May 22-26  

Popcorn Words:  We reviewed all of our past popcorn words this week! We looked for different words each day inside our morning message and did different activities with the words!  The May popcorn word flashcards came home in your child’s folder this week. 

Math:  We wrapped up our study of Unit 5 by taking a Math test this week.  Your child’s Math test came home Friday! They did amazing!  It’s amazing to see how far we have come!!  For the rest of the school year we will review our concepts from the year and have some fun with Math.

Writer’s Workshop:  We wrapped up our Opinion Writing last week.  We celebrated with Mrs. Stutz’s class this week by sharing our writing pieces. The Kindergarteners joined a friend and shared their Opinion of which restaurant was their favorite and why.  After they shared their writing they then got to decide which candy is better?  A starburst or chocolate?  We had 37 Kindergarteners who had the opinion that starburst candy is the best.  While another 7 believed that chocolate was the best.  These pieces came home Friday as well!

Reader’s Workshop:  The Kindergarteners have been amazing with building their reading stamina!!  We have hit 20 plus minutes multiple times this week! We have been continuing to celebrate being readers!  We had fun Friday reading our books with some fun Memorial Day inspired sunglasses to stuffed animals in our classroom!

American Symbols:  We have had a lot of fun exploring our American symbols!  The Kindergarteners have learned about The Bald Eagle, The Liberty Bell, The American Flag, and the Statue of Liberty and more!!! We incorporated a bit of science with our discussion on the Statue of Liberty learning that she was originally not green but the copper turned green over years.  The Kindergarteners have been watching pennies in our classroom turn green (with a little help from vinegar).  We wrapped up this study of American Symbols while reading our easy reader book all about Memorial Day.  Learning about why we celebrate Memorial Day while wearing our proud red, white and blue!  In the afternoon on Friday we enjoyed a special red, white and blue popsicle treat with our 5th grade buddies….YUM!!  It was the perfect HOT day to cool down with all of our Kindergarten friends!! Thank you to all who serve, have served or given their lives to protect our country!!! 

Kindergarten Olympics:  On Friday, June 2 we will be having a fun time of games and Kindergarten fun!  Please ensure that your Kindergartener wears tennis shoes on Olympic day…NO FLIP FLOPS, SANDALS OR CROCKS PLEASE! If your volunteering where workout shoes too! Dress yourself and child in comfy gym/workout clothes to run around in. Bring a water bottle labeled with their name and don’t forget to pack a protein rich snack for that day!  Don’t forget the sunscreen!  If you are a volunteer for our Olympics please plan to arrive at 8:45 a.m. for instructions on the K/1 playground.  ALL parents and younger siblings are welcome to join us for a picnic lunch on the playground.  We will be having our picnic lunch at 12:00 p.m.  PLEASE EMAIL ME AT myankee@hpseagles.net IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS!!

Birthday’s: Happy Early Birthday to Ellery and Dayne this week! Thanks for the yummy treats!!! It was fun celebrating with you! 

 

Mystery Reader’s: We had 3 special mystery readers this week!

On Monday, Mrs. Wert, a past pre-k teacher of a large group of boys in our classroom came in for a surprise visit! She was a BIG hit!! She read 2 fun, silly books and got in lots of hugs from her old boys!!! 

Then on Wednesday we had a visit from Ivy, a 4th grader here at Georgetown!! Ivy was in my first kindergarten class here at Georgetown! She is so sweet and volunteers at her recess time every day to help in my classroom!! She fits in wherever and the kids love her!!!She is a huge help 🙂 On Wednesday she surprised us as the special reader, reading one of her favorite books from K…. EEEEKKK a Spider!!! We love you Ivy!!!

Finally on Friday a very special dad came to visit us!! Ember’s dad, Mr. Vanderveen made his grand appearance reading a hilarious silly book about a Princess Dog and Frog! We laughed along with him! Thanks so much to our fantastic readers this week!!! I still have room for more before we wrap up the year, e-mail me!!!

Butterflies and Frogs: Monday was a special day in our classroom! Our butterflies hatched out of their chrysalis’s!!! We got to see them in action!! All 4 of them turned into beautiful painted lady butterflies!! We were all in awe!! We feed them watermelon and sugar water all week so they could gain their strength to be ready for their flight into the wild on Friday am!! We named them and watched them everyday as they became stronger! On Friday morning, we had Mrs. Stutz’s kinder’s join us for a beautiful release over the pond!! They all looked happy! 

