May 10: Annual Open House 6 pm

May 28:  No School

Student of the Month:  Kielyn McDonnell!  Kielyn has shown excellent academic improvements and is a great role model for her peers!  Come check out Kielyn’s poster in the Elementary entryway.

Language Arts:  We are continuing to review the letters in the alphabet by recognition, letter sounds and writing.  We will work on improving our handwriting and making our writing look nice.

The students are doing fabulous learning their sight words.  We have learned 8 words so far and will continue adding 2 words a week.  We have been doing a variety of activities working with learning to read and spell and will continue that for the month of May.

Sight Words for May

is, me, the, my, and, see, said, not

Math:  We are continuing with number identification and number writing that each of them needs work with.  Along with our addition practice we will now be introducing subtraction.

Themes for May– Social Studies: Mothers  Science:  liquids/solids/gas and life cycles

Show and Tell:

Friday May 4: photo of mom

Friday May 11:  free choice

Friday May 18: favorite book

Friday May 25: free choice

Student of the Month: Christopher Thuma! Christopher is such a fun, energetic child! He’s so creative and imaginative and I very much enjoy having him in class!

Show and Tell:

May 4 — Something that sinks

May 11 — Something that floats

May 18 — Spring/Summer

May 24 — Fall/Winter

June 1 — Free Choice

Language Arts/Spelling — This month we’ll be focusing on letter sounds and being able to sound out 3 letter words. The kids are doing great so far! I’ve noticed that we need a little more work on our letter sounds, so that is what we will dedicate most of our time to.

Math — We are going to be focusing on number recognition and addition. Our 1-20 recognition is GREAT, so we’ll be working on larger numbers.

Science — Sink/Float! This is one of my favorite subjects and now that it’s getting warm out, I imagine we’ll have lots of fun with it!

Social Studies — May is a month to remember our moms and study about others. We will be learning about all different kids of moms, both people and animals!

Student of the Month-  Kaliya Fulton

Show and Tell:  May 4- something “winter”

                           May 11- something “spring”

                           May 18- something “summer”

                           May 25-  something “fall”

                           June1-  free choice

Language Arts:  This month we are going to be learning the long vowel “a” sound, the long vowel “I” sound, the long vowel “o” sound, the long vowel “u” sound, and the soft “g” sound.  We are wrapping up the year with a lot of review as well.

Math:  We are continuing with our curriculum.  We will be learning how to subtract this month.  This will be one of the main focuses for the month.  We will also be working on time and money. 

Science:  We are going to be learning about the seasons this month.  We will be learning about why the seasons change and what causes them to do so.  We are also going to be looking at how the weather changes through the year.  We will also be learning about natural disasters and extreme weather. 

Social Studies:  We are going to be talking about our moms this month in preparation for mother’s day.  This month we will be talking about all the things that we love about our moms.

Student of the Month:

Koralee Jones

Important dates:

•    May 13 – Mother’s Day
•    May 28 – NO SCHOOL! Memorial Day!

 Notes to Remember:  Spring is here! That means more time to play outside and unpredictable weather! Please remember to send your child to school in a jacket or sweater for those chilly mornings!

Themes:

•    Apr 30-May 5 – Outer Space
•    May 7-11 – Nature
•    May 14-18 – Nature
•    May 21-25 – Ocean
•    May 28-Jun 1 – Ocean

 Ooey Gooey Messy Days:

•    May 2 – Wet Glue
•    May 7 – Wet Glue
•    May 17 – Play in Shaving Cream
•    May 18 – Wet Glue
•    May 21 – Finger Painting
•    May 24 – Wet Glue
•    May 25 – Watercolor Painting/Wet Glue
•    May 30 – Play in Water
•    Jun 1 – Wet Glue

 Language Arts:

During the month of May we will continue to review our alphabet, continuing on with the letters we had the most trouble with over the year: “Vv”, “Zz”, “Ss”, “Xx” and “Qq”, and with a little help from our friends Victor Vampire, Zachary and Zena Zebra, Sadie Seal, Max the Ox/Felix Fox and Quentin Quail, we’ll be reviewing and relearning their songs, their sounds, and how to identify, trace/write their letters.

