Author: Melissa Dimitriou

Tomorrow is our kindergarten celebration. The day will be a normal day. The celebration starts at 2:00pm and will run for the remainder of the day. We will have a bounce house and some games for the children. All parents are welcome to join! No siblings will be allowed to play on the bouncey house equipment – this is reserved for Haigh students only. Nothing special is needed for the event. It will be a time for fun and games and saying goodbye!

Come help us celebrate a fun year of tremendous academic growth!

Just a reminder:

Today is our ice cream party to celebrate all of our hard work with our math facts. You and your family are welcome to join us from 2:30-3:30 for an ice cream sundae!

Hope to see you all later today!

I sent home a piece of paper (front and back) which had listed some comprehension questions for reading, a list of spelling words from this year and words that the children will learn next year, a math review, a list of websites, and videos for practice.

READING EGGS IS AVAILABLE ALL SUMMER!!!!!

Please make sure to put your child on readingeggs.com throughout the summer to help with summer loss and keep their reading and math skills current for first grade. We will be getting math seeds over the summer and it will be active for all the students. The login information is the same and they can access math seeds from the same reading eggs page.

Here is what was included in the paper that came home:

Summer Homework

Reading & Writing

Please continue to read with your child each night. Below are a few questions to ask your child to promote comprehension after reading each story:

• What was your favorite part of the story? Why?
• Did this story make you think of anything in your life?
• Retell the story. What happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story?
• Who were the characters? Which character was your favorite? Why?
• What is the setting? (where the story takes place)
• What was the problem in the story?
• What was the solution in the story?

Spelling

Practice reading and writing the list of spelling words from the year. Here are the words we learned this year:

I           a          the        rat        sat        cat        bat        can       man      tan        pan       see       you       wet       get

set        bet        is          in          pig        wig       jig        big        to         like       hop       mop      pop       top        it

run       fun       sun       bun       he         for        at         cap       tap        map      rap       flap      my        we        pen

hen       men      den       ten        go         up         sit         fit         pit         hit         look      me        pot        got        not

hot        cot        are       of         bug       rug       jug       tug        dug       and       be         where   had       mad      rad

dad       glad      with      this       bed       red       ted        fed       wed      was       from     have     lip         sip        hip

clip       dip        here      play      mom     here      dog       log        hog       bog       frog      do         she       tub        rub

cub       club      what     little      has       she       come    by         chip      shot      phone   then      whale   thank    chin

white    photo    shark    plant     blue      flip       sled      class     tray       crunch   friend    drum     branch because

Here is a list of 1^st grade words to help prepare your child for next year!

after     again    any       as         could    every    has       her       him       his        over      put        round    some     they’re

know    let        live       take      stop      them     then      they      may      fly        think     walk     old        once     around

going    had       give      gave     those     upon     goes      does      been     before   use       pull       push      read      found

made    these     before   best      buy       read      right      left       don’t     fast       write     would   work     wish      always

fast       call       both      sleep     found    your      tell       their      first       third      cold      won’t    can’t     which    should

sing       king      swing    spring    tree      I’ll        I’ve       we’ll     it’s        isn’t      open     isn’t      just       why      second

There are lots of fun ways to work on spelling. Some fun activities are listed below:

• Cut letters out of magazines and glue them on a piece of paper to make the word
• Rainbow writing (using a different color to write each letter of the word
• Red vowels (write the spelling word and use a red crayon to trace over only the vowels)
• Make the words using Playdoh
• Buy a beach ball and write the words on the ball – then play catch and whatever word your child’s thumb lands on is the word they have to read and spell
• Write letters on water balloons and have the children throw and pop the balloons to spell the word

Math

• Work on math addition and subtraction by using the collection of flashcards from the last few months of school
• Work on subtraction (take-away)
  • Give your child crackers and make up a subtraction story problem. For example: You have 13 crackers. You eat five of them (have child eat the crackers). How many crackers do you have left? They should say, “There are 8 crackers left.”
• Review money. Have your child tell you the name of each coin and how much it is worth. Practice adding and subtracting money.
• Review telling time on analog clocks and digital. The children learned to tell time on the hour and half hour.

