March 23, 2018 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

We have been busy working on our art projects for our museum on Tuesday, April 10.  We hope you are able to come to it!  We finished our Picasso pictures and started learning about Impressionist painting.  We even started our own impressions of some famous impressionist paintings, including Monet’s “Waterlilies.”  We also made birch trees out of newspaper that we will display in our hall next week.

We made a class book called “It Looked Like Spilt Milk” that has started circulating.  We also made Car Books and Color Flip Flap books.  Both projects required students to use sight words to write whole sentences.  These are all great books for your child to read and reread at home.

We learned about magnets this week.  The students enjoyed exploring the magnets and feeling the push and pull forces between two magnets.  We also enjoyed another video from the Science Center about the eggs we will be receiving in another week.  We learned about “candling” the eggs to determine if the eggs are fertilized or not.  Ms. P. also came into our classroom to feed Maisey, the Cornsnake.  Our students certainly enjoy all the science activities and lessons that we have been participating in!

We started a new topic in math.  We are continuing to work with teen numbers and are talking about groups of tens and ones left over.  The students have been doing very well with this.

We have been doing a lot of work with our sight words in school but I would also encourage you to continue practicing these words with your child at home.  The more he/she sees them and reads them in different contexts, the more familiar the words will become.  I sent a list home of the words your child knows already.

We enjoyed learning more about the countries that our students’ ancestors have come from this week.  We listed the different countries with student names and even looked up many of them on Google Earth to see where they are in relation to where we live.  The students have been learning a lot of neat facts about continents.  We learned a little about Australia but have spent most of the week learning about Africa.  We had a special treat this afternoon.  Mrs. Nambooze, Eshal’s mom, came in to share about her experiences growing up in Uganda.  She brought in some neat artifacts, including artwork, accessories, and clothing to share with our class.  The students enjoyed hearing the stories and asking questions.  Thank you Mrs. Nambooze for visiting our class and sharing with us!

We enjoyed playing board games in the library and free play activities in the gym today to celebrate our whole-school reward for showing acts of kindness during the past few weeks.

Information went home today about our next field trip.  We are going to go to Legoland on April 5th!  This is a brand new field trip for Kindergarten!  We will be learning about forces and motion and will be doing some fun engineering projects!  This field trip is free so you don’t need to send in any money.  Please let me know if you are interested in chaperoning by early next week, if possible.  The number of chaperones for this trip is limited so I may draw names from a hat if necessary.

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

PS...Students should plan to continue bringing snowpants, boots, hats, mittens, etc., especially if they plan to play in the snow at recess next week.  It looks like it might stick around for a little while!

March 16, 2018 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

It has been a very unusual couple of weeks!  We’ve had four snow days during the past two weeks but we’ve still done quite a bit!  The children continue to create wonderful artifacts for our museum. We have spent a lot of time learning about modern/contemporary art.  We’ve learned about hot and cold colors, painted with kitchen gadgets and marbles, made Kandinsky trees with brightly colored circles, and even made Picasso pictures!  The students have really enjoyed learning about this kind of artwork! 

We will be transitioning to Impressionist paintings during the next couple of weeks and will be learning about some of the famous Impressionist painters.  Students also finished painting their portraits of a friend!  All of our portraits and self-portraits are currently displayed on our back wall.  They look awesome!  We hope you are all able to visit our Kindergarten Museum on Tuesday, April 10th to see all the students’ hard work!  It will be from 8:30-9:15am.

The students finished their All I Am books and brought them home today after reading them to the class.  It's great when they have to think of all the things they are and what they want to be.  We've got very talented children! 

The students have also been very busy writing. They have been working hard in their journals. We talked about different sight words and working on spelling them correctly in their writing. They are doing a great job!  I would continue practicing these sight words at home with your child to help them learn them even better.

We finished our topic in math about teen numbers.  They did a great job counting and writing the numbers.  We quickly reviewed our addition math facts this week.  I would encourage them to keep practicing at home!

