Around the World

Whew! The two weeks of IOWA testing are over! It's nice not pushing the kids by only doing one test a day...but it makes for two chaotic weeks for me!

Besides testing we have been learning about cultures all around the world. Everyday we hop in our "airplane" and fly to our new destination. Last week we wrote about differences in living in Africa, learned about differences in flags in Canada, and talked about making a difference on Earth Day! This week we traveled to England to learn about the differences between Kings and Presidents, China to learn about difference in writings, and Australia to learn about differences in art. Through all the differences around the world, we most importantly learned about how we are all God's children and made just right in his eyes!

Our Plane!

We've been learning some first grade reading rules in phonics! While introducing new sounds like aw, oo, and ou; we also have been reviewing old rules and practicing using them in our reading. The students have been enjoying early reader books and discovering what all they can read!

In math we talked about the calendar. We reviewed days, months, and years! It was a lot of fun talking about when our birthdays are and what year we were born in. 1994 sounded ancient to most of the students!

Last Thursday the students had their spring program! They did an amazing job singing and even dancing a little! I couldn't believe that they sang a song in Hebrew and Italian!

Just a few reminders...

*Graduation is May 19th at 7:00. There are still a few spots to be filled on the food sign up! The sign up is here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HL1t2nl9fabRz4L9HPp-mLxKi8BS67qMTEQBTipF7GA/edit

*The zoo is next Thursday! Please send the payment in if you haven't yet, and let me know if you would like to be a chaperon!

Taking Time to Smell the Flowers!

This week we learned all about flowers and plants! On Monday we planted our own seeds and discussed what all plants need to survive. The students had fun watering and caring for their seeds all throughout the week. We also learned to read some new words like sprout, sunshine, and shovel.

On Tuesday we learned more about the life cycle of a plant. We also tried an experiment where we placed white flowers into colorful water, and the petals are supposed to turn colors. TRIED and SUPPOSED are keys word here as the experiment kind of, erm...flopped. But hey a good lesson in the fact the experiment don't always work! So yeah, no picture needed here!

On Thursday we did some dissecting! Don't worry, no frogs in here! We dissected a flower and split it into different categories (seeds, petals, leaves, and stems). There are some early botanist in the making in KA Kindergarten! We also completed a plant book we had been working on throughout the week.

In phonics we were introduced to "bossy r" and learned a little rhyme...

Bossy r comes with a vowel,
But he takes control and starts to howl
When he is in a word,
He is the only one heard,
So be careful of the sound,
And decide which vowel is around.

This is a handy little poem to help us remember tricky letter blends  like "ar", "or", "er", "ir", and "ur". The students have been practicing these blends with lots of silent and guiding reading. I'm constantly amazed with their progress and joy for reading! I'm sure they will enjoy many library trips for early reader books this summer!

In math we are working on some pretty tricky subtraction, with lots of review of past concepts. We are also counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. And we're going all up to 140!

 Next week we will be starting the IOWA test. This is a standardized test that is NOT state issued. We complete this test to assure that our curriculum is “up to par”. There are 6 sections to the IOWA test (Vocabulary, Word Analysis (reading words), Listening, Language, Math, and Reading (sentences), and we will be doing one section a day for two weeks. This should assure that the test is not stressful for any of your children! I will send home the scores once the tests are complete! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Back to the Bible

This week has been all about what it was like to live in Bible times. On Monday we discussed the difference in houses. An overall conclusion is that we are glad to have homes with cozy beds and separate rooms! We are glad to live in a place with grass, and not a desert! At the end of the day we made Bible houses to complete our own Bible town!

 What a sweet class....

....and a little crazy

On Tuesday we discussed different types of transportation and the differences between how we travel now, and how people use to travel in the Bible. To enhance our science lesson on transportation, we put our engineering brains to work to make homemade speed ramps for toy cars. It was so fun to see all the different designs!

On Thursday we had Bible dress up day! The students could dress up as their favorite Bible character. We had Lot's Wife (I had fun freezing every time I looked back at my students!), David, Mary, Delilah, Moses, and the Princess who found Moses. 

In phonics we have learned about "bossy r". Bossy R likes to take over vowels in letter blends like "ar", "or", and "er". We have also been doing lots of review to help us learn how to sound out tricky words. A lot of words are ones that we can sound straight out like "can", "on", and other two and three letter words. Some however use grammar rules and other tricky letter blends. For these we pause, find the vowel, find the word family, find the beginning sound, and say the word. These skills will come in handy as they learn harder and harder words!

In math we have finished up a measuring section where we learned about scales, rulers, thermometers, and measuring cups. On Thursday we started a new section to expand our adding skills to add larger numbers. 

This week we also had a special guest come in for show and tell. Meet Rex, one of my student's bearded dragon! He was a lot of fun to observe and compare with Dude. Yay for impromptu science lessons!