May Madness

Language Arts: In the past two weeks we have learned about Ima Iguana and Ollie the Orangutan. They have helped us remember that these letters say two sounds. We have been working really hard on being able to sort the two sounds as well as read words with two sounds. One of our reading buddies, Flippy the Dolphin, reminds us to flip the sound in a word we don't know to try and figure it out. This has been much easier for us now that we are learning the vowels and both their sounds. Next week we will learn about letter U and the week after that is letter Y as a vowel. We will wrap up with a week of review and your little kindergartener will walk out the door ready for a summer vacation and excited to start first grade! 

Math: Addition and Subtraction facts to five have been our focus lately. One of the benchmarks your child needs to meet is easily identifying an addition or subtraction sentence within 5, and being able to say the answer without using manipulatives (fingers, counters, etc.) We have played many games of around the world, done flashcards everyday and worked on story problems within 5. We have also been reviewing all of the 3D shapes we need to know in kindergarten: sphere, cone, cylinder and cube. We learned how to draw each 3D shape and drew pictures of real life things that looked the same as each 3D shape. We ended the week by having a fun day creating, sorting ad identifying all these 3D shapes! We had four stations set up:

    1. Shape Building with marshmallows and toothpicks.

2. Candy Sorting

 3. Cut and Paste: 3D v 2D

    

4. Smartboard

Writer's Workshop: We spent every day this week working on writings of our OWN CHOICE!! I read some great books, letters and posters this week--all ideas generated by none other than your children! It is so fun to see what they come up with and how their writing has evolved over the past 9 months. I hope they are sharing their stories with you!

Discovery: We finished our study on the desert this past week. We started the week by making a Schema chart (things we think we already know). Here are some of our schemas:

-the desert is dry

-lots of sand 

-the desert is hot

-there are camels

-there are pyramids

-there are caxis (cactus) :)

After watching a video about the desert, we drew a picture and wrote down our new learning. Here are some of the things we learned:

-cacti have long roots to get water

-camels have long eyelashes to keep the sand out of their eyes

-many animals live there

-snakes blend in

-the cactus is very spiky

We also made our own saguaro cactus, a cactus that takes up to 150 years to get big and grow arms. It is the home to many desert animals while it is alive as well as when it is dead. We learned that the elf owl loves to make its home in the saguaro.

Our fun wrap up craft was a desert scene. We used colored chalk to make a background, then added cacti, animals, flowers and sand to make it come to life. They are so cool! We loved learning about the desert. For the next two weeks we will study our last habitat/environment: the ocean! 

Please remember that we have our spring music concert Tuesday, May 7 at 9:00 a.m.