Happy Birthday to Katie and Zeke!

We celebrated Katie’s birthday on Wednesday, May 15, and Zeke’s birthday on Thursday, May 16.  It was so much fun sharing a special day with each of you. We hope you enjoyed your birthday!

Liverpool Student Teacher: Miss Abi

We had the privilege of welcoming Miss Abigail Warburton (Miss Abi) into our classroom.  She quickly won the hearts of the kindergarten students; they absolutely adored her.  Before she left, each child shared a letter with Miss Abi, telling her how they felt about having her in the classroom.  A few highlights include: “I liked learning the game Heads Down, Thumbs Up”, “I want to come and visit you and meet the Queen”, “Please come back soon”, “I liked learning about Buckingham Palace”, “Thank you for teaching us letters (handwriting)”.

This was a special time for our class and I am so thankful to have had this wonderful opportunity!  Thank you, Miss Abi for sharing your time with us!  We will miss you!!!!

Weekly Update:

WRITING WORKSHOP:  The kindergarteners are doing such a good job of writing their opinion and giving reasons of why they think the way they do.  They practiced writing letters to Miss Abi and to me, this week, stating their opinion and reasoning behind the best pet, their favorite season and what they enjoyed about having a student teacher from Liverpool in our classroom. It was fun reading their letters to learn more about each of them!

MATH:  We have completed all of our math units for kindergarten.  The kindergarteners have learned so much this year.  For the next few weeks of school, we will continue to practice and deepen our math skills by playing math games and completing different math activities.

READING WORKSHOP: During our workshop time for the remaining of the year we will continue to Read across Genres, by sharing our favorite books with the entire class. The students are practicing reading aloud one of their favorite books in their book bin to share with the class. Everyone will get chance to share! The students are looking forward to their sharing time.

ASSESSMENTS:  Assessments are under way for the end of the year report cards.  Please make sure that your child eats a healthy, nutritious breakfast before coming to school and that they have a quick, healthy snack for refueling later in the morning. Getting a good night’s sleep is also beneficial to their continual learning.  Thank you so much for encouraging and supporting your child to do his/her best each day!

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION:

*Popcorn words learned this week were “by”, “my”, “one”

*Library is finished for the school year. Please return your book when you are done reading it.  Thank you!

* Mark your calendars for summer library! This will be on Tuesday mornings during the summer. The students will be able to check out a good fit book and a picture book of their choice each Tuesday morning!

*Kindergarten Olympics will be on Friday, May 31.  We are in need of volunteers to help run these fun games.  If you are willing to join in the fun, please complete the form (sent home last week) and return it to school by May 22.

UPCOMING DATES:

• School Carnival:  Save the Date:  Friday, May 24.  Information and wristbands will be available this coming week.
• Memorial Day:  Monday, May 27 – No School
• Kindergarten Olympics (Field Day):  Friday, May 31 – AM 8:45am-12:00pm.
• Last Day of School:  Thursday, June 6 (3:40pm dismissal)

I hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine this weekend! This upcoming week is our final 5 day week of school!

~ Mrs. Iwema

Please complete this survey for end of the year report cards. Your response will determine how you receive your child’s report card.

Thank you!

~ Mrs. Iwema

We celebrated Aiden’s birthday on Friday. His actual birthday was on Saturday, May 11.  We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Aiden!  It was so much fun to share a special day with you

Special Events: Field Trip to the Outdoor Discovery Center and Huizenga Park

We had a wonderful time on our field trip.  The students learned a lot about different plants and animals at the Outdoor Discovery Center and enjoyed a picnic lunch and play time at Huizenga Park!  A HUGE “Thank You” to all of our parent and grandparent chaperones.  We couldn’t have done this without your help.

MATH:  The students completed their final math test this week. They did fantastic!  I will be sending these home with your child next week.  We will continue to review and practice all of the math skills learned this year during the next few weeks.

DAILY 3:  We continue to alternate our days when some of us work in guided reading groups and the rest of us have a Daily 3 choice. During this choice time, students are either choosing to read to self, listen to reading, or word work. The students are doing wonderful! I am so proud of all my READERS! We all have come so far and continue to keep growing!

WRITING WORKSHOP:  The students are learning about opinions.  We talked about how opinions create strong feelings – good or bad – and its okay to think differently than your friends. The most important part of having an opinion is being able to explain why you feel the way you do. We worked on giving our opinions about different books we read this week and provided reasons from the story to support our opinions!  The students also learned the proper format of a letter and had a chance to write me a letter sharing their opinion about the book, Froggy’s Sleepover.  We will continue writing opinion letters in the upcoming weeks.

SCIENCE:  We learned more about plants and animals this week.  It was neat to see the students share what they’ve learned in the classroom with our tour guide at the Outdoor Discovery Center!  It was definitely a proud teacher moment for me!

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION:

*Popcorn words for this week were: “have”, “on”, “of”.  The kindergarteners are doing an amazing job of recognizing their popcorn (sight) words.

