Weekly Update 2/25-2/28

Language Arts

It's been another successful and hard working week for our kindergarteners. This week, we learned a new sight word, "have." In the coming week, please watch your student's folder and backpack for the white paper sight word books that we've been working on for the last few months. These books can be kept at home and used as their practice reading books in addition to our reading bag books.

In Fundations we've moved into Unit 3 and we'll begin to really work on segmenting words into individual beginning, middle and end sounds. We've also begun to learn about our "silent e" words by listening to the middle sound of words to see if the vowel makes a short sound or says it's name like in hop and hope. This is the next step for their reading and writing development.

We will begin working in our reading groups again next week. Over the past two weeks, we've been reading different levels of texts individually and have found our new reading levels. I am so impressed with what each and everyone of your students have been able to achieve! Your student will begin bringing home their reading bag next week to practice reading their books with family and friends at home.

IMPORTANT REMINDER - Please, please, please remember that each and every school reading book that comes home in your student's reading bag NEEDS to be returned to the class each Tuesday. If they loose a book or their entire bag, I am no longer able to send home any school books for them to practice with you at home.

Math

Before vacation we began Chapter 8 in our Math In Focus program. Since returning to school we've been focusing on numbers between 20 and 100. This chapter has students look at numbers as sets of 10 and ones left over. For example, the number 37 is 3 sets of 10 and 7 ones left over. We've also been looking at numbers that come before and after a specific number. For example 28 comes BEFORE 29 and 30 comes AFTER.

You may notice some confusion and/or frustration with the homework pages that come home over the next few weeks. If this is the case, please leave the homework blank or write a note if they were confused. This will help me to see where they're becoming stuck and I can work further with them during our What I Need Time in small groups on specific strategies and skills that will help them moving forward with these types of math problems.

Science

We're continuing to learn about matter in science. This week we looked at different types of liquids by mixing water with oil, food coloring, and ice cubes colored with food coloring. We made a few predictions about what might happen when we mixed the different liquids together and observed what happened when we did mix them together.

The students made some fun predictions including the oil would fizz over the sides of the container when mixed with water, the food coloring would mix with water immediately, and the ice cube was staying the same size and shape, but the food coloring was leaving the ice cube and going into the water. They were very excited to see what really DID happen when we mixed the liquids together. Ask them about what they saw and learned during math this week!

Language Arts

*Again, please remember that reading bags NEED to be returned with all books each Tuesday in order for a new book to be sent home.
*Conference reminder slips were sent home on Wednesday. Please sign and return next week with confirmation of your scheduled time.
*Parent Conferences are scheduled for Friday, March 14. Students will leave school at noon and no lunch will be served.
*Report cards will be sent home on Tuesday, March 11th.