Welcome to K-A!
WELCOME TO MAY IN K-A
It’s almost May… and there are only seven more weeks of school!!! May is an exciting month at de Chantal for our kindergartners. Drum roll please… May 14th is the projected day we will hear the “cheep cheep” sound of eight chicks (we hope). The eight fertilized eggs will have been in our incubator for 21 days. We will have watched (candling) the chicken embryos and have seen the red lines that carry blood in the chick. The children will be amazed at this “egg-citing” unit. The brooder will be set up for the newborn chicks; the mash will be purchased for their feeding; and the cheep, cheep sounds will be music to our ears. We can’t wait!!!
April 26th is our field trip to the Montgomery County Recycling Center. This is a fun and informative trip. It is the culminating activity to our 3 R’s Unit—Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. The inside of the $9 million facility looks like something out of a cartoon. It’s a three dimensional maze of conveyor belts, engines, giant electromagnets and fans. Trash quickly travels up and down several times on multiple conveyor belts, flies through the air, is pulled by electromagnetic force, flung by workers and scooped, separated and packed. The children in past years thought this was AWESOME. This year’s class will think the same, no doubt.
So much happening… Our days are chock-o-block full. The children are becoming quite the readers. Continue to practice the high frequency words at home and read the Letter People books that the children bring home weekly. Also read and reread the MANY books our child brought home throughout the year. Those are the books that emphasized the sound we were emphasizing that week. If your child is reading, take him/her to the library and take out grade appropriate books. Ask the librarian for help in choosing and while you are visiting the library, get your child his/her very own library card. The children will like that. All children know the letter and the sounds they make. Practice putting these letters together to make words. Read word families. Write your own mini-books and illustrate them too. Continue practicing all summer long so that they don’t forget what they’ve learned. Don’t forget to continue reading to them also.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms. Our children are so lucky to have you in their lives. Enjoy your “special” day. May is also the month we honor Mary as our queen and mother. An altar will be placed in our classroom and the children will bring flowers daily to practice before our statue of the Blessed Mother. A special intention basket will be put by Mary. Please send all special intentions to school on small pieces of paper for our basket. We will pray for your intentions all month. The children will also make their very own rosaries—heirlooms for years to come… which will be blessed by Monsignor Essex. They are very excited.
Monday, May 13th, is Grandparent’s Day. This is a special day at de Chantal. Please extend an invitation to any and all grandparents in the area and outside the area. All are welcome. The invitation you receive from school will give you all the details. Sorry, no parents are invited, just grandparents.
We continue our new unit on time and money. The children will use analog clocks to tell time to the hour and half hour and use digital clocks to do the same. Studying money will be an ongoing adventure for the next few years for the children. They start off by starting and graphing coins and the identifying the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar bill. They will also learn the value of these coins and bill. The year ends with the children using strategies for whole number computations with a focus on addition and subtraction. All children should be able to correctly write the numbers zero to thirty and higher. No longer is the writing of number backwards acceptable.
The last day of school is June 8th. After that I know the children will be involved with all their summer activities and family vacations. The year was a GREAT one… your children are absolutely terrific… as I get to know you, I know why they are so wonderful. The last day of school is always a tear filled day for me. If I don’t talk to you as I hug you good-bye, it’s because I am holding back my tears. GOD BLESS ALL OF YOU! Have a terrific summer with your child. Be safe and healthy.
Sending best regards and lot of love, Mrs. Hughes
