Upstairs May Newsletter

The month of April was a very busy month upstairs!  The children did a fabulous job on all their art work for the show - it was nice to see them all beaming with pride at their creativity.  We hope you all enjoyed the Art Show!  As a class we also learned all about the Life Cycle of a butterfly and even hatched 6 beautiful Painted Lady Butterflies.  We were able to release them over April vacation - it was very exciting to watch them fly out of their net.  Please be sure to ask your child about our butterflies.

April Pre-K Small Group - introductory addition skills w/ manipulatives, ‘one more than’ and ‘counting on’ strategy introduced with a number line; ordering numbers from least to greatest, comparing numbers, and reading 2 digit numbers in math…language - syllabication and phoneme counting activities taught to all 3 groups - sorted names, pictures and words by how many sounds they hear.  Ask your child what syllabication strategy works best for them.  A comprehensive review of rhyme, initial consonant sound and numbers 1-20 was also part of group…

During April the kindergarten class was very busy learning all about the Plant Cycle.  Each child had fun drawing the life cycle - seeds, roots, sprouts, flower.  Ask your child how the roots grow or the essential items needed for a plant to grow.  The children have been making a plant journal with words and pictures to show their plants growth.  It is amazing how tall their bean plants are getting.  Our weekly reading program has been quite successful, it is super to see how well the children are doing with their reading fluency.  Other busy choices during kindergarten have been their number scrolls - many friends are on their way to 200 while 2 friends are almost to 400 - WOW they love the challenge of writing as high as they can!  The month of May brings us to assessments for progress reports.   I will be doing a dibels and a HWT assessment on each child which will be given out with their progress report.

Our class birth year coin project has been a wonderful home-school connection.  THe children get so excited to share their coins as well as bringing in State Quarters to fill our map.  We have almost covered all 50 states!  We thought as a class we would donate the state quarters to the Hanover Food Pantry to help families in need.

During April, the children enjoyed making recycled art to celebrate Earth Day.  We talked about how important recycling is to the environment, and took a class survey as to how many children recycle at home.  We were extremely pleased to see that all raised their hands. The pre-k class joined the planting, and each child planted a radish.  The science area has been very full with visitors - they are using a magnifying glass to observe all the growing (beans, marigolds & radishes).  It is nice to hear their conversations as they compare plants with their friends.

Exciting activities for May:

We will be observing our 5 tadpoles as they grow through each stage of the Frog Life Cycle.  Miss Karen is our class nature lover and collected the tadpoles to share with the class.  Our Hygiene Drive has started - the children enjoyed decorating the box with items that will be useful to the food pantry.  We appreciate all the items that have already been brought in - the last day to donate will be May 24th - thank you so much for helping us to help families in need!

Wizard of Oz practice is in full swing!  Mr. Michael is planning on coming 1 morning and 1 afternoon a week to practice with each class.  The children are doing amazing - they are really enjoying all the cool moves Mr. Michael has been teaching - they are going to be the best Munchkins!

Looking forward to fun filled days as the year comes to a close,

The Upstairs Teachers