Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Changes in Nature
We have been making observations about how nature changes in the spring. We started going on nature walks before April vacation and did our final one today. We took pictures of seven specific locations each week so we could compare them and see how each tree/plant changes. There were some pretty big changes! The students also enjoyed skipping, jumping, balancing, and doing jumping jacks too! We definitely kept them moving on all our walks!
Listening Walk
We went for a Listening Walk outside near our school this morning and were amazed at all the things we could hear! Asking students to stand still without any talking for two minutes was probably the most difficult thing I have asked them to do all week, but we heard quite a bit! 😁 I encouraged students to go for a listening walk in their neighborhoods or at least in their own yards. It may be a fun family activity to do before bed some evening! Students are welcome to record what they hear and bring it in to share with the class.
Friday, May 25, 2018
May 25, 2018 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We’ve had a busy week in Room 115! We’ve started learning about Boston in preparation for our field trip to the Swan Boats next week on Thursday, May 31st! We read “Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey, which is what our field trip will be based on. We will be following the route of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard as we walk past the State House, through Louisburg Square, down Mt. Vernon Street, across Charles Street to enter the Public Garden where we will see the statues of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings and ride on the Swan Boats! We will end our trip with a picnic lunch on the Boston Common. Chaperones will be riding on the bus with us. Please send in the $7 for students and $3.50 for chaperones if you haven’t already. More information about what students will need will go home on Wednesday.
The students enjoyed our final topic in math. We measured lots of classroom objects to compare lengths; we compared our own heights by getting in order from shortest to tallest; we learned about capacity by pouring water and dry macaroni into different containers; and we used a balance scale to compare weights of various objects. We also spent most of a day just exploring with the different math tools and materials.
We finished all of the Kindergarten math lessons that are apart of our curriculum. The students are very excited because I told them that I will be teaching a few first grade lessons to get them ready for next year. A paper will go home next week that explains the ten “Step Up” lessons that we will be working on. It will give you a nice peek at what the lessons may look like next year. If they are ever incomplete when they go home, feel free to finish them with your child but it is optional.
The students continue to write narratives and in their journals. They have been illustrating poetry and working in their Hungry Kindergartner books. They also started creating a 3D map of the Public Garden area in Boston this week. I will be sure to post pictures of the completed map in a couple of more weeks.
One of our art projects this week was drawing our self portraits with crayons, just like we did at the Kindergarten Orientation at the beginning of the year. The students were amazed when they saw both sets of pictures. We talked a lot about the progress we have made all year and about how we feel now that we have completed almost a whole year of school. Your child’s self portraits were posted on his/her SeeSaw account. Make sure you check them out!
We enjoyed some extra recess at the end of the day today and popsicles too! Those were our rewards for our school-wide SOAR incentive. We also said farewell to Abhirama whose last day of school was today. He will be heading to India with his family this summer but will be back in the fall!
I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend! No school on Monday.
Melanie
We’ve had a busy week in Room 115! We’ve started learning about Boston in preparation for our field trip to the Swan Boats next week on Thursday, May 31st! We read “Make Way for Ducklings” by Robert McCloskey, which is what our field trip will be based on. We will be following the route of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard as we walk past the State House, through Louisburg Square, down Mt. Vernon Street, across Charles Street to enter the Public Garden where we will see the statues of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings and ride on the Swan Boats! We will end our trip with a picnic lunch on the Boston Common. Chaperones will be riding on the bus with us. Please send in the $7 for students and $3.50 for chaperones if you haven’t already. More information about what students will need will go home on Wednesday.
The students enjoyed our final topic in math. We measured lots of classroom objects to compare lengths; we compared our own heights by getting in order from shortest to tallest; we learned about capacity by pouring water and dry macaroni into different containers; and we used a balance scale to compare weights of various objects. We also spent most of a day just exploring with the different math tools and materials.
We finished all of the Kindergarten math lessons that are apart of our curriculum. The students are very excited because I told them that I will be teaching a few first grade lessons to get them ready for next year. A paper will go home next week that explains the ten “Step Up” lessons that we will be working on. It will give you a nice peek at what the lessons may look like next year. If they are ever incomplete when they go home, feel free to finish them with your child but it is optional.
