Week 36- Our Last Week

The end of the school year can be a time of mixed emotions- for the children and adults alike. We may feel excited, sentimental, relieved, proud, unsure, tired, and happy- all at the same time. I feel truly blessed to be a part of your child's life and educational experience.

This week, we spend some time revisiting some favorite activities, recalling things that make Kindergarten special, and reading books for the sheer enjoyment of sharing a great book.


I want to thank you for supporting your child's project work. It was so wonderful to watch the children share their writing and learning with so many people. Two of my favorite things about Oasis are the projects we are able to accomplish and the wonderful families that support us every step of the way!

Thursday is FIELD DAY! This is a big deal at Oasis. The festivities last all day and make for a wonderful celebration of our year together with our classmates and school friends.

Some points to consider for Field Day:

* Check the weather.  We have had hot frying pan days and freezing cold rainy days for Field Day in the past.  Please make decisions based on the weather as much as possible.

* Have your child wear water clothes.  Boys can wear swim bottoms and a shirt, girls can wear a one piece swim suit with shorts and a T shirt over it.  Children can also wear shorts and a T shirt that can get wet and is comfortable. 

* You can send a towel but be sure to mark it with a name.  

* No socks, please!  The kids will be moving from water activities to bounce houses or other dry activities.  Socks tend to get lost at the stops along the way.  

* It works best if your child is able to wear shoes that they can slip on and off easily so that they don't lose a lot of time between activities trying to manage their shoes.

* Please send in a snack.  We will stop for a snack break along our journey to keep them from getting hungry.

* Many children will want to change out of their water clothes at the end of the day. Please send in a plastic bag for us to put wet items in. Please also be sure to send along a pair of underwear as it is an often forgotten part of the wardrobe change.

****IMPORTANT!  Please sunscreen your child very well before sending them in to school on field day.  By the time I notice they are getting pink, it is too late!  Additionally, I won't know if a child does or doesn't have sunscreen on.  I don't want anyone's day to be ruined by a painful sunburn.

 
I know it is May and the end of the school year is now at hand. Since we do not get to sit down face to face and conference with this grading period, I just want to emphasize a couple of key things as your child makes the transition from Kindergarten to first grade.

Asking and answering questions is a HUGE skill that needs to be reinforced and practiced across a variety of topics- not just because this strengthens reading comprehension, but because it grows critical and collaborative thinkers which is what we want above all else. We want children who pose questions and have conversations about the answers.

Your child has begun to experience the joy of reading several books by the same author/illustrator. We enjoyed several books by Jan Brett and Eric Carle. Beloved authors, series, and characters help fuel a love of reading through their unique combination of novelty and familiarity. Encouraging your child's love of a character or series can help lay a foundation for reading skills and a life long love of reading.

Having discussions about our writing and revisiting it to add more is a valuable experience and great writing habit for your child.  Thinking "What more can I add?" leads to detailed, engaging writers.

 

Finally, one of the best ways to keep your child reading is to join the County Library's Summer Reading Program.  They have incentives and fun extra activities to keep your child interested and moving forward over the summer. 

HOMEWORK
Our summer work packet will be coming home with your child this week. It includes the OFFICIAL OASIS work: the reading calendars and math fact skill sheets. 

Reading on a regular basis is vital. Keeping our writing and math skills sharp is important too. I believe your child will be able to access their IXL account over the summer (until my account gets reset for the new school year).

If you set up a little Work Station and create a Book Bin for the car right now, it will make it more likely that learning continues for your child and the summer slide in skills will be lessened for them. Set up one or both of these for/with your child and shoot me an email- students will get a move up on our color chart. But the real incentive is the continued growth your child will experience :)

Need books? The Churchill County library is top notch (and their summer reading program is the best). You can even use their website to request certain desired books and they will hold them for you to pick up: http://www.churchillcountylibrary.org/  If you want books to keep, check out the Grassroots Bookstore in Reno. It is phenomenal and they have ridiculously fabulous sales:http://www.grassrootsbooks.com/home/

This year has been AMAZING! I have truly enjoyed my time with this class. I sure am going to miss them, but they are ready for new adventures and first grade learning. Our first grade teachers are lucky to be inheriting a group of enthusiastic learners and supportive parents. Thank you for sharing your child with me this year!