We also had 2 of our 4 frogs officially become frogs Monday and need to be removed from the fish tank into a new habitat! We had fun watching the frogs all week, hiding in their container from us and jumping all around! So much fun!!! We also gave them a happier home on Friday when we released them into the pond water and watched them hop away! 

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, May 29…NO SCHOOL!  Happy Memorial Day!
• Tuesday, May 30…ART
• Wednesday, May 31 STEAM, Kayler and Braylee’s Summer B-day Celebration!
• Thursday, June 1…Gym, Cruz’s Summer B-Day Celebration!
• Friday, June 2…Music, Kindergarten Olympics
• Friday, June 9…LAST DAY OF SCHOOL…Dismissal at 12:15 p.m.

Red, White and Blue Day!!! Wear your patriotic colors in spirit of Memorial Day!!  We will have a special themed Friday!!! Can’t wait!! 

May 15-19

Popcorn Words: today, play, up, and away – We are done introducing new words! We will review all words from here on out! 

Math: We are wrapping up our Unit 5 Math concepts.  This week we explored identifying the difference between numbers.  We found numbers the were greater than, less than and equal to each other.  We will be reviewing and taking our Unit 5 test on Thursday this week! They will all do fantastic!

Writer’s Workshop:  The Kindergarteners finished up the week by completing their “on demand” opinion on what the best restaurant is.  They added two reasons why they like the restaurant, and a conclusion.  The Kindergarteners were careful to check for punctuation, labels in their pictures, and their best handwriting!  Amazing to think of where they started as writers and where they are now!!! These pieces will be graded and sent home next week. They did a wonderful job on our opinion unit! We will conclude the year with different types of fun writing pieces!

Reader’s Workshop:  As we near the end of the year the Kindergarteners have continued to work on reading stamina.  Our class has gotten up to 18 minutes!  It was fun to celebrate how far we have come as readers by “shining our light” as we read with our flashlights on Friday! 

Mystery Reader: We were lucky enough to have 3 mystery readers this week!

On Wednesday, we had a special visit from Mrs. Nelson, Kyla’s mom and her brother in 1^st grade, Keelan! She read Kyla’s adorable and funny library book, I Would Never Eat a Tomato . We were laughing all the way thru!! Thanks for reading to us!!

Then on Friday we welcomed Finn’s grandma and mom as our mystery readers! Finn was beaming from head to toe as soon as he saw his grandma and mom enter our classroom! His Grandma read Shark Trouble and Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? These are two of Finn’s favorites that we all loved to hear too!

Finally, Friday afternoon was filled with one more big surprise! Carter, Lila’s big brother in 3^rd grade made an appearance!! Lila has been talking and hoping her brother would come to read to us!! She was sooo excited to see him! Her smile didn’t leave her face! He read Lila’s favorite, Fly Guy ! It was so fun to see Carter come back to read, since I had 3 years ago in kindergarten!!!

There are only 3 weeks left to be our mystery reader!! If you, a grandparent, sibling, aunt/uncle, special babysitter,etc. Would like a turn- e-mail me and we will put you in! We sure LOVE mystery readers!!!

Science:  We have wrapped up our study of Living and Non-living things in Science.  The Kindergarteners did a GREAT job of demonstrating that they understand what a living thing needs (air, space, shelter, food and sunlight).  The Kindergarteners LOVED “eating a plant” on Monday!  We will continue to explore fun science concepts for the remainder of our year with some exciting experiments.

Social Studies:  Next week we will dive into our study of U.S. Symbols.  We will explore the many symbols of the U.S. (Liberty Bell, American flag, Bald Eagle and The Statue of Liberty).

Library: Please return your library book Tuesday this week! This past week was our final check out day for the year. We will still visit the library for a weekly story!

Take Home Books:  Thank you to all of our volunteers and parents with your help on our Take Home Book program!!  Our last day of this program was Thursday, May 18.  Please be sure to return any take home books!

Kindergarten Olympics:  Thank you so much for the awesome turnout of volunteers for our upcoming Kindergarten Olympics.  I will be contacting you soon to give you further details.

