Category Archives: Newsletters

Last Day of Kindergarten!!!

Can you believe it?  Wow!  Where did the year go?  I can’t thank you enough for sharing your kinder with me this year.  It has been such a pleasure to be part of their journey!🙂

The LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN was so much F-U-N!!! 

FRIENDSHIPS:  We read books that highlighted how special each kinder is, we celebrated the friendships we made and remembered many of the things we did this year in kindergarten. ALL of the kinders have grown and matured this year in school. That needed to be celebrated and it was a wonderful way to end our time as a class family. The kinders also had fun looking at their Kindergarten Memory Books. These books are filled with pages of work that they completed along with some special surprises.  I hope that as you look through your child’s book you will be filled with memories of the time spent in kindergarten. 

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR KINDER WITH ME!! I feel so blessed to be part of your kinder’s schooling. I am so grateful for your support and encouragement that you have shown this year. It was a privilege to spend my days with your kinder.  They are so precious and special.  I feel very honored that you entrusted me to care and teach them this year.  They have grown so much….both in height and maturity.  🙂  I know that the friendships the kinders have made will blossom as they continue to learn at Georgetown. 

The kinders filled their backpacks this week with things that they have used in school this year and a few fun extra things.  When there is a rainy day or when your kinder says “I don’t know what to do!”, encourage them to complete pages in their math workbooks, write more stories, read books, write to 100 and beyond and create a list of popcorn words they know.  Continue to foster their love of learning, even in the summer months by using their Home Learning Bags and the clipboards and markers that came home today.  

End of year Report Cards will be mailed home on June 11.  Typically your kinder’s next year teacher is on this report card.  This year the district will be waiting to give out this information until later in the summer.

Lots and lots of love,  I really do love your kinders! (Can I still call them that now that they are first graders?) Have a fabulous summer!  Mrs. Bohl :)

News of the Week—June 1-3

This week we put a bit of fun into our last days of learning together.  

POPCORN AND MOVIE DAY:  On Tuesday, you should have heard the cheers that filled our classroom when the kinders found out that we would be having a popcorn and movie day. WOW! 🙂  We enjoyed tasting 3 different flavors of popcorn….plain, caramel and cheese after sorting the various flavors.   The class results showed plain is yummy but caramel and cheese were the favorites.  We also incorporated learning into playing a popcorn math related game such as; POPCORN MATCH UP.

 

KINDERGARTEN OLYMPICS GAME DAY: Wednesday morning the kinders had SO much fun playing games…Olympic style.  Thank you so much for those who donated supplies and games for this morning fun!  Please see the previous posting for pictures.

BUBBLE DAY:  On Thursday, excitement was heard when the kinders found out that they were allowed to chew BUBBLE GUM in school!  Oh, my goodness! 🙂 I think that our neighboring friends could hear us. (gum is not allowed, so what a treat!!)  We chewed & chewed & chewed before some actual bubbles were made by some kinders. We talked about how you can blow a bubble before we tried. We made these cutie pie kiddos and created a graph that shows if we like or do not like to blow bubbles. We even watched a video of how bubble gum is made in the factory.  Of course we had to relate it to math….it is school!!! The kinders popped up when they heard that math time was going to be playing a math addition game using gum balls. Practicing adding numbers this way is fun!  Listening to a story or two filled out this fun day.

WRITING:  The kinders learned what a bucket list is and have been excited to create their own summer bucket lists.  They wrote a list about PLACES TO GO, THINGS TO DO, FOODS TO EAT and FRIENDS TO SEE Get ready to read what they have on their “bucket list” next week.  Some of the lists are quite long.  I think that you will stay busy this summer. 🙂

SUMMER LEARNING : The end of the school year can often bring LOTS of anxiety in children.  My goal  has been to help the kinders feel proud of their accomplishments this year and celebrate our time together.  So while we have been having enjoying some fun activities during our last days together, the focus is on how much we have grown.  This week we read a book that to explain how the kinders can keep their brains active and continue learning during the summer.   In your kinder’s folder this week, there was a Summer packet. This packet contains literacy, writing and math activities that your kinder can work on over the summer. Happy Learning!!

TIME WITH OUR 5th GRADE BUDDIES:  We spend some time on Wednesday afternoon with our buddies by enjoying a popsicle and playing on the playground together.  We wish them well as they move on to the middle school next year.

