Goodbye

It is hard to believe that our year together is actually over.  Each and every student made so much progress and I am proud of their work.

I try to not to make these posts about me, but many of you have heard I am leaving the classroom next year to take a new position with the district as a Curriculum Specialist.  So allow me to reflect. I have had many, many mixed emotions as I pack up my classroom.  One thing I can say with all confidence is that I am grateful for this year with your children.  Teaching is not easy.  It is physically exhausting being with 5 and 6 year olds all day.  It is mentally exhausting trying to figure out the best way to teach a concept or a skill to 20 different personalities.  And it is emotionally exhausting because you LOVE the students and that seeps into every decision you make.  Your children exhausted me like no other class- but only because I have such love for them and that is an overwhelming sense responsibility to get things right.  I know I've made mistakes, but please know that each decision I made this year was made with love for your wonderful, silly, sweet, feisty, strong, smart children.  Thanks for giving me a great year by sharing them so generously. 

This class was amazing in so many ways.  Every year after the first day of school I name the email group for communication with the parents. After a few hours I can usually sense the personality of the class.  One years it was "funny group" one year (before I had this group) I labeled it "best group" and one year, I admittedly just called the group "class" when I just was not feeling a strong connection.  This year I named the group Zen.

Zen is frequently associated with calm. There were moments of calm, but in order to achieve Zen you have to work at it.  I could tell these students were lifelong learners. These students were striving for balance but most importantly they were hard workers.  They worked at reading and writing and math, to be sure.  They also worked on friendships.  This is something you cannot teach.  You can nurture it, which I hope I did. But these kids will be fine with any teacher, any class, because they are always striving to be better students and friends.

Have an amazing summer.  Keep in touch.  And I hope in the midst of it all you find a moment of Zen.

Reading:  We are reading for pleasure this week.  I have been reading all of my favorite books to the kids and they are reading their favorite books in their book boxes. 

Writing:  We continue to do choice writing.  Some kids are revisiting How To Writing.  Others are writing opinion letter.  Many of the students are writing narrative pieces.  It is fun to see what they can produce when simply giving the time to write!

Math:  We have a few more lessons to get through with decomposing teen numbers.  We are breaking teen numbers into ten and some more. 

ABC Countdown is in Full Swing!

When Outside day is 50 and rainy you wait for Pajama Day to get outside!  We read outside...

 We practiced sight words outside.

 And we made amazing hopscotches to practice skip counting!

Quick and Quiet day was pretty awesome, too.  We finally got a beautiful day to go to the garden.   Here is a link to some amazing pictures that Tina took.  

https://tinaharlephotography.pixieset.com/parkinsonkindergarten/

password: betsy

download pin: 6204

Olympic Day was a blast.  I did not get any pictures because we were too busy having fun. 

This week we will begin taking things home for the year. 

Reading:  Assessments!

Writing:  Assessments!

Math:  Assessments!

This week was a review week while I sat with the kids to do assessments and get ready to report to you on their amazing progress.  We still have a few more things to learn but as the year winds down we spend a lot of time having fun using all the new reading, writing and math skills we have learned.  

5/16 Animal Research project due

5/24 Olympic Day- kids wear PE shoes and parents consider volunteering

5/27 No School

5/29 Picnic - all Kindergarten families are invited to attend this picnic at Barrie.  Please check for the sign up genius. 

6/6 Last Day

ABC Countdown: We've been having a lot of fun with our ABC countdown. A few highlight pictures below.  

 Game day was a success.  It is not easy for a bunch of 5and 6 year olds to navigate learning new games, taking turns, and sharing.  But your children did an amazing job with it.  We actually had fun!!!   I must admit I usually kinda dread that day because it is so hard to help them all.  But this year was AWESOME!

J for Joke Day!  I know I say this a lot... but it's my favorite thing to do with Kindergarteners. I really can't wait.

Art Choice Day.

Bear Day! 

Working on decomposing teen numbers. 

Ms. Sakamoto read us a book for First Grade day!

First graders presented their research projects to us.  We learned a lot. 

Game day was a success!

dates!

Whew!  We've been so busy I have not updated the blog in a while.

Reading:  We are reading non-fiction books and looking for pages that WOW us!  We have learned about text features such as a table of contents and bold words.

Writing:  We have been writing our non-fiction stories as well.  Hopefully all of this prep work will make the Animal Research project a breeze!

Math: We are working on addition and subtraction with base ten concepts.  We continue to review counting, number formation and shapes.

Science:  We successfully released 3 butterflies into the garden last week when it was sunny and warm!  It was so fun watching the life cycle!