Homework:  This week will be the last week of homework.  Please continue to read daily with your child and practice sight words.  Thank you for all of your effort and support in helping your child with homework all year long!!

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, May 22…MUSIC,
• Tuesday, May 23…ART, LIBRARY, Celebrate Ellery’s Summer B’day!!!
• Wednesday, May 24…STEAM.
• Thursday, May 25…GYM, Celebrate Dayne’s Summer B’day!!!
• Friday, May 26…MUSIC .  Wear Red, White and Blue Day!  
• Monday, May 29…NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day!
• Wednesday, May 31… Kayler and Braylee’s Summer Birthday!!!!
• Friday, June 2…Kindergarten Olympics.
• Friday, June 9…LAST DAY OF SCHOOL…Dismissal at 12:15 p.m.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the AMAZING READERS we have become with…. FLASHLIGHT FRIDAY!!!! We will turn off the lights and read by flashlight! Please send a flashlight or two (if you have extras for friends to borrow) with your child tomorrow, marked with their name! I will bring a few extras for those who forgot! We will bring the flashlights home tomorrow! 

Today was the final day for take home books! Thanks so much to all the wonderful parents who volunteered to read with us every week. This helped us as readers greatly!  Thank you for all your time! Wow!! We have all grown so much as readers!! It has been so fun to re-assess their levels this week! So many of us have jumped up! So proud of my readers 🙂 Keep reading at home every night!

Also, continue to work on those rainbow list sight words! I am in the process of re-assessing those words and sending new lists home to practice! No need to send the list back to list anymore. I will send the new lists home as we master them until the end of the school year. We also have lists to practice everyday in our book bins at school. We have all grown in our sight word knowledge this year! And for that in a few more weeks we will celebrate with a fun rainbow run and earning our gold!!! Keep practicing! 

Thanks! And can’t wait for a fun flashlight Friday tomorrow!!! 

On Friday, June 2nd from 8:45-12:00pm we will be holding the Kindergarten Olympic’s. This is our special end of the year celebration where we combine all 4 kindergarten classes on the kindergarten playground for a morning of fun, filled relay games!! In order to make the morning run smoothly we need our wonderful parent helpers! So far I have only 3 volunteers from our classroom who have turned in the form to help! If your able to help please reach out to me by e-mail or return the form that was sent home back to school by this Friday, May 19. If you have younger siblings to watch or are not able to commit to the whole morning. All families are welcome to come watch and cheer us on at any point in the morning. Or join us at noon for a run award ceremony and picnic lunch! Thanks so much for your help and support!!!

May 9-13

Happy Mother’s Day:  The Kindergartners worked so hard on their gifts for Mom!!  They took such special care about just how they wanted their gifts to look.  Choosing just the right colors and words.  We hope you enjoy your special gift!!  Wishing you all a VERY HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!!  Thank you so much for sharing your treasure with me!!

Popcorn Words:  my, by, and one

Math:  This week we continued our work in unit 5.  We practiced working with numbers to figure our greater than, less than and equal!  We worked on making teen numbers with groups of 10 and some more ones.  Also, practicing adding and subtracting numbers.

Writer’s Workshop:  We are continuing our work on opinion writing.  We wrote our opinions this week on…is home lunch or hot lunch better? And what special do we like best (gym, art or music). The kinders were so excited to share their opinion pieces with Mrs. Bowers (art teacher) on Thursday because many of them chose art as the best special!!!  We are having fun writing our opinion, coming up with two reasons why and then coming up with a wrap up sentence.

Readers Workshop:  We are continuing to work on our reading stamina.  Our goal is to be able to sit quietly for 20 minutes and look at books, practice our sight words and even try to read. Next Friday, May 19, we will bring our own flashlight to put a “spotlight/flashlight” on our reading progress!!!

Science:  We have continued our study on Living and Non-Living Things.  We brought our lima bean plants home Monday! Hopefully, you found a special place to re-plant them and keep them growing!

On Tuesday we took our big field trip to the Hemlock Crossing in West Olives and Hager Park!! We had a blast exploring living and non-living things in 3 different settings- meadows, forest and pond! Then we loved to picnic and play with our friends to follow at the park. Thanks to the  many parents who were apart of our day to make it extra special! Check out some pictures….

