Weekly Update May 9-13

We are feeling a bit in denial about the impending wrapping up of this wonderful school year together in kindergarten, but are very much looking forward to a couple week of 'normalcy,' or as close to it as possible. We have a two small presentations this week, one by the National Theatre for Children sponsored by WPPI Energy and KK Utilities focusing on Energy Conservation and another by the Kaukauana Public Library about the Summer Reading Program.  We will wrap up the week with a fun, school-wide celebration of a successful Knowledge-a-thon!

Don't forget to check out the May School and Specialist Newsletters!

Upcoming Dates:
May 12: Trail and Tailgate Family Night

May 23: Family Event at the Kaukauna Public Library 6-7pm

May 26: 1/2 Day--Dismissal at 11:30

May 27 and 30: No School

June 1: Field Day Afternoon

June 2: Last Day of School--1/2 Day for Students

Reading: We will begin our last reading unit this week which focuses on getting to know characters by performing books. We will learn to describe our characters and notice their feelings and actions in a story, or perhaps a series of stories, to get to know them like they are friends for life.  We will study the cover illustration, titles, and even the back of book for clues about the main characters as well as link the words and pictures on multiple pages of the story together to build our understanding.  We will put all of this character information together by acting like the character with our reading partners.

Writing: We will continue to work hard to bring our true stories to life this week!  Particularly we will pay close attention to illustrations that give the reader more details and then using our improved illustrations to push our selves to add more details in our words.  We will also be aiming to tell small parts of the story bit by bit to improve our elaboration skills.  As always we are working to make sure our writing looks neat and includes correctly spelled sight words and punctuation, 

Math:  As we approach the end of the year we are finding multiple ways to practice and refine the skills expected of Kindergarten (almost first grade) students.  A great deal of this work includes working and talking with a partner to explain our thinking.  This week we will work to become more automatic with recognizing numbers that come before and after a given number,  reading a number statement from left to right and being able to distinguish greater than, less than or equal to when comparing the numbers and also to add and subtract numbers within 5 fluently.  Our math centers this week will be:

• playing +1/-1 speed with partner
• using double dice to compare numbers
• use a ten frame to represent subtraction problems
• playing 5 frame Go Fish

Science:  This week we will start exploring building our own ramps using MarbleWorks, looking and pictures of various ramps and drawing diagrams, and testing out various ramps built with wood and blocks.  Students are excited to start building their own ramps after we watched a video last week of another child building a ramp.  Don't be surprised if you start to see some ramp construction around your home!

Word Work:  We will spend one more week on these sight words: they, first, next, last.  All four of these words are words that we are currently using to tell and write our true stories.  We enjoyed the beautiful weather on Friday by writing our sight words with chalk.  This could also be done with past sight words, rhyming words, family names, etc.  Another fun idea might be to get a bucket of water and a paintbrush to paint the words on your driveway.