I honestly can’t believe we only have 8 days left of this school year!  I keep telling me that I am not ready yet!  I realized this weekend it is because I love watching these kids grow.  They each have grown so much this school year and it has been a privilege to be a part of it.  I have truly enjoyed partnering with each of you.  We will keep working these next two weeks!

PBL-It has been wonderful to see each group grow in their curiosity of animals.  We have had several research days now and they are still asking to look through animal books any chance they get.  We will have one more day on Tuesday to work on final projects and then present what they have learned on our celebration Friday at 9am.  If you are able to volunteer to help Tuesday, I would love extra hands to help the kids from 11-11:50.  Please email me if you are interested.

Math-The class enjoyed rotating Math centers a few times this week to work on adding, subtracting, shapes, patterns and number partners.  We continue to work on writing numbers properly.

Writing-We wrote our final “How to” book this week.  I was amazed at how much the class has grown as writers.  They work so hard on sounding out words.  This week we also focused on editing.  Checking our words, making sure we begin sentences with a capital letter and end with a period.

Daily 5-I have been reading with students individually.  It has been wonderful to have the one on one time as well as checking in on small groups.  The class continues to love writing and reading with friends during this time.

Bible-we are reviewing the Bible truths we learned this school year and continue to brainstorm how we can live out the Great Commission.

Phonics-We continue to work on word families by sorting words and reading them.  It has been great to see confidence grow in reading these words.

May 29: Memorial Day (NO school)See you tomorrow! We start lining up at 8:45 AM south of Main Street near the intersection of Centennial and Cherry.  Make sure I give you a name sticker before you leave your child.

May 31: Holland Farmer’s Market Field Trip and Lunch at Kollen Park **Half day students will be dismissed at 12:50** No hot lunch. Please pack a sack lunch for the park.

June 2: PBL Celebration @ ZCS 9-9:30am

*You won’t want to miss this! Join us after for cookies and juice to celebrate a great year of kindergarten!

June 8: Last day of school!

June 8: NO Hot lunch or PM Bussing

This week in Kindergarten…

We started our research for the PBL Unit.  It was so neat to see the kids and parents excited about learning more about animals.  The kids are looking through books, reading them with an adult and writing down notes in journals.  The curiosity is building as many students have told me they are looking up information at home and asking to read through their animal books at school.  This is exactly why we have this unit…we want to build curiosity in kids and encourage them to explore God’s creation.

This week we will be researching more on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Extra volunteers are always welcome, so please email me if you are available Tuesday or Wednesday from 11-11:50.

In Math we compared numbers and used the words greater or less than.  We are also really working on writing numbers with out any reversals 🙂

In Bible, we continue to explore what it means for us today to live our our Bible verse “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20  It had been good to have discussions about this during class.  Some have big ideas of going out into the world and others have wonderful simple ways of sharing God’s love at home.  I encourage you to continue this conversation at home as you practice the verse.

Phonics-We continue to work on word families (a group of words ending with the same sound). The kids become confident when we do these and I love that! We have also been working on digraphs and blends.  This week we practiced the ch sound.

In Handwriting we are finishing up our books and encouraging the class to write their best in all subjects 🙂

In Writing Workshop this week we wrote our pen pals for the last time.  Today the class celebrated with their pen pals during a party!  Thank you for donating items and helping out during this fun time!  I have made extra copies of our letter template for the class to choose from during Daily 5 or during early finisher time.  They have enjoyed writing and you may see some letters coming home soon.

In Daily 5 we continue to build strategies to use when we get stuck on a word.  I am seeing so many students initiate this on their own!  The class is also loving writing books during this time.

This week Thursday we had a visitor in our classroom.  Addilyn will be a first grader next year and she felt so loved by your children.  Everyone was ready to show her around and excited to read with her 🙂  They also helped her out when we had a fire drill during her visit!  It was quite a morning.

Coming up…

May 29: Memorial Day (NO school)

*Save the DATE – kindergarteners will march in the Zeeland Parade! Please email me if your child is NOT participating. I have two volunteers already to walk with our class. Please email me if you would also like to walk with us.

