Kindergarten is the BEST place on Earth!

Reading: We will be reading the book Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse one more time. (I wasn't able to finish all the retelling tests last week.) Then we will read the book The Grumpy Easter Bunny by Justine Korman and discussing the rules for our Easter Egg Hunt. We will continue practicing phoneme deletion/ substitution. Our Word Family is the -op family, our blend is br-, our vowel focus is letter e (short sound & long sound) and our new Sight Words are were, what, other, about. 

             

Since we are focusing on living things and discussing their needs... I thought the best way for the students to understand them would be to grow something.  So we are in the process of growing grass seed. :) Some have said our Chia Pets look like clowns, because of their cute pom-pom nose. So we have decided that when the grass grows, it will look like hair. haha (I'm crossing my fingers everyone's Chia Pet grows hair... I would hate if one of them stayed "bald.") Everyone named their Chia Pet. The names ranged from things like Paul and Charlie, all the way down to Sparkle and Olaf. Ask your child what they named their Chia Pet. :)

The grass seed package says to predict growth in 7-10 days. So if everything goes the way it is supposed to... I will be posting the after pictures soon. :) For now, I will leave you with a slideshow of the before pictures. Enjoy!

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Today we went upstairs and visited our FCAT Buddies. The class LOVES their Buddies!! Not to mention they LOVE walking up the stairs to their classroom. haha :)  We entered Mrs. Walker's classroom and everyone went straight to their Buddies desk. They handed over the picture frames and then gave them their sand art bottles and said, " I am 'sanding' you good luck!" The FCAT Buddies loved the presents and they gave the class big hugs. :) It was adorable!!

We ended our visit by telling the students we would be sending treats up to them daily and thinking about them every minute! :) Mrs. Walker then added that she would try to come visit us next Thursday after the "All clear" is given by the office (that's the code that means testing is done for the day).

Hard to believe this was the before bottle... the sand made them soooo cute! :)

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Today was babysitting day or as I heard most of them say...
Thrilling Thursday!! :) haha (Mrs. Godbold came up with the saying and everyone got on the band wagon saying it too.)  The students were great listeners for Mrs.Davis when she dropped the ducklings off in the morning. They listened to her discuss what the ducklings needed: water (for drinking and playing), food & shelter. She also added what we would need to do if one of them got stuck in their pool. :) She told the class they would need to rescue them! (This made them smile, everyone wanted to be a rescuer.) Thankfully no ducklings needed rescuing. They were great getting in the pool and out of the pool all day long!

Also,  I want to give a big thank you to Mrs. Tokarek's Class, 
Ms. Yergin's Class and Mrs. Hope & Ms. Lowndes' Class for stopping by our classroom. They all stopped in and checked on the ducklings while we were away at Lunch and Recess.  :)

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Reading: We will be reading the book Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes. We will be working on retelling the events in the order that they happen. On Friday students will be tested on their retelling of the story. We will continue practicing phoneme deletion/ substitution. Our Word Family is the -og family, our blend is cl-, our vowel focus is letter a (short sound & long sound) and our new Sight Words are each, use, there, when. 
                             
When choosing books to read at home this week, find books that you may have read before and practice having your child give a retelling of the book. Their retellings should be told using the characters names and most of the events should be told in the order they occurred. ~ You may notice a few of the events are told out of order, at this time the students are not penalized for that.




Writing: We are going back to Narratives. The students will be writing more complex sentences and lengthening their stories. They will choose whether to write a fiction narrative or a non-fiction one. The choice us up to the students! Everyone has strengthened their use of sounds and increased their sight word vocabulary, so I am very excited to see what everyone's writing is like. :)
At home, have your child write a narrative about anything they choose. When they feel they are done, go over the sounds used to write words, spaces, and whether or not their story answers the questioning words~ Who, What Where, When, Why and How.


Science/Social Studies: We are continuing the Unit on Plants and Animals. We will be observing pictures and discussing whether they are real or make believe plants or animals. We will also be discussing how to plant seeds and what they need in order to grow. On Thursday we will be planing grass seeds in decorated plastic cups. :)

We finished writing about Zoo Animals and the reports are adorable! The students did a great job sharing their knowledge of Zoo Animals and listening to the research I collected. :)  We then made data charts that told how the animal looks, how he moves and what he eats. The four animals we focused on were elephants, giraffes, lions and zebras. 

Sorry about the purple... I started coloring the spots and was about half way done before I realized it! :(

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Today the students were able to eat snack with their FCAT Buddies and play on the "big kid playground." Watching them play together was the cutest thing!!!  Other classes were out at recess~ a 1st grade, 3rd grade, 5th grade. Mrs. Walker's class made sure to sort of ignore all of them and focus on their Kindergarten FCAT Buddy.

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