Second Semester
I hope that everyone is enjoying their last few days off before school starts back up. I know I have. I have had a pretty good break. I took my family to see the new Star Wars movie, traveled to Arkansas to visit family started rehearsals for the play I am involved in, and completed a pretty cool 1000 piece Star Wars puzzle. I have also started on a diet and began training for the Lincoln Marathon in May. One last thing to mention -- I have worked on plans for the coming semester. One of my goals for the semester is to more regularly update my classroom blog. Let's hope that I do better at that than I do with my yearly weight loss goals!
I am very excited to get back to the classroom on Monday! The elephant starting to enter our classroom, is May 17th -- the Last Day of Kindergarten. I am so proud of this group of kids and excited to see how well this group of kids will do this semester. All of the kids have made some large leaps and I expect the last half of the year to be even bigger leaps. The time will go by very quickly; at least I anticipate that the next month will move very quick. Here's a snapshot of the entire semester.
January 15 - No School - Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
January 26 - the 100th Day of School.
January 28- Feb 2 - Catholic Schools.
February 8 - Parent Teacher Conferences.
February 23 - Field Trip to Edgerton Science Museum
February 26-March 2 - Read Across America Week.
February 28th - Kindergarten Roundup (Tentatively) - No afternoon Kindergarten.
March 7 - End of 3rd Quarter. Spring Break
March 20 - Science Expo
March 24 - Pot o' Gold
March 28 - April 2 - Easter Break
May 10 - Holy Day - Ascension
May 11 - Kindergarten Program (Tentatively)
May 17 - Last Day of School.
The biggest thing coming up is the 100th Day of School. Unless we have a snow day, the 100th Day of School will be on a Friday. I have several activities planned for this and not a lot of time (The kids have Mass, Music, Computers, and PE all on Friday), so I have planned a special 100th day of school planned for the 99th Day.
As much as the kids enjoy Show and Tell, we will begin tapering off the amount of Show and Tell Days that we have as an entire class. Instead, I will allow one student to bring something for Show and Tell once a week. This will be as a part of our jobs rotation. Their will be a few class-wide Show and Tell days. The first one will be this coming Friday. Everyone is invited to bring something to show from Christmas.
In place of Show and Tell, I will be adding a few different learning opportunities. I will be using the Second Step Curriculum which will help set your child up for success in academic and social situations. More information to come! I have also wanted to design opportunities for the kids to chart their own learning paths. I have been videotaping mini-lessons which the kids will be able to watch. Lessons will vary and may include - math, learning new words, science, listening to books, and anything else that I find that the kids are interested in. Mrs. King will also come to our classroom each week to teach Spanish.
Your support is so important. I'd like to work with you to help your child learn their birthdate, address, and a phone number. I want to encourage you to keep challenging your kids to do their best each and everyday. My students are so fortunate to have such loving families.
