South Class News May 5

Earth Week

inspired many discussions about how we can take care of our world. We had some fruitful discussion about how we can clean up the environment and what each one of us can do not only on Earth Day, but throughout the year to keep our environment healthy.

For the third year during Earth Week, now an official tradition, the Rabbits went on a short field trip to walk to the empty lot at the end of Gaven Street. We ended up collecting a lot of litter. We found one huge suitcase that we filled with two big bags of trash. We also found a large screen and a metal rod, all from just one tiny area of our block. It put into perspective how much work can be done to better take care of our community.

Morning Circle and Lunch Time:

We started reading a chapter book from The Ralph Mouse Collection: The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary. Cleary is an award-winning American author, whose books have enchanted many young readers. The Mouse and The Motorcycle is aimed at the younger end of her audience. Kids can’t help but love Ralph, the spunky little mouse with big dreams, who lives in a hotel and wants nothing more than a chance at riding that red motorcycle; the motorcycle that will lead him into countless adventures with his human friends. Our students have been intently listening every time we read another chapter. Ask your child what Ralph has been up to lately! Before each time we read, we review the title of each chapter and recall what we learned from the last chapter. We also make predictions of what we think will occur in the upcoming chapter. We end our chapters by reflecting on what we have just read. Other “teaching” opportunities that occur when reading chapter books are: learning to relate events in sequence, memory training, and visualizing images.

Rabbits:

The Rabbits have been exploring the number 10 and the different ways we can make 10 with two numbers. From there we reversed our equations from addition to subtraction, and explored the different ways to take a number away from ten. 1 + 9 = 10, 10 – 9 = 1, 10 – 1 = 9 etc. By doing so, Rabbits also continue to practice the handwriting of numbers. Rabbits are reminded that the numbers one to seven are all corner starters, eight and zero are center starters and nine has its very own corner. See if your Rabbit can explain what that means?

Bald Eagles:

The Bald Eagles really enjoyed the small currency unit we recently completed. Because so many South Class students had recently traveled out of the country, we had an ideal opportunity to look at coins and bills from around the world (a special thanks goes to Elfi, who provided us with many samples to add to our collection). We looked at colors, watermarks, cut-outs, and portraits of important national figures. We even had a chance to make our own money, paying very close attention to creating something detailed enough that it could not be counterfeited. If you have not done so already, we encourage you to have your child look at the change that is made from inexpensive purchases. If you travel a lot, you might even want to start a currency collection at home.

As we prepare for our walking field trip to John McLaren Park in a couple weeks, we’ll be looking at Goggle Maps for a bird’s-eye view of the journey we’ll be taking. I’m calling this our Independence Field Trip, since Bald Eagles are going to make a lot of the decisions regarding whether we pack our own or take school lunches, which way we will proceed to McLaren (stopping at Palega Park along the way), what activities we will do when we get to the park, etc. This is long journey to take by foot, so we will also talk about conserving our energy as we go and trying to maintain a positive attitude when we get tired.

Gasshoppers:

Now that the Grasshoppers have had a lot of practice with sounding out words, we continue strengthening their letter/sound correspondence by working with our Montessori sand paper letters. We also introduced the moveable alphabet to our Grasshoppers at circle time. We build three or four letter words together, using the sounds they brought in. For example: “box” and “fox and this week “ship” or “fish.” At morning work period, a few of our Grasshoppers have even started building CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with our moveable alphabets (i.e. CAT, HUG, RED)!

Sound of the Week:

May 8 – / ch / as in chair

May 15 – / th / as in thimble

IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES:

Saturday, May 13 – Patty’s Retirement Party, Lindley Meadow, Golden Gate Park 12:00 to 2:00 pm. PLEASE RSVP so we can assure the food truck is prepared (link in Tuesday Note Home)!

Friday, May 19 – Bald Eagle Field Trip to McLaren Park

Monday, May 29 – No School, Memorial Day

Friday, May 26 – PJ and Stuffy Day

Thursday, June 1 - Elkus Ranch North/South Kindergarten Field Trip

Thursday, June 8 – Last Day of School and South Class Potluck