Touch Tank Fun!

This week, the kindergarten classes were visited by marine biologist, Ellen Goethel. Ellen brought lots of interesting items with her including whale bones, teeth and baleen, shark teeth, shells and, of course, the touch tank animals!

Ellen taught the children the different names of the animals they were observing and being able to touch including crustations, bivalves, and echinoderms (starfish). The children were able to pick up various types of animals including a lobster, spiny crab, snow crab, red mud crab, many types of starfish, and a horseshoe crab which we learned is a living fossil.

Ellen also operates Explore the Ocean World, LLC in Hampton Beach, NH. There is a 150 gallon touch tank which houses many different animals found in the Gulf of Maine. Ellen's information is:
Explore the Ocean World, LLC
367 Ocean Boulevard, #3
Hampton Beach, NH
Open daily 10-5 from July - Labor Day
exploretheoceanworld@hotmail.com

Weekly Update - 4/29-5/2

Language Arts

This week, we learned a new sight word, "from." We have only three more to learn!

Some students are missing their reading bags (plastic gallon ziploc bags). Please remember these books need to be returned to school each Tuesday and will be sent home the day your student has their reading group. If you think you may have misplaced this bag, please just let me know.

We continue work in unit 4 of Fundations. We are practicing digraphs (ch, sh, wh, th, ck) and have learned the rule that "ck" appears at the end of words with short vowel sounds. The students are really enjoying trying to figure out how to spell "trick" words like chick, sock, and back. They're doing great work with this skill! We will complete Unit 4 this week and begin our fifth and final unit next Tuesday.

As we move into the last two months of school, the students will begin to focus on informational writing during 6+1 Traits of Writing. We have also begun to look at non-fiction texts and learn the various traits that make them non-fiction - the book teaches you something, the information is all true, some books have table of contents, most of the illustrations are real photographs, etc. We will begin learning more about these types of texts and exploring our own informational writing in the coming weeks.

Math

We have begun Chapter 14 and are again working on the skills of counting on to the number 20. Please continue to work with your student at home both during homework and down time to work on this very important skill. Over the past few days we have begun to look at the different ways we can make the same number (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). Next week, we will be moving into the teen numbers.

Important Reminders

*Early release Friday, May 9th at 1:15 pm. Lunch will be served this day.
*Mrs. O'Brien spent the week with us getting to know the students and how our classroom routines work. Please continue to discuss this transition with your student at home as I will be talking with them next week as well. I will now begin to prepare the students for my final day, May 16th, and will also talk about the possibility of Mrs. O'Brien coming early if I need to leave earlier than expected.
*The Kindergarten Portfolio Breakfast is scheduled for Tuesday, June 10th. More detailed information will be coming to you shortly about this very exciting day for families and students in the coming weeks.