A Peek At the Last Two Weeks

Making watercolor turkeys to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Looking closely at squash. Drawing and writing about what we notice.

Wolfe's Neck Farm

Fun at Wolfe's Neck Farm

Visiting the Pumpkin Patch.

In the barn.

Petting the calf.

In the chicken coop.

The end of a great visit!

Three More Weeks of School

We have three weeks of school before summer vacation and they are packed to the brim with activities. 

Our class will be participating in the “One Book, One School” event this week.  Guest readers will be joining us every morning to read us Lulu and the Brontosaurus by Judith Viorst as a school-wide shared reading experience.  Our guest readers include:  Wayne Dorr, Kevin O'Leary, Ross Berkowitz, Robyn Butler, and Lawrence Kovaks. 

Field Day is scheduled for Thursday of this week.  Please send your child to school in sneakers and comfortable clothes he/she can run around in. It should be a fun day.  A raindate has been scheduled for Friday.

Our field trip to Popham Beach State Park is scheduled for Monday, June 8th.  Thank you to the parents who have volunteered for this field trip.  If you are interested in joining us please send a note in with your child and I will get back to you with more information about our day.

Our third grade buddies will be joining us for the last time on Tuesday, June 9th.  We are planning a small snack and some play time with each other.  It was a pleasure to have them visit with us this year.

One of Mrs. Deci’s parents has volunteered to bring in a touch tank for us on Thursday, June 11th.  This hands-on aquarium experience fits well with our visit to the beach.

Our last week of school will be the week of June 15th.   Step-Up Day is scheduled for Thursday, June 18th.  This is a chance for your child to meet their first grade teacher and some students who will be in their class next year.  Friday, June 19th, is the last day of school.  It is a half day.

If you should have any questions or concerns please give me a call at the school or e-mail me at kwetzel@rsu1.org.

Wolfe's Neck Farm

We visited Wolfe's Neck Farm on Friday as part of our chick unit.  We enjoyed a tractor ride out to the field and planted a seed for their pumpkin patch.  We visited the barn and saw pigs, chickens, ducks, sheep, cows, and goats.  We left excited and exhausted.

In celebration of poetry month we wrote a poem to remember our visit.  I hope you enjoy it!

Sounds of Wolfe's Neck Farm

Roosters crowing,

Cock-a-doodle-do

Ducks in the chicken coop,

Quack quack quacking

Hens in the chicken coop,

Peck peck pecking

Woolly sheep,

baa baa baaing

Pigs in the pen,

oink oink oinking

Sleepy cows,

moo moo mooing

Goats in the pen,

maa maa maaing

Tractor in the field,

rumble rumble rumbling

Children in the barn,

whisper whisper whispering.

April Update

I hope you had a wonderful and restful vacation.  I enjoyed seeing all of you at parent/teacher conferences.  If you missed your conference or wish to schedule a conference please send a note in with your child or e-mail me at kwetzel@rsu1.org and we can set up an appointment.

We will be starting our Chick Unit this week.  Our class incubator is set up and ready for eggs.  This is a month long unit in which we study the lifecycle of a chicken.  As a part of this unit we will be visiting Wolfe’s Neck Farm.  Our trip is schedule for Friday, May 1st.  Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately.  Have them wear a jacket and boots to school.  If you do not have boots please make sure your child is wearing closed toe/heel shoes.  We will be visiting a working farm.  Thank you to all the parents that have sent in the waiver and money to cover the cost of the trip.  If you have not sent in the waiver or money you will find a reminder in your child's home/school folder this week.

An important reminder: Our classroom is a peanut and tree nut free zone.  For the health and safety of all our students do not send your child with a snack containing or processed in a facility that contains peanuts and/or tree nuts.  Check all labels.  Healthy alternatives are fruits and veggies.

We have completed our unit on “How To” books in writing workshop.  It was a challenging and fun unit.  I have learned how to feed lions, guinea pigs, and bearded dragons.  I have also learned how to warm up on a heating grate, meet someone new, put on my snow clothes, and they go on and on.  The contents of your child’s writing folder will be sent home this week.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

We are halfway through Unit 7 in Everyday Math.  In the coming week we will be exploring building numbers with 10s & 1s, writing numbers, counting by 10’s, addition, and subtraction.

Please remember if you have any questions or concerns to give me a call at school or e-mail me at kwetzel@rsu1.org.

April News

The school year is just flying by.  Friday marks the end of our third quarter.  Report cards will be coming out soon to update you on your child’s progress.

We are scheduled to attend a  Portland Symphony Orchestra KinderKonzert on Thursday of this week at Brunswick High School.  The performance, Strings KinderKonzert: The Music and Life of Beethoven, will focus on the life of Ludwig von Beethoven.   This is a great opportunity for all students to experience classical music and a variety of instrument families.

