May 31st ~ June 3rd

It is with mixed emotions that I pen my final message to you from Room 9. It has been a joy-filled year and the children have amazed and inspired me. Each one has incredible qualities and I can honestly say that every day with your child was precious. I am so proud of the accomplishments realized and the academic, as well as social progress made daily in our room.

Life is not just about learning to read and write. They are important, but so are love, friendship, and finding joy daily. This class has learned and exhibited these lifelong lessons every day since arriving at Poly Drive Elementary. Looking ahead, the children are very well equipped to take on the next phase of their educational lives. They have strong foundations in reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. I feel very confident that we have given them a great start in life and they have learned the following priceless lessons:

~ Take on challenges ~

~ Be loving ~

~ Love learning ~

~ Be part of the community ~

~ Laugh ~

~ Be the best you can be ~

Kindergarten encompasses many things and here are just a few:

K - Kind hearts can change our world

I - Incredible start for lifelong learning

N - Nurturing and loving

D - Daily Discovery

E - Early Literacy is the key

R - Recess is always a favorite

G - Great friendships are made

A - Always learning something new

R - Rowdy at times

T - Tremendous personal growth

E - Energy ~ Energy ~ Energy

N - New adventures in learning

Thank you for a wonderful year ~ it has been an honor to be a part of your lives. The photo CD is my gift to you and it is a pictorial journal of our year in kindergarten. As you may have heard, I am moving to 6th grade next year here at Poly Drive. Please stop by and visit me in Room 7 ~ I love to keep in touch with kids and parents.

All my love – Kim Beatty

May 23rd ~ 27th

The week was filled with rain, but we were fortunate enough to have a wonderful day for our field trip on Wednesday. The sun was shining as we explored the farm, and we were able to have lunch and spend time walking around the lake and watching the geese and ducks at Riverfront Park. After Riverfront Park, we traveled to Rose Park where we spent time on the playground before walking back to school. At the end of the day, we enjoyed some Wilcoxson's ice cream. It was a full day and I'm sure the children were tired at home that evening. I was a bit worn out myself.

We shared our final buddy time of the year with Mrs. Porisch's class and enjoyed Popsicles. Audrey's dad accompanied several students from MSUB to share social studies activities with our class. Audrey's mom also visited our room to teach an art lesson about pop art and the kids created their own alphabet pop art designs.

This week will be another busy one as we wind down the school year. We will continue to review concepts such as setting, characters, story sequence, and conclusion. We will revisit our measurement chart from the beginning of the year to see how much the children have grown physically. Academically, the growth has been astounding!! We will add a phonics decodable to our book boxes and one poem to our poetry binders. The children will write in their journals about their favorite kindergarten experience.

Math ~ We will be completing our study of numbers to 100 and counting larger quantities. We will continue to practice skip counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's.

Science ~ Mrs. Ragar will make her last visit to our room and will help us explore electric currents, open circuits, and closed circuits. The children will make final observations of their plant growth before bringing them home and science journal entries will include the electric current lesson, plant growth, and butterfly observations. Speaking of butterflies, our 6 caterpillars all pupated, and all 6 emerged as beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. We were even lucky enough to have two of them emerge as we watched.

Art ~ We will create caterpillars from egg cartons this week.

Field Day ~ We are hoping the weather cooperates for the Poly Drive Field Day. We will participate in activities at several different stations from 9-11 a.m. It will be a fun morning filled with movement and excitement. Please have your child wear appropriate shoes and clothing for this day.

Have a great week!

May 16th ~ 20th

We will continue to review various concepts studied throughout the year. We will practice changing vowel sounds to create new words and we will continue to interactively write our number poster showing the number, a visual representation of the number using 10-frames, and the number word. The children will add a phonics decodable book to their book boxes and a poem to their poetry binders. We will revisit several non-fiction books about our solar system and planets and the children will write about this topic in their journals.

Math ~ We will complete our unit on early addition and subtraction and we will begin working with groups of 10 & numbers to 100. The children will add an entry to their math journals.

Science ~ We will monitor the growth of our seedlings and the children will add an entry to their science journals. Our final caterpillar pupated last Monday, so we will hopefully observe six butterflies emerging from their chrysalises this week. The children will also document our butterfly journey in their science journals.

