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. 😉

      

Wonderful Week(end) Weather 😊

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify the words do and down in various texts

2. Discuss cause and effect from books or daily interactions

3. Describe the position of a shape

4. Explain whether a shape is flat or solid, and name the shape

5. Our Snails! 🐌

Our very own snails!

🎶🎨 Fine Arts Night is coming up on Thursday, April 25th at City High Opstad Auditorium form 6:30-8:00 pm. Doors open at 6:00 and Kindergarten will need to be on stage at 6:25 as we are the first to perform. Each class will be sitting together towards the center-front of the seating until the entire night's performance has been completed. Mrs. Langenfeld is requesting that all students return to their class seating spot after performing while parents will be sitting elsewhere in the auditorium. After the entire performance is completed you will come to the class seating area to pick up your child and enjoy the beautiful art being displayed out front. It will be a wonderful evening!

✨ Next Friday, April 26th will be a Lincoln Spirit Day! Help your child show their Lincoln pride by wearing Lincoln Lion gear or anything blue! Go Lions! 🦁

📚 We discussed cause and effect this week in reading. This is a big theme throughout our school years, and therefore we will touch on it multiple times! We discuss straight forward cause and effects such as why does it rain, but we also look at more abstract ideas of cause and effect such as feelings and events. Help your child better understand cause and effect by examining books at home and every day events!

🖊 Writing this week focused on how we can clarify our writing to best help our reader understand what we are trying to tell them. This not only consisted of the basic revising skills such as adding words, switching words for more detailed ones, or eliminating words that don't belong, but also by actually picturing what we want to write. By picturing what you are trying to say, you have a better visual of what to put on paper and therefore you can better explain your steps to your reader. We also discussed how this is a great skill to have when talking! If we can pause for a moment before we talk and picture what we want to say, we will be able to better explain how we are feeling or what we are wanting others to understand from us. Help your little author write and speak more clearly by reminding them to picture what they are wanting to say before they actually write or say it! 🙂

✅ We extended our learning of shape to explaining the position of a shape! These are great describing words and can help us not only in our study of shapes, but in our every day lives as well! We practiced using words such as: in front of, behind, next to, under, above, on top, and below. Help your child use positional words at home by asking them to describe where a shape or item is located and then guessing what object they are seeing- turn this into a sort of eye spy by playing against one another!

🐌🐚 In science this week we studied snails and shells! We discussed the parts of a snail, where we find snails, and different types of shells. We currently have about a dozen water snails and a dozen Ramshorn snails. We would love to check out a land snail, so be on the look out in your own back yard! If you happen to find one, I would be more than happy to care for it in our classroom!

      

Pictures from left to right: water snails, Ramshorn snail, shell shorting activity

🐰 I hope you all enjoy the lovely weather predicted and have a wonderful weekend filled with fun, family and friends! 🐥

Crazy Weather 🌷🌞💧⛄

Ask Your Child About...

1. To review and practice all of our kinder words so far!

2. Identify and explain the features of the shapes circle, triangle, square, rectangle, and hexagon

3. Find and sort flat (2D) and solid (3D) shapes

4. Birds, birds, birds!

We did our best to create a song of bird sounds 🐦

🍎 Thank you all for bringing in such yummy and healthy snacks for our class to share during snack time! The kids love having different choices and hopefully we have enough to get us through the end of the year. Thank you!

✨ Student council has extended the Box Top collection through next Friday, April 19th. Student council has also announced that next Friday will also be dress up as your favorite character day. If your child would like to participate in this special day, help them think of a character they love reading about and how they could dress up to look like them (please no extra props). 

🎉 Our classroom paw jar is filled to the top with paw tickets! We will be celebrating Monday, April 15th by bringing a stuffed animal to school. Please help your child pick out an animal that fits inside of their backpack. This animal is going to help your child learn and focus throughout the day, so it needs to be able to fit easily next to them. Way to go Kinders!

🎶🎨 Fine Arts Night is coming up on Thursday, April 25th at City High Opstad Auditorium form 6:30-8:00 pm. Doors open at 6:00 and Kindergarten will need to be on stage at 6:25 as we are the first to perform. Each class will be sitting together towards the center-front of the seating until the entire night's performance has been completed. Mrs. Langenfeld is requesting that all students return to their class seating spot after performing while parents will be sitting elsewhere in the auditorium. After the entire performance is completed you will come to the class seating area to pick up your child and enjoy the beautiful art being displayed out front. It will be a wonderful evening!

📚 Reading this week focused on text features. We read many different kinds of books that showed various ways to use text features to enhance the reading experience. Many of these books were animal book, which works well with our life science unit! We also loved finding different ways to use text features so that we could show them in our own writing!