The students continue to write narratives and in their journals. They have been illustrating poetry and working in their Hungry Kindergartner books. They also started creating a 3D map of the Public Garden area in Boston this week. I will be sure to post pictures of the completed map in a couple of more weeks.
One of our art projects this week was drawing our self portraits with crayons, just like we did at the Kindergarten Orientation at the beginning of the year. The students were amazed when they saw both sets of pictures. We talked a lot about the progress we have made all year and about how we feel now that we have completed almost a whole year of school. Your child’s self portraits were posted on his/her SeeSaw account. Make sure you check them out!
We enjoyed some extra recess at the end of the day today and popsicles too! Those were our rewards for our school-wide SOAR incentive. We also said farewell to Abhirama whose last day of school was today. He will be heading to India with his family this summer but will be back in the fall!
I hope you all have a wonderful long weekend! No school on Monday.
Melanie
Friday, May 18, 2018
May 18, 2018 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We’ve had another fun and busy week in Room 115! We enjoyed releasing our butterflies today. It was a beautiful day to go outside and watch them fly away!
We have been learning about the life cycle of a frog this week and made frog puppets that we will use to act out the song, “Five Green Speckled Frogs” next week.
The students finished their first narrative piece of writing this week. We all wrote about our field trip to Lego Land. Next week, students will start another piece about a topic of their choice. They are doing better with uppercase and lowercase letters, leaving spaces, and using punctuation!
In science, we learned about living and non-living things and how to tell them apart. We also started an experiment with flowers to see what plants need to survive. We have six plants that we will be watching over the next couple of weeks. One is in the sun and one is not in the sun. One has water and one doesn’t have water. One has soil and one doesn’t have soil. We also continue tracking our changes in nature around our school.
We finished our topic in math on shapes and started a new topic on measurement. It is always a fun one for students. It is actually our final math topic for Kindergarten! After we finish this one next week, we will start some “Step Up to First Grade” Lessons!
We will start preparing for our trip to the Swan Boats in Boston on Thursday, May 31st. We will be reading Make Way for Ducklings and the children will be learning a bit about Boston and the walk we will be taking. We will be creating a three-dimensional map showing the Commons, the Public Gardens and the area around the State House.
If you have not sent in the $7 to cover the cost for our next field trip, please do so as soon as possible. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten. It will cost $3.50 for chaperones who will be coming with us.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Melanie Duncan
We’ve had another fun and busy week in Room 115! We enjoyed releasing our butterflies today. It was a beautiful day to go outside and watch them fly away!
We have been learning about the life cycle of a frog this week and made frog puppets that we will use to act out the song, “Five Green Speckled Frogs” next week.
The students finished their first narrative piece of writing this week. We all wrote about our field trip to Lego Land. Next week, students will start another piece about a topic of their choice. They are doing better with uppercase and lowercase letters, leaving spaces, and using punctuation!
In science, we learned about living and non-living things and how to tell them apart. We also started an experiment with flowers to see what plants need to survive. We have six plants that we will be watching over the next couple of weeks. One is in the sun and one is not in the sun. One has water and one doesn’t have water. One has soil and one doesn’t have soil. We also continue tracking our changes in nature around our school.
We finished our topic in math on shapes and started a new topic on measurement. It is always a fun one for students. It is actually our final math topic for Kindergarten! After we finish this one next week, we will start some “Step Up to First Grade” Lessons!
We will start preparing for our trip to the Swan Boats in Boston on Thursday, May 31st. We will be reading Make Way for Ducklings and the children will be learning a bit about Boston and the walk we will be taking. We will be creating a three-dimensional map showing the Commons, the Public Gardens and the area around the State House.
If you have not sent in the $7 to cover the cost for our next field trip, please do so as soon as possible. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten. It will cost $3.50 for chaperones who will be coming with us.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Melanie Duncan
We got in order from shortest to tallest!
Friday, May 11, 2018
May 11, 2018 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
Where does the time go?!! I can't believe that it is mid-May with only a little more than 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 last week. If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, please let me know. Please be sure to send in the $7 to cover the cost of the trip for students and $3.50 for chaperones.
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. Spring has definitely sprung in Room 115! We also got to see Julia’s pet beetles! She has Blue Death Fainting Beetles that were a lot of fun to observe and learn about!
