Week of April 15th-18th

Hi! We have lots of exciting things coming up so wanted to make sure you have all the info. you need!

Next Thurs., April 25th is the Bluejay Expo. It is a time for your family to come up and see all the great things happening in our room and in school. Doors will open at 2:15. You must enter through the front of your school and have your ID. You will wait in the gym until 2:30 and then will be dismissed to the classes. If you have multiple children here at BE, please come and get your kindergartener first. You can tour the room, see what we’ve been working on, explore the hall art and take a tour of the bldg and go to the older kid’s class as well. If you are ready to leave before dismissal, you can sign them out with me in the room and take them when done. Please let me know if you will NOT have an adult here with your child. We try and find some other adults to pair them up with if not. The kids are excited to share their work with you! If there is any way at least one person can make it, it’s important to the kids and hard for kindergarteners to understand when someone isn’t here. 🙂

The field trip will be on Friday April 26th. We will leave at 8:45, so please make sure you are on time to school. I will email volunteers with directions separately. We will be inside and outside, so please have them wear weather appropriate clothing to play at the park. Tennis shoes would be best and send a jacket if needed with their name in it. They will need a disposable sack lunch in a paper bag or gallon baggie works well. Please send a disposable water bottle with their name on it as well. We will be going to the Coterie Theater and then the park by the Indian Creek library to eat lunch followed by a tour of the library.

Book orders are due by noon on 4/24. This will be our last order of the year.

Kids Teach notes came home. Please remember to have them send in their idea as soon as possible so we can make sure it’s long enough and it doesn’t double up with someone else. I told them they could not teach about something we’ve already learned about and can’t do ocean animals as we’ll be doing that in May. They need to have a poster board to go with their lesson and it’s important that they do the work. They need to practice at home so they are ready to go on their day. If you know they’ll be gone the day that they were assigned, please let me know asap. This is part of their speaking and listening grade and is not an optional project. 🙂

For our community service project, we will be modge podging rocks that were painted a few years ago and putting them out by the playground to brighten the area!

We are learning about engineering and the terms structure and function. You’ll see a few projects we’ve done at Bluejay Expo. After that, we will learn about insects and then ocean animals and then all of a sudden school will be out! I will send the schedule of dates for May next week.

Please remember that we have a half day tomorrow (Thurs) and pick up is at NOON and no school on Friday.

And just fyi, I have a Dr. appt on Wed. April 24th, so my class will be dismissed from Ms. Funk’s room which is door K.

Have a great rest of the week!

Week of April 8th-12th

This week after learning about and experiencing the eclipse, we started our unit on living/nonliving things and plants. We are learning how plants grow, what parts of plants we can eat, what plants need to survive and we planted some flower seeds! We did an experiment to learn how water travels up the stem of a plant and goes to all the parts to help it live. We’ll finish up plants next week and then learn about engineering and the structure and function of things. We’ll use that information to build Jack’s beanstalk whose structure has to be as tall as possible, sturdy, and hold a golden egg. We will also be working with the other kindergarten classes to finish up some decorative rocks to put out as a service project to help beautify the school!

We are finishing up teen numbers in math and will start working on decomposing 3D shapes. We are also doing LOTS of problem solving and practicing fluency with our math facts!

On Monday, an important note will come home about the Kids Teach lessons that will start in May. Each child will choose a subject to teach the class about. The lessons HAVE to be okay’d by me first and it’s first come first serve, so get your ideas in early. The note is pretty self explanatory but I’ll send more info home next week.

Book orders are due April 24th. Please have them in by noon so I can get them ordered and we can be sure they get back quickly. Books can be great incentives and great for trips! Be sure to use code READS to get a free book with a $25 order!

The glow party is tonight. My great-niece is having her 3rd birthday tonight, so I will be at that instead. Besides a bunch of kids dancing around my fractured leg makes me a little nervous…ha!

Please turn in permission slips for the field trip. I will contact parent volunteers next week.

Reminder that we have a HALF day on Thurs. the 18th, with dismissal at NOON. No school for kids on the 19th due to professional development. Look at the last post for all the April dates.

And lastly, thank you for the birthday treats! I love the basket of my favorite things and the gift cards and homemade cards! And I got a BIG birthday chalk greeting! It was a nice birthday surprise! Thank you all!!

I hope you have a great weekend. The school year is rapidly coming to a close and the progress your kids have made is amazing! I’ll be sending a note home soon about a summer packet. Please continue to practice all the skills we’ve learned this year over the summer so they hit first grade up and running! I’m already getting a little sad to say goodbye. I get them just where I want them and they LEAVE me! 🙂 This is a great group and they’ve been lots of fun! Enjoy them, they’re only little once! 🙂

Week of April 1st-5th

We have a lot going on and a lot coming up, so I’m just going to bullet point for you:

• Monday is the eclipse. Please send in a beach/pool towel for your child. We will be out on the blacktop for awhile and that will be a little more comfortable to be on. We talked about the importance of keeping the glasses ON the entire time we are out. We will not have a TOTAL eclipse, so we will not be able to have our glasses off at all. I made the kids masks to help better protect their eyes, but please have a conversation with them about how important this is!! Thank you to Rachel Katz, Son Kim, Ben Lambertson, and Kylie Rossner who are coming up to help. (Adults, please bring your own glasses, we don’t have extras). Please do not put anything in the girl’s hair, unless it is a low or high ponytail. I measured the headbands to fit today.
• Please check at home for gloves that may be mine. I am missing a red, blue, and black pair. I had 5 extra pairs for kids to borrow and am now down to 2.
• We will send permission slips home for the field trip on Monday. Please sign and return as soon as possible. We will be going to the Coterie theatre in Crown Center. Then we will get back on the bus and go have lunch at the park by the Indian Creek library on 135th st and then have a tour of the library and a story time. They will need a disposable sack lunch and disposable water bottle. We are asking for 6 parent volunteers to join us at the library to help with lunch/bathroom/library time. If you’d like to go, information is on the additional permission slip being sent home. If we have more than 6, we will draw names. All permission slips are due by the 18th at the latest.
• Please be sure i-pads are charged daily. We will start to use them a little more and it frustrates the kids when they can’t participate in the same way. We’ve been doing some CVC spelling work on them.
• Please be practicing math facts to 5. They will start math facts to 10 at the beginning of first grade and we have been asked to be sure they know them to five fluently. We work on them daily but this will be a good thing to practice over the summer too!
• Have your child share all they learned about frogs and community helpers. Today we learned about maps and they have a weekend homework map assignment. Next week, we will start learning about living/nonliving things and plants.
• Upcoming April dates to know:
• April 8th Eclipse day–send in a beach towel
• April 11th NO SCHOOL for current kindergarteners since we will be doing kindergarten enrollment for next year
• April 12th PTA Glow party
• April 18th half day, dismissal at NOON (no lunch served) (permission slips due)
• April 19th NO SCHOOL, professional day for teachers
• April 25th Bluejay Expo
• April 26th Field trip
• May 10th field day (more info to come)
• May 22nd last day of K, dismissal at NOON

I hope you have a great weekend!