---

Hello Families,

Wow—this week just flew by!

We had a special visit from Buddy, who brought lots of smiles as he sang some classic favorites and cheerful spring songs with the class. 💚

In Science, we kicked off a brand new unit on Light and Sound. Our focus is on planning and conducting investigations to show that vibrating materials can make sound—and that sound can make materials vibrate! We started off by experimenting with rulers on the edge of tables to see (and hear!) vibrations in action. The kids had a blast trying to make the loudest vibration possible! 🕪

In Writing, we brainstormed and wrote about some of our favorite books and discussed what we love (or don’t love) about them. It’s a great conversation to continue at home—after reading together, ask your child what they thought about the story and why.

As you may have read in the Bobcat Den Newsletter yesterday, classroom configurations for next year have been announced. I will be teaching a straight Kindergarten class alongside Mrs. Cowan, while there will be three combined 1st/2nd grade classrooms. While I’m excited about what’s ahead, it’s bittersweet to think that I won’t have another year with this amazing group of Kindergartners. They have truly made this year special, along with the first graders, of course!! ❤

Wishing you all a joyful and relaxing holiday (if you celebrate) and a wonderful vacation!  Let's hope for some warm weather! 🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

Reminders:

May 1, 5:00 Art & Music Concert

                                                                    Tea of the week: Peppermint 

Weeks are flying by, and here we are in mid-April, with just 41 days left of school!
Students are keeping count during our morning meeting, though most aren't quite ready for the year to end. ❤

We had a beautiful ECO morning this week! We gathered in the Coyote Den for a snack, a story, and a discussion about migratory animals returning. We boiled water with the Kelly Kettles for hot cocoa and explored the forest. It was such a treat to have Ms. Neeson join us for this special time in nature!

First Grade Math:
We’ve kicked off a new unit on place value. Understanding that 10 ones equal 1 ten is a key concept for first graders and sets the stage for using place value strategies in addition and subtraction.

Kindergarten Math:
This week was full of fun partner games! Students also continued collecting and organizing data, then comparing their findings. They counted how many noses and eyes we have in our class and have started practicing counting by 2s as a more efficient strategy. Maybe you can count how many eyes are in your family this weekend.

We wrapped up our space unit by creating a rocket ship and reading  Moon's First Friends for our W.O.W. We explored the phases of the moon a little further and discussed the difference between waxing - when the moon is appearing to get larger and waiting - when the moon's size appears to be getting smaller in size. 

Don’t forget to enjoy tonight’s beautiful full moon—the Pink Moon! While it’s not actually pink, the name comes from the pink wildflowers that typically bloom around this time of year in some places. Here’s to warmer spring days ahead!

Greetings Earthlings! 🌎

The students did an amazing job creating an informational space video! It was definitely a challenge to remember all the facts and perform in front of a camera, but they handled it so well! On Friday, they shared the video with the school during our All School Meeting, and they did an equally fantastic job with that, too! So much courage and so much to be proud of!

This week, students continued to express their opinions in their writing. They imagined a new constellation and created a story to go along with it. We also began exploring the problems they observe in the world and how they might take action to help solve them. We read inspirational stories, like that of Jane Goodall, who dedicated herself to saving chimpanzees, and One Plastic Bag, a beautiful book about how one person’s creative idea helped tackle the issue of plastic pollution. While these are big ideas, we can use these stories as inspiration to think about how we can become activists for the issues we care about!

K Math: Students practiced data collection by conducting surveys on a topic of their choice. The following day, we gathered to discuss and analyze the data they had collected.  

1st Grade Math: Students wrapped up their mini-unit on fractions.  They learned that fractions must have equal parts and explored halves and quarters. We ended the week making fractions flags.  Next week, we will start a new unit on place value. 

                                Space Video