Field Day!

Field Day was so much fun! The kids did a great job being good sports, working together, and learning a ton of new games. Thank you to everyone who came out to help and make that possible!!!

Readers Workshop and Writers Workshop Students finished readers and writers workshop by reading their favorite comics! Students have had so much fun with this unit creating and imagining their own characters adventures. Have your child read their favorite comic to you at home!

Antarctica! We wrapped up our continent study by watching a video about the researchers and explorers in the South Pole. Ask your child the most interesting thing they learned about Antarctica!

Fruit Unit

All K/1 classrooms are ending the year with a fruit unit. We each chose a fruit in season to study and learn about, our class learned about blueberries! We made several recipes, including blueberry milkshakes with Mr. Castiglia. Next Wed will be having a mini farmers market to share our treats with the other classes. Look for those fun recipes to come home soon.

HOMEWORK FOLDER

I will be sending home a homework folder this week! This folder is meant to be worked on over the summer. Over the summer students reading levels can drop and all their hard work can be forgotten if students don’t practice! The homework folder contains a lot of activities to work on reading, writing, math, etc. If your child works on a little everyday or every other day they will come back to school in the fall ready to go! If your child turns in the reading log they will receive a FREE DRESS PASS and PENCIL! If your child turns in the whole summer workbook, they will get any BOOK of their choice!! Please use this homework folder as an opportunity for your child to continue to grow and learn over the summer.

Our caterpillar turned in a moth!!

Reminders Music concert for Monday morning assembly and Friday is a small awards assembly announcing Seymour Kaplan award * with SECRET performance by some 5th grade students and teachers.

Please return you library books and homework books!!!!!!

The end of year picnic is on Tuesday. Please help sign up to bring something, and we need lots of extra help that day running activities!

I sent home a flyer for summer birthday celebrations, please let me know if that time or day doesn’t work.

Tide Pools Fieldtrip!

Our annual tide pool field trip was so much fun! Thank you to those who chaperoned and braved the slippery rocks and the cold water! We really appreciate it and hope you had fun as well. We saw lots of different kinds of sea life! Ask your student about this!

Readers Workshop and Writers Workshop This week in readers and writers, we began our new unit: Comic books! Students spent time exploring comic books as a way to write fiction stories using detailed pictures and character dialogue. For writers students spent time making a story map, which is a quick snap shot of their comic book story and they included key story elements such as character, setting and adventure. A fun and exciting activity would be to grab a newspaper and look through the comics section and ask your student what features they notice. Next week, we are going to write our first draft of our comic books and work towards finalizing it and publishing it at the end of the week.

Antarctica! We have started our last continent study for the year! We wrapped up Australia by making Fairy Bread with Ms. Ooton! Fairy bread is white bread with butter and sprinkles (it’s actually really good...), and they each had a little piece for snack. We started our Antarctica unit by looking at all the interesting animals that live there and watched a video about how researchers explore the continent and its animals to know more about the global climate.

Ms. Ooton's Corner For the last few days of school Mrs. Castiglia and I have been planning a 10 day countdown but shhhh... its a secret for the kids! We'll be doing something fun to celebrate all of the work students have done this year - from a special sidewalk chalk writing day to a picnic with our 4th and 5th grade buddies. One of the activities I am most excited for is the time capsule we will be making on the 2nd to last day of school. Students will be encouraged to draw or write something about themselves as a Kindergartner/1st grader or bring something that will remind them of this past year they've had in school. We will first share what we are putting in the time capsule as a whole class before we lock it away for the future. Encourage your student to reflect on their year and think about something they might want to bring in!

Star Student!

Volunteers Thank you so much to all our parent volunteers who have helped out in the classroom, at school events, brought in snacks/supplies, attended field trips, run after school programs, and helped with prepping materials. We appreciate all that you do for our class and our school. I know I speak for all the teachers at Leschi, THANK YOU!!!!! Please join us on Monday for a special appreciation lunch from 1:00-2:00 and then a volunteer appreciation assembly from 2:00-2:30.

As the year is wrapping up please take a look at the calendar for upcoming dates such as Field day, music assembly, end-of-year picnic, etc. We will be celebrating summer birthday’s the last week of school. I will send home a notice about the information next week.

Alki Beach

This Thursday is our field trip to Alki beach. Still room for volunteers if you want to come along! Don't forget to please pack a lunch and wear sunscreen its going to be sunny! The students get to explore the pools, which means getting wet. Please make sure to have your child wear shoes they don't mind getting wet, muddy, and walking around on rocks.

Getting Ready for Next Year! We are all getting ready for next year! Kindergarteners will become first graders and first graders will be going off to second grade! Kindergarteners have progressed so much this year! They are independent, helpful, self-sufficient, decision-makers, and problem solvers! Kindergarteners are now working on more content based material and working toward their own personal goals. They learning to manage their time with more works on their work plans as the work load gradually increases! Give your kindergarten student a high-five! First graders are now experts at being teachers and mentors to our kindergarteners. They are leaders and ready to move on to second grade because they have worked hard all year to hone their crafts in math, writing and reading during work time. First graders are dealing with the excitement of moving on to another grade, but also may also be having a hard time leaving the comfort of their sturdy K/1 years. Give your first grader a huge pat on the back for all the work they’ve done.

Readers and Writers Workshop

This week in readers and writers workshop we continued our Writers Workshop poetry unit. In writers, the students wrote acoustic poems for their names and finalized their best part of me poems. It was wonderful to see their creativity and the way they are able to use new descriptive words to write about themselves. Students ended the unit with a poetry celebration! Our 4th/5th grade buddies came down to celebrate, it was a wonderful way for students to share their hard work. Have your child read you their favorite poems or some of their best work. We also started our comic book unit this week. Students learned about features of comics such as text boxes, frames, speech/thought bubble, sound/action words, etc. Student also started brainstorming characters for their comics.

Geography/Science This is our last week studying Australia and students were able to hear a great guest presentation in Ms. Chin's class about New Zealand. We've learned a lot about Australian animals (especially sharks) and Australian landforms, ask your child what they favorite part of our Australian study has been. We also wrapped up our science unit this week, students learned all about fabric, types of fabric, weaving/sewing fabric, staining/washing fabric, and finally dying fabric. Have your child read their observations from their science notebooks.

Ms. Ooton's Corner My highlight of this week was without a doubt the students' poetry celebration. Our 4th and 5th grade buddies joined us Thursday morning and each student in room 204 shared a poem they either wrote themselves or a favorite one they read during reader's workshop. I was so proud and impressed that every single student shared - some were nervous but they overcame their fears to read with strong voices and lots of expression! The Kindergarten and First grade students in our class then met individually with their buddies to talk about more things they had learned during their poetry unit and do some additional reading in small groups. It was great to see the older students offer suggestions and make connections to their own writing and see the younger students share their work with confidence and excitement. Check out the pics from the celebration and be sure to ask your student to share their poetry books with you!

Star Student

Dakota has worked so hard this year on his reading and writing. He has moved up several levels and continues to challenge and push himself. He is also checking to see what else he could be working on and is always willing to help others out. Dakota has made so many great friends not only in our class, but in other classes as well. He has been a great role model that students really look up to, Way to GO Dakota!!!!