Week 35- Ladybugs

This week is our last theme- Ladybugs! Our read aloud texts will be the nonfiction text It's a Good Thing There Are Ladybugs and Eric Carle's The Very Grouchy Ladybug. 

In writing, we polish up our Eric Carle styled books and practice presenting. 

Our presentation at the library is this Thursday at 4:30. Thank you so much for filling out the Google Form to help us plan. The response for bringing refreshments was remarkable- so much so that I really do not think we need everyone who expressed the willingness to bring items to actually bring items in. We would be overrun by cookies and juice pouches- not a horrible problem to be sure :) Seriously, you people are fantastic. I have created a Sign Up Genius that you may officially sign up for cookies, juice pouches, paper plates, or napkins. If you expressed an interest in bringing items, please take a moment to grab a slot so we can make sure we don't unintentionally go from a plethora of goodies to no goodies.  If there are no more slots and you really wanted to bring something, we won't turn your goodies away :) Thank you for your support and generosity!

SignUp Genius: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090b49aaae29a0f58-refreshments

In math, we review addition and subtraction skills.
 
Lemonade sales continue this week. Please keep Kindergarten bladders in mind when sending in money.

Our school year is quickly coming to a close. This will be our final week of somewhat "regularly scheduled programing". This is the last week we will have our morning reading block so it is the last week our AMAZING volunteers will need to come in for their center rotations. Wednesday is our turn for MAPS testing. This week will also be the last week testing is done for sight words (and spelling words for students who reached those lists). This week is also the last week for tutor groups. We will have groups Tuesday and Wednesday, but not on Thursday as Mrs. Vaughn and I have Kindergarten Screening and our final presentations at the library to set up.

This will also be the last week that I will post usual homework.  Next week would be the perfect time to set up a home study area for your child.  If you get some special pencils and paper and make an "office" they will really enjoy using it.  Next, choose a time of day that will fit well with your summer schedule and try to really stick to it.  It will only take a small portion of the day but if it is scheduled it is so much easier to make it happen. Additionally, some parents like to purchase "summer bridge" activity books for their child to work in to keep their skills sharp.  One caution would be to look through the book to be sure it is an appropriate level of work for your child.  They can vary widely and you want to be sure you child isn't bored by too easy, or frustrated by too hard, material. Please try to include a daily reading time. A nightly bedtime reading time or keeping a small bin of books in the backseat of the car could do the trick. More than keeping reading skills sharp- now is a wonderful time in your child's life to instill a lifelong love of reading (and learning in general). 

 

Next week will be a bit crazy with extra activities planned on each day.  One of the most important for you to keep in mind is field day on the last day.  It takes MANY volunteers to make field day work!  Information about how you can help will come from whole school email.  It is fun and fast and fantastic so come out and enjoy this time if you can.

 

HOMEWORK
Reading:
Please continue your nightly reading time activities.
 
* Your child will be bringing home a personalized login card for Raz Kids. This is a computer program your child can use over the summer. It uses the same books as our printed out paper books that we used in reading groups, but as e-readers. You simply login at www.kidsa-z.com and your child should be able to start reading away! Once your child logs in they can head to the Level Up station to systematically work through appropriate books. I recommend having them read a book themselves before they use the option of having it read to them so they can practice keeping their word solving skills sharp. They can even take little quizzes on each book. There is also a Reading Room area that has additional books like we use in class. The section Leveled Books (it is the very first option) has the levels recommended for your child highlighted, with the letter level they should try out first showing up the largest. They can move down a bit for fluency work or up a bit if they seem like they need a bit of a challenge. Your child is also free to explore other areas as well. There is an incentive system embedded in the program where your child can earn stars for reading tasks and then spend them to build a robot or rocket.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

Your child may work on any addition or subtraction skill objective. These are IXL sections I, J, K, and L.