*We had a change in our library time this week.  We went to the library on Friday.  Enjoy your child’s book and return it to school.  We only have one more week of library.

* Mark your calendars for summer library! This will be on Tuesday mornings during the summer. The students will be able to check out a good fit book and a picture book of their choice each Tuesday morning!

*We are done with our math homework for the year.   Thanks for supporting your child with his/her math homework all year! The kiddos did great!

Enjoy this Mother’s Day weekend!

~ Mrs. Iwema

Wow!  Can you believe it? It is May!  Our last full month of the school year.  This month’s activities include a field trip, science units about living/non-living things, Kindergarten Olympic games and end of the year assessments.  We are going to be busy having fun learning!

SPLIT LIT:  We continue to alternate our days when some of us work in guided reading groups and the rest of us have a Daily 3 choice. During this choice time students are either choosing to read to self, listen to reading, or word work – all similar activities and as they will be doing in 1st grade! The students are doing wonderful! I am so proud of all my READERS! We all have come so far and continue to keep growing!

SCIENCE:  We continued to learn about living/non-living things by going on a nature walk around our school! We had so much fun listening to all the frogs in the pond and comparing our lists when we came back into the classroom! We also learned about the parts of flower and began creating our very own labeled flowers!!!

Some of our bean plants have sprouted.  We are so excited!  We check them every day in excitement of any new changes we can observe! Some of us are starting to see leaves!

MATH:  Activities this week focused on comparing groups as less than or greater than. Then we worked to add or subtract items to make the groups equal. We all explored objects that were longer and shorter, heavier and lighter than each other.  The kindergarteners will be taking their last math test, unit 5, this coming Wednesday.

WRITING WORKSHOP:  We began our final writing unit this week, learning that writers can write opinion letters. We read “I Wanna Iguana” and “I Wanna New Room”. These two books do an excellent job of showing students the letter format. We talked about how opinions create strong feelings – good or bad – and its okay to think differently than your friends. The most important part of having an opinion is being able to explain why you feel the way you do. We worked on giving our opinions about different books we read this week and provided reasons from the story to back our opinions up! Next week, we will begin writing our opinion letters about books.

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION:

*Our final math homework of the year came home on Thursday. Thanks for supporting your child with his/her math homework all year! The kiddos did great!

*Library will be on Friday this week because the library is being used at our usual time. Bring your books back before Friday!!!

*Popcorn words for the week were  “how”, “about”, and “these”  The children are doing a wonderful job recognizing their popcorn words!  The April popcorn word flash cards were sent home last week.  Add them to the other flash cards you have received this year so that you can continue to practice with your child at home.

*Our TAKE HOME book program is done for the year.  Thanks for all the wonderful support! Please continue to read together every night!

* Mark your calendars for summer library! This will be on Tuesday mornings during the summer. The students will be able to check out a good fit book and a picture book of their choice each Tuesday morning!

*We will be going on our field trip on Thursday, May 9.  Your child will need to wear tennis shoes. NO FLIP FLOPS OR SANDALS, please!  They will also need a sack lunch.  A few children pre-ordered a sack lunch from school. Everyone else needs to bring a sack lunch on Thursday! If you are joining us, you can meet us at school and car pool together or you can meet us at the Outdoor Discovery Center.  Please inform me if you are meeting us at the ODC, so that I can plan accordingly as well as give you the directions.  I will send directions home in advance for those meeting us at the park. Thanks!

Enjoy the gorgeous weekend outside!!!! It looks like the week ahead will be beautiful too!

~Mrs. Iwema

Writers Celebration: The students are doing impressive things in writing workshop.  This week, they spent a couple days adding more details and feeling statements to their personal narrative story and then it was time to prepare for a writing celebration.  We celebrated their hard work and accomplishments in writing on Thursday with Ms. Yankees class.  The students enjoyed light refreshments and a listened to Ms. Yankee read, How Rocket Learned to Read, before they were paired up to begin sharing their own stories with one another.  These kindergarteners continue to impress me with their writing abilities! 

Weekly Update:

MATH:  Our math lessons this week dealt with finding totals from partners, comparing numbers that are greater than, less than and equal to, and seeing tens ones and extra ones within teen numbers.  They are working so hard to master these math skills.

SCIENCE:   We are learning a lot about living things in science.  We have learned that living things need food, water, air and space/shelter in order to grow.  The student created a book about living things and sorted pictures of many living and non-living things.   Last week we planted some Kidney Bean seeds in the classroom.  This week we planted Lima Bean seeds.  We are anxiously waiting for them to sprout!

READING: Students continue to meet in small literacy groups and take part in the “Daily 3″ activities.  I was able to reassess many students this week and am so excited to see them apply what they are learning to their independent reading!  The students are making incredible progress.  We will begin meeting with new literacy groups next week. 

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION: 

* Our popcorn words this week were: “come” and “some”.

