Greetings Fans and Families of Kindergarten! I hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday! Here are this week's updates (there aren't many).

*Our class project is due next week, and we have received no donations towards our cause. Jane and I are going to be chalk-painting and stenciling a bar stool in a nautical theme and we have the materials for that. What we need is donations for our garden theme. The children will be doing fingerprints and signing a large flower pot filled with an indoor/outdoor plant. We need donations for buying the pot, soil, a large plant, and maybe some gardening goodies to go along with that. We have the acrylics already. Any donation you can give will greatly help! Also, thank you to Stephanie Elyse Burgin who helped our class out with some business donations. :) If you send anything in, please mark it for our class auction project. THANK YOU!

*I am sending home another sight word list this week. I know I have sent it home twice before, but I want to make sure everyone has it. The comprehensive list is in 3 weeks. Also, I will be sending home a list of special sounds that I am testing on mid-May. They are sounds we have been working on all year. At this point, I would like to have the children reading more than just their reader books. It is important that they read from a variety of books at their level, including both fiction and non-fiction. They need to read out loud to you or a family member. The more they read out loud, the better their fluency and expression will be. These are things that Mrs. Sasse will already expect when the children begin first grade. There are many leveled readers in book stores and the library. Please have your children choose books they are able to sound out words in on their own. They will only get frustrated if the books are above their reading level.

*I posted about our silent auction below. Please make sure to check out the post. Invitations to this event were also sent home in your child's folder. We really need good participation for this, as we are getting closer to our fundraising goal. :)

Academics:

We are focusing on first grade language skills for the remainder of the year, including sentence structure, plural form, suffixes, and adjectives/nouns/verbs. We will be reading more and more each day as a group and individually. In math, we are working on mixed coins, geometry, and time. In science this week, we will plant lima beans and journal their growth. This is always a fun activity for the children, as they each get their own bean plant to take home after a few weeks. We are learning about plants, the life cycle of a seed, and also about preserving and protecting plant habitats. In Bible, we are learning about the story of Doubting Thomas and the implications of Jesus telling Thomas "happy are those who have not seen yet still believe". This is such a profound statement that Jesus made! As I try to help the children understand what having faith means, this story just helps so much to bridge that understanding. :) Our Bible verse this week is, Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. James 4:8. Show and tell is FREE CHOICE!! Yay! :)

Have a blessed and wonderful week!
Love,
Mrs. Tracy