You are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to continue having your child 

practice their addition skills by using real world objects- especially if they 

complete the IXL tasks quickly. Yay for math fact fluency! They may also 

visit any of the I section addition skills.

Week 34- Butterflies

The students really enjoyed making their Eric Carle inspired webs and spiders last week! Special thanks to the families that sent in materials. 

Along with a nonfiction text about the changes from a caterpillar to a butterfly, we have another of Eric's books for a read aloud this week- a classic- The Very Hungry Caterpillar. (Fun fact- Eric was inspired by a hole puncher to write this story.) 

We will be putting a lot of work into writing projects this week. We hope you are able to join us at our upcoming presentations. Please take a moment to fill out this Google Sheet, if you have not already.
https://goo.gl/forms/qWpcqq4rmeGN2KA62 

In math we continue working on subtraction while strengthening our fact fluency.

As we near the end of the year, we will also be working on some assessments. 

Next week, some of the middle school students are opening up their lemonade stands. This is an Oasis tradition. It is a competitive exercise of commerce and the middle schoolers come up with some very enticing ways to get customers to visit their stands. The price is usually 25 cents per cup. Students tend to spend as much as they are given at one time. This can lead to a lot of liquid in tiny bladders at a time when a lot of young ones are experiencing the same situation which can lead to bathroom accidents. Please keep this in mind when deciding how much money to send with your child. It is also helpful if you remind them that if they drink lemonade at lunch recess, they should also make a bathroom trip during that same break. If you know that your child has a more delicate bladder, it may not be a bad idea to send a change of clothes in their backpacks until the end of the year.

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in

the binder, and practicing sight words.

Your child should ideally be spending time with familiar texts (such as the

printed books they bring home), as they help reinforce sight words in context

and using word solving strategies. However, these books are not real meaty

when it comes to comprehension, so they should also be spending time with

trade books (high quality children’s literature- like from the local library or

bookstore). These books lend themselves better to conversations. When you

read to them, you are also providing important modeling of a fluent reader

and a pleasant reading experience.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

Your child may work on any addition or subtraction skill objective. These are IXL sections I, J, K, and L.

You are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to continue having your child 

practice their addition skills by using real world objects- especially if they 

complete the IXL tasks quickly. Yay for math fact fluency! They may also 

visit any of the I section addition skills.

Week 33- Spiders

This week, we not only take a closer look at spiders, but also one of our focus authors- Eric Carle. His book The Very Busy Spider and a great nonfiction text are in our reading line up. We will be continuing to strengthen our comprehension and discussion skills by sharing interesting facts, comparing and contrasting, discussing the author’s point, and retelling the story.
 

We could use some glitter glue for a raised texture activity- Eric Carle often includes engaging elements in his books that include cutouts, flaps, and raised texture. This is a great way for students to incorporate professional moves into their own work. We will also be doing some painting with different textures so if you have items that you think could lead to interesting textures (things we could use to paint with or drag through paint such as bubble wrap, q tips, toothpicks, cooking implements, pine cones, ribbon...) that you do NOT want returned, we would love to use them. This painting adventure will be taking place Wednesday afternoon and I would greatly appreciate additional helping hands.

Our class’s closer look into Eric Carle's books has laid the groundwork for them to start writing their own Eric Carle Inspired books this week. I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

In math, we continue our work with subtraction. We meet Linus the Minus this week!

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in

the binder, and practicing sight words.

Your child should ideally be spending time with familiar texts (such as the

printed books they bring home), as they help reinforce sight words in context

and using word solving strategies. However, these books are not real meaty

when it comes to comprehension, so they should also be spending time with

trade books (high quality children’s literature- like from the local library or

bookstore). These books lend themselves better to conversations. When you

read to them, you are also providing important modeling of a fluent reader

and a pleasant reading experience.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

Monday: I.5 Complete the addition sentence - sums up to 5

Tuesday: K.1 Subtract with pictures - numbers up to 5

Wednesday: K.2 Subtraction sentences - numbers up to 5

Thursday:  K.3 Subtract - numbers up to 5

You are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to continue having your child 

practice their addition skills by using real world objects- especially if they 

complete the IXL tasks quickly. Yay for math fact fluency! They may also 

visit any of the I section addition skills.

