April 9th - 13th

Happy Saturday! I hope you are all enjoying the beautiful weather today.  It is hard to believe that we are quickly approaching the end of the school year.  We had a wonderful week back in the classroom after spring break. 😊 The next few weeks will be full of many fun activities in the classroom and at school.  Be sure to mark your calendars for all of the dates below.

April 24th: Earth Day Celebration 9-11 AM (parent volunteer sign up sent out)

  ***you may want to put some sunscreen on your child that morning if it's going to be sunny

April 25th: Walking Tour of Davidson (chaperones needed...sign up coming soon)

April 26th: Poem in Your Pocket Day (more info to come)

May 3rd: Ocean Commotion Play 10:00 in MS Black Box (parent event)

May 6th: Mrs. Rumburg's Birthday 

May 18th: No school (CSD Staff Retreat)

May 23rd: Bare Book Sharing 1:00 PM (parent event) *note date change

May 25th: No school (Kindergarten Screening)

May 28th: No school (Memorial Day)

May 29th: Water Day! 8:30 AM-12:00 PM (volunteers needed...sign up coming soon)

May 30th: Final Day of School!

Thank you for practicing your child's play lines with them every night!  They play will be here before we know it.  Make sure to also start brainstorming about your child's costume.  This does not have to be complicated at all! Simple is always best. 😉 If you need ideas, feel free to reach out to me!

Math

This week in math we completed our April calendar which students always love.  This is great number writing practice.  We also continued with our math workshop centers with a heavy focus on range cards.  The students can choose to use beans, jewels, or cubes to complete their range cards.  Some students are writing the equations and I am having other students verbalize the equation to me.  This is great practice for addition as we move more into that for first grade prep.

Literacy

Our literacy time each week has been consistent for the past few months.  Tuesday is guided reading groups and sight word books, Wednesday is word sorts, and Thursday is writer's workshop with a different topic each month.  This is a perfect transition as we move toward first grade.  In first grade, we do "Daily 5" during our reader's workshop time.  The 5 things that the children get to rotate through are:

1. Read to self

2. Read to a partner

3. Work on writing

4. Word work

5. Listen to reading

Thematic

We had so much fun starting our ocean unit this week!  This is one of my favorite units.  We started off by studying sand and animals that live or start their life in the sand (crabs and sea turtles).  Next week we will begin to move into the water and go deeper each week.  We mainly study all of the different ocean animals but we explore many other important topics and questions.  Some of these include layers of the ocean, the density of the ocean, how fish breathe, etc.  Students rotated through four stations this week.
1. We studied sea turtles through a fun activity and learned how we can help more sea turtles survive. We learned about natural causes vs. man-made causes of sea turtles death and our role in helping them.
2. Students learned how to do "sand art" using glue and colored sand.  They got to make their own designs!
3. Students created their own sand paint using sand, shaving cream, and glue and got to draw and paint their own sand castle. 
4. Students illustrated a mini-book called "Sand, Sand, Sand!"

Science
We did our science experiment as a whole group on Monday so that we could observe it as the week went on.  We put four different kinds and sizes of sea shells in a cup of vinegar to see if they would dissolve.  The craziest thing happened and two of the sea shells dissolved!  We learned that shells are made up of calcium carbonate which is a base and when added to an acid like vinegar, they disintegrate.

Have a great weekend!
Love,
Mrs. James