Monthly Archives: April 2019

A week in review: April 22-26

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It was another great week in Kindergarten with great weather, which we took advantage of, as we went outside for our playtime for a few days. We also wrote lists of spring things while outdoors one afternoon! The highlight of our week was definitely our trip to Critter Barn and the park. I want to thank all of my wonderful parent volunteers, we absolutely could not have done it without you, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am excited to talk in more detail about it with the kids on Monday! I have included some pictures at the end of this update. I tried to get pictures of each child but that proved to be more challenging than anticipated given the manner in which we were organized into groups. We have lots of things coming up as we close out our last month of kindergarten so continue to watch your emails closely! It is a blessing to be teaching your children!

Important Dates:

  • May 2: Pen Pals Pizza Party
  • May 3: Family Fun Night
  • May 8: Half day for Tulip Time
  • May 9: No PM Bussing
  • May 10: No PM Bussing

Additional Information:

This week we will be starting our ABC countdown to summer. On Wednesday we will have an apple treat (thank you to our parents for signing up to bring apple treats), on Thursday we have bring your favorite bear day and on Friday we will have fun with chalk day!

We will soon be starting a PBL (project based learning). I will be sending information out about this soon and will need some parent volunteers to help us with our research!

From the office:

Continuous Enrollment forms are now PAST DUE. Please make sure you have completed the following for enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year. If you have not completed, please complete as soon as possible.

  • OPTS (One Page Tuition Form): This is the white form with your tuition numbers on. You would have either picked-up from the office or would have received in the mail from us. Please sign and return.
  • Gold Transportation Forms: These would have come with your OPTS. Please sign and return.
  • Continuous Enrollment Form: This is an online form that you would have received in an email on or around March 4th. Please complete this Continuous Enrollment Form.

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we studied the ascension of Jesus and worked on a page for our spiritual journals. We reflected on what our Easter memory verse, Matthew 28:5,6 means to us.

Word Wall Word: why

Daily 5: We are continuing to work at our different stations during Daily 5 and have also been practicing our blending cards. Please keep practicing these at home!!

Phonics: We are continuing with words families. This week we did –ip and –ig.  I am so excited as the kids are beginning to come up with words on their own! We also focused on the 2 sounds the vowel A makes.

Math: We finished up unit three and took our unit three test!

Writing Workshop: We worked on answering letters from our pen pals! Next week we will culminate our pen pals unit with our pizza party on Thursday afternoon! Thank you to those who have already volunteered, I believe there is still one spot open to volunteer!!!

Science: Our room got a little loud during science this week as we continued our unit on living things as we studied live worms!!! We discussed how they used their senses to know light and dark and how they move with their bristles as well as how they need to be moist to breathe!

Afternoons: This week we did a writing activity outside one afternoon as the warm temperatures were calling us outside!! We also enjoyed our quiet and play times as well as Daily 5 and our trip to the Critter Barn!!!

2019 Critter Barn

 

A Week in Review: April 15-19

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What a privilege it has been to teach your children this year and especially over this past week. We walked through the last week in the life of Jesus before his death and then resurrection. It was so good to talk with them daily about how important this story is to who we are and how we live. We talked about how important it is to know that Jesus died for each of us not just a few. He loved us that much! We are also continuing to work on our verse,

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here for he has risen just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
– Matthew 28:5-6

It gives me goose bumps as I listen to them say “He is risen,” their enthusiasm truly indicates that they understand what an amazing gift Jesus is!! May you celebrate our risen Savior not only on Easter but every day!

Important Dates:

  • April 26: Field trip to the Critter Barn
  • May 2: Pen pals pizza party
  • May 8: Half day for Tulip Time

Additional Information:

Thank you for all who volunteered to chaperone for our field trip to  Critter Barn. We have enough chaperones and I am so very thankful for all your help. Please make sure that if you are driving that you have a copy of your proof of insurance in the office. Also, if at all possible, please bring your child’s car seat to school on that Friday morning because we have limited car seats available! Once again thank you for all your help!

I will be sending out a sign up genius this week for our pen pals pizza party. I will need help with donating items as well as helping the kids put them together in the classroom!

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we studied all the events of Holy Week. It was such a great time to talk about our faith together. We had a great discussion about why this is one of the most important parts of the Bible and why.

Daily 5: This week I was able to meet with each group once. We also worked on the blending cards and are working hard on vowel sounds.

Word Wall Word: when

Phonics: This week we continued our study of word families. We worked on the –ut, -ug and –un families.

Math: This week we worked hard on the difference between adding and subtracting as well as reviewing different ways to make 10.

Writing Workshop: This week we wrote letters to our pen pals in Mrs. Bronsink’s class.  We told them about something we liked and then asked if they liked it too. They will be writing us back and we will be responding next week.

Science: This week we studied some of the things plants need to grow, sunlight, water and soil, and then we each planted our own lima been seed and will be watering it at school before we bring it home in a few weeks.

