We are now into our grand finale of our kindergarten year together! Here is an overview of what we accomplished this past month.

This past month we learned the following:

 

Letters & Sounds: We learned to use digraphs in words and practiced spelling them, reading them and using them in sentences. This added to our base of words that we were able to write and read, which was very exciting! We continue to learn a new trick/sight word each week and use it in reading and writing activities. We have continued to practice using and writing words and sentences with digraphs and are writing longer sentences to expand our written vocabulary and stamina. We are trying to automatically and independently remember to begin each sentence with a capital letter and end with proper punctuation marks.

 

Writing: After we welcomed spring by reading books about bugs and insects; we learned about their body parts, what they eat, where they live, who their friends are, and special features and behaviors and wrote another nonfiction research report! We illustrated our subtopic pages and covers to create beautiful masterpieces. We concluded our year by describing a favorite special and topic and explaining our opinions for why we liked them. We have enjoyed many creative writing activities through the end of the year. It has been rewarding to watch my students automatically and properly use uppercase letters, spacing and punctuation as they eagerly express their ideas. They have blossomed as writers! 

  

Reading:

We have concluded our reading program by reflecting on our favorite books from this past year and discussing why they were our favorites-the characters, the plot, the emotions they caused us to feel, the illustrations, the words used to tell the stories. We have enjoyed reading "big book" anthologies as a class, with partners and independently to shine as readers.

 

Math:

We learned about height, length, weight, and capacity using cubes, rulers, scales and containers. We will learn about money and time as we prepare for first grade. We will continue counting, tallying, using place value, graphing and adding & subtracting up to our last day of school!

 

SS/Science Time: We have been practicing for our Kindergarten Show and creating beautiful masterpieces and keepsakes to help us remember and cherish our kindergarten time together! In addition, we will burst with excitement as we learn about and explore the magic of bubbles! 

We studied bubbles and made predictions about various experiments with bubbles. We learned that bubbles like wet surfaces, they are round no matter what shape wand, they take the size of the wand used, and can only be made from soap and water. We concluded with a final experiment of encapsulating each student in a giant bubble! 

 

I will be sending home a summer review packet. Home support is essential during the long summer months to ensure retention and avoid regression of all that has been learned. Please continue to work with your child to maintain the skills they have developed this past year so that they are confidently prepared when they enter first grade in September. 

 

It has been an honor and pleasure to teach your delightful children and help them grow each day this year. I hope that it has been a magical year for them, and I am confident my students will flourish in first grade!