We have enjoyed having Maisey, the Cornsnake in our room.  We are looking forward to watching the snake feeding this coming week.  We are also very excited to be the first Kindergarten class to do chick hatching!  Ms. P. from the Burlington Science Center has already visited the farm to get eggs and put them in the incubator.  She will be delivering the eggs to our classroom in a couple of weeks so we can watch the chicks hatch!  She will be giving a presentation soon too that will teach us all sorts of neat things about chick hatching and the life cycle of chickens.

We also started learning about the seven continents.  We will be reading books and writing facts in our continent books during the next couple of weeks.  We are starting with the continent of Africa and have already learned some really neat facts.

Progress reports for grades 1-5 went home on Monday.  Kindergarten won’t have another progress report until the end of the year.  I sent home the appointment card for our parent/teacher conference that will take place either during the end of March or beginning of April. I do feel that it is important for us to meet to discuss your child’s progress before the end of the year.  Please let me know if you need to reschedule.

We are going to the library on Wednesday.  Please return library books and all class books too.

Have a great weekend!

Melanie Duncan

The Harlem Superstars visited Francis Wyman this morning!

Our New Class Pet

Maisey, the Cornsnake arrived this afternoon!  The students wrote persuasive letters to Miss P. from the Burlington Science Center in February trying to persuade her to give us a snake for our class pet.  Students did some research about snakes and wrote letters that included an attention grabber and great reasons why she should give us a snake.  Students also drew and labeled pictures that showed Miss P. all that we would need to help us take care of the snake.  

The students enjoyed learning about snakes and what makes them reptiles, as well as other neat facts such as how snakes use their senses, how they protect themselves, and what we need to do to keep it safe in our classroom.  Miss P. even allowed the students to touch and hold Maisey!  We are looking forward to watching a snake feeding sometime during the next week or so and being able to observe Maisey over the next few weeks!

March 2, 2018 Newsletter

Dear Parents,

I hope everyone had a wonderful week for winter break.  It felt more like spring vacation!  The break always comes at just the right time but it's always nice to get back into a routine.  The students are already back to working hard and learning lots!

As soon as we returned to school, we started working on our fine arts unit.  The children are learning about various kinds of art and have mostly finished their self-portraits.  They have been learning how to mix their own colors.  I think you will be very impressed with their portraits and self-portraits when you come to the Kindergarten Museum.  The students also learned about still life paintings and have started creating some contemporary art!  We are planning on having the Kindergarten Museum on Tuesday, April 10th, probably from about 8:30-9:15am. More information will be sent home next week.  Creating the artwork for the Kindergarten Museum is a lot of work, but worth every minute of it!  We hope you will be able to visit our Museum!

The students have worked on a class book about what they want to do when they are older and they are beginning an individual book all about who they are.  They have also been enjoying reading books in small groups for guided reading.

We celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday today!  Mr. Duncan was our guest reader.  He read “Green Eggs and Ham,” which is a favorite at the Duncan house!  He also brought Micah in to meet the class!

We started a new topic in math working with teen numbers.  The numbers 11-20 are some of the most difficult numbers from 0-100!  If possible, please encourage your child to practice counting these numbers often.  Have them count peas on their plate, snack items (popcorn, grapes, berries), etc. and practice looking for and writing the numbers.

We will be conferencing again towards the end of March and beginning of April.  I will send a questionnaire home next week for you to fill out about the best time to have a conference and I will send out the actual schedule by the beginning of the following week.  I am looking forward to meeting with you all to discuss your child’s progress and show you some of their work.

Please be sure to practice the Kindergarten sight words and addition and subtraction fluency facts as often as possible.  It will be a huge help!  I will be assessing the students soon!  Thanks!

Have a good weekend!

Melanie Duncan

PS...We will be going to the library on Wednesday.  Please be sure to return your child’s library book by then.  Thanks!