TOMORROW, JUNE 4 IS THE LAST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!  IT IS A FAST FRIDAY…..KINDERS WILL BE DISMISSED AT 12:15PM.

News of the Week—May 24-28

POPCORN WORDS:  A week of review!

Hooray for the U.S.A!  This week the kinders learned about our most popular American symbols.

First, we learned what a symbol is (it is a picture that stands for something). Next, we practiced identifying some common symbols for popular spots such as Dairy Queen, Target, Jet’s Pizza, etc.  Then we looked at some American symbols like The White House, The Capital, Air Force One, etc.

 After reading a non-fiction book and watching an informational video about each symbol, the kinders labeled parts of each symbol and choose 1 interesting fact to write on their paper. It was fun to make a craft relating to the symbols too.

Fun facts about the Statue of Liberty were:

  • it was a gift from France
  • it is made from copper
  • she is called “The Lady of Liberty”
  • she holds a torch in one hand and a tablet in the other.

  

Fun facts about the White House were:

  • the President lives in the White House
  • John Adams was the first president to live there
  • You need 570 gallons of paint to paint the outside. 
  • It has 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms 3 elevators, a swimming pool, movie theatre, a bowling alley
  • some rooms are named after colors like The Red Room, The Blue Room.

  

Fun Facts about the Bald Eagle were:

  • they have sharp talons
  • they build their nests high in trees near water
  • they eat fish.
  • they are the national bird of the United States of America

Fun Facts about the Liberty Bell were:

  • it cracked the first time it was rung
  • it is made from copper and tin
  • it hangs from a wooden yoke.

Fun Facts about The American Flag were:

  • it has 50 stars and 13 stripes
  • it has many names like “Old Glory”
  • it is red, white and blue.
  • Betsy Ross sewed the first flag in 1776

We talked about what it means to be patriotic and what we do to show patriotism. Examples were wear red, white and blue, hang a flag, say thank you to veterans, say the pledge.  At the start of each day, the kinders are learning to recite the Pledge of Allegiance by standing tall, still and straight. They have learned what those very special words really mean and what sacrifices the men and women of our country made for our freedom. We THANK them so much!!! Be sure to have your kinders teach you some cool and interesting facts about ALL of the American symbols we have studied.

We had a RED, WHITE  and BLUE snack today

 

 

LITERACY/PHONICS: We practiced identifying ending sounds, H brothers, middle (vowel) sounds and unscrambling sight words.  We also read some books that included popcorn words. It was fun to do a crossword puzzle and word search too.

MATH: We worked on addition, subtraction, number order and teen numbers that had an American Symbols theme.

The kinders once again dipped their toes into doing some first grade math by learning about odd and even numbers.   We used EVEN STEVEN and ODD TODD to help us understand this math concept better. ( I would love to take credit for this fun game but alas it came from this fabulous website called First Grade Parade.)  This is what we did….   

First, I told the story that Even Steven LOVES things to be fair among his friends.  Everyone always needs to have the same amount.  It is all about being fair! 🙂  However, Odd Todd does not care if friends get a different amount.  It fact, he LIKES that! 🙂  We chose a number between 1-20 and a kinder counted out that many “crackers” (mini unifix cubes). We decided who would get the “crackers”…EVEN STEVEN or ODD TODD. Then, a kinder placed the “crackers” ,one at a time, onto each hand until the cubes were gone. This was a great way for the kinders to visually see if the “crackers” were equal or not equal.  Finally we decided if we were correct in our choice.  Were the “crackers” divided fairly in each of EVEN STEVEN’S hands or was there a different amount in each hand that ODD TODD would like?

READING: The kinders LOVED retelling books that we have read by acting them out again this week.  We acted put  Goldilocks and the Three Bears by James Marshall. Each kinder was able to practice being an audience member and actor/actress (if they wanted too).

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS: We began celebrating end of May and summer birthdays.  Happy Birthday to everyone and thank you for the birthday treats!!!

UPCOMING DATES:

*Monday, May 31––NO SCHOOL  Memorial Day

*Tuesday, June 1–MUSIC. Please have ALL donations for Kindergarten Olympics at school

*Wednesday, June 2—GYM. Kindergarten Olympics

*Thursday, June 3––ART  If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 6/3

*Friday, June 4—RECESS. Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal.  LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

News of the Week—May 17-21

POPCORN WORDS:   PLAY. AWAY. TODAY. UP

MATH:  The kinders did a fabulous job being “office workers” while taking their last math test.  I am so impressed and proud of how hard they have worked to learn these math skills.  Their math tests came home this week.  We will continue to review math skills for the rest of the school year. 

