Ms. Nicky and Ms. Julie’s April News

 

Happy Spring!  Hopefully the big snowfall is past us now and we can start enjoying warmer days again as our days get longer.  The students have really been having fun with our STEM Unit of Study on Robotics.  They have had opportunities to work with Cubelets, program Bee Bots, and explore Dot and Dash.  It has been fun to see their idea of what a robot is evolve as they have explored the different robots we have worked with.  Our next and final STEM Unit of Study will be Nursery Rhymes.  We will begin that unit shortly after Spring Break, and will wrap it up right before the end of the school year.  

STEM Profile of the Month:  Responsible

“I take care of doing my part. I make good choices. I can be trusted to do what is right.”

Some books to encourage being responsible:

Arthur’s Pet Business by Marc Brown

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Library News

March is our last month to visit the library for the school year.  Please make sure your child has returned their library book by April 29.  

Attendance

We miss your child when they are not at school.  Please make sure they are in attendance everyday unless they are sick.  Also, please arrive promptly.  By arriving on time each day, you are letting your child know that school is a priority, and it is distracting to the class to have late arrivals.  

Class Pictures

Due to the snow day, class pictures have been rescheduled for April 27 and April 28.  As it gets closer, we will let you know which day we are scheduled for.  For those of you who already turned your picture money in, we will just hang on to it, unless you would prefer that we return it to you.

Meet Ms. Ruth

For the last several weeks, we have been lucky to have Ms. Ruth, one of the Speech Language Pathologists at our school, come into our classroom and work with the students on a program called Story Champs.  Story Champs is a curriculum that targets language and literacy skills such as social communication, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension.  We are really enjoying her visits, and are already seeing growth in the students’ abilities to retell stories and identify story-related problems.  She will continue coming in weekly through the remainder of the school year.  

Working With Your Child At Home

Thank you so much for your continued support working with your child on their homework!  A large number of students have mastered identifying all of their letters and letter sounds, and several more students are very close to reaching that achievement.  Your help in reinforcing the work we are doing at school is really paying off!  Please continue to work with your child on number recognition and counting with one-to-one correspondence.  

 

Our Big Idea For Math for the month of April is Spatial Relationships.  Some ideas of things you can do at home to work on this skill are:

-Encourage your child to build with blocks and other construction materials, and ask questions like “How many different ways can you use these 10 blocks to build something?”

-Play movement games and songs, such as “Simon Says”, and “Hokey Pokey”

-Play Hide and Seek and “Doggie, Doggie, Where’s My Bone?”

-Set up an obstacle course in your backyard

-Work with your child on jigsaw puzzles

MyOn Challenge

Our school will be participating in the School District’s MyOn Reading Challenge over Spring Break.  Schools will be rewarded based on the total amount of time that students read.  If you have not yet logged onto MyOn, please use this opportunity to do so.  If you have already been using MyOn, keep up the great work!

Important Dates

April 4-8:  SPRING BREAK–NO SCHOOL

April 11:  All-School Movement

April 14:  Pajama Day–Bring $1 and wear your PJ’s to school

April 21:  Harvest of the Month Snack–Asparagus

April 22:  Spring Carnival (4:00-7:00 p.m.)

April 23:  Spring Campus Clean Up (8:30-10:30 a.m.)

April 27 and 28: Picture Day