Tag Archives: Library

Weekly Update: May 6-10

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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

Weekly Update: April 29-May 3

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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

Weekly Update: March 18-22

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Special Events:

Happy Birthday to Brodie! 

We celebrated Brodie’s birthday on Wednesday, March 20th.  We hope you had a wonderful day, Brodie!  We enjoyed celebrating with you!

Weekly Update:

MATH:  We began our last unit in Math this week.  Unit #5  continues to focus on working with teen numbers, to solve addition and subtraction story problems, to work with number partners and to compare numbers as greater than or less than.  This week our math lessons were about creating teen scenes showing a 10 group and extra ones and writing equations for partners of 10.

READER’S WORKSHOP: We continue being fascinated at the amazing things we can learn from nonfiction books.  The students enjoy looking for new information in their books and sharing what they learn with their elbow partner in the classroom.  We will finish up our nonfiction unit this week and begin a new unit after spring break.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP:  The students finished their Informational books this week and were able to share these with their elbow partner as well as their 5th Grade Reading Buddy!  The kindergarteners were very proud of their hard work.  I will be keeping these writing pieces in the students writing portfolio.  You will certainly enjoy reading them when I share these with you at the end of the year!  The students have surely come a LONG way in their writing!  I am so excited about the growth I am seeing in these children!  Wow!

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION:

*Popcorn words were “could” and  “would”  Once again, these are tricky words. Thanks for working on them at home too.

* We had Library on Thursday this week due to a conflict in the media center.  Please enjoy those books and plan to return them on Wednesday.  We will not check out new books on Wednesday, due to our upcoming Spring Vacation and our PJ Day scheduled for Wednesday.

*TAKE HOME BOOKS will be on Monday and Wednesday this coming week. Please read and return the book. Your child will NOT  be taking home a book over spring break.  They will receive a new book when they return from break.

*Please, please be aware of the changing weather.  Our playground is very wet and muddy.  Please send boots and snow pants so that your child stays dry and clean while playing outside.

Future Important Dates:

  • March 27 – Kindergarten Pajama Day
  • March 29 through April 5 – Spring Break – No school

 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

~ Mrs. Iwema

Weekly Update: November 5-9

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It was wonderful to meet with all of you during Parent/Teacher Conferences this week!  I truly enjoy the opportunity to sit down and talk with you about your child’s progress.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me.

2 MINDFUL ACTS OF GIVING….SPREAD a LITTLE LIGHT AND FOOD DONATIONS:  The children were introduced to our school-wide service projects this week.  As a class, we filled a huge tub full of food for the local food pantry and brought in $143.00 for the SPARK Foundation….enough for 4 LIGHTS!!!!  We are very close to having enough for 5 lanterns! 

We had the opportunity to use one of the lanterns in our classroom and watched a slideshow that showed the students where Uganda is, what the school looks like, and interviewed of some of the teachers that we are supporting.  The children have been SO EXCITED as we tally up our donations and calculate how many lanterns we will be able to provide.  

We extended this learning experience to include a discussion about wants and needs, as well as how the act of giving actually makes you feel good inside.  In the middle of our excitement, I mentioned how I got the chills because I could see how happy they were to be able to help others.  Not long after that, I heard several students say, “I’m so excited, I have the goosebumps!”  So cute!!!

Thank you for sending in the generous donations!  Donations will be accepted until Friday, Nov. 16. 

MATH:  This week the children practiced writing the numbers 7-9.  The children also told addition and subtraction stories while being exposed to math vocabulary such as now, in total, left, altogether.  At the end of the week the children built the numbers 1-10, using the 5-penny strip and pennies.  They were shown how to write addition equations to understand +1 relationships.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP:  We continued learning about the election and the jobs of the President this week.  The children did a response writing piece after listening to the book, I Want to be President.  After learning about the process of voting, the children were able to create voter registration cards and vote on a few different things.  We set up voting booths in the classroom and the students were able to fill in their own ballot.  This was a neat learning opportunity for the students this week!

HANDWRITING:  We learned X and Y this week and will learn Z next week to complete our STARTING CORNER letters.  I will send the workbook home next week so that you can continue to practice these letters at home.  :)

READING WORKSHOP:  This week the students began learning about reading with a partner.  The children learned how to sit “EEKK” (elbow to elbow, knee to knee) with their reading buddy and how to read together either reading the same book or taking turns reading their own book.  The children are doing an amazing job and reading workshop is quickly turning into a favorite part of the day!

REMINDERS AND INFORMATION: 

*Popcorn words: “like” , “here”.

*Library will resume again next week.  Please remember to return your child’s book!

*The weather has turned colder.  Please dress your child in warm outside clothes…warm coat, hat/headband, mittens/gloves.  We go outside to play for lunch recess and at the end of the day.

*Save the date…Georgetown Holiday Music Program is the evening of  Tuesday, November 27.  More information to come!

A Great Morning!

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Thank you to all who were able to make it to Georgetown this morning for open library.  It was WONDERFUL to meet so many of my students!

It sounds like everyone is enjoying the summer and keeping busy.  I heard a lot of stories about swimming, camping, fishing, boating, and even some snake-catching.  I’m eager to hear more about the adventures of my Kindergarteners and look forward to meeting the rest of my students.  Before you know it school will be starting…so enjoy these HOT days while you can! :)

- Mrs. Iwema