We also made mini booklet on Animal Needs this week.  The kinders also had fun creating a flower craft. It has been so amazing to witness their love for science and explore the outside with them!!  We will continue with Science for the rest of the year with some “fun” science experiments.

Kindergarten Olympics:  A note asking for parent volunteers came home.  Volunteers will be notified shortly with details.  This special day would not be possible without your help.  Thank you so much.  If you still would like to be part of this fun day, please let me know by Friday, May 19.  It is such a fun day!!  All are welcome to come watch and even enjoy lunch with your child on Olympic day!  We do the Kindergarten Olympics on our K/1 playground.

Mystery Reader’s:  Thank you to Mrs. Maldanado, Dayne’s mom for surprising us on Thursday!!!  When she walked into the door Dayne came running into her arms!!! She brought a familiar fairy tale, Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, wrote partly in Spanish! It was fun to hear that Dayne’s parents speak Spanish at home and he knows many words! It was fun to learn some words in Spanish!! 

Also big thanks to Logan, Liam’s big brother in 5th grade on Friday for visiting us!!! Logan read his favorite book from when he was in kindergarten, Kitten’s First Full Moon! It was a sweet tale of a cute kitten! He did amazing reading aloud to us!! There are 4 more weeks left to get in to volunteer as our reader, e-mail me!!! 

More Summer B’day’s… We celebrated Rich and Liam this week! They have b’days in June and then July!!! Thanks for the treat bags Rich and the cookies, Liam!!! 

Library:  This coming Tuesday will be our last day to check out a library book for the year.  We LOVE our library time!!  Thank you Mrs. VandenBerg for guiding us this year during our library time.

Take Home Books:  We will wrap up our Take Home Books program Thursday, May 18.  Please be sure to send in any take home books by the end of the week.

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, May 15…Take Home Books and Ellie’s Birthday!
• Tuesday, May 16…Take Home Books, Last Day for Library Check-out! Celebrate Mady’s Summer B’day!!! 
• Wednesday, May 17… Math and Lit HW Due and take home books! 
• Thursday, May 18…LAST DAY FOR TAKE HOME BOOKS.  Celebrate Lila’s Summer B’day!!! 
• Friday, May 19… BRING YOUR FLASHLIGHT!! Bring a flashlight to read with for the day. Label the flashlight with your child’s name, it will be returned home the same day.  I will have a few extras to share!
• Wednesday, May 23… Ellery’s Summer Birthday!
• Friday, May 26…Wear Red, White and Blue
• May 29…NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day
• Friday, June 2…KINDERGARTEN OLYMPICS
• Friday, June 9…Last Day of School.  Dismissal at 12:15 p.m.

Popcorn Words:  have, of, on

Math:  We are continuing to work on Unit 5.  The Kindergartners worked on story problems, comparing totals through 10, equal groups and explored tens and ones with teen numbers.  They are doing a GREAT job!

Writer’s Workshop:  This week in writer’s workshop we started a new type of writing:  Opinion Writing!!  We have learned that Opinion writing is when a writer states a belief about something and then gives two reasons to tell why.  This week we practiced opinion writing by telling if we liked swings or slides better and then giving two reasons why. We also wrote about the best way to eat ice cream- cup or cone? And the best pet- dog, cat, hamster, lizard or fish? We also got to taste test chips and salsa in celebration of Cinco de Mayo Friday!  The Kindergarteners had to give their opinion on whether or not they thought chips and salsa was yummy or yucky.   It has been fun to see them explore this genre of writing.  We will continue with Opinion writing over the next two weeks!

Reader’s Workshop:  This week in writer’s workshop we worked on our reading stamina.  We are revisiting the basic guidelines for our reader’s workshop: 1. We need to get started right away.  2.  We need to be readers the whole time.  3.  We stay in one spot.  and 4.  We read quietly.  The Kindergartener’s have done wonderful at revisiting our guidelines of reader’s workshop.

We also had a blast wearing shirts with words Friday!!! We had fun reading each other’s shirts!!! 

Science:  This week we continued exploring Living and Non-Living things around us.  We learned that living things need food, water, shelter, air, sunlight and space to grow.  Our plants continue to grow!! We will be taking these bean plants home soon as they’e quickly out growing their cups!