 Working at home: We are slowly working up to writing our own names, so practicing at home with your child will aid in this life-long skill! Also, singing the Animated Alphabet songs with your child helps them not only identify their letters, but also aids in letter-sound recognition.

Science/Social Studies:

The best nature activities are the simplest! So for our Nature theme, we’ll be sticking to simple: we’ll go outside and watch ants crawl, find a dandelion and rub it, find a dandelion that has gone to seed and blow on it, find a stick and poke/draw on the ground with it, and then lay on our backs and look up! There’s so much of nature to explore and appreciate, right out our front door! We’ll also talk about animals and their habitats. We’ll go outside, line up on the fence, and then imitate how animals get from one place to the other in nature (Example: Snakes slither, bunnies hop, spiders crawl…ewww. Spiders!!!)

Then, we’re bringing the ocean to our classroom! Using our handy-dandy magnifying glasses, we’ll examine seashells and sand up close and also do an experiment to compare Ocean Water vs Fresh Water.

Special Projects:

-Soldiers’ Angels~

Our Soldier, Steven, should be on his way home as of May 1^st! Yay! We will miss him greatly and pray for his safe travel home!

To all the families who donated to our Soldier’s care packages: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Your donations made it all possible!

Until next year!

 For details on the Soldier’s Angels Project, go to www.soldiersangels.org.

 ~The Flat Stanley Project~

Who’s house will Stanley be at next?? See below for Stanley’s May “Weekend Schedule”:

•    May 4-7 – Ameira
•    May 11-14 – Carter

For more information on the Flat Stanley Project, go to http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/

Show and Tell:

•    May 4 – Something to do with OUTER SPACE!
•    May 11 – Something to do with NATURE!
•    May 18 – Something to do with NATURE!
•    May 24 – Something to do with FISH!
•    Jun 1 – Something to do with the OCEAN!

Student of the Month: AJ Spain, way to go AJ!! She has shown much improvement and loves coming to school every day!

Themes:
 Earth/Outer Space
 Nature
 Ocean

 Show-N-Tell(theme related)

5-4: something that can fall to the ground
 5-11: something to do with nature
 5-18: leaves5-25 something you find in the ocean

Messy Days: 5-3 gluing
 5-7 gluing
 5-9 gluing
 5-10 gluing
 5-16 gluing
 5-17 gluing/playing in the dirt
 5-21 cornmeal and glue and water and sand play
 5-22 shaving cream play
 5-23 gluing/cornmeal and glue/ sand and water table
 5-24 gluing sand
 5-25 handprints
 5-29 water painting
 5-30 painting with Kyro syrup
 5-31 marble painting

LA: this month we are going to look at the letters O, G, L, S and then have a review at the end of the month. For letter o we are going to be talking about outer space and what the different planets we have in the solar system. For letter g we are going to be gluing grass for nature week and then just letting my friends use colored glue to for a picture of there choice. for letter L we are going to be gluing Leafs to the letter L and then for S we are going to be gluing sea shells and Sand to poster boards for our Ocean week. We are going to be coloring a letter of the week page and instead of tracing worksheets we are going to be playing games that go along with the letter of the week. I feel that my friends are not ready for tracing yet. We will continue we finding our own names and learning what letter our names start with.

Math: we are getting into some harder concepts. We are going to be taking a closer look at what numbers 1-5 look like and trying to find the objects in the classroom. We are also going to be playing matching games with the friends.

Science: This will be a lot of fum this month for Nature week we are going to be spending a lot of time outdoors, talking about the sounds we hear, the things we smell and the things we see, We are also going to be bringing in the great outdoors and playing with pine cones, sand, dirt, rock, grass, and flowers in our sensory table, We are also going to take a closer look at a leaf and a star fish with a magnify glasses.

