March 25-28

Our poem this week was, "Spring Celebration". We made movements to our poem, completed an ASH/ISH sorting, completed a rhyming sort, and found ING words in our poem. 

Our big book was "Splish Splash". We worked on reading with expression. 

This week, we did not have a read aloud book. Instead we read all books by Dr. Seuss. We read "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish", "The Cat in the Hat", "Oh! The Places You'll Go", and "Green Eggs and Ham". Each day we worked in our Dr. Seuss book and practiced rhyming. 

For word work, we looked at short and long U sounds. We sorted our words, made long U words, colored the long U in words, and colored pictures. 

For writing, we continue to work on opinion books. The topics the students could choose from were:

Which is better: a bike or a skateboard

Which special is the best: art or gym

The students also worked on using a writing checklist before turning in their writing. They practiced re-reading their writing, fixing mistakes, checking punctuation, checking their pictures, and checking for their first and last name. 

For math, the students worked on counting on from a certain number. This can be hard for some students because they are not starting at 1; instead starting at a number like 12. We also continued to practice writing our numbers. 

For guidance, we talked about handling name calling. 

For science, we looked at the sun's light and the sun's heat. 

Our new word wall words were be and there. 

The students also got to try green eggs and ham! We had some mixed reviews but they all tried a "polite" bite!

March 18-22

Our poem this week was, "Splish Splash". We made movements to our poem, completed a ASH/ISH sorting activity, completed a rhyming sorting activity, and looked at for "EE" words. 

Our big book was "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". We were very surprised by the ending of our story when the Itsy Bitsy Spider became a tiny lunch for a frog!

Our read aloud this week was, "Creepy Pair of Underwear". We practiced retelling, connecting to our main character, talking about feelings and how emotions change throughout stories, and answering comprehension questions. 

For word work, we looked at "tricky Y" words where the "Y" at the end makes an "I" sound. We sorted words, colored words, and colored pictures. 

For writing, we continued to work on our opinion books. The students got to pick their book topic:

What is scarier: bee or spider

What makes the best pet: dog or cat

For math, we worked on teen numbers and finding out how many groups of ten and how many groups of 1 are in teen numbers. 

For science, we talked about water and matter and the sun.

For guidance we learned how to handle having things taken away. 

Our new word wall words this week were "saw" and "had".

We also completed our STEM activity where the students used paper and cardboard rolls to build towers! 

As this week was difficult to come back to; I am very happy to be back at school and doing what I love. I missed the Kindergartners deeply!

Thank you for sending flowers to my mothers funeral and for the thoughtful emails, cards, and gifts. Individual "thank yous" will be coming soon!

Down Syndrome Awareness Day

Tomorrow, March 21, is Down Syndrome Awareness Day. 

As a school, we are asking that everyone wears colorful and crazy socks to show their support!

Betty Brinn Children's Museum

The field trip to the Betty Brinn Museum is this Friday, March 15th!

Thank you so much to Mrs. Whitcomb, Mrs. Reid, Mrs. Baumgartner, and Mrs. Schmitz for volunteering to come with us on the bus! 

The bus will leave Thorson at 11:00. Students should bring a packed lunch with a drink for that day. Hot lunch will not be provided. 

Any other parents are welcome to join us at the Betty Brinn Museum; you will just have to drive yourself there and pay to get in. 

March 4-8

Our poem this week was, "Your Body". We made movements to our poem, sorted words by their ending sound (B or D), counted words in the sentences, and found word wall words. 

Our big book was "Dancing in the Mud". We talked about the characters, rhyming words, and even danced like the characters in our story. 

Our read aloud was "The Three Billy Goats Fluff". We worked on opinion writing, retelling our story, making connections to our characters, inferring about our story, comparing our story to "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", and answering comprehension questions.

For word work, we looked at EA or E words. We sorted words, made EA words, and colored our EA pattern. 

Our new word wall words were "out" and "but". 

For writing, we finished our narrative writing unit and moved into opinion writing! The students worked on writing about the best animal or the best food. 

For math, we finished up unit 5 by taking our "end of the unit assessment". We also did our penny STEM activity. 

For science, we talked about types of matter; liquids, solids, and gases. 

For guidance, we learned how to share and play fairly.

Ethan was our special person this week! We loved learning more about Ethan and having his Dad come read to us! 

Penny STEM Activity

The students loved this STEM activity! 

I gave them a "lucky" penny and they used a dropper to put drops of water onto our penny!

We made guesses on how many drops our penny could hold. We thought maybe 10, 12, 20. 

Most students got around 30 drops. Some got more!