Split Lit.:  Our split lit. centers have been running very smoothly with the students continuing to work on their sight words, and building their reading skills.  We have also been doing some whole group lessons, reviewing  concepts from letters and sounds to sight words.  I will be assessing students for our end of the year report cards on all concepts.  Sliding can happen with basic skills often and review is needed to ensure that the concepts are mastered.  Thank you for continuing to work with your child on skills that we have learned throughout the year.  I am so excited to see their progress!!

Take Home Books:  Our last day of Take Home Books will be next  Thursday, May 18.  Thank you to all of the parent volunteers for coming in to read with our Kindergarteners!!!  All Take Home Books will be returned Thursday for the school year!

Mystery Reader: No readers this week! 🙁

We only have a few more weeks for mystery readers if you, an older sibling, grandparent, etc. would like to surprise us please e-mail me to set up a time! Please volunteer if you can!! The kinders have all been asking when their special parent will be coming! I am flexible on times, it takes 10 minutes!

Kindergarten Olympics:  What are the Kindergarten Olympics?  A fun day of games where all the Kindergarten classes join together!  We will be having the Kindergarten Olympics on Friday, June 2 .  A note asking for parent volunteers went home the start of the week. I received a few back already! Thank you!!! I will be contact with all volunteers soon with more info. Please bring those slips back if you can help out!

Summer Birthday Celebrations... we have so many summer b’days.. we will be recognizing this and celebrating them throughout the month of May..Jasper and Jay were this week! Thanks for the fabulous b’day treats!! It was fun to have some early celebrations with you! 

Upcoming Dates:

• Monday, May 8… Bring take home book! 
• Tuesday, May 9…Field Trip- Field Trip to Hemlock Crossing Nature Center &  HAGER PARK!!!  HOME LUNCH WITH DRINK INSIDE OF LABELED PAPER BAG IS NEEDED. We will not be ordering hot lunch. Please feel free to join us for our picnic lunch.  We will be at the park around 12:00pm. Your kinder will need a home lunch and water bottle to enjoy during our picnic lunch.  NO SANDALS, FLIP FLOPS OR CROCS. TENNIS SHOES NEED TO BE WORN!!  We will be walking through woods and trails and playing on a big playground.  Please dress your child according to the weather. We will be OUTSIDE for most of the day!;  Bring your Library Book!!! 
• Wednesday, May 10… Rich’s Summer B’day! Celebration!!!! Take home book due and Literacy and Math Homework Due!!!
• Thursday, May 11… Bring take home books and Liam’s Summer B’day Celebration!!! 
• Tuesday, May 16.. Mady’s summer b’day celebration!!!
• Thursday, May 18… Lila’s summer b’day celebration!!!
• Thursday, May 18…Bring all take home books to school!! LAST DAY OF TAKE HOME BOOKS PROGRAM. 
• Friday, May 26… Wear Red, White and Blue Day!!!
• Monday, May 29…NO SCHOOL, Memorial Day!
• Friday, June 2 …Kindergarten Olympics
• Friday, June 9…LAST DAY OF SCHOOL…dismissal at 12:15 p.m.

As apart of our reader’s time we also practiced plays again….. we performed this time for Mrs. Stutz’s kinders!!! We did amazing! You can watch below!!! So many kinders are loving their time on stage! 

 

We will be changing the park that we are going to after our Hemlock Nature Center part of our field trip.  Instead of going to Huizenga Park in Zeeland we will now be going to Hager Parkin Jenison.

We plan to be at Hager Park around 12:00 and have our picnic lunch near the wood structure playground.  Then enjoy some playtime before returning to school around 1:30 p.m.  If you are planning to meet your child for lunch please join us as Hager Park in Jenison on our field trip day.  A note regarding this change will also be coming home with your child on Monday along with directions to Hager Park.

Tomorrow I am hoping to get all of our class to wear clothing with words, a shirt, hat, anything with words! So get out your wearable words and wear it tomorrow Friday, May 5!! 

The month of May in Reading Workshop is all about celebrating the gift of reading and the readers we have become!!! This coming Friday we will have a special reading day where we wear SHIRTS WITH WORDS!!!! Break out your word shirts for Friday! I can’t wait to have you help me read them all!