🖊 We've worked very hard on our How-To writing and have graduated from out old How-To check list to a brand new, much more professional check-list. WOW! Very impressive writers we have! Help your child notice different ways of writing by checking out other authors and styles of books: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, pop-up, cook books, teaching books, and so on!

✅ Math has brought us to a familiar topic: shapes! Many of our students know the names of our main shapes already, so we are off to a great start! We are now looking closer at the shapes to see what makes them the shape they are. We are counting sides, points, looking for them in the world around us, and maneuvering them so we can be familiar with each shape in different positions. We are working with flat (2D) and solid (3D) shapes. Help your child recognize these shapes by finding them in the world around you at home and while you are out and about!

🐦 This week in our life science unit we focused on birds. We discussed the parts of birds, where we find birds, what different birds are known for, various bird sounds, as well as how we can observe and help them. The kiddos loved making their own binoculars, so don't be surprised if they ask for two empty toilet paper rolls and some string at home! 😊 Have your child teach you all of the bird watching signals a pro uses for the best bird watching results. 

Exciting Times in Room 33! 🐟

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify the words all and she in various texts

2. Count from any number to another within 100

3. Find patterns between numbers up to 100

4. Our goldfish!

5. Talk about what you need to properly care for a pet

6. Write, Tell, or Read how-to books

🎶 Today we were able to enjoy an orchestra concert from South East Junior High. The kids loved listening to the different genres of music they played and were very excited to see the different sizes/sounds of each instrument!

✨Student council has announced that we will be collecting Box Tops through April 18th. Please keep an eye out for any of these, clip them out, and send them to school for our big jar collection. We are aiming for 2,000 Box Tops! They also announced that next Friday, April 5 will be stripe day. If your child would like to participate in this school-wide spirit day all they need to do is wear stripes to school!

🍎SNACK. We are on our last boxes of graham crackers and will be needing more snack by the end of next week. If you are able, please pick out a healthy snack option for the class and send it to school with your child. Options can include, but are not limited to: graham crackers, pretzels, little oranges, apples, veggie straws, goldfish, animal crackers, Nutrigrain bars, and so on. Thank you!

📚 This week in reading we focused on sequence of events and visualizing where the story would go next. This is a great skill to practice at home by reading through a story followed by a retelling verbally or physically acting it out together. Another great way to accomplish this skill is to write down events that took place in the story on separate sheets of paper, mixing them up, and then sorting them back out to tell the real story. Challenge your child by setting out the story in a mixed up order and asking them to correct it!

🖊 Reading this week really helped us connect to our writing as we are now working on How-To writings. These are very fun books to write and correct! Ask your child about when Ms. Grady learned to put on a coat or to make scrambled eggs! Oh MY! How-To stories take a lot of visualizing and sequencing of events. The kiddos have truly enjoyed this unit so far, and I encourage you to keep the joy going at home by writing more How-To books outside of school- then act them out! Remember: How-To books need three things. 1. tell what to do in steps 2. number the steps 3. have a picture for each step. 

🔢 In math we have been working on finding patterns between numbers from 0 to 100. The students are quick to see how we can use a hundreds chart to count by 2's, 5's, 10's and so on- keep the work up at home! This also leads us to looking at how to move from one number to the next easily and quickly. This part can be tricky as we typically want to count on (continue counting from the number we are at until we get to the desired end number). However, we want to encourage the students to look past counting single digits to get to far away numbers and rather encourage them to use what they know about place value. 

For example: If you show your child a 100's chart and ask them to find 42. Hopefully they will use some of the patterns they know to skip count by tens (moving straight down the chart) from 0 to get to 40 and then add two more (moving horizontally across the chart) to get to 42. Or maybe they will recognize that 42 is 40 greater than 2, so they can find the number 2 and count by tens (moving vertically down the chart) until they arrive at 42.

Further example: Now that you are at 42, ask your child what number would be 21 away (or 21 bigger). Many students are currently counting out twenty-one steps from forty-two to find the answer. Instead, we want to help them see how they can use groups of tens and ones to count on. This would mean that your child would start at 42 and recognize that 21 is made up of two groups of ten and one more. They would then start at 42, count by tens (moving vertically down the chart) until they have moved 20 away and then count across the chart to get the one more.

🐟 Life Science has arrived! We currently have goldfish and guppies in our classroom for observation and the kiddos could not be more excited! We will study the structure of the fish so that we are able to name each part, identify the things a fish needs to survive, and discover what happens when we add different things to their tank (such as food, fresh water, plants, and structures). Continue this talk about living things and their needs at home by discussing and observing people, animals, and plants!

