May 3rd, 2013- Caterpillars

Vote May 7th

Lakeshore Bond Proposal:

• Information can be found outside the office.
• Or on the Lakeshore Public Schools web page. Here are two links:

http://www.lakeshoreschools.k12.mi.us/bond.html

http://lpsvision2013.com/

• Here is a link for frequently asked questions:

http://lpsvision2013.com/?page_id=26

• Here is a link for why a new elementary school is needed:

http://lpsvision2013.com/?page_id=402
 

Highlights from the Week:

• Special Theme of the Week: Caterpillars
• Heart Words of the Week: me, my
• In language arts, we read a book about beetles and practiced asking ourselves questions while we read it.  We also practiced categorizing the beetles and putting them into groups according to how they are the same. 
• In math, we learned couple new centers that will help us practice addition.  For one of our new math centers, we are learning how to add numbers vertically!
• In writing, we worked on writing stories that include details of who, when, and where.  We also finished up our plant science journals.  We did an experiment to see if plants needed sun, water, air, and space in order to grow.  We recorded the results in our journal by drawing a picture and writing some labels.
• In science,we started to learn about butterflies.  We did a KWL chart.  In the K section, we recorded what we already knew about butterflies.  In the W section, we recorded what we want to know about butterflies.  This week, our focus was on caterpillars and we read some books about them and learned some fascinating information...like they eat their egg shell, they have 16 legs, and they do a variety of things to protect themselves from being eaten by other animals! 
• To tie together our learning about butterflies, we decided to make a butterfly garden in our classroom.  So far, we have made vines, flowers, eggs, and caterpillars.  We are excited to add more later!
• During community centers, we have a variety of activities that have a caterpillar theme.  At our art center, we are working together to make a giant caterpillar.  Everyone is making one part of the caterpillar's body out of tissue paper and a paper plate.  At the math center, we are making a pattern caterpillar. Our dramatic play has turned into a science lab and we are observing real caterpillars that will turn into butterflies!!

April 26th, 2013- Recycling

Lakeshore Bond Proposal:

• Information can be found outside the office.
• Or on the Lakeshore Public Schools web page. Here are two links:

http://www.lakeshoreschools.k12.mi.us/bond.html

http://lpsvision2013.com/

• Here is a link for frequently asked questions:

http://lpsvision2013.com/?page_id=26

• Here is a link for why a new elementary school is needed:

http://lpsvision2013.com/?page_id=402



Highlights from the Week:

• Special theme of the week: Recycling
• Heart word of the week: with
• In language arts, we practiced making inferences while we read.  We used clues from the book and our brains to come up with answers to questions.  We also practiced rhyming words in the -en family, counting syllables, and substituting different sounds at the beginning of words.
• In writing, we finished up our poetry unit.  We all picked our favorite poem and then published it.
• In math, we were introduced to a variety of new math centers.  One is called count and compare unifix cubes, where we are practicing various counting strategies and comparing quantities.  Another new center is called Beat you to 30 cents.  With this center, we are learning how to exchange 10 pennies for 1 dime.   We were also introduced to a frog center where we are practicing addition and subtraction.
• In social studies, we are learning about recycling and taking care of the earth.  We read the Lorax and talked about what could happen if we don't take care of the earth.  We also had a visit from Princess Wasteful.  We discovered that she was not very kind to the earth and we had to teach her ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
• During community centers, we have a few centers that have a recycling theme.  At our art center, we have a creation station.  We are taking recyclables and turning them into something new.  At another center, we are practicing sorting recyclable materials into categories (paper, plastic, metal).

