April 9-13

This week our Knowledge-A-Thon happens!  This is is our biggest fundraiser of the year and is so fun and exciting for the students!  I hope you are finding time to practice questions at home...we will also be practicing them in class this week.  I also hope you will plan to join us for the KAT celebration dance on Friday night!   If you want volunteer to help with the KAT sign up here.

 Here is another copy of Kindergarten KAT questions!

We are in need of plastic grocery bags to be used at family night.  If you have some please send them to school with your child!

Dates and Reminders:
April 9-13: Knowledge-a-thon week (dress up days below
4/9- K-Kozy Day (PJ's or sweats)
4/10: NO SCHOOL
4/11: A- Dress like an Answer to a KAT question
4/12: T- Dress like a teacher
4/13: Olympic color day- Kindergarten is RED
4/13: KAT celebration dance 6-8pm
4/18: PAC field trip
4/19: Family Night 5:30-7:00pm
4/20: Dress in green and blue for Earth day
4/26: Movie Star Day

Math:  This week we will wrap up Unit 4.  We will spend some time this week reviewing 3D shapes (cone, sphere, cylinder and cube).  Mathematicians will explore if these shapes can roll and stack and explain why or why not.  Building 3D shapes will also help us to notice important attributes like numbers of corners and faces.  Lastly, we will compare 3D shapes and sort by their attributes.   One way to reinforce this at home is to have your child collect real life objects that represent these shapes.

Reading: We are continuing to work on being resourceful readers and to use all we know to tackle tricky parts in our books.  This week readers will learn to be especially flexible as they try one strategy, then another and so on, until their reading makes sense, sounds right and looks right.  One way we readers can make this become more automatic is to make plan prior to reading for the strategies they will use by rereading charts they have in their book bin or see around the classroom.

Writing:Opinion writers are on a roll writing letters to fix problems they see! Don't be surprised if you see some letters coming home about problems that can be changed. This week, writers will figure out how to make their writing even more convincing. First, they will learn to angle their letters toward a certain audience. Then, they will study a sample opinion letter to decide what strong opinion writers do and try to add it to their pieces. Here is a list of the some of the ways we can be convincing.






The students will also be reminded to reread their writing and make sure it is clear and easy to read before sending it out into the world.

Science: Scientists have learned that part of being a weather watcher is paying attention to the wind. We will study the wind this week by doing a few close readings to gather some knowledge on wind. Scientists will apply this knowledge to answer these questions:

How can we make leaves move using wind?
How can we make branches move?
What does it feel like?
How does the wind change?
The students will plan and conduct experiments to answer their questions.