Ms. Stephanie sneakily took a picture of our first observations! 😊

  

       

We have two tanks for our fish. One for our goldfish, which we named Nemo (orange and white), Lava (orange), and Steele Panther (silver)- how great are these names?! 😅😃 The second tank holds our guppies, which we did not name as they are difficult to tell apart, but rather we each have our own nick name for them when we talk to them. Our guppies currently consist of one male (has a black dot and is smaller), four female, and two teeny tiny babies.

🌞 What a wonderful week it has been! I hope you all are enjoying this spring weather and have a wonderful weekend! As always, if you have any questions, comments, or concerns please don't hesitate to ask!

Spring Break 🌷

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify the words good and said in various texts

2. Use patterns to count and manipulate numbers from ones, teens, and beyond!

3. Healthy habits

4. The kite 

🎳 The kids have been working on their bowling skills in P.E. and WOW they received a cone for every strike made! They worked hard using their focus, persistence, and perseverance skills! 🎳

🍀 Friendly reminder that there will be no school next week Monday, March 18th through Friday, March 22nd due to Spring Break. I hope you all enjoy this week with your family and that any travels are safe and fun!

🎐 In your child's Friday Folder you will find a kite pattern and an instruction sheet that explains the activity. The idea is for your child to decorate the kite in any way they choose and attach a kite tail, which they will then add a bow to for each of the books they read to you over spring break. The idea is to keep the kiddos reading over break, create a calm family activity, and return to school showing their great success in a beautiful way. Thank you for your help in completing this activity! 😊

📚 Reading this week focused on story structure. We talked about how certain events typically happen in different parts of the story; such as a calm beginning leading to a big event, followed by a resolution of some kind and ending with a certain message. This is a tough skill to pick up on, but it is easy to connect across the entire day. You can help your child notice story structure by talking about the different events in a story and why they happen when they do. We can also help point these things out while watching movies, playing games, or completing various activities throughout the day/week/month/year/life. 

🖊 Our true stories have come to an end, with each student picking their favorite true story to keep at school (later to be added to our portfolios) for publishing! In preparation for our next writing unit (How-to books), we are bringing all of the other true stories that may currently be in our writing folders home. Enjoy reading through these stories with your child, and encourage them to add on or clarify any of their stories. Spring break is a great time to keep the writing going! Prompt your author to write stories about fun activities they did and things they observe happening around them in nature!

🔢 We continued working on breaking apart numbers up to 20 this week in math, with an emphasis on finding the group of ten and the group of some ones. We pushed this concept further by expanding our observations to numbers up to 50. We are all starting to understand the place value of a number and what it can tell us. Continue this work at home by asking your child what they notice about patterns between numbers (such as how many more groups of ten are there in 33 than in 3?).

✅ In health we continued our study of how to keep healthy by investigating and discussing various things we can do to keep our bodies healthy. We discussed things that are okay to share with others and things that are not, the importance of exercising and how we can check our heart beat to see how hard we are working our body, how and why we brush our teeth and clean our body, as well as the importance of a good nights' sleep. Please continue to investigate these healthy habits at home and help encourage your child to keep healthy! 😊

🎶🎨 Looking ahead to Thursday, April 25th, we will be holding our annual Lincoln Fine Arts Night at City High Opstad Auditorium from 6:30-8:00 pm. Doors open at 6:00 and Kindergarten will need to be on stage at 6:25 as we are the first to perform. Each class will be sitting together towards the center-front of the seating until the entire night's performance has been completed. Mrs. Langenfeld is requesting that all students return to their class seating spot after performing while parents will be sitting elsewhere in the auditorium. After the entire performance is completed you will come to the class seating area to pick up your child and enjoy the beautiful art being displayed out front. It will be a wonderful evening!

🍀 I hope you all have a super spring break and have plenty of time to enjoy the beautifully forecast weather! 🌞

Spring is coming! 😃

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify the words play, an, and make in various texts

2. Find the different parts of teen numbers (10 and some ones)

3. The 5 Food Groups

4. What types of words we can use to enhance our stories

     

🍎 Thank you to all of you for meeting with myself and your child to talk about their progress! Conferences were great and I love being able to discuss what we are doing in class with you. If you ever have any questions, comments, or concerns please don't hesitate to reach out! I am always available for you- not just during conference time!

✨ This week we enjoyed a few special assemblies: a University of Iowa dance team and the Jazz Band from South East Junior High. The kiddos loved listening to the music and picking up on a few new flashy dance moves!