Easter……Ee                                                                          bunny / can be a picture

Transportation…..Kk                                                    a type of transportation

Plants….Ww                                                              seeds to plant

Flowers….Mm                                                              a flower

Seasons/weather…..Qq                                          something to do with weather

Mother’s Day

Fun Days…..this will be my last week, so we will be doing fun things!

DATES to REMEMBER:    April 6th Bike a thon and Easter Egg Hunt

April 23rd NO SCHOOL

Dates To Remember:

4-6: Trike-A-Thon/ Easter Party

4-23: School will be closed due to Teacher Inservice.

Please remember to bring three hard boiled eggs, an egg carton and a basket or bag for all the eggs. Please also bring  packet of Kool-Aide to die the eggs.  Don’t forget your child’s bike and helmet!! Make sure the bikes and helmets are all CLEARLY marked so nothing gets mixed up!!!

Parent/family participation is welcome and we would love to see everyone there!! This is a FUN event and goes on all day!! Please speak with me if you have any questions.

Student of the month: Leslie Lassiter

Themes: Easter/Weather/Earth/Earth/Outer Space

Show-N-Tell:

4-6: Trike-A-Thon

4-13: Something that will blow in the wind

4-20: Something to do with the sun

4-27: something you can recycle

Messy Days:

4-3: shaving cream play/ hand print bunnies

4-4: gluing

4-10: shaving cream play/foot prints and hand prints

4-12: gluing

4-17: painting

4-18: shaving cream

4-19: gluing

4-24: shaving cream/ coloring with markers

4-25: oatmeal play

4-26: pudding play

LA: The letters we are going to focus on this month are E for Easter, W for weather, S for sun and O for outer space. We are going to do some tracing worksheets and color worksheets.  The activities will go along with the letter of the month. We are going to make suns for the letter S and then for the Easter theme we are going to be making Easter Eggs. We are also going to continue working on recognizing the letters in our names.

Math: We are going to be working on more sorting this month.  The students are doing a great job on sorting by colors, so now we are going to try and sort by shape and size.  We are also going to be working on counting.  Our goal is to be able to count to 25.  We are also counting everyday during calendar.

Science:  Science is going to be a fun time for the month of April.  During the  weather theme we are going to be talking about the wind and what makes it blow. We are going to be using the fan in the room to watch stuff blow in the wind.  Bubbles. paper and string and our hair.  We will make kites and see if they will blow in the wind. For the space theme we are going to talk about the stars, sun and Earth and then talk about gravity and how everything falls.

Please remember that we always go outside in the mornings and a jacket may still be needed for morning time play.

April 1st — Palm Sunday

April 6th — Good Friday

April 8th — Easter

April 22nd — Earth Day

April 23rd — no school/ Teacher In-Service

April Themes : Plants, Pets, And Transportation

This month, we will be celebrating Easter! This is one of my FAVORITE holidays! Because Easter is on Sunday, we will be having an Easter egg hunt on Monday the 9th of April. If you’d like to help with egg fillers or have any plastic eggs we could have/use, I’d appreciate any help!

This month we’ll also be celebrating Earth Day! We will be having our own celebrations and activities the week of April 23rd-27th, but I also want you to be aware of the celebrations happening around Topeka! Earth day is a wonderful time to learn more about your environment, community, and the environments of others that you may not otherwise encounter.The following are just a few websites where you can explore the upcoming Earth Day celebrations and volunteer opportunities around Topeka.

http://kabtopsh.org/

http://www.lasr.net/travel/city.php?KS+topeka+earth-day-events-at-the-learning-for-life-center&TravelTo=KS0305006&VE=Y&EventCategory=&Event_ID=KS0305006e018

So far, your children have done a wonderful job with our spelling tests and math lessons. I am very impressed with all of their improvements! As always, if any of you have questions, concerns, or would like to discuss your child’s progress, feel free to contact me here at the school or via email! HAVE A FANTASTIC APRIL!