May 12

News From Kindergarten
Thursday, May 12th , 2011

Language Arts
This week we learned the song Mister Sun and added it to our Poetry Books. Students have many songs, nursery rhymes and songs that they practice reading in their books. We have also learned some new sight words; he/she. We are wrapping up the year and will soon be doing final testing. We also will not be learning many new concepts but practicing the skills we have already been introduced to in order to be ready for first grade.

Mathematics
This week we learned a new game called Race You to $.30. We learned that it takes 10 pennies to equal a dime. We also learned that president Franklin Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States is on the dime. Students are practicing exchanging 10 pennies for 1 dime in this game.

Recycle/Reduce/Reuse
We continued our study of ecology this week by doing a bunch of activities. We looked at our tree, talked more about recycling and watched a movie about the digester at Blue Spruce Farm. Yesterday we observed and sketched the tree on the soccer field in our Tree Books. We noticed that it had made many changes. There are nice green leaves covering all of the branches! We read a story about recycling and talked about different materials that are recyclable. We did a sorting activity with items that we collected from snack time. We made a two-part poster for could be recyclables and garbage. It was tricky to figure out which category each item went in! Today we watched a sort movie about the Blue Spruce Farm. The movie talked about how the farm recycles almost everything it produces! We also talked specifically about how the digester, the machine that turns the cow manure into electricity, really works. It is pretty amazing that cows can keep our lights on! We are very excited to see the farm in person on our trip next week!

Step-Up Luncheon Celebration
On Wednesday, June 15th we will have a Preschool and Kindergarten Step-Up. Students will eat lunch in the classroom, receive a special gift and a certificate of completion. We welcome any parents or grandparents to join us for this special occasion. You may be hearing from a classroom parent to help in catering a special lunch for the students that day.
Look for:
Special envelope from PTO in your child’s folder

Upcoming Dates
May 18th- Blue Spruce Farm
fieldtrip
May 21st & 22nd – School Yard Sale
May 23rd – Castleton State College
performance (Duck for President)
May 25th – Spring Into the Arts
May 30th – No School/Memorial
Day Observance
June 1st – Spring Concert
June 3rd – Volunteer Luncheon/
Beautification Day
June 8th – Class trip to Button Bay
June 14th – All School trip to
Branbury State Park (tentative)
June 15th – Step Up Luncheon
Celebration
June 16th – Last student day of school