overhead to count the money which is fun for the kids to see it so big on the screen.

The kids continue to do well on their ordering numbers tests. Remember that if there is a mark by a number, but it is right.....your child changed it somewhere between here and there. CIRCLED boxes were empty when handed in. We are down to 2 minutes now which seems to be just about right for everyone to get done, but not dilly-dally! :)

LAST WEEK'S WORD of the week was UMPIRE! Carter told us that an umpire is the guy in a baseball or softball game that calls strikes, balls and SAFE or OUT! He is sort of the boss of the ballgame. Thanks, Carter! and great job!

THIS week's word of the week was SPROUT! Belle (whom I totally goofed up by giving her the WORD and not the WOW.....but NO FEAR, we are just switching her with Shaylyn later in the month) told us....and SHOWED us what a sprout was! She told us that sprouts are the beginning parts of plants and flowers. She brought in some sprouts, but wasn't sure what kind of sprouts they were because she moved to a new house in the winter so everything is exciting and unknown at their house this spring! Thank you for sharing your SPROUTS with us, Belle!

The WOW for this week was Shaylyn. Shaylyn has 6 kids in her family (including her) and she has even MORE cousins than anyone else thought they probably had. She has a picture of her whole VAN VELDHUIZEN side, and it is so far back that you can hardly see the faces! There were quite a few ooohs and ahhhhs about that one! Shaylyn and her family had the unique experience of helping with EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER. She was just a baby when they did it so she couldn't tell us much about it, but she has pictures to prove it!

THANK YOU, SHAYLYN! We enjoyed looking at your pictures!

Our calendar is all messed up with the ART, MUSIC, PE business. Since we jumped into the rest of the school's ABC days, our specials schedule is now MUSIC, PE, ART. OH WELL! (I fixed my calendar here and MUSIC days are correct- just need to switch around ART AND PE days- sorry! I didn't realize it changed)

NEXT WEEK: (April 2-6)

WOW: Kira

WORD: Courtney

LETTER: W

SIGHT WORD: Look

MONDAY: Snack: Rier ART

TUESDAY:Snack: Alan MUSIC

WEDNESDAY: Snack: Belle PE

THURSDAY: Snack: Ana ART EARLY OUT 2:30

FRIDAY: NO SCHOOL!

MONDAY: APRIL 9 NO SCHOOL!