We started a new topic in math this week. Students have been learning more about flat (2D) shapes and solid figures (3D). They have been learning how to solve clues about shapes and describe shapes and what they can do (roll, stack, slide). Students have also been working on the ST Math program and have been making good progress. A few students are even getting close to completing the program! I would recommend that students log on to ST Math at home and try to use it every once in awhile to see if we can complete the whole program by the end of Kindergarten!
Please continue to work with your child on their subtraction fluency facts to five (5-3=2, 4-1=3, etc.). I have started testing them and they are doing great! 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!
We will be visiting the library on Wednesday. Please be sure to send back your child’s library book by then. Also, the Francis Wyman Used Book Store will be open this Wednesday, May 16th. Students are invited to either bring in 50 cents or a book from home to trade. It is optional.
Mrs. Sullivan and I enjoyed the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon on Thursday. Everything was delicious. Thank you to those who participated!
I would like to extend a very Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers in Room 115! We hope the gifts your child gives you will be special and meaningful. You have permission to open your gifts today. Your gift will most likely need water before Sunday (just be careful not to get the outisde of the pot wet)!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
PS… We will be making a 3D Map of Boston in our classroom in a couple of weeks and will be using cardboard boxes and other recycled materials. If you have any empty cereal boxes, tissue boxes, cardboard juice/milk cartons, mac and cheese boxes, etc. feel free to send them in! Thanks!
Where does the time go?!! I can't believe that it is mid-May with only a little more than 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 last week. If you are interested in chaperoning this trip, please let me know. Please be sure to send in the $7 to cover the cost of the trip for students and $3.50 for chaperones.
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. Spring has definitely sprung in Room 115! We also got to see Julia’s pet beetles! She has Blue Death Fainting Beetles that were a lot of fun to observe and learn about!
We started a new topic in math this week. Students have been learning more about flat (2D) shapes and solid figures (3D). They have been learning how to solve clues about shapes and describe shapes and what they can do (roll, stack, slide). Students have also been working on the ST Math program and have been making good progress. A few students are even getting close to completing the program! I would recommend that students log on to ST Math at home and try to use it every once in awhile to see if we can complete the whole program by the end of Kindergarten!
Please continue to work with your child on their subtraction fluency facts to five (5-3=2, 4-1=3, etc.). I have started testing them and they are doing great! 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!
We will be visiting the library on Wednesday. Please be sure to send back your child’s library book by then. Also, the Francis Wyman Used Book Store will be open this Wednesday, May 16th. Students are invited to either bring in 50 cents or a book from home to trade. It is optional.
Mrs. Sullivan and I enjoyed the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon on Thursday. Everything was delicious. Thank you to those who participated!
I would like to extend a very Happy Mother’s Day to all the wonderful mothers in Room 115! We hope the gifts your child gives you will be special and meaningful. You have permission to open your gifts today. Your gift will most likely need water before Sunday (just be careful not to get the outisde of the pot wet)!
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
PS… We will be making a 3D Map of Boston in our classroom in a couple of weeks and will be using cardboard boxes and other recycled materials. If you have any empty cereal boxes, tissue boxes, cardboard juice/milk cartons, mac and cheese boxes, etc. feel free to send them in! Thanks!
Friday, May 4, 2018
May 4, 2018 Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We have had a very busy week here in Room 115! The students have been working hard and learning lots! We have been learning a lot about nature. So far we have learned about trees, flowers, and seeds. We also just started a unit on insects and life cycles. We are excited to be able to observe the life cycle of a butterfly right in our own classroom! The Burlington Science Center has given us several caterpillars that have been busy eating and growing. We also have a luna moth cocoon that we are anxiously keeping an eye on! The students are learning about all the different body parts of insects and are even learning how to label their drawings. You’ll have to ask them to sing the “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” Song that they just learned today!
The students have been working hard in their Busy Spider books. They will finish these next week and will bring them home to share with their families. They are great books to re-read over and over again!
We have been doing butterfly symmetry at the art table. The students also made giant flowers based on Eric Carle’s book called “The Tiny Seed.” They labeled the parts and measured how tall their flowers were with non-standard units such as markers, cubes, and color tiles. They also did a writing project where they wrote five sentences describing each part of their flowers.