The kinders did a bit of first grade work and were introduced to learning about the parts of a clock and how to tell time to the hour.  They learned that a clock has two hands—one short and one long.  The short hand tells the hour, the long hand tells the minutes.  They really enjoyed practicing using their own clocks before completing a worksheet.  We also did more practice with showing teen numbers by tens and extra ones.  On Friday we played FACE OFF, an addition game with a partner.  What fun!

WRITING:  The kinders continued to write and write more small moment stories…all by themselves.  They are doing a great job drawing pictures and writing words to tell about a one time, one event in their life.  They worked hard to think about how they may have felt during this time and included that feeling in their story.  Some of those feelings were: happy, sad, excited, scared. They did their best work! We ended the week reading our own writing – each kinder reading their story to Mrs. Bohl.  Way to go, kinders!

READING: At the beginning of the week, we noticed that characters can remind us of other characters in books.  For example, in Little Critter’s I Was So Mad and Llama, Llama mad at Mama, both of the main characters were upset. We are having a lot of fun reading and asking questions that help us make connections to characters. Later in the week the kinders were introduced to how characters perform in a Reader’s Theater.  In order to get really good at our parts we practiced…

  • taking turns reading the script
  • sounding like real characters when we read
  • watching for punctuation
  • using our face and body to become the character

Then we took turns to act out one of the characters in the story The Pigeon wants a…

LITERACY/PHONICS: We worked on these skills….

  • learning that every syllable has at least one vowel
  • making more words in the -ay word family (play, lay, hay, say, etc)
  • identifying the H brothers
  • listening for vowels in words
  • identifying words that begin with BL or ST blends
  • finding pictures that have the R blend 
  • listening to story and drawing a picture of our favorite character

A fun way to end the week by making a fun summer treat on Friday. 

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please. Now that the days are getting warmer, we are getting a little more thirsty during the day.
  • Return take home books on Wednesday.  We are collecting all books for summer inventory.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, May 24—STEAM

*Tuesday, May 25—MUSIC

*Wednesday, May 26—GYM; Return TAKE HOME BOOKS

*Thursday, May 27—ART 

*Friday, May 28–STEAM  CELEBRATING AMERICA––wear red, white and blue

*Monday, May 31–NO SCHOOL  Memorial Day

*Thursday, June 3–If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 6/3

*Friday, June 4–Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal.  LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!

***Have a FABULOUS weekend. Another nice weekend to be outside. Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—May 10-14

POPCORN WORDS:  MY. BY. ONE

READING: At the beginning of the week we made connections to a character and their problem in the story.  We asked ourselves…”Has that happened to me?”  We talked about something special breaking or getting/wanting a pet and thought “Has that ever happened to me?” Later in the week, we learned more about characters in the books we read. We read more Froggy books and compared the adventures Froggy goes on in different books. Then we compared two different characters in an Elephant and Piggie book. We noticed what was the same about them and what was different. It is fun studying and learning about characters!

WRITING:  We were busy building our strength in writing Small Moment stories this week.  The kinders are working hard each day.  They chose a story that is true and about themselves.  Then they told the story across their fingers, focusing on the beginning, middle and end.  Drawing the pictures and writing the words came next and ending by sharing their stories with a friend. What hard work!  I am proud of their progress!

MATH:  We compared objects this week.  The kinders learned what longer than, shorter than and  taller than really mean by going on a hunt around the room for real objects they could measure against their pencil.  We also compared objects that are heavier or lighter.   We finished the week by starting to review various math skills we have studied in this unit.  We will be working as “office workers” next week by taking our last math test. 

LITERACY/PHONICS:  We were very busy working on these literacy skills…

  • sorting pictures having short e,o,i  sounds
  • making new words by changing the vowels and other letters
  • reading a short story and answering comprehension questions
  • studying our popcorn words—by, my, one
  • learning to read and write plurals in words 

KOOL KINDER AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week paper clips, Hot Wheels cars, pennies, popcorn and Skittles.