We continue to study “How To” writing in writing workshop.  You can tell we are getting to the end of the unit because our writing folders are bursting at the seams.  We will be wrapping up this unit in mid-April.  We will have a short unit of study on Poetry and then to Opinion Writing.    

Within the next week we will be finishing Unit 6 in Everyday Math.  In Unit 7, we will be exploring the concepts of 10’s & 1’s, addition & subtraction, data collection & graphing, 2 & 3 dimensional shapes, coin values, and numeration skills.

Parent/Teacher conferences are scheduled for the week of April 13th.  I will be scheduling conferences in the afternoons and early evenings.  Please look for a sign up sheet in your child’s folder this week. Conference times will be filled on a “first come - first serve” basis.  If you are unable to meet during the week of April 13th please contact me and we can make arrangements for another time.

Please remember if you have any questions or concerns to give me a call at school or e-mail me at kwetzel@rsu1.org.

Morning Message Help

I was running behind this morning pulling materials together for the day and was unable to write our morning message.  Not to worry, two of the boys took it upon themselves to write it for me.  They decided to ask a survey question (we have been exploring surveys and graphing data in math) which they included in their message.  If you look at the bottom you will see "Do you like making chocolate cereal?"  We discovered that 12 kids like making and eating chocolate cereal and 6 did not (notice the tally marks!).  The boys worked really hard and you can see how proud they felt by the looks on their faces.  Great work!

March News

It is March already and we are into the third quarter.  The snow is starting to melt and I am starting to think that spring is coming our way.

I am sure you have been hearing snippets of the songs and poems we have been learning for our kindergarten concert.  We will have a dress rehearsal/performance for the school on Wednesday morning.  Our evening performance is scheduled for Wednesday, March 11 at 5:30 pm.  Please plan on having your child in our classroom by 5:15 pm on Wednesday evening.  The concert is scheduled to start at 5:30 pm and should be 20 minutes long.  Please have your child wear their better clothes for this event.

During the past week we have been reading a variety of Dr. Seuss books in celebration of his birthday.  Our class participated in the Community Read.  We were joined by Mrs. Orlando who read us Wild About Books and How Do Dinosaurs Go To School?  

Thank you for sending in the 100’s project.  The kids enjoyed sharing them with each other.  We have completed unit 5 in Everyday Math and we have started Unit 6.

We Celebrated the 100th Day

Last Wednesday we celebrated the 100th day of kindergarten.

We made 100th Day crowns.

We made a paper chain with 100 links.

February News

Snow - lots of snow!  We were able enjoy a visit from the Chewonki Foundation with their owls in between snow days last week.  Thanks to the PTA for providing the funds for this fabulous program.  We experienced up close what we have been studying for the last couple of weeks.  It was the highlight of a very snowy week!

We have completed our unit of study on writing true stories.  Our writing folders have been cleaned out and their contents will be sent home on Friday.  We will be starting informational writing this week.  Throughout this unit we will be exploring and writing “How To’s.”  It is a fun unit and I can’t wait to see what the kids write about.

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and we are looking forward to celebrating in our classroom!  We will be making simple Valentine mailboxes on Monday of next week.  If your child would like to send cards to ALL of their friends in Kindergarten they are most welcome. I encourage you to take this opportunity to have your child practice printing his or her name.  Simply have your child sign cards to distribute to each of their classmates (please do not address them).  This will make distributing the cards an easy task.  We have 19 students in our classroom.  If your child would like to send cards but it is a financial hardship please send in a note and I will send some simple cards for your child to make at home.

Welcome Back!

What a great week and a good start to a new year!  I hope everyone had a relaxed and fun vacation.  The kids came back well rested and ready to work.

We continue to work on writing true stories in writing workshop and have entered the last bend of this unit.  This bend is about revision.  We will go back to old pieces to make them even better.  We will also be reading mentor texts to look at how an author draws a reader into their writing by using details in the beginning of their story.  We will be working with partners to ask questions about our writing to add more detail.  We will also be exploring how to end our writing with feeling.

We will be finishing up Unit 4 and starting Unit 5 in our Everyday Math program this week.  Unit 5 explores standard measuring tools and units, attributes and sorting, addition and subtraction, equivalent names for numbers, the concept of making exchanges, skip counting and tally marks.  We will continue to reinforce skills that we have learned in other units.

The Chewonki Foundation will be visiting us on January 29th with their owls.  They always do a fabulous presentation.  To prepare for this visit we will be doing a unit of study on owls.

With the extremely cold temperatures outside the temperature inside our classroom fluctuates greatly.  Please send your child to school with a sweatshirt or fleece that they can put on and take off throughout the day.  We try to get outside everyday, weather and temperature permitting, warm winter gear is important.  Please make sure your child comes to school with hats, mittens, snowpants, snowboots, and warm winter jackets.