Websites:

Please continue to use the blog as a great source for fun educational websites! Some of my favorites are…

Abcya.com     Letsfindout.scholastic.com  Cookie.com   Starfall.com   readingeggs.com      Math Seeds

Youtube channels and videos

Channels à   Storybots       Harry Kindergarten   KidsTV123     Have Fun Teaching   ABCmouse                                            Pancake Manor         GuruParents        Maple Leaf Learning

Videos à Pirates Say AR! – Harry Kindergarten / The Sentence Song – Scratch Garden

Verb Rap Song – Have Fun Teaching / Noun Song Video – Have Fun Teaching / Doubles Doubles – Harry

Kindergarten / Big, Big, Big/Adjective Song for Kids – Maple Leaf Learning / The Digraph Song – 625EJS /

Coin song.wmv – Holly Raser / I can count to 100 – cmpotter100 / Numbers in the Teens – Harry Kindergarten

Library

Remember to check with your local library for special events they may be putting on. The library is also a great place to find leveled books at your child’s reading level!

The reading eggs account will be active all through the summer and they will have the same login next school year as big First graders. Mathseeds will become available soon as well. The login credentials are the same for both reading eggs and math seeds. Please continue to put your child on readingeggs.com at home and have them do a couple of lessons each night.

Upcoming Events

6/14 Math Quiz Ice Cream Party 2:30 – 3:30pm                  (all are welcome)

6/15 Kindergarten end-of-the-year Picnic 2:00 – 3:15pm (all are welcome)

6/16 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! ½ day dismissal – 11:45am

Agenda for the Week

Reading/Writing:  We worked hard all week on our ocean reports. We are very happy that we got to present all of our hard work to you! Thank you for all of your hard work and helping your child create an ocean project! This was such a fun way to end the year!

Math: We are all done with our math quizzes! Great job everyone! We will enjoy our ice cream celebration on Wednesday, June 14^th. All are welcome to join us and help us celebrate our accomplishments!

Housekeeping Items:

The temperature is rising and the school is heating up! Please remember that we do not have air conditioning at Haigh. It is a good idea to send your child to school in loose fitting, light clothing to help keep them cool.

If you would like your child to wear sunscreen, please apply this to your child before they come to school.

Children need a snack each day! Please do not send candy as a snack. The children need a healthy snack each day such as fruit, crackers, cheese, yogurt, granola bars, etc.  As a reminder, no juice is allowed in class for snack.

We will be opening up our classroom to all of you and your families on Friday, June 9th at 2:30pm. We will be presenting our ocean animal reports and our ocean animal projects. The children will be spread out around the room with their materials and you may walk up to any child and ask them about their project! They may choose to read you their report or just tell you some facts about their animal. They all are excited to show off their projects too!

We look forward to seeing all of you!

Many of the children expressed interest in having a little more time to work on their projects. If you and your child have not finished their ocean project, please use the weekend to complete it.  Please turn in all projects no later than Monday, June 5th.

We will be practicing using our reports and projects with other classes in the school in preparation for all of you on Friday!

We are excited to show everyone all of our hard work!

Tomorrow is our PBIS celebration for the month of May. This is in celebration of the children’s good behavior throughout the month.  We will have an all school picnic tomorrow. This event is for the students only.

Please make sure to send your child with a towel or small blanket, and a brown bag lunch. Your child may still buy a lunch from school tomorrow.  The school will be serving a Sack N Go lunch with  string cheese and cheez-its.

If you would like your child to wear sunscreen, please apply this to their skin before sending them to school for the day!

Thank you for helping our picnic go smoothly!

There is a new reading program available to all students. There is a grand prize of a Chromebook! How exciting to receive a laptop as a prize for reading the most books over the summer! Please read below for directions on how to access the iRead course:

Access our district iRead course anywhere in the world.  

Win prizes for reading a lot of books over the summer!

The more books students read this summer, the better the chances they’ll win a Chromebook. 

1. Go to the Dearborn Schools website at dearbornschools.org.  Select “For Students.”
2. Click on “iLearn.”  They login just as they do on school district computers.
3. The student’s login is their student number: 20xxxxxx
4. The password needs to be typed in carefully.  (All students should know it.)
5. In the Search Courses box, Type iRead, just one word, and click on the word search.
6. Click on the blue iRead title that says iRead-Students First: Inspire, Educate, Celebrate.
7. Scroll down and click on the blue button that says, “enroll me.”
8. Enter the school the school they’ll be at next year and their grade next year, saving both.
9. Enter the name of the public library they will probably use when they go to the library.
10. Click on “Badges” and “Bronze Badge Book Review” to add entries for books they’ve read.
11. Under “Instructions,” students should “make a copy” of the Projects doc for add’l reviews.

