We are (almost) off to First Grade!

Wow! What an exciting year! We have learned so much over the course of this year.  Your children have worked hard to become independent readers and writers.  Now it's time to celebrate! We hope you will join us on Wednesday for the Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony.  We will begin at 8:30 am in the gym.  Afterwards, I will bring our class outside by the gym so that you can take pictures of your child with his/her friends.  We hope to see you all there! 

We are still working hard and learning this week!  We will be learning about insects and investigating how insects are different from other bugs.  We started talking about insects a little bit when learning about the rainforest, but we were not able to devote as much time to the topic then as we will now.  Here are some fun samples of our rainforest work:

 A rainforest scene

 

 We created our own vipers!

I will be sending home some summer work for your children to do.  It is very important to keep their skills sharp so that they are ready to learn when school starts back in August.

Thank you all for a wonderful year!  This class has worked so hard together, and it really shows in their learning.  I am so thankful that your children came into our room this year.   Each one has been such a shining star in Mrs. Steele's and my lives.  We will enjoy this last week with them and hope that your families have wonderful summer experiences!

Ms. Bruner's Visit

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! The children were so excited to bring home their homemade gifts for their moms.  They were so tickled to make a "secret surprise" gift for the ones they love.  
We had a special visitor on Friday.  I'm sure all of you heard about Ms. Bruner and her sister, Miss Elizabeth, coming to visit.  They brought Meredith, the ball python, to meet our class.  

  

The children had the opportunity to touch her and observe her scales up close.  They asked some great questions about the snake's eating habits and home.  Miss Elizabeth shared how often Meredith eats and told us about her love of swimming!  Ms. Beller was excited to have a chance to hold Meredith!

We have an exciting event coming up! The whole kindergarten will be performing "Go Fish!" on Friday, May 25th.  This is a musical about fish and other sea creatures learning to become friends despite their differences.The performance will be at 8:15 in the gym.  After our performance, we invite all of you to join us on the big playground and field (where the carnival was held) to participate in our annual Kindergarten Beach Day! This is our grade level's culminating experience for our Sharing the Planet unit.  You will find a letter about this event in the Monday folder this week.  We will be asking for volunteers to send in items to use during Beach Day.  We appreciate anything and everything you send in!  Have a great week!

North Carolina's NEW Curriculum

Yes, it's true!  North Carolina is adopting a new curriculum.  If you have had children already go through public schools, you will notice some changes in what your child is learning in 1st grade next year. The NCPTA has created a brochure that explains this change.  You can download it here.  Most of what is being taught in schools now will remain a part of the curriculum but may be moved to a different grade level for instruction.  You will also notice a shift in how students will be expected to justify and explain their predictions and judgments about a topic.  Students will be expected to demonstrate a deeper understanding of concepts and read more non-fiction texts. 

Click on picture for more information

Don't forget that our Spring Carnival is this Friday! We are so excited to have all of you come out and join in the fun! The event begins at 5:00pm.  Don't miss out on a chance to dunk a favorite teacher or administrator in a tub of water, color your hair or visit our popular "Emergency Room."   See you all there!

Sharing the Planet

We are so very excited to be starting a new unit! We have started learning about animals and their needs, and our students are so engaged in this topic! We have talked a lot over the last week about non-fiction texts and how we can use them to get information about animals.  Your children have really taken an interest in non-fiction, so don't be surprised if you see more of them coming home in reading folders or from the media center.  What a great way to inspire more reading! We will also be using photographs and video to help bring to life what animals are like.  If your family has visited the zoo or has had other experiences with animals that are not found commonly in homes, please feel free to send in photos or come to class to share with the students! Click here for a video we watched that helped us remember what animals need to survive.

www.clipartheaven.com

Please remember that next Friday is our Spring Carnival! Kindergarten is collecting any items related to Legos or blocks to use in creating a basket for the raffle. Please send in donations by Friday, May 4th so that our PTA can put the basket together for the carnival.  We hope to see you there! The Spring Carnival is always so much fun! 

                                                                        

Today was bittersweet in Room 1213.  Ms. Bruner celebrated her last day of student teaching with us.  We will miss her greatly, but she has promised to come back and visit us!  Our class is excited that she will soon have her own classroom because we know what a fabulous teacher she has become!

Ms. Bruner reads us The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown.

We are beginning our Sharing the Planet unit which is all about how the survival of all living things is affected by how they interact with each other.  We will begin this unit by learning about habitats and more specifically pond animals.    

We are also beginning to learn about measurement.  Today we used a line of ladybugs to practice our measuring skills.  We really tried hard to make sure we were lining the ladybugs up correctly with the objects being measured.  

 We are learning to measure accurately by lining up our tools!

Please remember that Friday is an Early Release Day, so we will dismiss at 11:45! Have a great week!

Educationally yours,

Ms. Beller

Marbles Kids Museum!

Hi, everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and took advantage of the beautiful weather!  As you all know, last week we took a field trip to Marbles Kids Museum, and we all had an absolute blast.  The kids enjoyed playing on the submarine and pirate ship in the museum’s Splash! exhibit, designing and building structures in the IdeaWorks exhibit, playing basketball and hockey in the Power2Play exhibit; and, learning all about money in the museum’s Moneypalooza gallery.

While we were at Marbles, the kids also got to participate in the fabulous Dollars & Sense Magic Show.  This magic show taught the kids that making smart money choices isn’t magic at all – it’s dollars and sense!  In this interactive show, your students learned how to earn, save and spend money responsibly. 

The kids are fascinated by the Dollars & Sense Magic Show!  

We all certainly had quite an exciting adventure while visiting the museum.  In fact, many of the kids had so much fun that they required a nap on the bus ride home!  Also, a special thank you must be given to our fantastic field trip volunteers.  Ms. Beller, Mrs. Steele and I truly appreciate your time and energy, and we couldn’t have done it without all your help. 

As always, I would like to thank each of you for your continued support.  I hope you all have a great start to your week!

Educationally yours,

Ms. Bruner 

Happy Spring Break!

Hi, all!

Happy Spring Break!  I hope your Spring Break is off to a fabulous start and that all of you have been enjoying this beautiful weather!  As always, we had another busy yet exciting week in Ms. Beller's room.  First off, we continued our discussion of needs and wants.  The kids spent some time reflecting on exactly what are needs and wants by sorting pictures into one of those two categories.  This activity sparked such a great discussion among your students, especially when it came to food.  We spent a lot of time talking about what kinds of food and drinks you need to live and what kinds you don't need.  I absolutely loved listening to their thoughts and hearing them defend why they placed a picture in a certain category.  It truly was a great discussion!  When we come back from Spring Break, we will start discussing goods and services.  Ms. Beller has lots of fun activities planned that I am sure the kids will really enjoy.

Here is a picture of the needs and wants sort!

We have also been quite busy in math.  Your students have been learning all about graphs - how to create them as well as how to use them to interpret information.   We have been studying subtraction as well, and, after Spring Break, your students will creating their own subtraction story problems. 

Just a reminder, on Thursday, April 12, we will be going to Marbles Museum for our field trip.  The kids have been talking about this trip for weeks, and they all can't wait to go!  Tuesday afternoon (April 10) Ms. Beller will be arranging for students without their permission slip and money to spend the day in another classroom.  Please be sure to send in these items with your child by Tuesday, April 10, so that no one misses out on this exciting opportunity.

As always, thank you so much for all your support at home.  Enjoy your Spring Break, and I look forward to seeing everyone in April! 

Educationally Yours,
Ms. Bruner