We have been working with shapes in math. We even went on a shape hunt inside and outside of the school and talked about the shapes that are all around us. We just finished our unit on the position and location of objects. The concepts have been more of a review for the students so we have been trying to come up with some fun and creative ways to practice them. We made a pretend minivan yesterday and used position words to describe where everyone was sitting. Then we “traveled” to the beach, Mrs. Sullivan’s house, and to the ice cream store! It was fun to see the students using their imaginations while also using great math vocabulary! We also made ladybug books that described the position and location of a ladybug. These went home today.
We will be starting our last two Kindergarten math topics during the next few weeks and will be doing some Step Up to First Grade Math Lessons after that along with some other fun math activities. Please continue helping your child practice his/her subtraction facts. I will be getting ready to assess them soon. The more they practice…the better they will get! We worked on a fun project today where students got to make pictures using different shapes. We will put their work together in a class book and start circulating it soon.
We also managed to squeeze in a little time to paint this week. The students painted forsythia branches that have certainly brightened our classroom and made it feel more like spring!
Information went home yesterday about our next field trip. We will be going to Boston to ride on the Swan Boats. The cost of the field trip is $7 for students and $3.50 for chaperones. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten. Please let me know if you are interested in chaperoning.
The students enjoyed visiting the Scholastic Book Fair this week. It’s not too late to order books online. The link is below. The online fair will be available until next Friday.
Spring 2018 Online Book Fair QR Code
We also sent home the regular Scholastic Book Club order form. It is full of great books for summer reading! If you are interested in ordering, the due date is this Tuesday, May 8th.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
PS… The Burlington Science Center is in need of newspapers. If you have some that you don’t need, please consider sending them in to the classroom. We will send them over to the Science Center from here. Thank you!
We have had a very busy week here in Room 115! The students have been working hard and learning lots! We have been learning a lot about nature. So far we have learned about trees, flowers, and seeds. We also just started a unit on insects and life cycles. We are excited to be able to observe the life cycle of a butterfly right in our own classroom! The Burlington Science Center has given us several caterpillars that have been busy eating and growing. We also have a luna moth cocoon that we are anxiously keeping an eye on! The students are learning about all the different body parts of insects and are even learning how to label their drawings. You’ll have to ask them to sing the “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” Song that they just learned today!
The students have been working hard in their Busy Spider books. They will finish these next week and will bring them home to share with their families. They are great books to re-read over and over again!
We have been doing butterfly symmetry at the art table. The students also made giant flowers based on Eric Carle’s book called “The Tiny Seed.” They labeled the parts and measured how tall their flowers were with non-standard units such as markers, cubes, and color tiles. They also did a writing project where they wrote five sentences describing each part of their flowers.
We have been working with shapes in math. We even went on a shape hunt inside and outside of the school and talked about the shapes that are all around us. We just finished our unit on the position and location of objects. The concepts have been more of a review for the students so we have been trying to come up with some fun and creative ways to practice them. We made a pretend minivan yesterday and used position words to describe where everyone was sitting. Then we “traveled” to the beach, Mrs. Sullivan’s house, and to the ice cream store! It was fun to see the students using their imaginations while also using great math vocabulary! We also made ladybug books that described the position and location of a ladybug. These went home today.
We will be starting our last two Kindergarten math topics during the next few weeks and will be doing some Step Up to First Grade Math Lessons after that along with some other fun math activities. Please continue helping your child practice his/her subtraction facts. I will be getting ready to assess them soon. The more they practice…the better they will get! We worked on a fun project today where students got to make pictures using different shapes. We will put their work together in a class book and start circulating it soon.
We also managed to squeeze in a little time to paint this week. The students painted forsythia branches that have certainly brightened our classroom and made it feel more like spring!
Information went home yesterday about our next field trip. We will be going to Boston to ride on the Swan Boats. The cost of the field trip is $7 for students and $3.50 for chaperones. Checks can be made payable to Francis Wyman Kindergarten. Please let me know if you are interested in chaperoning.
The students enjoyed visiting the Scholastic Book Fair this week. It’s not too late to order books online. The link is below. The online fair will be available until next Friday.
Spring 2018 Online Book Fair QR Code
We also sent home the regular Scholastic Book Club order form. It is full of great books for summer reading! If you are interested in ordering, the due date is this Tuesday, May 8th.
Have a great weekend!
Melanie Duncan
PS… The Burlington Science Center is in need of newspapers. If you have some that you don’t need, please consider sending them in to the classroom. We will send them over to the Science Center from here. Thank you!
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