U of M Nuerologist / Living Things

Dr. Dayalu, neurologist from U of M, came in to teach kindergartners about the brain and how it interacts with the rest of the body.

Hello everyone, a lot exciting things happened last week.  My computer is being repaired which makes it harder to post to our photo gallery.  I have put a lot of photos on our twitter feed.

Color Fun Run
The PTO is planning the annual Fun Run, but this year with a twist - a “dash” of COLOR! This is their largest fundraiser of the year and the PTO is hoping to surpass the $20,000 goal - which helps to cover the cost of our school field trips, assemblies, grants, etc. The run is scheduled for Friday, May 19th in the afternoon and will include colorful cornstarch raining down on the students.  More information about how you can contribute can be found here and here.  There is also a paper form in the office.

Walking Field Trip to Leslie Science Center
Next Thursday, May 18th, we will be taking a walking field trip to the Leslie Science Center.  It will be a casual walk, looking for different plants and animals.  If you would like to volunteer that afternoon please let me know over email.  We will be leaving around 1:15 PM.  A permission slip will be going home tomorrow. 

Curriculum Overview
Science - In our current Project Based Learning unit we are studying the needs of plants and animals and how plants and animals adapt to and change their environment to meet those needs.  This week we will study living vs. non-living and begin to look at the parts of plant and the role each part has in helping a plant survive.

Math - This week we will be focusing on computation, both story problems and direct math sentences.  We will study skip counting, how it relates to multiplication, and add that that to our understanding of different types of computation.

Literacy - We are using features of nonfiction texts to learn about the needs of living things for our Project Based Learning unit.  I mentioned this before but I highly recommend going to the library and checking out some non-fiction books--so often we read fiction books at home and it is good to give students a varied experience.  Find a topic that interests your child and use the table of contents and index to read up and learn.

Writing - In conjunction with our project on living things students will be writing about seeds and plants, and our experiences planting and growing vegetables.

Word Study - This week students are working on different word sorts aligned with their academic next steps.  Students are working on letter sounds, blends, and vowel spelling patterns.