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.

December News

We have been busy, busy, busy.  So busy that just this weekend I realized I neglected our newsletter.

We have just completed Unit 3 in our Everyday Math program and moved into Unit 4.  During the next couple of weeks we will be exploring addition/subtraction, calculators, attribute blocks, numeral recognition, number writing and sequencing, 2-dimensional shapes, and measuring.  We will continue to discuss and explore graphing, estimating, and patterning.

It has been so exciting watching the kids expand their literacy skills and start building the skills they require for reading.  Our book boxes are filled to the brim with books we have read and practiced often.  My goal is to have them cleaned out and materials sent home by Christmas break.  Then we will fill them again.   

Writing workshop is well underway.  We have been talking about how to make our writing easier to read.  As writer’s we can stretch out our words and write down their sounds,  we can put spaces between our words, and use punctuation.  We have also been learning how to use tools to improve our writing.  We can use a writer’s checklist to make sure we have made our writing the best it can be, we can use alphabet charts to help us figure out letters/sounds, and how we can use our word wall to write “snap” words.  

The weather has been changing from day to day.  Some days it is a little bit warmer and others are cold.  Please send your child to school with a hat and mittens (or gloves).  When it snows your child will need a pair of snowpants to keep them warm and dry.  They will also need a pair of boots.

Please remember if you have any concerns or questions do not hesitate to call me at school or e-mail me at kwetzel@rsu1.org.  I hope you all have a wonderful week.