Friday, April 17, 2015

April 17, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We had a wonderful trip to the Big Apple Circus on Wednesday! The show was wonderful and the kids seemed to really enjoy it! We want to say a special thank you to Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Delaney for coming with us!

We completed our unit on the circus. The student’s artwork will be coming home after vacation.  It is all beautifully displayed in our classroom and in the hallway.  Be sure to check out previous blog posts to see different projects and other fun happenings we have had!

The students also finished their individual innovations called One, Two, Three, Four.  These went home today in their folders.  I would encourage your children to read them as often as possible and be sure to point to the words as they read!  It is a wonderful way to reinforce their sights words in context.  The students did a great job thinking of different adjectives to describe the animals in their books.

I would encourage you and your child to work a lot on their sight words and math fluency facts.  May is a big assessment month for us and I will be checking students on both of these skills during the next few weeks.  I would also encourage you to read, read, read as much as possible!

We will be starting our nature unit when we return from our spring break and will be learning about life cycles, trees, seeds, and eventually insects.  We will also be making observations about the signs of spring we see outside.  We will be taking pictures of different places around the school over a 4-6 week period and comparing the pictures every week.  It may be a fun project for you to do at home too!  I would love to see the pictures when you are done if you do decide to do it!  It is hard to believe spring is already here, even though it has been so cold and late!

We hope you have a fantastic, fun-filled, and relaxing week of vacation.  We look forward to hearing all the students' stories when they return!

Have a great week!

Melanie Duncan

Shape Pictures

We did a quick unit on 2D and 3D shapes this week. We made shape pictures and did a lot of sorting. The shape pictures came out so well I decided to display them in our classroom!



Electricity Experiments

We learned a little about electricity this week. We talked about electrical safety, how to make simple circuits, and the difference between conductors and insulators. We've got a bunch of little electricians in our room!









Circus Diaramas

The students made circus scenes of some of their favorite acts. They came out great! It was fun to see the students' creativity!








Big Apple Circus Field Trip

We had a wonderful time at the circus! I don't know if it was more fun to watch the performance or the students' faces!  It was a wonderful show!



















Friday, April 10, 2015

Circus Projects

Here are some of the fun circus projects we have done this week in preparation for our field trip to the Big Apple Circus next week!





April 10, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

I’ve heard next week is supposed to be warmer!  I don’t know about you, but I am certainly ready for some nicer weather!  I know the students will enjoy playing outside without all their winter accessories!

We have been busy working on our circus projects!  We made circus elephants, circus tents, and a long circus train.  We have also been writing about circus acts and what we would like to do if we were in the circus.  Our trip to the Big Apple Circus is this Wednesday, April 15th.  Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Delaney will be joining us for our special day!  I’m sure you will hear all about it when your child gets home!

The students have been doing very well sorting in math.  We will be working a little with solid/3D shapes next week before vacation.  I would like to remind everyone to continue working on the subtraction fluency facts at home so the students can become more comfortable with them.  We have been doing a lot of work with the sight words too but extra support from home is always appreciated.

We will be wrapping up our writing unit on persuasive writing next week.  The students have been researching different kinds of animals that would make great class pets and will be writing me letters trying to convince me which class pet we should get for our classroom!  They have been completing a lot of impressive work and have been really engaged in the lessons!

Our last day of school will be on Tuesday, June 23rd.  Two of the make up days for snow days have been cancelled because of “Blizzard Bags.”  The bags will not affect Kindergarten at all.  Kindergarten students are not expected to complete any extra work.  If you have children in grades 1 or higher, you will be receiving information next week about the “Blizzard Bags” and the work they are expected to complete as an alternative to making up the snow days in June.  Please let me know if you have any questions about this.

Monday is a Red Sox Day!  Students are welcome to wear any Red Sox gear they may have.  It is completely optional.

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

Thursday, April 2, 2015

April 2, 2015 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We were so glad that so many of you were able to make it to our Kindergarten Museum yesterday.  The students were so proud to show off their projects and the hard work that went into them.  I hope you enjoyed looking through all the projects when they came home after the museum and hope you enjoyed looking through all the pictures in my blog post.

We started our circus unit today.  This unit is short but so much fun and is very exciting for the students.  We painted some circus animals that we will put in our circus train next week.  We will be making circus tents and elephants next week too.  I’ll be sure to post some pictures when they are done.  Thank you for all the shoeboxes.  We could still use a couple more if you have any at your home.

The students are excited about our next field trip to the Big Apple Circus.  We will be going on Wednesday, April 15th and already have enough chaperones.  Mrs. Collins and Mrs. Delaney will be joining us for this trip.

The students have been busy working with sight words and writing in their journals.  A bunch of their work went home today for you to look at.  I would encourage you to have your child reread their journals and other work that goes home for further practice.  I have been encouraged by the comments I have received about the reading logs I sent home a couple of weeks ago and would encourage you to continue reading with your child as much as possible.

We started a new topic in math today.  The students thought it was amusing how easy today’s lesson was!  We are starting to do more with classifying, sorting, counting, and categorizing data.  We focused on discussing similarities and differences with shapes today.  I think it will be enjoyable for the students.

There is no school tomorrow because it is Good Friday.  I hope you all have a very happy and enjoyable long Easter weekend!

Melanie Duncan