Week 32- Jaguars

This week's topic is jaguars! We learned a bit about jaguars during our rainforest weeks and the students were keen to find out more so here we go! We have a couple of traditional nonfiction texts along with the true tale of a jaguar cub that has become an animal diplomat for raising awareness about the conservation program that helped save him.

In writing, we are delving deeper into our author study of Eric Carle as this work becomes foundationally tied to where our book study project has led. 


In math, we more formally bring in the plus sign with our helpful friend, Gus the Plus.

(Next week, we meet his brother...)

After a couple more days with addition as our focus, subtraction moves into center stage. As we make this shift, it is important that we help the children see it as a kind of continuation. When we are subtracting, we are still working with a part, part, whole relationship among numbers. Instead of putting two parts together to make the whole, we are now taking the whole apart into the two smaller parts.

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in 
the binder, and practicing sight words.

Your child should ideally be spending time with familiar texts (such as the 
printed books they bring home), as they help reinforce sight words in context 
and using word solving strategies. However, these books are not real meaty 
when it comes to comprehension, so they should also be spending time with 
trade books (high quality children’s literature- like from the local library or 
bookstore). These books lend themselves better to conversations. When you 
read to them, you are also providing important modeling of a fluent reader 
and a pleasant reading experience.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

Monday:  I.1 Add with pictures - sums up to 5 
Tuesday:  I.2 Addition sentences - sums up to 5 
Wednesday:  I.3 Add two numbers - sums up to 5 
Thursday:  I.4 Make a number using addition - sums up to 5 


You are welcome, and in fact encouraged, to continue having your child practice their addition skills by using real world objects- especially if they complete the IXL tasks quickly. Yay for math fact fluency!

Week 31- Plants

This week, we will be learning about plants- their parts, cycle, and needs. 
We have a great nonfiction text and a couple of fiction texts, including an 
Eric Carle. We have been spending some time thinking about what point 
author’s are making in their books- what they want us to learn. This often 
applies to fiction as well as nonfiction. When a character learns a lesson 
it is often a lesson we can apply to our own lives as well. This is another 
aspect of books that you can touch on in your discussions with your child.

In writing, we continue our narrative writing with more of an emphasis on 
checking our own writing for desired components.

In math, we continue with our combinations to make 10. The students have 
been doing a great job with their combinations. Fluency is the name of the 
game!

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in 
the binder, and practicing sight words.

Your child should ideally be spending time with familiar texts (such as the 
printed books they bring home), as they help reinforce sight words in context 
and using word solving strategies. However, these books are not real meaty 
when it comes to comprehension, so they should also be spending time with 
trade books (high quality children’s literature- like from the local library or 
bookstore). These books lend themselves better to conversations. When you 
read to them, you are also providing important modeling of a fluent reader 
and a pleasant reading experience.

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

IXL does offer several objectives that allow for practice with Addition up to 5 
(skill section I), however they use the math symbols + and =. These are not yet 
included as a focus in our math instruction. We are working on laying a strong 
foundation with the important part-part-whole concept so we emphasis the 
language of ___ and ___ make___ at first.

For homework this week, if you wish, you may try out the IXL I skills and 
simply connect the symbols to the language used in class. If this makes sense 
to your child and is not causing confusion or stress, this can be your child’s 
homework practice.

ALTERNATIVELY, you may continue to do the below type of math practice, 
preferably with an emphasis on solving math stories or addition based dice or 
card games. It is best to start with lower numbers/amounts and work up to 
larger amounts as your child builds confidence and fluency.

This is a great time to play math games with your child. You can use materials 
from Math Night, online or printable activities, or traditional board/card 
games that have a math component.