Menu Changes:

May 30th = bean burrito (lucky tray day)

May 31^st = “Sack N Go” string cheese and cheez-its

June 5^th = “Sack N Go” string cheese and saltines

Please be sure to send your child’s library book to school with them on Tuesday or Wednesday, if they have not already brought it back. All books are due back by May 30^th.

Please continue to put your child on readingeggs.com at home and have them do a couple of lessons each night.  This can count on the reading log in the homework for some of the nightly reading! The reading eggs account will be active all through the summer and they will have the same login next school year as big First graders. Mathseeds will become available soon as well. The login credentials are the same for both reading eggs and math seeds.

Upcoming Events

5/26 No School!!!!

5/29 No School!!!!

5/31 PBIS Party – School-wide Picnic (bring a sack lunch and a blanket/towel) This is a student only event.

6/2 Ocean Animal Project Due (See note that came home)

6/5 Field Day (We cannot accommodate parents at this event. We can only accept parents that are volunteering to work a station)

6/9 Ocean Report Presentation 2:30 – 3:30pm (See note that came home)

6/14 Math Quiz Ice Cream Party

6/15 Kindergarten end-of-the-year Picnic 2:00 – 3:15pm

6/16 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! ½ day dismissal – 11:45am

Agenda for the Week

Reading/Writing:  We have been working on our ocean reports. We are very excited to present all of our hard work to you! There is one week left to put the finishing touches on your child’s ocean animal craft! Please do not send the project to school until June 2^nd. We do not have any room in the class to store projects until the due date! In the past, some families have found cute crafts online (Pinterest, YouTube, etc), and other families have used wood, plaster, recycled materials and made 3D models of the ocean animal. It all depends on how much time you and your child would like to put into the project. The children will present their craft/model and report on their ocean animal to the class and we will be inviting all of you to come in and see the crafts/models and reports!

Please refer to the note that came home for more details!

Math: We took our -8 math quiz today. Today, I sent home the -9 flashcards for practice. We will take the -9 quiz on Friday, June 2nd.

Science: We did two science experiments this week. We were wondering about how sharks are able to float even though they are so big. We learned that sharks have very large oily livers. We also learned that oil is lighter than water and this over-sized oily liver helps the sharks to stay afloat. We added some oil to an old water bottle and shook it up to see how the oil separates from the water and floats to the top.

We also were very curious about echolocation. The children have been talking about and asking questions about echolocation for a few weeks. Using a tin pan and two paper towel tubes, we were able to whisper into one tube and listen to it bouncing off of the tin. The children were very excited about this experiment!

Housekeeping Items:

The temperature is rising and the school is heating up! Please remember that we do not have air conditioning at Haigh. It is a good idea to send your child to school in loose fitting, light clothing to help keep them cool.

If you would like your child to wear sunscreen, please apply this to your child before they come to school.

Please do not send toys, fidget spinners, or Pokémon cards to school with your child. These are a huge distraction.

The class as a whole has been super talkative. It is making instruction more and more difficult on a daily basis. Please remind the children that the rules at school and in our classroom have not changed. With the warmer weather, we are all getting restless for summer!

Children need a snack each day! Please do not send candy as a snack. The children need a healthy snack each day such as fruit, crackers, cheese, yogurt, granola bars, etc.  As a reminder, no juice is allowed in class for snack.

I misplaced my sheet which stated each child’s ocean animal assignment. I asked the children to tell me their animal and I believe there has been some mix-up because I was left with only two children in the crab group and a third that was originally a different animal.

Please read below and if your child is in a different group then previously stated and you have already started your project, please let me know so that I can switch them to the correct report group.

If you have not started your project yet, then we will stick to the groupings listed below:

Jellyfish:

Sasha, Maha, Amar, Mahdi

Dolphin:

Melina, Julia, Layan, Fatimah

Shark:

Logan, Connor, Gavin, William

Seahorse:

Dunia, Zahrae, Noah

Octopus:

Lamees, Lea, Rayan

Sea Turtle:

Roqaya, Nate, Payton

Crab:

Dalal, Jenna, Ali