April 19th, 2013- Plants

Lakeshore Bond Proposal:

• Information can be found outside the office.
• Or on the Lakeshore Public Schools web page. Here are two links:

http://www.lakeshoreschools.k12.mi.us/bond.html

http://lpsvision2013.com/

• Here is a link for frequently asked questions:  

http://lpsvision2013.com/?page_id=26

• Here is a link for why a new elementary school is needed:

http://lpsvision2013.com/?page_id=402

 

Highlights from the Week:

• Special Theme of the Week: Plants
• Heart Word of the Week: look
• In language arts, we practiced the strategy of retelling some of the important elements of a story.  We also practiced coming up with opposites of words, coming up with rhyming words in the -ake family, blending sounds together, and also figuring out words when a sound is taken away.  We have also continued to practice handwriting and writing letters within dotted lines.  Our focus for this week was on the letter "m" and the letter "p".
• In writing, we continued to write poetry.  We are writing some awesome poems!  This week, we learned about pattern poems, descriptive poems, and poems with onomatopoeias in them.
• In math, we did some activities to practice writing numbers and counting quantities.  We practiced counting quantities in as many ways possible.  We are also learning about items that measure what what they measure (E.g. length, weight, time, temperature).
• In science, we have started a variety of experiments to truly understand what plants need.  We are testing to see what type of earth materials seeds grow best in.  We are trying to grow seeds in soil, sand, rocks, and water.  We are also conducting an experiment to see if plants need sun, water, air, and space to grow.
• During community centers, we have continued to have many plant based centers.  This week, we have added a seed sorting center where we are sorting seeds with tweezers into different groups.  We are also making giant flowers out of paper.  These flowers are as tall as we are!

April 5th, 2013- Living and Nonliving

Lakeshore Bond Proposal:

• Information can be our outside the office.
• Or on the Lakeshore Public Schools web page. Here are two links:

http://www.lakeshoreschools.k12.mi.us/bond.html

http://lpsvision2013.com/

 

Highlights from the Week:

• Special Theme of the Week: Living/nonliving and Plants
• Heart Word of the Week: has
• In language arts, we read a nonfiction story.  We practiced retelling the sequence of events and identified some of the nonfiction elements that many nonfiction books have.  We also worked on comparing two Jack and the Beanstalk stories.
• In writing, we started writing kindergarten style poetry!  This week, we learned some of the important elements of poem: title, words, picture, and author.  We learned how to write list poems and poems with an ending thought. 
• In math, we are learning about measurement.  We are learning about different items that can measure and what they measure (E.g. weight, length, temperature, time). 
• In science, we started learning about living and nonliving things.  We learned that living things move, need food and water, grow and change, breathe, and reproduce.  We were not quite sure if plants are living things or not, so we decided to start learning more about plants by reading books and doing some science experiment.  This way, we can see if they need all the things that living things need.  We also went on a plant hunt to identify different types of plants.
• During community centers, we have a bunch of plant based activities.  At our art center, we are labeling parts of a flower and then water color painting the flower.  We are exploring dirt at our science center.  In dramatic play, we have a flower shop where we are practicing writing, reading, exchanging money, taking orders, running a flower shop, etc.  In our construction zone, we are building with blocks and using insects along with the blocks.  Many are building plants or underground structures for the bugs.  We also decorated cups and planted some grass seeds.

 



March 22nd, 2013- More Nursery Rhyme Fun

Lakeshore Bond Proposal:

• Information can be our outside the office.
• Or on the Lakeshore Public Schools web page. Here are two links:

http://www.lakeshoreschools.k12.mi.us/bond.html

http://lpsvision2013.com/

Highlights from the Week:

• Special Theme of the Week: Nursery Rhymes
• Heart Word of the Week: she
• In language arts, we read a variety of different Three Little Pigs books.  We then compared them to see how are they the same and how are they different.
• In math, we learned about estimation.  We took a handful of sea creatures and estimated how many we had altogether.  We then counted to see how close our estimation was.
• During our theme time, we did some more fun nursery rhyme activities.  This week, we focused on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Little Boy Blue, Hickory Dickory Dock, Little Miss Muffet, and Pat-a-Cake.  With all of the nursery rhymes, we found their rhyming words.  We also did some other fun activities to practice beginning sounds, rhyming, and syllables.  We also acted out some of the nursery rhymes as well!
• During community centers, we added a few new nursery rhyme themed centers.  We are retelling Hickory Dickory Dock with a large clock laying on the floor.  We can change the time on the clock so the mouse (us) can run up at different times.  We also have a pocket chart where we can change some of the words in the nursery rhyme.  We can then practice reading it with the changes we made.  At our art center, we are making Twinkle, Twinkle little star pictures.  In dramatic play, we are retelling the nursery rhyme, Pat-a-cake. 
• There will be no newsletter next week.