WE SHINE AS READERS:  Pictures using our flashlights to read 🙂

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please. 
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday.  We are collecting all  books for summer inventory.
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet and rainy, others will be warm and sunny.  Please continue to send a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it rains. Thanks! :).  

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, May 17—STEAM

*Tuesday, May 18—MUSIC

*Wednesday, May 19—GYM; Return TAKE HOME & LIBRARY BOOKS

*Thursday, May 20—ART If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 5/20

*Friday, May 21–ART  Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal. MY STATE IS GREAT–wear clothes which show a place in Michigan

***Have a WONDERFUL weekend. It sounds like it could be a nice weekend to be outside. Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—May 3-7

Thank you so much for the cards and gifts this week to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week.  I LOVE my job and your kinders!  I am very grateful and blessed to spend my days with them.

POPCORN WORDS:  HAVE. ON.  OF

READING: We continued our study about characters.  We made connections to how the characters in books are feeling.  We looked at their facials expressions, body language and actions to help us learn more about them.  We read some of our favorite books like Llama Llama, Little Critter and Froggy.

 

 

 

Looking at their facial expressions.  How are they feeling?

. Looking at their body language.  How do they look?

  Looking at their actions.  What are they doing?

WRITING:  We revisited small moment stories this week.  We started by thinking of a story that is absolutely true and all about you. We told the story to ourselves and then to a friend (what happened first, next and last). We drew a quick sketch of the beginning, the middle and the end on sticky notes. Then we started writing our story! We made a cover page, a beginning, middle and end. We added pictures and labels to our writing and did our best work! I am so proud of how hard the kinders worked.

LITERACY/PHONICS: Some of the activities we worked on this week were:

  • sorting pictures having short a and short i sounds
  • writing words and sentences with a and i vowels
  • finding popcorn words in books
  • making words in the -og word family
  • reading a short story and answering comprehension questions
  • listening for beginning and ending sounds in words
  • looking for mistakes in sentences (capitals, punctuation) and fixed them

MATH: The kinders learned about the words greater than, less than and equal.  We counted objects and compared them, telling which group was greater, less, equal. Then we crossed out or added objects to make the groups equal.  We also made teen numbers of 11-20 and wrote number equations, noticing how the partners switch places (4+2=6 and 2+4=6). The kinders had fun walking around the room finding hidden pictures and solving the addition problems. The kinders have grown SO much in their math skills!  

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week M&M’s, candy, goldfish crackers, gummy bears and beads.

 We celebrated a birthday.  Thank you for the birthday treat!!

I hope that ALL mothers and grandmothers have a beautiful day on Sunday.  You play such an important role in your kinder’s life. Your kinder loves you very much.  I hope that you enjoy the small gift that your kinder made for you. They were very excited to take it home! 🙂

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please. 
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday.  We only have a few weeks left!  🙂
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet and rainy.  Please continue to send a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it rains. Thanks! :).  
  • Thank you for sending in jokes!  We had a lot of giggles and laughs.  🙂

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, May 10—ART

*Tuesday, May 11—STEAM

*Wednesday, May 12—MUSIC; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books! Thank you for taking the time to write comments about your kinder’s reading of their TAKE HOME books.  That is so helpful 🙂

*Thursday, May 13—GYM 

*Friday, May 14–ART Bring a flashlight to read with today.

***Have a WONDERFUL weekend. Mrs. Bohl

 

 

News of the Week—April 26-30

POPCORN WORDS:   COME.  SOME

WRITING:  We read books and watched some videos about COWS before we wrote facts onto our “have, can, are” charts. The kinders decided which facts they wanted to include in their own All About Cows books.  They worked independently to put their facts into sentences, remembering to use capital letters, spaces between words and sentence stoppers, before drawing detailed pictures.  This was their “on-demand/test” of our All About ___ writing genre. This informational book will be graded and used for our final report card grade on informational writing. The kinders did a fabulous job!  I can’t wait to share how well they did with you.  

We made a cute cow craft on Friday.  It was ‘moo’arvlous fun! 🙂

READING: We began a new unit called Character Round-Up.  In this unit, we will dive deeper into learning about characters. We started by learning that a character can be an animal, person or thing, characters can talk and characters can change, plus more. Then we took time to look closely at what characters look like. We learned more about characters by studying what they say or do and asking ourselves “Are they nice? Are they mean?”.  We can also learn about characters through what other characters do and comparing them to the main character.