May 31: Holland Farmer’s Market Field Trip and Lunch at Kollen Park

June 2: PBL Celebration @ ZCS 9-9:30am

*You won’t want to miss this! Join us after for cookies and juice to celebrate a great year of kindergarten!

June 8: Last day of school!

June 8: NO Hot lunch or PM Bussing

We continue to work hard in class and play hard enjoying the beautiful spring weather this week!

Bible-We continue to practice our Bible Memory-Matthew 28:19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

We are also reflecting on how we can spread the good new of Jesus!

Math-We continue to practice addition and subtraction through story problems and writing out the equations. We are building a strong base of know the partners of ten.

Daily 5-The class is enjoying new and old writing choices! I love reading these. Some are writing their own books and others are using a mixed up sentence page I have for them. We continue to work on different strategies when we see a word we do not know while reading.

Phonics-We are working on word families. The students sort words into two families and read them to me when they are finished. I always remind them how MANY words they can read now! Especially when they get to know the word family J

Exploring God’s World-the class is interested in quite a few different animals. This week we will form groups based on interest and begin researching different animals for our PBL unit. I am planning on Mary VanDam, Alicia Zandstra and Wendi Kapenga helping Tuesday and Marci Leegwater, Laura Hunderman and Laurie Adams helping Wednesday. If this isn’t correct, please email me J If you would like to help a group, please email me or use the sign up genius! Thank you!

Expand(ED) Deadline Coming Soon: Please sign your child up for any Expand(ED) opportunities on this website (or search ZCS Expand(ED) online) by Friday, May 19. Opportunities include academics, sports, language, and creative arts. Camps will be canceled if there are not enough students signed up. If you have any questions, please email mklompmaker@zcs.org

May 19: Penpal Pizza Party (10:10-11:50 am)

May 29: Memorial Day (NO school)

*Save the DATE – kindergarteners will march in the Zeeland Parade! Please email me if your child is NOT participating.  I have two volunteers already to walk with our class. Please email me if you would also like to walk with us.

May 31: Holland Farmer’s Market Field Trip and Lunch at Kollen Park

June 2: PBL Celebration @ ZCS 9-9:30am

*You won’t want to miss this! Join us after for cookies and juice to celebrate a great year of kindergarten!

June 8: Last day of school!

June 8: NO Hot lunch or PM Bussing

Days and weeks are going quickly, but we are definitely making the most of them!

Daily 5-The class continues to work hard on reading new books in reading groups with me. Thank you for reading these at home as well. Some kids may come home with a book that has a challenging word in it. Please ask them what strategy they can use to sound out the word (they have sheets in their book bags with these listed).

Writing Workshop-It has been exciting to so much growth this week in your writers! We were able to write back to our pen pals in Mrs. Johnson’s class. We also worked on a How to Writing-How to Plant Seeds.

Phonics-This week we worked on reading CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. The class worked on this by playing a game in which on his/her turn a student would roll a dice, move on a board and read the CVC word he/she landed on.  It was a fun race to the end and great way to practice reading these words.

In Bible we continue to read about the Apostles and the amazing work they were able to do in the name of Jesus!  This week we read about Philip and the Ethiopian.  We talked about praying to God and also being ready to talk to someone when God wants us to.

Engaging God’s World-We remembered that God created our world and it is our responsibility to take care of it.  We talked about different ways that we can help the earth.

Math-the class is working on listening to story problems of buying fruit at the market (addition) and eating the fruit (subtraction).  They have enjoyed playing along with this and are doing a great job writing out and solving these equations.

May 10: Tulip Time 1/2 Day (Dismiss at 11:50am)

May 11: NO Hot Lunch or PM Busing

May 12: NO Hot Lunch or PM Busing

May 19: Penpal Pizza Party (10:10-11:50 am)

May 29: Memorial Day (NO school)

*Save the DATE – kindergarteners will march in the Zeeland Parade!

May 31: Holland Farmer’s Market Field Trip and Lunch at Kollen Park

June 2: PBL Celebration @ ZCS 9-9:30am

*You won’t want to miss this! Join us after for cookies and juice to celebrate a great year of kindergarten!

June 8: Last day of school!

June 8: NO Hot lunch or PM Bussing