Where does the time go?!! I can't believe that it is mid-May with only a about a month of school left to go! We have been learning a lot about nature, including plants, insects, life cycles, and woodland animals. In another week or so we will start learning about Boston and some of the places we will see on our next field trip. Information about the Boston Swan Boats trip went home yesterday. If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, please let me know and be sure to send in the $3 to cover the cost. Please also send in the $8 to cover the cost of your child’s trip as soon as you are able.
We have been learning more about butterflies and other insects this week. All of our caterpillars have turned into chrysalises and will hopefully turn into butterflies really soon! We spent time this week drawing and labeling the life cycle of a butterfly and will do the same for frogs next week! It’s exciting to see some real life cycles right in our own classroom! We made butterflies to add to our giant flowers and we also made dragonflies to decorate a dragonfly poem.
The students brought their tomato plants home today. They planted them a couple of weeks ago in our classroom. The plants have grown quite a bit! We talked about how they will need lots of sun and water and a safe place to be planted. You may want them to grow a little more before they are transplanted or put them in a bigger pot for a while. They may also need to be supported by a stick as they grow. There is a care sheet in your child’s folder that will give some tips on how to grow big tomatoes.
The students have been enjoying the “Step-Up” Lessons in Math and are excited to be doing some first grade math work! It is mostly a review for them but shows them a new way to solve addition and subtraction problems.
We have also been learning more about the seven continents. The students have been enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting them to! Each day we focused on a different continent by reading a book about it and then writing an interesting fact in our continent books. These books will come home next week. I’m sure you will find the facts they have been writing about to be pretty impressive. I have actually learned quite a bit about the continents this week too! Please be sure to ask your child about what they have been learning and ask them to teach you what they know!
Please continue to work with your child on their subtraction fluency facts to five (5-3=2, 4-1=3, etc.). I will be testing the students on these to see how fluent they are. The goal is for students to tell me the answers within three seconds. I would also encourage you to work with your child on counting to 100 by 1s and 10s and practice recognizing and writing numbers to 20. Those teen numbers are tricky! Don’t forget about the sight words too! I’ve been busy assessing students on all sorts of things this week and will continue into the next week or two. I’m impressed with how far they have come this year!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
PS...We will be having a Classroom Cleaning Day on Wednesday, June 8th from 9:30-10:20am. I could use several parent volunteers to help with some of our cleaning projects. If you are interested, please let me know and I will add you to my list! Thanks!
Thank you also for all the special things so many of you did for Teacher Appreciation Week. The luncheon was amazingly delicious and very much appreciated. Thank you to Mrs. Shannon and Mrs. Ohol for covering our recess and lunch duties so we could enjoy the special luncheon! It is truly a pleasure working with each of your children and seeing how much they have grown this year! We certainly do appreciate all of your support all throughout the year!
Our Luna Moth chrysalis hasn't hatched yet but Mrs. Cook's did! This is what it looked like only minutes after it came out!
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