* Take Home Reading: Thank you for all of your support at home with the Take Home reading program.  We will be finishing this next week. 

* Library is on Wednesday.  Please help your child remember his/her book.

* Our last book orders for this school year are due on Monday, April 29.  If you would like to order books, please complete your online order this weekend or send in your check and paper order forms to school next week.  Thanks for supporting your child as they read.

* Thank you for having your child either wear boots or other outdoor shoes during recess.  This helps keep our classroom clean.

* We will be going on our field trip to the Outdoor Discovery Center/Timber Town on Tuesday, May 9.  The cost for students is $2.00.  Please send in your child’s money by May 3, along with the volunteer form if you wish to join us.

* Please send a quick, healthy backpack with your child each day.  Thank you!

Enjoy the sunshine and warmer temperatures this weekend!

~ Mrs. Iwema

Michele Sytsma, a Georgetown parent, is organizing Team Spencer again this year.  Spencer Meyer is in the first grade and is fighting cancer.

We can buy an orange Spencer bracelet for $2.00 to show support.

For more information, please click here.

If you have any questions regarding Team Spencer and their run at the River Bank this year, please contact Michele Sytsma at cmsytsma@sbcglobal.net, 616-662-2858, or find Team Spencer on facebook and ask to join.

~ Mrs. Iwema

Did your child tell you what we did at school yesterday to celebrate Earth Day?  If you haven’t already read it, check out the post that Mrs. Reagan put on the school blog. 

Also, take a look at this article that was published in the Grand Rapids Business Journal. 

We were so excited to take part in this special project!  Thank you City Flats Hotel!

~ Mrs. Iwema

Happy Birthday, Griffin!

Griffins’s Birthday was on Saturday, April 20.  We celebrated with him on Friday.  We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Griffin! We enjoyed sharing a special day with you!

UPDATE:

MATH: The children did a great job drawing objects of teen numbers and locating the 10-groups within their mini teen number book. I hope that you were impressed when they showed it to you.  Finding partners of numbers was also practiced along with numbers that are greater than and less than other numbers.

SOCIAL STUDIES:  The children have been fascinated with what they are learning about maps and are amazed by how they can zoom in and pinpoint exactly where they are on this great big earth! We had fun zooming out using Google Maps to see exactly where Georgetown Elementary sits in reference to our entire globe. We will continue to talk about ways we can be responsible to take care of the Earth next week!

SCIENCE:  Rocks, Rocks, Rocks!  We did three experiments with our rock collections throughout the week. We sorted our rocks by texture, we had fun exploring the different colors of our rocks, and finally we weighed our rocks to compare the heaviest to the lightest in our collections. We ended the week by sharing a favorite rock from our collection to the entire class. It was fun to talk about all the differences and similarities we saw in our rocks and hear where everyone found their collections! Thanks so much for helping your child in their rock search!

WRITER’S WORKSHOP:  Authors using mentor texts’  was still the theme for learning to become better writers.  We read Shortcut by Donald Crews to explore how Crews uses great details and sound words to add to his story. We went back to our small moment stories and worked hard on adding sound words. We also explored how authors can add feelings to their story by adding character feelings to the words and/or pictures, like Kevin Henkes did in Lily’s Chocolate Heart.  Finally, we worked hard on going back to our stories to check for capital letters ( I, names and to start a sentence) and periods! This is something the children need to continue working on while they write!  The children are growing into wonderful writers! We will continue to revise and edit a favorite story this week for our writing celebration on Thursday with Ms. Yankee’s class!

5TH GRADE BUDDIES:   On Friday, our 5th grade buddies came to read with us! We had lots of fun sharing books together!

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION:

*Popcorn word this week was “they”.  Ask your child the fun song we learned to help us remember how to spell ‘they’.

*Library is on Wednesday.  Please remember to bring back that book! 

*Our playground is wet and muddy! When the rain stops, and it will,  PLEASE, PLEASE send boots or other outside shoes for your child to wear so that we keep our classroom floors clean and tidy.  Children will need to stay on the pavement if not dressed appropriately.  Thank you so much!

*The last book order forms will be coming home this week! If you would like one more opportunity to purchase some wonderful books for summer reading please don’t pass this opportunity up! This will also be the final chance to use up you $5 free book coupon from a past book order.

*The annual art show for all HPS students is next week.  The special day for Georgetown is Tuesday, April 23rd, from 5:30-7:30pm. Please click on Mrs. Brower’s art blog to learn more http://josettebrouwer.edublogs.org/2013/03/13/2013-hps-student-art-show/

*Field Trip:  We will be visiting the Outdoor Discovery Center, in connection to our living/non-living and plant units, on Thursday, May 9.  If you’re interested in joining us or would like to order your child a sack lunch from school please return the  form back to school on Monday, April 22!   Please also send $2 with your child in a marked envelope with your child’s name and field trip money to school no later than May 3rd!

I hope you were able to enjoy some of the beautiful sunshine today!

~ Mrs. Iwema