News for April

Coming Events:

Easter:  In previous years some classes have had small celebrations for Easter.  This year the school is making a policy of asking parents who wish to send in treats to ensure that said treats are healthy and nutritious.  

Hatching chicks:

In mid-April, we are setting chicken eggs to incubate.  Incubation takes 21 days, and I will time the incubation so that the eggs should hatch over a 24-hour period mid-week.

Classroom Learning: 

Literacy:  We do most of our writing while seated at the carpet, using individual blackboards.  Our focus continues to be correct letter formation, predicting the letters in a word, and writing high-frequency words.  Children enjoy regular “book looks” where they choose their reading material, reading aloud together as a class, and reading individually or in small groups to the teacher.  At home you can help your child by encouraging him or her to point at the words while s/he is reading aloud, and to make a game out of identifying high-frequency words in different texts.  The children who use their word cards frequently at home are able to recognize many of these words at school now, so thank you for your hard work in these regard. 

Numeracy:  We count and compare sets of objects, read and write numbers, identify “mistakes” in the calendar, identify patterns and create our own, read and discuss simple graphs, and create pictures and structures with different shapes and solids.  We also continue to talk about units of time (days, weeks, months).  You can help your children by counting aloud with them, reviewing your household calendar for important events, and discussing numbers in terms of  “more than” and “less than”. 

Springtime:  We are learning about the changing season, with seeds, birds (especially robins) and animal babies playing a starring role.  Much of our artwork, poetry, songs, science investigations and games relate to this unit.  This week we are talking about how important it is to never touch or pick up baby animals, because the parents can be scared away and not return to care for their babies.  At home you can talk about the animals you see, sign books about spring out of the library, and discuss how different animals raise their babies.

Science:

Bird Feeders: Intermediate students came to visit for the afternoon and helped the kindergartens implement their designs for bird feeders. We have discussed where we placed our feeders, and our observations of the animals that visit our feeders (not all of them have been birds), and compared our initial designs to our final plans. Our last step is to discuss how we might alter our designs if we were to redo the project.

Buoyancy: We are exploring the differences between things that sink and things that float. (The students have particularly enjoyed sorting themselves into float/sink categories.)