What a Wonderful Year! 💗

Ask Your Child About...

1. All of our fun last week activities

2. portfolios

3. summer goals

4. Being a FIRST GRADER

😊 Our class picnic 🍎

🦁 We had a wonderful week of being Lincoln Lions! It was jam packed with fun events such as all school Bingo (Lincoln and Mann), talent show, special stories from Mrs. Locher, whole school picnic, all school recess (Lincoln and Mann), first grade story time, 6th vs. teacher kick ball, first grade plays, and trips down memory lane. It was the perfect way to end our adventure together as kinders and look into the excitement of school next year!

 

🖊 Autographing

     

🐇 First Grade Play: The Tortoise and The Hare🐢

👟 Kick Ball! 🦁

💗 It has been a wonderful year that will never be forgotten. These kiddos worked hard all year, and their growth in academics, social skills, and physical being is clear to all. I could not be more proud of this bunch and look forward to seeing them continue to grow!

😊 I hope everyone has a fun, relaxing, and safe summer! Thank you for helping your child grow this year and connecting to our classroom!

🦁 As always, if you ever have any questions or need anything, I am here.

   

🎇 We are FIRST GRADERS! 🎆

Long Weekend 🌞

Ask Your Child About...

1. Story mapping- characters, setting, main idea, beginning, middle, and end

2. First Grade math!

3. Parts of a plant/ different types of plants

4. How their plant has grown this week

5. Outdoor day!

   

We are writers! We are published! Enjoy these PAWsome books at home!

🦁 Outdoor day success! The rain left in just enough time for our outdoor day activities. YAY! We played "On your knees please!" for the 30(something)th year! Followed by chalk, playground, and popsicles!

   

📚 We have been reviewing each of the main areas of a book this week. We expanded and connected the areas to see how and why an author creates their story the way they do. We reviewed each of the areas on their own and then expanded and connected them through the concept of story mapping. The students did a wonderful job of dissecting the stories to figure out what was truly going on. This helps us better comprehend the story we are reading, understand how we can use these skills on other stories we will read in the future, and help us create top-notch stories of our own.

🖊 Story mapping also helped us with our writing this week. We looked at how we can use a story map to generate our ideas before we write them down in a story. We realized this helps solidify our ideas and problem solve what we needed to add or fix before actually writing it down. Encourage your child to create a story map before writing to help clarify their ideas for their reader!

🔢 First Grade math?? Oh yes we can! This week we started looking at what math will look like next year in first grade! This involves story problems, creating equations, and finding the missing values. Although we were nervous about first grade math our first day, we now realize we CAN do it! Many of these concepts are things we have already worked on and are now simply expanding them. We will continue to look into first grade math next week and boost our confidence and understanding so they can walk into school next year and say "I've got this!"

🌱 We have continued to watch our plans grow and are amazed at how quickly things can change. We love having something to take care of and love to check in on them throughout the day. We continued our plant study by exploring beyond the seed and on to the rest of the plant parts. We discussed the purpose of each part of a plant and where we can find these parts. We also went on a plant hunt around the school yard and were very surprised at how many different varieties we were able to find! With our science journals coming home this week, I encourage you to take your child on various science explorations over the summer!

       

✨ Enjoy this long weekend! Tuesday will be another celebration day: pajama and stuffie day!

Halfway Through May 🌞

Ask Your Child About...

1. The characters in a story- what are they like, how do they change

2. How an author can write to persuade

3. Describe different attributes of objects around us

4. How their plant is growing

5. What they know about seeds

📚 This week in reading we focused on characters. We identified the main characters of a story, then analyzed them to figure out what traits they had. We discussed how a character's traits can stay the same or change throughout a story. We also explored what these traits meant for our story. How do the feelings and behaviors effect what takes place during the story? How could we alter what happens in a story by altering the feelings and behaviors of a character? Keep this in-depth study of character going at home by reading books together and mapping the characters within them!

🎇 Special shout out the the book series What do you do with.... (an idea, a problem, a chance) by Kobi Yamada. These were very helpful in mapping character traits, feelings, and actions!

🖊 This week wrapped up our How-To writing unit of study by picking a book we wrote that we are especially proud of and sending it to someone we think would enjoy it. We then celebrated by doing a few dances that tell you how to do the dance as you do it (the hokey pokey, peanut butter and jelly, etc.). We had a lot of fun sending off on this how-to unit! For the remainder of the year, we will be focusing on persuasive writing. We have learned that writers write to make things better! Writers do this by seeing a problem, thinking of why it is a problem, writing ways to fix the problem, and figuring out who they are sending their message to. We have also learned that writers express their persuasive thoughts through different means. This includes, but is not limited to: a sign/poster, letter, song, list, petition, and of course books! We are off to a great start! You can help by aiding your child in considering various areas of life they see problems occur, why it is a problem, and how they can suggest we fix it.

🔢 In math we have reached our last unit of Kindergarten study. This unit consists of some topics of review from preschool, as well as some new information to expand upon their previous learning. We are working with various measuring tools such as rulers, scales, and measuring cups. These tools help us identify length and height, weight, and capacity. We are then using these attributes to describe various objects. You can continue to help your child consider ways to measure by identifying objects and tools around the house, creating, cooking, or baking something that requires measuring in some way (rule, scale, cups/spoons). 

🌱 Our plant study started this week with a close look at seeds. We looked at a seed's journey from the plant into its own place in the world. We discussed how some seeds do not grow, while others will grow a little, and others yet will grow wonderfully. We explored various types of seeds- from flower to vegetable to fruit to larger plants such as trees! The kiddos investigated why seeds have different parts and what the purpose of each part is, as well as why some seeds look quite different from others.

