April News!

We are back from Spring Break and hopefully ready for the final stretch.  I hope you all had a wonderful break and Easter weekend.  Mrs. Leach filled in for me last week Monday through Thursday.  I had foot surgery over break and needed a little extra rest to recover. I will be on crutches until the middle of May.  Fortunately for me, your little ones took great care of me so I am in good hands.

Last week, we began to use number lines for solving addition problems.  We had been using  drawing out the problems, cubes and work mats to solve addition problems previous to Spring Break.  Several students discovered they liked using numbers lines better because it was quicker than using manipulatives.  We will use a variety of methods for solving addition problems so that students become familiar with them.  In May, we will begin to focus more heavily on subtraction. However,  at this point I try not to confuse them by switching back and forth.  We will also continue to review money, tally marks, graphing, and number identification to 30.  

District Kindergarten testing will be arriving soon. Student will complete a Writing Probe and a District Math Inventory.  Students have taken the DMI twice already, in the fall and winter.  Students will complete a writing probe and that results of that will be filed in their cumulative folder.

Several students have been engaging in writing stories in their free time. I am so impressed by their eagerness to try their hand at writing.  I have quite the little story writers in my room and I am always so eager to read their stories.

We will be working on spelling the hi- frequency works that are in our curriculum for the next few weeks.   I will pick 5 or 6 words to work on each week and then we will have a test on Friday.  Several students are able to identify the words in print but cannot write them independently.  Hopefully, we will have close to 100% of students writing and reading them by the end of the year. 

  We are talking a lot about first grade and what will be expected of them.  I think they are getting excited about first grade and how much they have learned this year!