MATH:  We worked on finding partners of number 7 by using 2 colors of unifix cubes.  What fun!  We also worked in our math books making groups of objects equal by drawing more objects, comparing objects that are Greater than or Less than, solving addition and subtraction problems and found totals of number partners. We had fun playing FLOWER POWER to practice writing addition and subtraction equations.

LITERACY/PHONICS: We learned that every word has at least one vowel.  Mabel told us we can use a new super power…VOWEL POWER when we look at words.  She gave each of us our own vowel shields to help us accomplish this. We searched through big books to find as many vowels as we could. We also worked on…

  • reading a short story and answering comprehension questions
  • making words in the -IT family
  • listening for and writing vowels
  • sentence dictation – writing all the sounds we hear in the words

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week were legos, popcorn, chocolate chips and mint candies

STUFFED ANIMAL DAY FUN

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please. 
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet and rainy.  Please continue to send a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it rains. Thanks! :)
  • *MAY/JUNE CALENDAR:  The MAY calendar and JUNE calendar can be found at the top of our blog under CALENDARS.  You can also refer to the paper copy that was sent home this week.  

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, May 3—GYM

*Tuesday, May 4—ART

*Wednesday, May 5—STEAM; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books! Thank you for taking the time to write comments about your kinder’s reading of their TAKE HOME books.  That is so helpful 🙂

*Thursday, May 6—MUSIC 

*Friday, May 7–GYM. Bring a joke to school today!

***Have a fabulous weekend. Mrs. Bohl

 

News of the Week—April 19-23

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EARTH DAY: We enjoyed making and wearing our Earth Day hats on Thursday. We read Just a Gum Wrapper and It’s Earth Day! by Mercer Mayer among other books to assist in our learning about Earth Day.  We learned how we can take care of the earth and “go green” by recycling paper, cans and bottles, turning off lights when leaving a room, turning off the water while brushing teeth and using containers instead of plastic baggies for snacks. The kinders used this information to create a craft.  Having a chance to marble paint was part of the fun. 

We took a few minutes to find out where the 4th graders each week take our bags of scraps of paper.  The kinders were surprised to learn that we have a big recycling bin in our school parking lot.  Looking inside at all of that paper was pretty cool too. (Sorry…no pictures of that.  I was too busy lifting 22 kinders up to look inside) Many kinders said that they recycle at home.  Keep working to keep our earth healthy and clean.

   

Cheers were heard when I explained what we would be doing with blue & green frosting, a popsicle stick and a cookie……making an Earth Day cookie. Who knew that frosting and cookies make kinders explode with cheers?  🙂 Love it!!

     

POPCORN WORDS:   THEY. THESE

MATH: We found partners of 6 & 10, used the symbol of equal (=) and not equal (=with/through it) to find groups that are fewer, showed teen umbers as 10 and extra ones and solved addition problems.  We learned how to play Domino Dots to practice addition.  What fun!

WRITING: Our topic of study this week was CHICKENS.  We read many different non-fiction books on chickens while writing down many interesting facts on a big chart. Then we organized these facts onto our own “have, can, are’ papers and highlighted 3 favorite facts before writing them down and drawing pictures in our  All About Chickens books. We added another page to our all about books this week – we added an ending page. We found a way to wrap up our topic on chickens. The kinders did an AMZING job working more and more independently!!  Enjoy having your kinder read their writing to you.  

FAIRY TALES—THE LITTLE RED HEN:  We read various versions of the  The Little Red Hen this week. The kinders used the Shape Go Map to help recalling details of the story.  The kinders practiced their retelling skills by using character cutouts and a setting that they drew onto a paper bag.  I hope that you ask them to sing the retelling song we learned as they retell the story to you this weekend.

READING: We learned that readers read everything they can about a topic by reading more than one book about the same topic. We used 2 books about insects to practice this.  After reading 2 books about ducks, we noticed facts that were similar and different.The kinders then tried to find similar and different facts in their 2 books.  The kinders fun playing a game  using non-fiction text features. We said, “Can you spy with your little eye…” and then gave a non-fiction text feature for our reading partner to look for in their topic books. We looked for things such as bold words, fancy words, photographs, labels, glossary. Finally, the kinders learned that readers can think about everything authors what them to learn about a topic. They had fun sharing some fun facts with friends.