   

Thank you! 😊

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify and spell the words off and take in various texts

2. Explain the main idea and at least three supporting details of a story

3. How PAWsome they are for all the math testing we have had!

4. Our new science unit: plants!

🍎 A special thank you goes out to all of you! I have truly enjoyed teaching every child in our class, and their letters and pictures this week just made everything sweeter! I sure love my Kinders and can't believe the year is almost over! Our class garden has grown with the special additions of your students' flowers. Thank you!

📗 Friendly reminder that Scholastic Book orders will be do by the end of the day Friday, May 17th. This date will ensure that all of our books arrive before the last day of school. There are loads of good books to choose from to help support your reading as a family as well as keep your child reading on their own over the summer! 🌞

📚 This week in reading we took our knowledge of story structure and applied it to finding the main idea. We discussed how to find a main idea and how to be sure it truly is what the author may have been intending for us to gather from their story. To find the main idea we look for a theme that reaches through the entire story (all steps of the structure!), and then check that we have details that support the idea. We realized that if we can find at least three supporting details, it is probably a good conclusion about the story, but if we can only find two or less there might be something bigger than what we are thinking. Continue to help your child discover the main idea of a story by discussing it after you read! You can also relate this to writing by creating some story maps and graphic organizers to help prove (or disprove) your thoughts!

🔢 Math this week consisted of our end of year math assessments. One of these being aMath, which is the assessment each child took at the beginning of the year on the ipad. We took these assessments again and are very proud of our growth! You will receive results at the end of the year in a formal letter (just as we did at conferences). The second assessment we took over several days as it is a multi-page district assessment based on the curriculum. This was a long assessment, but we worked hard and did a great job focusing and trying our best each day!

🌱 Our life science unit has come to an end, with our fish, snails, worms and bugs being given to another teacher who has a much bigger tank and other animals for them to join with. The kids were sad to say goodbye, but understood how this would be better for them. Until the end of the year we will focus on seeds and plants! It is a wonderful time to explore this topic as we can actively grow them in our classroom (as well as at home - as I've heard many of you are doing!). Below is an image of our green bean and sunflower plants that we will be growing until the end of the year! 🌻🌿

🐦 We also found Robin eggs on the playground this week! This was very exciting and we could not believe how luck we were to see such a wonderful spring sign of life! The kiddos did have a hard time remembering to let it be and keep their hands and bodies at a safe distance so we do not disturb the eggs (or break them). If you see animals out and about help your child recognize how to properly observe and enjoy their presence. 😊

💐 Lastly, Happy Mother's Day to all of you AMAZING moms! I am lucky to have such great guardian help from you and could not thank you enough for all that you do for and with your child! I hope you enjoy the weekend and get to relax in your favorite way!

Officially the Last Month 😲

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify and spell the words look and out in various texts

2. Explain the structure of a story (characters, setting, beginning, middle, end)

3. Describe the attributes of a 2D or 3D shape and create it

4. Recognize shapes in everyday life (2D and 3D)

5. Our worm and isopods! 

     

🎭 The kids had a great time at Hancher on Wednesday. Above you can see a picture of the students discovering they belong to the Gruff Forest - the people of the East, and a picture of our two gift deliverers for the young king.

🎶 Huge shout out to all of you amazing parents for helping your student get to the Fine Arts night in time and being there to show your support for our wonderful arts teachers! The performance was wonderful and I know the kids were glad to have you there. Thank you!

📗 Your student should have brought their Friday folder home with them yesterday along with their art portfolio. In the Friday folder you would have seen a writing response we completed in connection to the Young King play, an envelope for school picture order (this is a picture of the entire student and staff this year that we will take next Tuesday morning), and several Scholastic book orders. The Scholastic orders will be due Friday, May 17th to ensure they arrive before the end of the school year. Please take this opportunity to order some great new books for your child to read over summer break. There are a lot of read together picture books to have discussion about along with tons of wonderful early chapter books and leveled readers to keep them moving ahead in their reading. Books can be ordered online or through the flyer using cash or check. I will take care of the rest!

📚 Reading this week focused on story structure. We talked a lot about how we can tell if something is important enough to retell or not. We discovered that big events and people were connected throughout the entire story, whereas small events and characters were only read about on a single page or two. Continue story structure study at home by reading books together and then asking your child to retell the story using only the major events. You could also write up a summary or act it out!

🔢 We completed our review and expand topic of shapes this week. The students love to identify shapes in the world around them (especially if something is made up of more than one shape)! Help encourage your child to explore shapes by identifying and imagining how you can manipulate them to become something else in the world around you. We also worked on creating these shapes a bit, and the students loved this extra challenge! If your student wants to draw more shapes, look up simple directions and help them practice. Many have even started writing how-to books about dhape drawing!

🐛 This week also marked the end of our life science unit. Last week we focused on red worms and earth worms followed this week by pill bugs and sow bugs. We had a lot of fun with these two sets of animals as we were able to take them out to observe and play with them! You would be surprised by how many friends started rather nervous about these animals and ended the unit feeling confident in holding them! We discussed many things through out our life science unit, ending with an understanding of what all living things need to survive as well as how various living things interact with each other. Help your child overcome fears or misunderstanding and continue to grow in their knowledge of living things by exploring bugs and other such animals in your own backyard! If you've never had a bug race... wow! You are missing out. 😉