Week of 5/1

Dear Parents,

We had a great week of creativity last week, starting with a two-part Strawbee lesson with Ms. Puliese on Tuesday & Thursday. Children were challenged to build a cube, then build a larger cube, then build a third cube that the team could fit inside. A few groups did make it through all three challenges! We ended the week with building box structures out of all the donated boxes (thank you!) The children got very creative with these structures-- we had the Titanic, several dog houses, a robot, an airplane, and a castle. Finally, we headed over to the cafeteria to paint life-sized paper dolls. These dolls will be on display in our classroom at Open House on the evening of May 24th. I hope you can attend with your child to see the paper dolls, and many other projects that we will be working on in the upcoming weeks.

We are now getting to that time in the school year where there are several events each week, so please keep your calendar updated & come and enjoy all the school has to offer!  This week, we have our Cinco de Mayo celebration on Friday at 11:15. All kindergarten classes will dance to three different songs for you on the kindergarten yard. Next Friday, we have our Mother's Day celebration at 10:00 in the classroom. Next Friday the 12th is also another great school-wide event, the Fantasy Faire.  This is a super fun school-wide carnival that your child will not want to miss.  I also really encourage you to participate in the cake-making competition that morning (cakes must be submitted by 8:15).  It is really fun to be a part of, and the cakes are so amazing!  Don't be intimidated-- this is definitely a child-friendly competition :) Finally, the Fantasy Fair will need a lot of help, starting with our class booth. You will be hearing more about that this week, but please sign up for a shift to run our carnival booth when you get the link. Thank you to Anna R. for coordinating.

Language Arts
We will be studying the word endings aw and ou this week. We will be reading and spelling words such as paw, saw, crawl, out, shout, our, etc. Our new sight words is they. It is important that you continue working with your children on sight word recognition and fluency, as the children are being asked to used these in the writing that we are doing on a daily basis.  Most importantly, these words are very commonly found in the books and stories that they are reading, so it will help them with their reading fluency and accuracy.

The sharing this week will be Homemade Item. Children can bring in any craft, project, or creation that they've made and they should be prepared to talk about how they made it.

Math
We are continuing with Module 5, Numbers 10-20. This unit will cover number names and counting to 100, as well as foundations for place value. Parent tips for this unit can be found here.

Science
We have ended our unit on Wood & Paper. We are now beginning our unit on the life cycle of a butterfly. We will have some real caterpillars arrive in class next week, and we will watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. This is a very exciting unit for the children.

Upcoming Events
One final reminder to order your child's yearbook if you are interested. The kids usually love having a yearbook, and on the last few days of school, we have time to let them go around and sign each other's books. If you are interested, you must order by May 5th by going to this link.

For your future planning-- please review all dates in the "Upcoming Events" section below. Critical dates (where I'd really like a parent to try to come) are: Mother's Day (Friday the 12th @ 10:00), Open House (May 24th), and the Promotion Ceremony (June 8th @ 9:00). The Promotion Ceremony is our big last "hurrah" together, where we look back on our year & celebrate the children. Also, please be aware that the last day of school, Friday the 9th, all K classes are on a morning schedule (8:05-11:25)-- there are no celebrations or parties as we will have 41 kids in the classroom and don't have room for any extra bodies!  

This Week's Helpers & Activities:
Monday: Return Blue Bags (Asma), Centers (Annie & Anna R.), Sharing
Tuesday: Centers (Claire K. & Chris), Sharing
Wednesday: Recess 101 with Coach Sierra, Blue Bags go home
Thursday: Centers (Susan & Alison), Sharing
Friday: STEAM Centers (Ms. Pugliese), Story time with Grandma Gail, Sharing

Upcoming Events:

Friday 5/5: Cinco de Mayo Dance @ 11:15
Friday 5/12: Mother's Day Celebration @ 10:00
Friday 5/12: Alta Vista Fantasy Faire 5:00-8:30
Weds. 5/24: Open House
Mon. 5/29: Memorial Day Holiday
Tues. 6/6: End of Year Party: "Splash Bash"
Weds. 6/7: School-wide Olympic Day
Thurs. 6/8: Promotion Ceremony-- please attend!
Fri. 6/9: Last Day of School, all kindergartners attend from 8:05 to 11:25