April 21st-25th

We have had a great week in kindergarten!

Math:
We are diving into our new math unit on addition! Using lots of different strategies that we have learned we are able to solve these problems. We have ten frames, tally marks, manipulatives and several basic math facts memorized from range cards that all help us solve equations! On Wednesday we got into groups to solve many addition problems using dot markers. Add paint and it makes everything fun! :) We are also still working on tally marks. At the end of the day we play a game where a certain amount of tally marks is shown, and everyone has to jump that many times. Cool!

Literacy:
We are learning a new site word tomorrow...where! Look for this word while reading and while out and about. A great conversation to have would be the difference between where and wear. We are also still working on examining characters, setting and the main events of stories. We completed a foldable yesterday that will go home today and we will be working through a character, setting and main event sort in groups today. As you are reading with your child, pause and discuss some of these story elements this week. That will help! Writer's Workshop was fun this week as we focused on writing Eric Carle style (he is the author we are looking to as a mentor). Some students also decided to write a "how to" book about how we planted our flowers on Earth Day. We are also enjoying adding onto our bare books. We are thinking and writing about our favorites of kindergarten. Our favorite field trip, center, movie etc.

Science:
On Monday we did two experiments with Peeps. We put a Peep in water as well as in the microwave. We predicted what would happen with both experiments and found that Peeps float in water and often lose their color. We found that when heated, Peeps just expand similar to marshmallows (as several kids figured out). They do not explode!

Thematic:
Our unit on Oceans is off to a great start! We made sand dough and discussed the items we may find in the sand. We started a two day project yesterday about many different types of fish! We read the Rainbow Fish book....a class favorite! Next week we will continue to study oceans and begin to really start learning the songs and play lines for our upcoming play called "Commotion in the Ocean!" Your child will receive play lines next week. Practice with your child each night and remember to keep them in their purple folder as we will often practice her at school as well!

Our Commotion in the Ocean play will be May 20th at 11:00 in the elementary gym. Details to follow regarding costumes and other various play things. ;)

If you have not brought an empty water bottle and old CD, please do so soon! We will need those for our centers next week!

Here is the sign up genius!
www.SignUpGenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-april1

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

April 7th-April 11th

Hello!

Lots of important announcements and things coming up!

Earth Day Celebration
April 24th 9-12
Each year CSD hosts an earth day celebration where we will be outside completing different activities as a kindergarten team! This year's theme is water conservation.


Please make sure you send your child to school that day wearing an outfit that they can play in! Do not forget to wear tennis shoes and apply sunscreen! We will be outside from 9-12. We will also need a few various items to help make the day run smoothly. Sign up to help if you can: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E094BA8A72F4-earth1 or sign up to send in a snack:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4FA5A82BA4FF2-earth  We will need 3 bags of sweedish fish and one 2 small bags of pretzel goldfish.

We will be studying oceans for our next unit! We need each child to bring in one water bottle (that can be used for a project) and one old CD that you do not need anymore. We will be making an ocean out of the water bottle using sand, oil and water. We will be making a fish out of the old CD. If you could send these in by April 21st, that would be marvelous! If you need any help finding these two materials, please let me know.

Literacy:
We have started learning about story elements this week. We have looked at characters, main events and settings of our favorite books, movies and shows. The hardest part has been choosing a main event. Summarizing in kindergarten is difficult! Our new writing topic is "Authors as Mentors." We are studying different authors and trying to include items from their style in our own writing. This week we focused on Eric Carle. His stories often use animals, bright colors and layers of beautiful textures/bright colors! We also learned a new site word....here! Look for this word this weekend. Starting next week, you will notice a sticky note come home on each of the books that your child is bringing home to read to you. These sticky notes will have brief descriptions of what we worked on that day with the book that your child is bringing home that week. It may be certain words, concepts, fluency etc. This will help reinforce these things at home as well as help you guide conversations with your child about the books they are reading!

Math: We are still working on range cards and tally marks this week! Yesterday we tallied different items around the room...windows, books, crayons, ceiling lights etc. It was fun! Today we tallied our favorite sea creatures.

Centers: Because we are about to go on spring break, we chose not to start our next unit until after spring break. This week we are working on our "bare books" and we have been enjoying writing about various topics in those!

Science: We preformed a colorful bubble explosion. We used vinegar, baking soda, water, dawn soap and food dye. It was amazing to watch what happened! You can repeat this experiment at home if you wish. :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful spring break!! See you on April 21st!

Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz

March 31st-April 4th

It has been a busy week but we are sure glad the weather has been so beautiful! We are really looking forward to our field trip today too!




Science:




On Monday we preformed a science experiment called "dancing raisins." We made predictions based on what we thought might happen! We filled a glass with water and each person added a raisin. Then we added baking soda and vinegar. The raisins danced! Because of the reaction between the vinegar and baking soda, the raisins were floating up to the top and then back down. Someone mentioned it looked like the raisins were riding on elevators up and down! Then we tried the same experiment using seltzer water. We poured seltzer water in a glass, added the raisins and watched the same thing happen. Cool!




Literacy:




We learned a new site word this week...that! Look for this word when you are out and about and while you are reading. We also continued to write informational books this week in writer's workshop. We are really growing as writers! We have also started to really focus on capitalization. This is so difficult because there are so many "rules!" As you read and write with your children, start to notice different capital letters and discuss why certain words are capitalized and others are not.




Math:




We started a new concept in math this week. We learned how to count and add/subtract numbers using tally marks! We are still working on range cards but also introduced a new way to count things. Tally marks are easy to count because when you see a group of 5 you do not have to count each one individually. You can count by 5's and then by 1's if you have any leftover. We sent home a tally sheet yesterday that we worked on. You may noticed lots of eraser markers and ripped numbers. This is because it was hard! But we are learning and will do more with tally marks the rest of the year.




Thematic Centers:




We are reading lots of books written by Leo Lionni this week. On Tuesday we read the book A Color of His Own and made a chameleon glyph. We kept these at school because they turned out so neat! each child received a blank chameleon and had to color it based on the answers they gave to certain questions. An example is: "If you are 5 years old, color your chameleon one color. If you are 6 years old color your chameleon more than 1 color." There were several questions and steps for each student to follow. On Wednesday we read another Leo Lionni book called Little Blue and Little Yellow. We began a two day art project where we first stamped black circles on white paper. Then we colored in the circles with oil pastels and noticed when we mixed certain colors it made a new color! We also added more dimension and color by using the dot are markers.




Do not forget, picture day is next week. April 9th (Wednesday).
Half day: April 11th followed by spring break April 14th-April 18th (we now return to school on the 21st because it is a make up snow day)


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Happy weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz