Friday Newsletter

        April was National Children’s Poetry Month.  We are so lucky to have a terrific library teacher like Ms. Thorstenson!!  She came to our classroom on Thursday afternoon to do a poetry study with us.  The children were introduced to different forms of poetry and even tried writing some poems of their own.
        We did some fun literature extensions with birds this week.  We read Three Cheers for Tacky to practice making connections to the story.  We read The Magpie’s Nest and learned how different types of birds build different nests -- very interesting!  We used the sticks and twigs you collected at home to make our own bird nests. :)  We’ll complete the project on Monday by making eggs to add to our nests.
        The children wrote their bird reports in class this week.  I was so proud of them!  I taught them how to use the research they gathered at home to write a research report.  They followed my directions and completed the task with little intervention.  After we wrote our reports, the children began sharing them with the class.  This was a terrific (and fun) way to practice reading fluently and expressively.  We’ll finish sharing bird reports next week.
        Thank you for practicing your spelling words at home.  We’ll have a review test over blends and digraphs on Friday, May 9.  I will send home a review list next week, so your child will have plenty of time to study.  
        This week in phonics we reviewed the “silent e” rule and learned when to use it.  There are many exceptions to the rule, so I continue to explain that to children as we discover the exceptions.  We practiced adding the “ed” ending to some words, too.
        We continue to write and publish stories during writer’s workshop.  I will send home an invitation to our Author’s Tea in your child’s red folder next week.  The children will take their favorite published story to their former Kindergarten classroom to read in the coming weeks, too.  :)
        We started our alphabet countdown to the last day of school.  We enjoyed eating apples today for A day!!!  Don’t forget to wear Bears clothes or colors (orange and blue) on Monday, and to wear Cubs clothes or colors (red, white, and blue) on Tuesday.  I know some of you are White Sox fans.....sorry.....not really!! :)  Not to worry, as we’ll wear black and white on S day in a few weeks!
        We continued math unit nine.  The children practiced adding and subtracting two-digit numbers.  They enjoyed math explorations centers, where they compared capacities of containers, created symmetrical designs, searched for symmetrical shapes, and practiced addition and subtraction facts. Here are a few pictures from math explorations this week...

We extended fraction concepts to fractions other than unit fractions.
        Finally, we completed our science unit on seasonal change.  The children recorded their last tree observation in their seasons journals.  Hopefully you saw these come home on Monday.