Welcome back to school! We usually do not have this many snow days in a row. Since we had so many snow days, some things got pushed up a week (Groundhogs Day and 100 days) and some things we had to cut out (Global Play Day). Last week we started our Science Unit on Push and Pull and our Social Studies Unit Past and Present.

This week, due to the snow day, we missed our Global Play Day. Hopefully, your children were able to play at home. This week’s theme was The Three Little Pigs. We read and compare different versions of this classic tale. On Monday we celebrated Groundhog’s Day and did Groundhog centers. Come and check the fantastic bulletin board, outside our classroom, with your student’s Groundhog Art Project.

Iready
We finished iReady testing, and you should have received your student’s score. Our class did very well in the iReady! I am proud of their hard work. After midwinter break, students should begin the lessons on iReady for homework. I know the math lessons were not coming up, that problem is now fixed.

Valentine’s Day- Party 9:45-10:45
On Friday we made Valentine’s Day bags and passed out Valentine’s Day cards. If your child forgot to bring their cards, they could bring them next week. The bags, card and all the candy will go home on Thursday.
We are looking forward to the Valentines Day party on Thursday morning. The party can only last 1 hour. Mr. Maktari is very strict on this, and I will get in trouble if it goes over. The rest of the day we will have a regular day.

Next week theme is Letter Writing. We will mail a letter home and learn about the post office. It is important that your student learns this week’s heart words. We will be writing and reading them every day: push, pull, dear, from.

100th Day
The actual 100th Day of school will be on Wednesday (if we do not have any more snow days). We will celebrate some on Wednesday and have a real celebration on Friday morning when students will have 100 day Centers. Thank you for sending in your collections of 100 things. We will be comparing and weighing these items in Math.

Reading- We are working on retelling stories and using the words first, then, next, last.

Writing- We are finishing up with our Narrative Unit. We are working on revising, editing and publishing.

Phonics- We learned how to tell the difference between similarly spelled words.

Math- We worked on addition story problems, and students were excepted to show their thinking even if they could do the math in their head.

Kindergarten Science – Push & Pull

We are starting our next science unit! This week in class students will begin an investigation on forces of motion and push and pull. By the end of The Push and Pull unit students will be expected to know these science concepts:

– Students will explain an object’s position regarding objects around it. Some of the positional words students will study are: above, left, right next to, and behind. Knowing and using positional words will be on your child’s report card, under the math section. Please try to use these words at home.

-Students will be able to explain the concepts of push, pull and how force can change the motion of objects.

-All students will keep a science journal and document their findings and understandings with pictures and words.

-Students will look for push and pull forces on the playground, experiment with new materials, and create their moveable toy!