5/1 ABC countdown begins!  This is meant to be fun.  If it ever becomes too much- just skip that day.  No problem!  If it interferes with another day- simply choose. 

May 2: Thursday- Sports Hat Day - wear your favorite sports
hat to school and bring a water bottle to use if you have
one.
May 3:
 Friday- School Spirit Day - wear Irving school clothing or
anything with red and white in it and make sure to get at
least 10 hrs. of sleep tonight.

5/10 Irving Sleepover

5/16 Animal Research project due

5/24 Olympic Day- kids wear PE shoes and parents consider volunteering

5/27 No School

5/29 Picnic - all Kindergarten families are invited to attend this picnic.  It looks like we will be at Barrie this year but I will keep you updated if anything changes. 

6/6 Last Day

Upcoming Dates:

4/16 Mrs. Parkinson out  Substitute during the day 

4/17 K-2 Spelling Bee

4/19 No School

4/21 Book Fair starts!

4/24  Academic Fair 5:30-6:30 . Come see all the great projects! 6:30: I'll be signing books at the book fair!  I would love to see some friendly faces!

5/1 ABC countdown begins!

5/4 District Fun Run

5/9 Art Fest in the evening

5/10 Irving Sleepover

5/24 Olympic Day- kids wear PE shoes and parents consider volunteering

5/27 No School

6/6 Last Day

Reading: This week we set goals for ourselves during writing.  We are powering up the super reading strategies that we sometimes forget to use.  Students are learning that sometimes they need to use ALL the strategies to figure out an unknown word.  

This week we also learned that readers love to talk about books with other readers.  We sometimes even have reading play dates!  Here are a few students playing teacher during a reading play date.  Students also learned how to play a game called, SNAP IT!  This game helps us practice our snap words. 

Writing: We finished up our Opinion Writing and we are now working on All About Writing.  This is a great opportunity for your child to really shine!  They write about things they know a lot about.  We have Sea Creature experts, Dragon experts, Garden experts, Sports experts...you name it!  I love hearing all the fun facts your children know about different topics.

Math: In math we are working on teen numbers.  We are building teen numbers and writing number sentences with teen numbers.  We are also making sure that our facts that add to ten are fluent.

Science:  We have Caterpillars!  We now have 5 caterpillars living in our room.  We are observing them and learning about the life cycle.  Here we are at morning meeting practicing the stages of the butterfly life cycle without any words.

Business Items

One Book One School
Irving School is reading a book together!  Your family will receive a copy of the book on Thursday.  (The title is still a surprise!) . We will read the first two chapters with our Eagles Nest.  Optional trivia questions will go home.  If students return the questions they are eligible for a raffle.

This week we are doing Anti-Bullying Lessons every day.  Students are learning to identify what bullying is.  Bullying is generally defined as  intentional, repeated behavior targeting someone specific.   Students are learning how and when to report  bullying and how to act as a friend to someone who is being bullied. If your child comes home and mentions bullying- be sure to ask if it is repeated behavior that is intentional. 

Academic Fair is Wednesday April 24th.  This event is a science (or social studies or math...) event for anyone interested.  Simply have your child ask a question and then help your child discover how to answer it.  It is meant to foster curiosity and problem solving.  It is 100% optional.  Most students do posters or make a model of some kind.  We will walk through the fair as a class during the day and then students who participated will come back at night and stand by their project to discuss it with other families as they walk around.  Click here for more information. 

Congratulations to our spelling bee reps! Zoe and Ellie will be representing our class in the spelling bee.  Leo is our alternate.  Nice going, Kindergarteners!

Reading
This week we learned about being an avid reader.  Avid readers read EVERYWHERE!  You might point out when your child is reading in unexpected places!  A restaurant menu! A cereal box!  A street sign!  We even read directions on a tablet.  Avid readers don't stop reading! 

Writing
We started our opinion writing unit.  During this unit we write about strong feelings and try to convince our reader with reasons.  This is (in my opinion) the most difficult unit in Kindergarten.  Next week we will write about books and seasons.

Word Study
We are all focusing on vowels when we read and write!  Here we are using our Vowel Shields to search for vowels around the room. We also used them to check Mabel's writing for words that were missing a vowel.

Math
During math we focused on fact fluency.  If you can believe it we are already doing addition fact sprints.  We practice these facts over and over until we don't have to think about them!

Social Studies
Thanks PTO for sponsoring an Earth Friendly assembly.  If your child says they need to BYOBB- they know that it means Bring Your Own Bag and Bottle!