LITERACY/PHONICS: We were busy working on these skills….

  • remove beginning sounds to make new words isn’t always one letter but sometimes two letters. You can add CH, SH, TH. (chip-ship)
  • listening for ending sounds
  • making words in the -ET family
  • reading a short story and answering comprehension questions
  • reading the story of The Little Red Hen and retelling it using the props we made

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week were pom poms, marshmallows, mini chocolate chips and freeze dried Skittles.  We are having so much fun trying to guess the amount and are practicing making groups of ten and extra ones too.

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please. Recently many kinders are “SOOOO HUNGRY” and are eating more than one snack in the a.m.  Often leading to “I need a snack” in the afternoon.  Growing kinders!  I do some extra snacks for just in case. Please be sure to have a conversation with your kinder about snacks.  I do make them eat what you send.  
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet, rainy and maybe snowy :(.  Please continue to send a hat and mittens, along with a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it snows or rains. Thanks! :)

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, April 26—MUSIC;  Book orders due online or paper forms with check made out to Scholastic Book Clubs

*Tuesday, April 27—GYM

*Wednesday, April 28—ART; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books! Thank you for taking the time to write comments about your kinder’s reading of their TAKE HOME books.  That is so helpful 🙂

*Thursday, April 29—STEAM 

*Friday, April 30–MUSIC

***Have a fabulous weekend. Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—April 12-16

POPCORN WORDS:   HIM. JUMP

WRITING:  We began the week by listing facts we knew about goats.  There were a lot of good facts.  Then we read informational books about goats to gather more facts.  The kinders incorporated these facts into their writing as they created another book of All About Goats using the format of Goats have _____.  Goats can ____.  Goats are ____. The kinders are doing a fantastic job with their informational writing.  They have made incredible progress this year in their writing. I am so proud of their hard work.

FAIRY TALES….THE THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF:  Our fairy tale this week was about 3 brave goats who had courage to cross a bridge and deal with a bully, the troll. We read the original story and a few different versions of the fun fairy tale.  Again, we used the SHAPE GO map to help us retell the story, talk about the characters, setting and heart of the story. We discussed words that described the three goats and the troll.  This led into a good discussion about what we can do if we encounter a bully. We also had an awesome discussion about what makes a hero.  We thought the biggest billy goat was like a hero for saving his little brothers. We ended the week by having fun making our own trolls.

  

MATH:  We focused on number partners this week.  We completed pages inside of our math workbooks and played games. One game was called The Hiding Zero Game. This game focused on practicing teen numbers, each teen number is made by replacing the zero in the ten with a number that tells how many ones there are. For example, 14=10+4. Pigs in the Pen was another fun game.  Lay out 10 objects. One partner closes their eyes while the other partner removes some of the “pigs”. Open eyes and say “6 pigs in the pen.  How many more pigs to make ten?” (6+4=10) Lima Bean Shake was a third game we played.  We also reviewed sorting by completing a book called Bonkers for Buttons and actually sorting objects.

LITERACY/PHONICS: We worked on these skills….

  • letters that work together to make a single sound – we looked at the sound s makes, the sound h makes and then the sound they make when they are together (sh)
  • sorting pictures that start with s, h and sh
  • making words in the word family -UM
  • writing and reading CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant)
  • reading the story of The 3 Billy Goats Gruff and retelling it using the props we made

READING: We learned that non-fiction readers think of new words that they are learning and write them down. Readers sometimes need to be detectives and use clues on the whole page to figure out the meaning of words, reminding themselves to not read too fast so that you don’t miss important facts.

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG AND THE GUESSING BAG:  The items this week were seashells and a stuffed lion. We also started a new activity for being the Kool Kinder.  Be on the lookout for the GUESSING BAG.  You will need to fill the GUESSING BAG with a number of the same objects (1-50).  Then the kinders will try to guess the number.  A fun way to practice estimating, number identification and making groups of 10 and extra ones.  So far we have tried to guess the number of cotton balls, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS:  We celebrated 3 birthdays this week.  Thank you so much for the birthday gift treats!

