Week Twenty-Six

* Thank you to everyone who helped with the Art Gala!! It was a huge success and the kids had an awesome time sharing their art to their families and friends! I will have you take your child's canvas home during conferences.

* If you were not able to attend the PTO meeting last night, there is an important BOND video for you to watch that is posted on EGR's website. Please take the time to view that video.

* We will be heading to the EGR Library next Friday, March 28th with the whole kindergarten. We've decided to drive instead of walk due to the unpredictable weather we've been having. When we originally planned this field trip we thought it would be nice out by the end of March...clearly we were wrong : ( Ellen Custer will be sending out an e-mail requesting drivers. Please respond asap to her if you are available.

* Next Thursday, March 27th, the whole school will be invited to watch the Peter Pan play in the gym from 1:00-2:00. Students from grades 3rd-5th have been working hard at creating this wonderful show. Parents are invited to join.


What we are learning about in school:

Literacy: We have been spending a lot of time hearing and writing the blending sounds we hear at the beginning of a word. i.e. /fr/ in frog or /cl/ in clam. When we're reading books, we've been working hard at finding those blends and getting our mouth ready with those first two sounds. This strategy is very helpful in solving unknown words.

Writing: We are still plugging away at our how-to pieces.The biggest thing we're trying to work on right now is picking a topic we have actually experienced that we can teach someone else. I've had kids trying to pick difficult topics such as teaching someone how to build a volcano, when really, this child has never built a volcano before so they probably don't know exactly what it takes to build one! Talk with you child about what they're trying to teach people in their how-to's.

Math: This month is all about measurement. We started by measuring with nonstandard tools such as tiles, cubes, shamrocks, etc. Now we have been using a ruler to measure objects in inches and will eventually move to using a balance to measure and compare the weight of different objects.

Science: We are now focusing on living and non-living things. The characteristics of a living thing that your child is learning about are: 1.) It eats food 2.) It can grow and change 3.) It can move on its own 4.) It can reproduce.