🙂 Next Friday, March 15th we will have an all school PAW ticket celebration of listening to Kids Bop during lunch... with the lights off! WOAH- super cool! We will also have a class PAW ticket celebration by wearing our pajamas to school! Stay tuned if we will earn one small stuffed animal as well (we are working on quite bodies in the hallway and cleaning up after ourselves)- I know we can do it!

✉ Coming home in your child's Friday Folder you will find information for Safety Village Camp, a letter from Mrs. Charney our guidance councilor about her upcoming lessons, and the March Scholastic Book orders. The Scholastic Book orders will be due Friday, March 22nd (the online class code is RCYJT).

📚 Reading this week has focused on inferring what a character is feeling based on the words we read and the images we see. We also focused on how this can help us predict what the character might do or feel next. This is a very easy task to complete at home with any sort of book you might have! You can even take it a step further and act out the feelings you see and talk about how you can cope with different feelings or help others cope with their own feelings.

🔢 In math we focused on breaking our teen numbers into two different groups. These groups typically consist of breaking into a group of ten and some more ones. We show this by writing equations, filling out two ten frames, and completing number line boxes. I encourage you to keep working on breaking apart all numbers up to 20 with your student at home. Ask them to show you two groups that can make up a number and encourage them to look beyond the group of ten and some more ones if they seem ready to do so.

😋 In science this week we worked on the My Plate food configuration and why it is important for our bodies. We talked about healthy and unhealthy foods and how everything in moderation is the way to go. We also discussed what each of the five main food groups gives us and how we need those nutrients to keep our body healthy and energized. Keep the conversation going at home by asking your child what food group certain foods belong to and having them help you shop for yummy and healthy foods at the store followed by helping you prepare the meals!

🖊 We are wrapping up our true stories unit in writing (the finale being our published books the first week of April!) and will be starting our How To unit. We have grown a lot as writers and have many skills to show off! We discussed the importance of using different words to indicate the beginning (One day..), middle (Next, Then, After that...), and end (Finally, At last, Later...) of our stories. We have also been focusing on how to form full sentences on paper! We focus on saying the sentence we want, then writing it down word by word until we reach the end!

❄🔆💧 Next week's weather is looking a bit more spring like- YAY! Please help your child be prepared for the expected weather each day so that we may have a comfy and successful time learning. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

YAY for a full week! 😃

Ask Your Child About...

1. Identify the words: of, as, and use in various texts

2. Use drawings and equations to represent the numbers 11-16

3. The 5 Sense and how we use them every day

4. What their true story is about

🎉 Yay for our first full week of school in quite a while! I think we are all a little tired, but also very happy that we saw all of our friends and did all of our activities for a full week!

🦅 Meredith from School of the Wild visited Lincoln and Mann for an assembly teaching us about Falcons and the importance of taking care of the wildlife around us. She talked about what the wildlife camps have to offer, what you can see when you visit the park, and how we can help make a positive impact with nature! She even had a Kestrel Falcon with her!

🍎 Friendly reminder that we do not have school this coming Monday, March 4th due to the second round of conferences. I look forward to seeing those of you that are signed up for this day!

✨Next Friday, March 8th will be another all school celebration: Lincoln Spirit Day! This means your student can show their Lincoln pride by wearing anything Lincoln or blue.

📚 In reading we used our skill of visualization to help us sequence a story after we had read it. We read through a story, predicting what might happen next, discussing how characters feel, and why certain things are happening in the story, then once we finished the story we tried to retell it as best we could! We closed our eyes and pictured the first thing that happened, then the next, and the next, and so on until we reached the end of the story! This is something you can easily do with any of the stories you have at home!

🔢 This week in math we finished practicing how to count and write our numbers 11-20 and began looking at how we can represent them. This includes drawing pictures, completing tens frames, using tens sticks and ones cubes, and writing equations using 10 + ___ to show how we can represent these different teen numbers.

👂👃🖐👀👅 The five senses were our main focus in health this week! We learned that every day we use hearing, smelling, touching, seeing, and tasting to help us understand the world around us. The kids really enjoyed this unit and the special activities we completed.  We started the week with a smell test (different scents in small vials), followed by a sound test (unknown animal noises played on a CD), continued by discussing our fabrics unit we recently finished in science for our sense of feel, and finished the week with a whole senses experience using popcorn (we hear it pop, smell it cooking, see the bag inflate and the seed turn to pop, felt the smooth but bumpy texture and tasted the final product)! Keep the fun going at home with your child and discover how we use our senses at home by taking a nature walk or sampling different smells, tastes, sounds, touches, and visuals that you find around you at home or while out and about!

You can sing the Five Senses Song at home with your child! Use this link to hear it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/iA1uLc1uEbI