Earth Day!

We had another wonderful week of Kindergarten!  We were so surprised to see this week that we got to the 140th day of school already.  As one friend said, "Where has the time gone?"  The children also had a great time celebrating our SCS Spirit Week.  Thanks for all your assistance in helping your child be a part of spirit week.

As a part of our weather unit, we took some time to talk about and learn about Earth Day.  In our Scholastic News this week, we learned how to be Earth Day Superheroes by taking care of the earth.  We talked about not wasting water while brushing our teeth, picking up litter on the ground, recycling and reusing.  Then the children each got to make their own Earth Day Superhero cape!  On the back of their capes are badges that explain how they can help the Earth and what they can recycle!  Hope your child's cape made it home yesterday!  We had a lot of fun flying around in them outside yesterday...despite the windy weather!  Lastly we read The Earth Book and even wrote some Earth poetry.  Earth Day is during our vacation...maybe you and your child can pledge to do something kind for the earth while on your vacation!  We also finished observing and graphing the weather this week.  We had been adding a weather picture to our picto-graph for the past month.  Then we tallied the results and made some notices about the weather patterns in April.  Most of our days were sunny and cloudy and we were all happy to see that there were no snowy days!

In math, we started working on solving some frog story problems.  As we discuss these problems and solve them, we are working on showing our math thinking and not just sharing the answer.  Once I pose the problem to the children, they have to show how they solved it with numbers, pictures, and words and be able to explain their thinking.  I was very impressed with their math thinking!  Be sure to ask your child about the problems he or she solved this week!

Lastly, we finished our writing unit on opinion writing by publishing a few more of our letters.  You may see an envelope come home addressed to you....get ready to be persuaded and convinced by your child about a certain topic!  Our Kindergarten writers did such a nice job in this unit.  They could all state an opinion and provide reasons to support their opinions.  All of their writing is coming home in their Friday Folder today. I hope that after the vacation, you have a chance to read through it all with your child.  I think you will be impressed by how much they have grown as writers!  Our next unit is poetry!

Just a reminder that there is no school next week.  School will resume on April 29th.  I hope you all have a wonderful vacation! 

Animals in Disguise!

We had another wonderful Nearby Nature lesson this month! This month we learned about Animal Disguises and how animals can use their patterns, colors, and shape to blend into their surrounding. Some animals use camouflage to hide from predators while others using bright colors to scare predators away!  We watched a fun puppet show and learned how certain animals and insects protect themselves and then we went outside to use our "eagle eyes" to find objects that Jane and Jess had hidden outside in our gardens.  The brightly colored objects were easy to see, but the ones that were the same color as the grass, dirt, and branches were hard to find! Thanks to Jane and Jess for another great lesson!  Hard to believe that we only have one more Nearby Nature left this school year!

In math, we learned two new games this week that focused on estimating, writing numbers in the teens, counting objects in ten frames and double-ten frames and compare numbers using the greater than and less than symbols. Be sure to ask your child about Capture the Number and Measuring Handfuls!  We found making estimates (making a reasonable guess) kind of tricky!  If there is anything you can ever estimate at home, the practice would be great!

During Reader's Workshop, we continued to strengthen our reading powers through our literacy stations. It is amazing to see the progress everyone is making in their independent reading!  We practiced making predictions before we read and getting our brains ready to think about the story before we read.  This helps us when we come to an unknown word in the book.  We also read another Scholastic News book about spring.  As we read this book, we identified sight words and practiced using our sound power, pointer power, and pattern power.