Revisit any skill from the Comparing (G) section. We will be reinforcing 
comparing smaller amounts for a couple of days, before moving into 
comparing the teen numbers. IXL does not have objectives for comparing 
items within 20, so this is where materials from Math Night or collections of 
items from around the house can come in handy.  If your child seems pretty 
solid with comparing within 10, move on to comparing groups of real items 
up to 20. Using terms, such as “more”, “less”, “fewer”, “the same”, and 
“equal”. It is also great to practice “how many more/fewer”. For example if 
I have 12 crayons and 10 pencils, I could talk about how I have 2 more 
crayons or 2 fewer pencils. When making such comparisons, noting groups 
of 10 or how far away from a group of 10 is valuable too (I have 7 gummy 
bears- that’s just 3 away from a whole group of 10). When using real items 
you can physically group them into 10s. You can also physically line them 
up item to item to see how many more/fewer there are.

If it seems appropriate for your child, you may also spend some time 
revisiting any D section skill.

Week 30- Bees

Building off of last week's science focus of taking care of the world around us, this week we will be learning about bees. We will read a nonfiction text that shows how they are helpful, interesting animals. We will use this text to further explore how author's support their points. We will also read a story called The Greedy Bee. We will be using this book to help us build a habit of collecting interesting words.


In writing, we continue working on narratives with a focus on seeing ourselves as storytellers and making sure our stories include key information including the feelings of ourselves and other people.

This week in math, we will be spending quite a bit of time with making combinations to 10. 

 

Project Update:

A helpful parent pointed out that our original date for the presentation of our project was the same night as graduation. The new date for our presentation is May 31st. Please save Thursday May 31st at 4:30 on your calendars!

HOMEWORK

Reading:

10 minutes each night. Reading can include reading stories, the poems in 

the binder, and practicing sight words.

Try for a combination of paper familiar reads and trade book read alongs. 

Some notes to guide book discussions:

When reading together, remember to ask questions and share thoughts about the 

characters and what they are thinking, feeling, or doing. It is also a good idea to 

talk about the problem the character had (the uh-oh part of the story) and the  

solution-how it was fixed (the phew part of the story).  See if your child can tell you 

most of the important things that happened in the story.

If you are reading a non-fiction book together, some of the things you can discuss include:

* facts that you learn

* things that surprised you

* things you are wondering about

* connections to other things you have read

* connections to things you have experienced   

Math:

Remember, math should be done for 10 minutes each night.

IXL does offer several objectives that allow for practice with Addition up to 5 

(skill section I), however they use the math symbols + and =. These are not 

yet included as a focus in our math instruction. We are working on laying a 

strong foundation with the important part-part-whole concept so we emphasis 

the language of ___ and ___ make___ at first.

For homework this week, if you wish, you may try out the IXL I skills and 

simply connect the symbols to the language used in class. If this makes sense 

to your child and is not causing confusion or stress, this can be your child’s 

homework practice.

ALTERNATIVELY, you may continue to do the below type of math practice,

 preferably with an emphasis on solving math stories or addition based dice or 

card games. It is best to start with lower numbers/amounts and work up to 

larger amounts as your child builds confidence and fluency.

This is a great time to play math games with your child. You can use materials 

from Math Night, online or printable activities, or traditional board/card 

games that have a math component.

Revisit any skill from the Comparing (G) section. We will be reinforcing 

comparing smaller amounts for a couple of days, before moving into 

comparing the teen numbers. IXL does not have objectives for comparing 

items within 20, so this is where materials from Math Night or collections 

of items from around the house can come in handy.  If your child seems 

pretty solid with comparing within 10, move on to comparing groups of

real items up to 20. Using terms, such as “more”, “less”, “fewer”, 

“the same”, and “equal”. It is also great to practice “how many more/fewer”. 

For example if I have 12 crayons and 10 pencils, I could talk about how I 

have 2 more crayons or 2 fewer pencils. When making such comparisons, 

noting groups of 10 or how far away from a group of 10 is valuable too 

(I have 7 gummy bears- that’s just 3 away from a whole group of 10). When 

using real items you can physically group them into 10s. You can also 

physically line them up item to item to see how many more/fewer there are.

If it seems appropriate for your child, you may also spend some time revisiting 

any D section skill.