Ducklings Are Here!

It has been awhile since my last post. Time just flew by and the next thing I knew it was May! So here is what we have been up to:

Our favourite part of the day:

On Monday the ducklings arrived and we wrote the number 4.

On Tuesday we watched the ducklings swim and we wrote about it.

On Wednesday we watched the ducklings swim and we learned about Victor Vampire.

On Thursday we went to the park and played addition bingo.

On Friday we did a Mother's Day craft and we watched the ducklings swim.

DUCKS ARE HERE!

I brought two ducklings in from the farm. The children were so excited! 

The first day we watched the ducklings and decided on their names. The children decided on Fluffy and Squeeky. Fluffy tends to sit and be cute while Squeeky always has to cheep and make himself known.

The rest of the week we let the ducklings swim every morning. At first they were a little apprehensive and didn't swim much but by the second day they were diving and racing each other. They loved to dive and splash. The children thought it was so funny and love to get splashed by the ducklings. 

We drew pictures of what we saw and the children tried writing on their own. I was so impressed with their creative spelling! 

The girls made some pictures to decorate their home. 

We had to say goodbye to the ducklings today but the children had fun and learned so much. This will be an experience that they will always remember. 

They liked to try and catch her hair. So cute!

Caterpillars

We also received caterpillars this week. They are growing before our eyes! Soon they will be forming chrysalis' and turning into butterflies. We will focus on them more next week and start our unit on butterflies.

Measurement:

We measured items with different units (popsicle sticks and cubes). Then we compared our answers and discussed why we thought the answers were different. We spend the rest of the time solving story problems. We are done our unit on measurement and will be starting a review of what we learned next week. This will mostly be done through problem solving. 

Animated Literacy:

We have learned many new characters.
Ike who rides his bike up high in the sky at night. His sound is the long i and it can be written "ie", "igh", "-y" and "i_e".
Grouchy Owl who tries to pounce on Brown Mouse. Their sound is "ow" and it can be written "ow" or "ou".
Abe the Hare who likes to race on skates. His sound is the long a and it can be written "ai", "a_e" and "ay".
Sheriff Shadrack who shaves with a sharks tooth in the shower and has a shaggy sheep. His sound is "sh".
Whirling Irving who rides his scooters in circles by jerking the wheel. His sound is "er" and it can be written "ir", "ur" and "er".
Victor Vampire who plays his violin outside of his van. His sound is "vvv".
Yakety Yak who eats yellow yams and plays with a yo-yo. His sound is "yuh".

Please go over the handouts that have been sent home with your child to review the sounds and letters. They can colour the picture and then circle the special sound within the song at the bottom. Remember that Animated Literacy focuses on the sound (phonics) and the writing (graphemes) so for Sheriff Shadrack we focus on the "sh" as seen in the words shirt and fish.

We also drew a picture and wrote a sentence to go with our animated literacy program. This week we drew a duckling. A couple examples are shown below. 

Handwriting Without Tears

We practiced writing the numbers 1-5. This has been a good review of numbers but is also a great help to the students who have been writing numbers backwards. When you have a moment practice writing numbers, the alphabet or simple words with your child. Please watch for size and spacing. 

Don't Forget:

Feel free to contact me anytime with any questions or concerns. I can be reached at the school, by email or just drop in (I am usually around before school).