This week during theme we learned about clouds.  We first did some observing of clouds and outside, and, unfortunately, this week we kept seeing the same type of clouds...gray, rain clouds!  After reading Clouds by Anne Rockwell we learned that there are many different kinds of clouds and they can help people predict weather.  Although there are more, we focused our attention on cirrus, stratus, and cumulus clouds.  We found out that cirrus clouds are light, feathery clouds. They occur with sunny weather.  Cumulus clouds are big, puffy clouds that we see on sunny days.  They are found in the middle of the sky.  Lastly, stratus clouds are low in the sky and look like a blanket.  Seeing those in the sky means rain is coming!  See if your child can make some cloud observations at home!  In order to try and understand what happens with clouds when it rains, we did an experiment.  We used shaving cream to represent a cloud and food coloring drops to represent the water droplets in a cloud.  When too many droplets are in a cloud, it starts to overflow and that's when we have rain.  We forgot to take a picture of our rain cloud experiment, but here is a picture from a website to show what we saw! We also had two chances to "make clouds" this week as well.  We made clouds on our tables using shaving cream and then we made the different types of clouds using cotton balls.  We loved learning about clouds, but we hope to have a little more sunny weather soon!

In writing, we are just about finished with our opinion writing unit.  Next week, we will do some editing and revising and then we will publish some of our persuasive and opinion letters! During this week's writer's workshop, we talked about adding solutions to our opinion writing and feelings.  In order to get someone to agree with our opinions, the writer should share some of their feelings about the topic or offer a solution.  For example, if the Kindergarteners want more choice time, they need to explain in their letter how often they would like it or if they would like choice time to be longer.  We are getting very convincing with our opinions! Some students even chose to write to their parents about changes they wanted at home!! Oh boy!

Lastly,  we have a Spirit Week next week.  Please see the note in your child's Friday Folder for more information.
Monday- PJ/Comfy Day
Tuesday-Tropical Day
Wednesday- Wacky Hair
Thursday- Outdoor Learning
Friday- Inside-Out-Day
 As always, participation in Spirit Weeks is optional.  Have a great weekend...yea for sun and warmth!

Wild Weather!

This week during Theme we learned about precipitation and wind...and even experienced some of that outside at recess this week!  We learned that precipitation is water that falls from clouds in different forms: rain, snow, sleet, and hail.  We watched a video about precipitation and we had the chance to make observations about the different kinds.  We also read a story called Julia and Teresa's Wacky Weather Day in which the characters encountered all different kinds of weather in one day.  After reading the story, the children retold part of the story through an illustration and a couple of sentences.  We also investigated wind this week by reading  I Face the Wind and then we made windsocks to observe the strength of wind and the direction in which it blows.  Next week, we will learn about clouds and seasons.  Speaking of weather, please continue to send your child with all of his or her winter gear.  It's still pretty chilly for our morning recess and your child may still need snow pants.  It also has been muddy recently on the playground and snow pants will protect your child's clothes from getting wet and muddy.  Thanks!

During Writer's Workshop, we are continuing with our opinion writing unit; however, everyone is now learning how to write friendly letters to make a change in our school and community.  This week we learned the format of a friendly letter: a date at the top, greeting, and closing.  Be sure to ask your child about the letters he or she wrote this week.  Many are writing letters to get more recess and choice time and some are writing letters to get a pool outside at recess!  We have some very persuasive writers!

In math, we have begun a new unit about measurement.  For our April calendar, each day is a different type of measuring tool: ruler, balance, measuring spoons, and clock.  This week we learned how to measure weight using a pan balance.  We took objects from the room and placed them in each of the pans on the balance and compared with objects were heavier and lighter.  We also took a pound potatoes in a bag and measured to see if objects in the classroom weighed more than, less than, or the same as 1 pound.  Be sure to ask your child about the results of our weight experiments!  What was the heaviest object we measured?


Lastly, in Reader's Workshop we continued to build our Reading Powers!  We realized that the books we are now reading have fewer patterns and more difficult words.  When this happens, we really have to use our sight word power and our picture power to help us decipher new and difficult words.  If your child reads to you at home, encourage him or her to use all the reading powers: pattern power, sound power, picture power, and sight word power.  We also read our Scholastic Let's Find Out magazine.  This week's book was about animals and their habitats.  We learned a new sight word as we read our emergent reader book: have.  We have now learned all the required Kindergarten sight words; however, as we continue with Fundations and Reader's Workshop, we will be adding a few more to our word wall.  Thank you to everyone who has been practicing those sight words with your child.  It is really paying off in your child's reading fluency and writing!

Have a great weekend!