Homework tonight or tomorrow

Hello,
     Today your child is bringing home a note regarding our research writing.  Please return the information and photo by Thursday morning.  If you don't have a printer, I'm happy to find and print the photo here.

     For those home sick today. I'm going to past in the note, but I don't have a digital copy saved of the form.  It's just a simple fill in the blank of  Where it lives, what it eats, what kind of animal (mammal, fish etc.) and something interesting about the animal.
Thanks for your support from home!
Take care

Here's the note:

Dear Parents,

          Over the next two weeks your child will be involved in a nonfiction research investigation.  First, we will do a whole-class investigation.  After coming up with a long list of animals that our class was interested in studying, we narrowed it down to fewer choices and then voted.  The final result was turtles.  I will be walking students through an exact model of the research report they will be doing.

         

We are teaching children today that we can research topics not only by looking at books and magazines, but by talking and learning from people or looking on the Internet.  We will be using all the skills taught in our non-fiction writing unit to write a report.

Next, here’s where I need your help…I am requesting that you take a few minutes tonight and/ tomorrow. Then help your child choose an animal that he/she would like to research on his/her own.  Please be sure it will be an animal they know little about, as some dog lovers want to report on dogs, which would leave little investigating.  We will begin individual reports by the end of the week.  Please take time to explore information about the animal your child chooses.  Have him or her record simple facts regarding what the animal eats, where it lives, what it does and what it looks like… Please use the attached sheet to guide you. We will be doing this in class as well.  So, please don’t feel you are doing a report at home.  We are only asking for your support in sharing information with your child as research.  Each child will create an animal report throughout the next two weeks.  Finally, your child will need a photograph of his/her chosen animal to be used in the report.  I believe you will be able to find this on the internet.  It should be an exciting time of year for our young writers!

Thank you for your support!

Mrs. LaBlanc

Week of May 14-18

Our kindergartners are in full bloom for the third week of May!  I was delighted to work with students Wednesday and Thursday for individual assessments.  All students have shown such progress and achievement throughout the year.  It is truly a rewarding time of year  having the chance to reflect on each student.

We enjoyed the big book called Rosie's Walk.  It's a wonderful story that tells most of the story through pictures.  After reading the book several times, students illustrated a personal copy.  Hopefully your child has read it to you already.

Writers Workshop:  This week we were able to finish illustrations on our published poem.  A copy of our class poetry book was put in each folder on Friday.  I hope you enjoy reading these as much as we did.  It was  a fun writing unit that allowed for lots of creativity.  We also reviewed the other types of writing we have done this year such as patterned text books, non-fiction, labeling pictures etc.  Students were given the opportunity to write using any form this week.  Beginning next week we will start our research unit of study...yes, research in kindergarten!  It's actually a lot of fun and scaffolded by myself and Mrs. Noel.

Reader's Workshop:  Reader's learned how to return to their texts to answer questions or confirm thoughts about the texts they are reading.  They also learned to use the text to share parts of the book with their partners.  We also continued to practice all reading strategies throughout each workshop this week.

Math:  Students learned about halves and even numbers.  Of course this is an introduction, but many students seemed to understand the concept.  We used bingo chips and divided them with odd and even numbers of chips to discover which numbers could be divided into even halves.  We also reviewed more with measurement and number stories. Next week I will send home the number stories books when they are completed.  The children are becoming more confident with these each time we work with them.

We also started a map unit this week.  Students are referencing themselves on a map.  They're working to recognize their city, state, country and continent.  We looked at many practical uses for a map this week and will continue this into next week.  Students made maps this week of their bedrooms and yards.  When mapping their back yard they used a key.  Sometime this week or the next I will be surprising them with a treasure hunt using a map.

Work stations:

Field day photos on smilebox...enjoy!

Free slideshow design generated with Smilebox

Important happenings this week and beyond

Happy Monday!  Thank you all for the well wishes and I am happy to be back.  I was out due to pneumonia and will be back to the doctor's office tomorrow afternoon for a recheck, but believe I am on the mend.

So much going on this time of year that I wanted to update you on a few items:

• Field Day is this Friday.  For first time parents to Dublin this is a tradition where students enjoy non-competitive outdoor activities.  Our PTA serves all students hot dogs and parents at each grade level donate specific food items for lunch.  This year kindergarten is asked to donate a pack of cheese sticks (string or twist 'ems).  This event requires many volunteers to work the stations.  Our class will be participating in the afternoon.  If you wish to volunteer in the morning then you can stop in to watch our class in the afternoon.  Please note that donated lunches are served for working volunteers, so if you are not working a shift and wish to join us for lunch at noon you'll want to bring your own lunch.
• DRA testing this will take place this week.  All grade levels will be testing students for end of the year reading levels this month.  In kindergarten we also complete the Walled Lake Literacy Progress Profile testing again as well.  We will be having a substitute in our classroom this week on Wed. and Thurs. while I pull children to test throughout the day. 
• Guided reading groups will be decreased during testing time.  When all testing is complete I will pick up groups again and continue until early June.  In June we will need to start returning, organizing books back into our school literacy library. 
• Next Monday we will have our ice cream party reward for having the highest number of parents involved in the PTA.  This was originally planned for Friday, but I'm switching it due to field day.
• You are likely hearing about our upcoming Ice Cream Social.  If you're new to Dublin, please know "social" is an understatement!  It's our biggest event here of the year.  We are known for our incredible community and the entire community comes to join us on this evening.  It's more of a carnival without rides.  There will be bounce houses, usually a firetruck, games, prizes, food and more!  If you haven't volunteered yet, please consider doing so.  We'll need many volunteers and truly it's a fun night where you'll meet many parents and your children will have a ball.  If you can't volunteer maybe consider donating a prize.  There is a huge raffle at the end of the night with some great prizes. 
• Finally, thank you PTA and all of you involved with staff appreciation week here at Dublin.  We were treated to a wonderful lunch today and are being fed and honored throughout the week in many ways. 

 I know I just gave you tons of information at once, so please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a great week!

May 7th- May11th

Happy Friday families! It was great to see some of the families at mom’s and muffins this morning! Due to the fact that Mrs. LaBlanc has been out for half of the week I offered to update the blog. We hope that she is feeling better and will be back with us on Monday.

We continued our focus on the big book “Meanies” this week. We used this book as a guide for writing our own book called, “Mommies”. This is something your son/daughter can share with you!

In reader’s workshop we practiced re-telling for comprehension. First we looked at how to use time words while retelling. For example using; then, next, and finally. Then we looked closely at using characters names while retelling, and not to use so many details.

In writer’s workshop we are ending our unit of poetry. We are in the process of publishing our poetry and will be available to see in our class poetry book next week. Your son/daughter should have brought home a red folder with all of their poetry inside. Please take a look at the marvelous poetry your young poet has created!

In math we began the week by reviewing time. This is something you can keep practicing with your son/daughter at home. They should know how to tell time with “o’clock and half-past (or :30).  This week we played a game called “high roller”. The students had to roll two die to get two different numbers. They had to write down the two numbers they could make with the two numbers they rolled. For example if you roll a 5 and a 6 you could make 56 or 65. Then students had to figure out which number was the higher number, 56 or 65? This was a difficult concept for most students! Last, we worked on measuring using inches!

Work Stations:

Have a great weekend kindergarten families! We hope to see Mrs. LaBlanc back on Monday healthy as can be! =)