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please.
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be cold, wet, rainy and maybe snowy :(.  Please continue to send a hat and mittens, along with a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it snows or rains. Thanks! :)
  • Change of clothes check.  Be sure to check the extra clothes baggy in your kinder’s backpack that they are season and size appropriate.  With spring weather, recess can sometimes get messy.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, April 19—MUSIC

*Tuesday, April 20—GYM

*Wednesday, April 21—ART; TAKE HOME BOOKS & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books! 

*Thursday, April 22—STEAM If your kinder would like a sack lunch from the lunch service, please email me or write a note by Thursday, 4/22

*Friday, April 23–EXTRA RECESS Fast Friday (Early Release) 12:15 p.m. Dismissal

***Have a wonderful weekend. Mrs. Bohl

News of the Week—March 29-April 1

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Well, we made it!  It is officially SPRING BREAK!  The kinders have been anxiously counting down the days.  Take a peek at what happened this week in kindergarten.

POPCORN WORDS:  A week of review

WRITING:  This week we complied facts about bears onto a large chart and referred to that chart throughout the week.  We organized our facts onto our individual “have, can, are” papers.  As we wrote our informational booklets we asked ourselves “What else can I add?” by remembering what writers and illustrators do…write words and drawing matching detailed, labeled pictures.  The kinders did a great job writing their All About Bears books.

FAIRY TALES—-GOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS:  We read MANY stories of The Three Bears…the ‘original’ versions, along with others like Goldilocks and the 3 Hares, Tackylocks and  Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears.  We practiced using different words to describe Goldilocks. For example she had yellow hair, she was naughty, curious, she was rude and likes porridge.  We used the Shape Go map during retell, focusing on what happened in the beginning, the middle and the end of story.  We had fun retelling the story using puppets.  

MATH:  We worked on learning more about number partners of 10 using stars in the night sky, practiced telling story problems with drawings and worked with teen numbers. We had fun finding number partners of 10 using jelly beans in an Easter Basket.

READING: We learned that readers can add an ending to a nonfiction book. Some non-fiction books just end, others invite readers to do something.  Readers can notice & use their nonfiction FEATURE POWER. This power helps us gather even more information about our book. Non-fiction illustrators use bold words, labels and headings to highlight specific facts too.

LITERACY/PHONICS: We worked on …. 

  • writing and reading CVCe words (consonant-vowel-consonant-silent e)
  • writing and reading CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant)
  • identifying ST and BR blends
  • reading and finding popcorn words in Goldilocks and the 3 Bears story

KOOL KINDER AND THE SURPRISE BAG:  The items this week were: a stuffed dog, glow in the dark bat and LOL doll.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SAWYER

In between our “regular” learning  this week we squeezed in some fun by….going on an Easter Egg hunt on our playground and by decorating an egg.  The kinders decorated an egg before it was taped to the seat of their chair.  It was the kinders’ responsibility to keep their egg warm by sitting on it while waiting for it to hatch.  Throughout the day on Thursday, the eggs began to hatch chicks….PEEPS chicks that is.  What a lot of fun it was when the kinders realized their egg had hatched.  You just have to LOVE kinder humor and excitement! 

REMINDERS

  • Bring 2 snacks each day to school and a water bottle with a spill proof lid please.
  • Return take home books and library books on Wednesday
  • Watch the weather. Please keep in mind that even though the season is spring, some days will be wet and rainy and maybe snowy :(.  Please continue to send a hat and mittens, along with a coat, with your kinder. Boots are not needed unless it snows or rains. Thanks! :) 
  • Change of clothes check.  Be sure to check the extra clothes baggy in your kinder’s backpack that they are season and size appropriate.  With spring weather, recess can sometimes get messy.
  • TAKE HOME Books:  Your kinder will not have a book to take home over Spring Break.  They will be taking home a new book to read on Wednesday, April 14.  If you have free time, continue to practice popcorn words, addition & subtraction stories with written partner equations and write various kinds of stories…narrative, informational and pattern books.

UPCOMING DATES

*Monday, April 12—STEAM. WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL Celebrate Emily’s birthday (4/8)

*Tuesday, April 13—MUSIC

*Wednesday, April 14—GYM; TAKE HOME BOOKS come home again & LIBRARY Don’t forget your books!  Celebrate Grayson’s birthday

*Thursday, April 15—ART 

*Friday, April 16–STEAM. Celebrate Sophia’s birthday

***Have a wonderful, safe, relaxing break!  Enjoy creating memories this week with your family   Mrs. Bohl