What do Pirates do at School???

This gang of scallywags had a very fun Pirate Day! 

They earned gold to put in their treasure chests...

and had pirate fun on the playground!

There were even pirates in the computer lab today!

We played "Hook the Treasure" and used pirate hooks to pick up the jewels. Great teamwork! 

Wednesday is a half day of school. I will send home report cards and quarterly reports for IEPT objectives with your child. I wish you all a wonderful, happy, fun filled summer! I look forward to my kindergartners returning as big first graders in the fall, and I will feel proud to see our new second graders in Miss Ross' classroom. It has been a wonderful, exciting school year. Every child has made progress, and together we have all learned new things. Thank you for your support and trust this year - and for sharing your wonderful children with us! I check my work email throughout the summer, and would love to hear from you all! 

New Morning Tubs

We added many new fine motor tubs, called Morning Tubs, this week. We use them after we fill out our notes, and throughout the day for quick little fine motor breaks. The tubs are filled with interesting tasks that help us get ready for pencil/paper tasks - and they are a lot of fun! 

We have continued to learn about animals in the ocean, including crabs and sea turtles. We read a book called Swimmy about a small, black fish who convinces the other little red fish to work together so they won't be eaten by a much bigger fish. We created our own Swimmy too. 

We had a Loon Lake Leader of the Month assembly - our trait this month was "respect". Here is our new Leader of the Month. 

Next Tuesday, we are having a special day in our classroom... it will be Pirate Day here! Everything your child will need to become a pirate will be here in Room 113! We will be sure to take lot's of photos of our fun!!!

I plan to send home a paper copy of your child's report card next Wednesday - please look for it in your child's folder that day. 

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the school year! We plan to keep on learning right until the last day of school - every day counts and your children and their progress are important to us! It has been such a wonderful year of growth and progress (with many smiles, hugs and special activities) - each child has brought joy to our classroom, and I will miss them all this summer! 

Ocean Animals and Field Day!

We began our ocean study by reading about octopuses. We learned that they have no bones and have eight tentacles. They can regrow a tentacle if a predator bites one off! We wrote about them in our journals. 

We also created some cool fish prints for our bulletin board, and we used celery to print scales on some very colorful fish. 

Field Day was wonderful! We loved all of the events and games and everyone did a great job! 

What a great day - thank you Mr. Olack and LL parent volunteers! 

Good-bye Butterflies...

Today we carried our butterfly cage outside...

We knew that it was time to let our butterflies go so that they could live and fly and look for nectar on our playground. Maybe they will even lay eggs there...

We studied the empty chrysalises afterwards...

We were sad to see them go, but it was also exciting. Next Tuesday we will begin a new science unit about Ocean Life! Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend! 

Our Butterflies Came Out!

We were very excited Tuesday morning to find that we had a butterfly in our cage! One of the chrysalis that actually wasn't attached to the lid, opened up. Out came a beautiful butterfly. We added an orange slice to provide some "nectar" and waited to see if we could observe the butterfly sip with her proboscis (curled, straw-like tongue). We noticed that our butterfly blended in when she had her wings folded, but she was a beautiful orange color when her wings were open. We added flowers to their habitat as more butterflies came out. 

We completed some neat tie-dye snails this week - and we recognized that snails are NOT insects because they don't have 3 body parts, 6 legs or antennae.

We played an insect hunt game to help us tell the difference between animals that are insects and animals that are not insects. 

We also learned about bees and created some hives and bees and tasted some wonderful Michigan honey. 

On Thursday we had a blast with our red noses and toys for Red Nose Day/Day of Play. 

***Field Day is next Friday - your child will be in and outside during the day and should dress for the weather. Please put sunscreen on at home if your child will need it.***

Our Wonderful Field Trip!!!

We had such a wonderful trip to the WL Outdoor Center!!! I think these pictures tell the story...we learned, explored and had lunch together. It was a great day for all, compliments of the WL Foundation for Excellence mini-grant that we received this spring. I think it was our best field trip ever! 

 Wearing antenna and trying on bee keeper suits...

Assembling insect puzzles...

 Wearing bug compound eye sunglasses...

 Learning about spiders and webs and looking for spider eggs outside...

 And going on a hike to a stream...

 And we couldn't resist taking this picture to help promote RED NOSE DAY at Loon Lake next Thursday! 

***We have Red Noses for each student - we will pass them out on Thursday, May 26 for RED NOSE DAY at Loon Lake. This way, each child will have their nose at school all ready for them. Everyone is encouraged to wear red that day. Red Nose Day will also be another Day of Play at Loon Lake - your child may bring a toy from home to play with at Center Time.