Thank you to all who signed up to help with classroom supplies. I appreciate all of you!

Reminders:

Wednesday, March 21: Wacky Wednesday! Wear something wacky/mismatched today!

Friday, March 23: Bring a flashlight today!

March 30-April 9: Spring Break!

There are a few spots left for drivers on our Critter Barn Field Trip and Holland Farmer’s Market. Please consider filling those if you are able 🙂

Daily 5-This week we had a great time adding new books to book bags. I left older ones in as well so children have a few options to read over the weekend. Please take some time to go through word wall words with your child and ask them about their reading strategies. Students enjoyed highlighting these as we used them while reading. I encouraged students to leave the paper on the table next to them as they read so they could use a strategy when they came to a word they didn’t know.

Phonics-we worked on stretching out words and listening to different letter sounds. We practiced this with a phonics game board. The class did great working in groups of 2-3 to play this game.

Handwriting-we were able to practice letter k. This is such a tricky one with two slanted lines. It was great to see such improvement after we practiced!

Bible-We are so excited to start our Easter timeline. God had a plan for Jesus on earth and each step to the cross was an important one. This week we read about Jesus’s Triumphal entry (Palm Sunday) and Jesus teaching us to serve others when he washed the disciples feet.

Engaging God’s World-we discovered that there are three characteristics of living things: 1. Eats 2. Grows and 3. Reproduces (we actually used this big word). We talked about how a plan eats differently than a human, but it still eats. We sorted pictured and categorized them as Living or Non-Living.

Writing Workshop-We have started writing our small moment stories! This is such a big leap for our young writers. They are thinking of a true story, telling the beginning, middle and end, writing sentences (that are not pattern) and sketching. It is a lot of work! They are working so hard sounding out words and trying to keep a “finger space” between words. I am so proud of them! This week we wrote about our field trip to Visser Farms and a story of their choice.

On Friday we enjoyed traveling to a new spot to read. We went to Mr. Joustra’s room and his class came into ours. The kindergartners were impressed with the big chairs and tables in 4th grade.  We read the book “Miss Fannie’s Hat” for hat day. It is a sweet book about an elderly woman famous for wearing her beautiful hats each Sunday. She decides to donate her favorite one to the church auction. Although it was hard, it was such a blessing to the church and she felt so happy. It was good to talk to the class about giving after reading.

We ended our day with Kindergarten singing. It is always powerful to hear all five kindergarten classes singing praises. A highlight this week was watching them sing “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” and telling how Jesus came from heaven to earth to show us the way. We ended with a new video of “This Little Light of Mine.” A cartoon lightbulb was walking down a dark city street singing this familiar song. It included the verse “Jesus is the light, I’m going to let HIM shine.” As the song concluded there were three lightbulbs now walking down the street, singing and shining their light. It was so neat to share with children that they can shine their light and lead others to Jesus!

A new favorite art choice during play…HOT Crayons. After going over safety rules, children carefully color paper that is set on top of a warm griddle. The peeled crayon melts and is a very soothing way to color. When finished, we blow on the picture 3 times and it is dry. It looks great hung in a window as the sun shines through it.