Field Trips ~ Our farm field trip is Wednesday and I am hoping for dry weather. We will go rain or shine, so please make sure your child is dressed appropriately and has sturdy walking shoes. The farm may be a bit muddy. Please pack a sack lunch with a drink for the day ~ an additional water bottle might be a good idea too. If you indicated that you would like a sack lunch through the hot lunch program, I will take care of ordering that for your child.

On Friday afternoon, we plan to take a walking field trip to Rose Park with our buddy class. We will enjoy the fresh air, play in the park together, and enjoy a treat at the end of the day. If the weather does not cooperate, we will choose an alternate activity. The permission slip for this is going home on Monday and I will need these back as quickly as possible. Children cannot leave the school grounds without a signed permission slip from home.

Library ~ We will continue to have our library time until the end of the school year, but last Friday was our final day to check out books. Mrs. Delaney must inventory the library each year and it is quite a task! Please return all library books to school by this Friday, May 20th.

Have a wonderful week!

May 9th ~ 13th

I hope you had a fabulous Mother's Day and a nice three-day weekend. We will begin our review weeks where we revisit concepts learned throughout the year. The children will practice active listening, review rhyming, and segmenting words by syllables. We will add a phonics decodable to our book boxes and two poems to our poetry binders. The poetry binders provide an opportunity to reinforce reading skills with familiar text, as well as recognition of high-frequency sight words. The children will add another story to their journals.

Math ~ We will continue our study of subtraction, finding the difference, and determining whether an operation requires a plus (+) sign or a minus (-) sign. Our art project this week will utilize various geometric shapes to create an abstract design.

Science ~ We will continue to label our solar system mural, observe and journal our plant growth, and learn a bit about chemistry when Alex McCready helps us make Elephant Toothpaste on Wednesday. This experiment culminates in a chemical reaction that is fun to watch.

Field Trip ~ Our field trip to the farm is next Wednesday - May 18th. We will leave Poly Drive at approximately 9:30 a.m. and head to "A Slice of Country" to see the various animals and take a wagon ride. This working farm is located off Blue Creek Road and we will be there until 11:30. From there, we will venture to Riverfront Park to have lunch, explore the area by walking around the lake, and observe ducks and geese. At about 12:00, we will head to Rose Park where the kids will play and we will walk back to Poly Drive by about 1:30. It should be a fun day filled with exploration and activity! Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather, as we will go rain or shine. Sturdy walking shoes are a must, and the farm may be a bit muddy in places. An extra water bottle is also recommended.

Each child will need a sack lunch for the day - you may provide the lunch, or one can be purchased through the school lunch program. Please let me know if you wish to purchase a lunch from school so I can make arrangements with Mrs. McDonald.

Field trip permission slips are in the Wednesday Watch this week. Please return your child's as quickly as possible, as well as the $3.00 fee. If paying by check, please make it payable to Poly Drive Elementary.

Have a wonderful week ~ Keep reading every day with your child!

May 2nd ~ 6th

Now that we are entering the month of May, I am hoping that spring weather will soon follow. We will review consonant blends this week and story sequencing. We will discuss and chart the beginning, middle, and end of stories. We will read a poem together and practice reading dramatically with feeling and emotion. We will begin to interactively write and label our solar system mural. The children will add a phonics decodable to their book boxes, three poems to their poetry binders, and an entry to their journals.

Math ~ We will complete our chapter on addition concepts and we will begin working with subtraction. Vocabulary terms associated with subtraction are separating, take away, comparing, and subtracting. This is a challenging concept for early learners.

Science ~ We will learn more about our solar system, stars, the sun, and planets. On Wednesday, Alex McCready will give a presentation about the attributes of air and airflow. We will journal air-flow observations in our science journals, as well as plant growth. We will observe the progress of our caterpillars. They will soon move to the top of the cup to pupate. At this point we have 6 live caterpillars and we are hopeful that 3 of these will make it to the butterfly stage.

Art ~ We will create a coffee filter butterfly with a watercolor tie-dye appearance.

Snacks ~ We are running low on snacks and could use a few to get us through the end of the school year. The latest "vote" included Vanilla Wafer cookies, graham crackers, and Wheat Thins. Cheeze-It's are always popular as well. If you are able to send a box to share, it would be appreciated. Thanks!

The children will also participate in a Fit Kids activity at the end of the day on Wednesday. All Poly Drive students will play an organized tag game on the playground for a continuous 30-minutes of aerobic activity.

Remember, there is no school on Friday. Enjoy the long weekend and have a fabulous Mother's Day!