Week 36
May 28, 2013
Thank you to:
.....Miss Roxana, Mr. Alexander and parents for helping during assessment time.
…..Marty for helping with my DVD-VCR hook-up. I did not attend DVD-VCR Hook-up 101.
…..Lola, Tina and Sohug for helping with centers during our 5 senses visit to the ocean.
…..friend and Thornhill parent, Charles Griffin, for sharing his hobby and passion as a beekeeper! He
was our Mystery Guest on M Day!
GENERAL INFORMATION and UPCOMING EVENTS
I’m looking forward to seeing you this Wednesday at 6:30 for Open House. This is a wonderful evening
where your children will shine and share with you what they have accomplished. They will act as your
tour guide!
May 29: Open House and Volunteer Appreciation 6:30 PM
May 31: School Spirit Day (Dress like your teacher. Can’t wait for this one!) and our Question Day
June 12: Year-end celebration. The children have voted to have a Pancake Party! It will be morning
breakfast. Signup genius is posted. http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044AACAC2EAB9-endofthe
June 13: Closing Circle 8:20-9:30AM and last day of school. Please save the morning to attend our last
morning circle when I will honor your children.
CLASSROOM NEWS
We had quite a rare experience this week when FIVE children lost teeth in class. That brings our total up
to 23 teeth!
Preston was our Star Student of the Week. He loves spaghetti and the color yellow and his favorite place
is Legoland. His favorite thing to do is play Mien Craft and he hopes to be a tax agent someday because
it sounds like fun! Preston also celebrated his 6th birthday, and we enjoyed mini cupcakes brought in by
Darin.
Liam also celebrated his birthday by turning 6. We enjoyed a new food; strawberry crepes, thanks to
Liam’s mom and dad!
Tylon was a lucky lunch buncher as he was joined by Jayla, Emerson, Amber, Karina and Angelina! What
fun we had talking about our favorites!
Language Arts: Each day we are decoding words and using them in sentences together. The children
are becoming aware that they are truly capable of reading/writing more words than they realized! I am
proud of the children for their efforts. The children are very supportive of each other as they read. We
listened to a true story of Humphrey the Lost Whale and watched a video of real news clips. The children
were intrigued when they learned that Humphrey actually got lost here in the San Francisco Bay. The
children followed his path up the narrow Sacramento River on a California map and wrote about how
they would have helped him. We read a poem about puffins and identified rhyming words. Ask your
child if they can describe what a puffin looks like. Laughter Day was a special treat for me when the
children wrote about what makes them laugh. We had everything from “when I fart” to “when I see my
Daddy”! Heartwarming in EVERY way! Open Court and DIBELS assessments are complete and I was VERY
happy with the children’s progress this year!
Math: We began a mini unit on the calendar by listening to the Hungry Caterpillar who ate more with
each day of the week. New vocabulary words are the days of the week, week, month, year, and calendar.
Our graph asked us our favorite day and Sunday won BECAUSE “the next day is school” and “I get a new
decodable”! We are counting UP and counting down, with 13 days until we reach the 180th day of
school! Every time we look at the number line and “take away” one, the children all express sadness!
We’re working on transitioning! ☺
Science: The children listened to a story called Hello Ocean, about a little girl who calls the ocean her
friend. The book beautifully describes how she uses her 5 senses when she is at the ocean. We did the
same in class by taking a “virtual trip”.
The children watched waves and learned the wind makes waves, they identified different scents, tried to
identify a sea star, sponge, coral and sand by touch, tasted salt water, fresh water, seaweed and
lemonade, and listened to ocean animals. Tasting was the favorite. Ask your child about their taste
buds AND see if they can recall where the salt that is in the ocean comes from.
On Thursday, the classroom was literally abuzz when Beekeeper Mr. Griffin brought is observation hives
for the children to observe bees at work. They were very attentive looking for the queen bee and enjoyed
tasting Oakland honey right from our hills. They were full of great questions and now have a better
understanding of bees and their habits!