April 29- May 3

 Hello Families!

We had another busy week in Kindergarten.  Our ducklings have been growing and changing every day.  We had one last duckling hatch this week- he's teeny tiny and super adorable and its amazing to see just how different the size is between our week old ducks and our brand new duckling.  I

In math this week we explored the concept of "weight".  We identified items that were heavy and light.  We learned how to use a scale to measure weight and how to compare the weight of objects.  We made predictions about which of our ducks weighed the most and the least.  We also discovered that two of our ducklings have equal weights- the scale was completely balanced when we measured the 2 ducks- which was very neat.  We were also able to weigh our new duckling throughout the week and tracked his weight.  At the beginning of the week he weighed 13 cubes, and by the end of the week he was up to 16 cubes.  We are very curious about this concept, and had several opportunities to use scales to measure classroom items, test our weight predictions and record our discoveries.  

Our word of the week was "describe".  We have been practicing using words to describe or "share more details" in our stories, conversations, discussions and writing.  Describing helps others to understand more of your message.  We practiced using describing words playing guessing games in the classroom, and in our writing about animals.  We read the story "Dear Zoo" this week, and all chose a different animal that would not be a good pet from the zoo.  We used "describing words" to help share why each animal would not be a good pet.   We worked as a class to create our own "Dear Zoo" book.  We used our understanding of letters and letter sounds to help us spell words to go along with our illustrations.

Our letters of the week were "Y" and "Z".  We completed letter sorts, letter scavenger hunts and practiced printing our letters in our writing books.  In phonics we began to identify digraphs - sounds like "ch" and "sh" and "th" that we hear in words.  We also practiced counting syllables in words, and segmenting words.  

We were excited to take our ducks on a school walk and we watched them go for their first swim.  We have continued to learn about ducks and how they "preen" themselves to become waterproof for swimming.   We have been learning about different types of ducks, what they eat, what they like to do and how they communicate with one another.  We loved watching them go down their waterslide and we can't believe how fast they can run now.  Some of our friends have even noticed that our ducklings love listening to them and they have started to read to the ducklings.  When ducklings are happy they coo- they love having story time with eager Kindergarten readers.

Now that it is May we are getting excited about our upcoming field trip. We are hoping to send home information in the next few days.  

Thank you to families for continuing to send their children prepared for the weather.  Although the weather has been pretty wild this week, we have been able to sneak out for fresh air when the opportunity arises- when students have warm gear it is so helpful- so thank-you!

Here are some pictures from our week!