Handwriting: lowercase a, d, and g

Up in Lights: This week Barrett Smock was Up in Lights. We enjoyed learning about Barrett when his mom came in to share about him and he also had lunch with his mom and brothers. We are blessed to have Barrett in our class and love the enthusiasm and joy he brings.

Afternoon: This week we had some extremely “normal” afternoons and were able to get a lot done. We had our regular quiet and playtime as well as math centers twice and Daily 5 twice and also enjoyed art on Friday!

A week in review: April 8-12

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It was so great to be back with all the students this week after a great spring break. We were able to get back into the swing of things and enjoy some fun things such as the visit from author Kevin Kameraad (ask you kids about his puppets) and our backwards day. I am truly looking forward to the next few months together as we continue to grow and learn we finish our kindergarten year strong! It is truly a blessing to be teaching your children.

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • April 19: All School Chapel 9 a.m.
  • April 26: Field trip to the Critter barn-I sent a sign up genius earlier this weekend! Looking forward to this fun trip and I will keep you posted on any more details as I get them.
  • May 2: Pen pals pizza party- I will be sending a sign up genius out next week for donations and volunteers.

Additional Reminders:

Please remember to pack your child extra snacks. I have had many kids this week telling me they were still hungry and I am quickly running out of my reserve snacks. I think it is a possibility with the weather change that they are exerting more energy at recess and are hungrier than during the winter months!

For our Critter Barn field trip please remember to dress for the weather and dress in clothes that can get dirty! We sometimes aren’t so clean when we get back. Also remember that if you signed up to chaperone the Critter Barn is charging the chaperones $8.

We will be starting a writing unit with Mrs. Bronsink’s class next week and each student will be assigned a student in her class to write pen pal notes to. At the end of this unit, May 2, we will have an English muffin pizza snack in the afternoon. I will be sending a sign up genius next week if you would like to donate items for the pizzas or would like to come in and help us put them together!

Curriculum:

Bible: This week we learned about six different parables and finished our parables bag. Please look through these with your kids and have them talk to you about what they learned about God’s kingdom. I think our favorite was the midnight visitor and asking God for what we need.

Daily 5: This week we got back into the swing of things with Daily 5. I was able to meet with most everyone once and we are starting a new writing portion of Daily 5 where we walk around the room and look for bunnies with words on them and write them down. Please continue to work on the blending cards with your kids, this not only helps them with their reading but their writing as well!

Word Wall Word: what

Phonics: For the next few weeks we will be working on word families. This week we worked on the –op and –ot families.

Math: This week we used colored straws to practice finding different ways to make 10 and then wrote out number equations to match. For example 5+5, 7+3 etc.

Writing Workshop: This week we continued to work on making our own small moment stories. For our topic this week we wrote about things we did on spring break.

Science: This week we started our unit on living things. Dominick Terpstra brought in a bird’s nest which opened up our study. We learned some of the characteristics, such as growing and needing food and water, as well as having babies or seeds that make something alive.

Afternoons: This week we had some extra fun surprises in the afternoon, including our ice cream party as well as a visit from author Kevin Kameraad. We also had our normal playtime, quiet time, recess and snacks as well as Daily 5.

A week in review: March 25-28

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Our last week of school in March felt like we only had about half of our class due to illness and spring break! Praying that you all have had the opportunity to rest and rejuvenate and spend quality time with your families over spring break! I will also be praying that we have a strong last nine weeks of school before your students officially become 1st graders! How can that be?!

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • April 12: Author Kevin Kammeraad at school – I  have attached a link at the bottom if you are interested in ordering any of his books.
  • April 12: School Auction
  • April 19: All School Chapel 9 a.m.
  • April 26: Field trip to the Critter barn- I will be sending a sign up genius out soon for parent chaperones. The Critter barn has also informed us that they will now be requiring parent chaperones to pay the $7 fee. I wanted to inform you of this before I sent out the sign up.

Curriculum:

Bible: We started our study of the parables and making our parable bags. These are bags where we are making things to fill them with to remind us of each parable we study. This past week we learned about the following parables: The good Samaritan, The Lost Son and The wise man and the foolish man.

Word Wall Word: where (we are continuing working on words that start with the letters wh)

Phonics: This week we worked on listening to words to see if we hear any familiar sounds to help us spell similar words. For example if we know how to spell the word cat we could use that to help us figure out how to spell the word hat or mat.

Writing Workshop: We started putting our small moment stories on paper!

Math: We continued working on teen numbers as well as learning about different ways to make numbers. An example of this would be 4 and 3 make seven but also 5 and 2 etc.

Up in Lights: This week Emily Tubergan was up in lights. Her dad came to share about her and her grandma and brother came and had lunch with her. Her dad also brought her favorite treat, chocolate chip cookies, to share with the class. Emily has such a caring heart and is always willing to help anyone! We are so blessed to have Emme in our class!

Afternoons: This week we were able to do our usual afternoon activities as well as some math centers as well as cleaning out our old books from our book boxes so we can replace them with new ones after spring break!

Kevin Kammeraad Order Form