March 15th, 2013- Nursery Rhyme Time

Lakeshore Bond Proposal:

• On May 7th, you will have the opportunity to vote on a bond that will help address some of our critical needs here at Lakeshore Public Schools.  There is information outside the office on the proposals.  If you are unable to stop in, let me know and I can send information home with your child.
• Information can also be found on the Lakeshore Public Schools web page. Here are two links:

http://www.lakeshoreschools.k12.mi.us/bond.html

 

http://lpsvision2013.com/

Highlights from the Week:

• Special Theme of the Week: Nursery Rhymes
• Heart Word of the Week: what
• In language arts, we worked on distinguishing between reality and fantasy.  We looked at what elements of a book could actually happen and what elements could not happen.  We also did a lot of fun activities with nursery rhymes.  We practiced counting syllables in the rhyme, Jack be Nimble.  We practiced rhyming with Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty.  With Hey Diddle Diddle, we practice coming up with words that made a /k/ sound and then replaced them into the nursery rhyme.  With Little Bo Peep, we practiced listening for words that started with a /l/ sound.
• In writing, we continued working in our journals and adding more details to describe what we were writing about.  Also, inspired by the nursery rhyme, Jack Be Nimble, we practiced coming up with ideas of different items Jack could jump over.  Everyone can up with an item and an adjective to describe that object.
• In math, we continued with sea creature story problems.  We have been solving problems that our classmates have created.  We have solved them using white boards, using our fingers, and using cubes.
• During our theme time, we have been doing some fun activities with nursery rhymes.  Some of our favorite activities include acting out the nursery rhymes.  We have also done a few science experiments that went along with a few of the rhymes.  Inspired by Jack and Jill and Humpty Dumpty, we started talking about gravity.  We talked about how gravity pulls things to the earth.  We did an experiment to see what would happen if we dropped and heavy object and a light object at the same time.  Most of us thought the heavy object would hit the ground first.  Much to our surprise, both items hit the ground at the same time.  We then continued this experiment with other objects and noticed that they all hit the ground at the same time.   On Wednesday, we did a gravity experiment with Humpty Dumpty.  We turned an egg into Humpty Dumpty.  We then observed what happens to an egg when gravity pulls it to the ground.
• During community centers, we had a variety of nursery rhyme themed centers.  At the art center, we painted a picture of ourselves sitting on a wall.  At our construction zone, we are building walls and retelling the rhyme, Humpty Dumpty.  At our science center, we are doing a Jack and Jill inspired experiments.  We are building a hill out of books and a ramp.  We are seeing what object roll down a hill and what object don't.  We are also noticing the steepness of the hill affects how the objects move. 

March 8th, 2013- Kindergarten Goes Seussy!

Highlights from the Week:

• Special Theme of the Week: Dr. Seuss
• Heart Word of the Week: here
• In language arts, we practiced the skill of identifying the setting.  We talked about how the setting is where the story takes place.  We also practiced rhyming with words in the -ed family, counting syllables in words, and forming the letters l and h.
• In writing, we did a few Dr. Seuss activities.  Inspired by the book, Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can you?, we wrote a story using an onomatopoeia (sound words).  After reading, Dr. Suess' ABC book, we each wrote a page for a class ABC book.  On Thursday, we read the book called There's a Wocket in my Pocket.  This book is about make believe characters and the places they are hiding.  The make believe creatures rhymed with the places they were hiding.  We wrote stories about a make believe creature and where it was hiding, making sure we used rhyming words.  On Friday, we read Green Eggs and Ham and wrote about something that we do not like and where we would not eat it.
• In math, we continued writing sea creature story problems.
• During our theme time, we continued to read more Dr. Seuss books and listened for rhyming words.  We also did some fun activities with each of the books.
• Our community centers this week were filled with Dr. Seuss activities.  In our dramatic play area, we practiced retelling the story, The Cat in the Hat.  At our art center, we finger painted a hat red and white.  At our fine motor center, we practiced tracing and cutting while we made a cat head.