March 12th-16th

Happy Friday! We had another great week in kindergarten. 😊 The kids had so much fun today setting up their traps to try and catch the leprechaun!  We will see if he decides to stop by the room this weekend. 😉 🍀 Read below for some announcements and a review of our week! We have had fun studying Dr. Seuss and Mem Fox the past two weeks in our author study.

March 30th-April 8th: SPRING BREAK!

April 10th: Field trip to the Laurel's Nursing Home.  Ride the bus with us or meet us there.  We load the bus at 10:00 AM and the program starts at the nursing home at 10:30 AM and lasts till 11:30 AM.

April 25th: Walking tour of Davidson.  We will need lots of chaperones for this field trip.  We walk from CSD to downtown Davidson and go on a tour of the police department, fire department, post office, and possible the library.  This is a really fun field trip to come on with your child! We will leave in the morning around 8:30-8:45ish and it will last most of the day.  More details to come!

Math:
Over the course of last week and this week, students have learned two new ways to do range cards!  I introduced how to use unifix cubes and jewels for range cards.  The kids of course LOVED the jewels because they are pretty and fun. 😊 You can find your child's range card sheets in their blue communication folder and you can have them explain to you what they do.  We do our normal eight station math workshop and the range cards are in 2-3 of the bins for them to choose to go to.  These tables are always full because they love them!  As mentioned a few weeks ago, range cards work on many different foundational math skills such as number sense, addition, subtraction, equation writing, and math facts.

Literacy:
In literacy the past two weeks, we have continued our sight word books, guided reading books, word sorts, and writer's workshop!  Thank you for reading your child's guided reading book with them at home every night and helping them remember to bring it back on Friday.  This is so important in their journey of becoming a better reader!  Remind your child to use Eagle Eye, Stretchy Snake, Chunky Monkey, and Lips the Fish as they read. 👍

Thematic:
This week we studied the author "Mem Fox" who wrote many great children's books!  Our student's favorite books of hers were Koala Lou, Possum Magic, Tough Boris, and Whoever You Are.  We did an activity for each of these books throughout the week.
Koala Lou: Students illustrated a non-fiction book about koalas.
Possum Magic: Students watercolor painted on a white sheet of card stock that had someone's name written on it in white crayon.  It was "magic" when the name appeared.  They had to write that person's name, draw a picture of them, and write a sentence about that person telling them what they love about them.
Tough Boris: Students created a parrot that can sit on their wrist!  We always love to incorporate art into our thematic centers.
Whoever You Are: Students got to use tissue paper to tear and decoupage the "world" and then glued a peace sign on top.  This was a great fine motor skill activity!

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James