Marvelous March

We are now officially in our last quarter of the 2013-2014 school year! It's amazing to see how much the students have grown and are continuing to grow - both physically and academically. Some of these little guys are going to be taller than me in a few years!

March was a busy month for us. The students enjoyed a long spring break and came back with marvelous stories of all the fun adventures they had while away. We practiced hard for our kindergarten PTA performance where the students melted our hearts with their cute little bunny ears and precious renditions of spring songs. One of their favorites was the "dip the egg" song. Check out pictures of these talented spring singers from our Kindergarten PTA Performance here.

The last day of the month was a fantastic adventure to the nature center at the Amelia Island Plantation. The students spent the day learning about reptiles, sea turtles, and beach life. We started our day with a presentation about reptiles and learned the differences between turtles and tortoises and reptiles and mammals. We even got to meet and pet quite a few of these critters. One of their favorite things to pet was the luscious and soft fur of Speckles the rabbit. The students were also very brave as they felt the scales of the corn snake!
Shortly before lunch, two curious and hungry ducks made their way over to our tables and hung out with us for the rest of the afternoon. We also had visits from a few squirrels, birds, and a great blue heron.
After lunch we walked down to the beautiful sandy shores of the beach where the students participated in a scavenger hunt for things like shells, shark's teeth, sea stars, and coral pieces. While at the beach, we were visited by a small group of dolphins who waved at us with their fins as they swam by! You can see more of our adventure to Amelia Island by clicking here.

As we move into these last few months of school, I encourage you to keep practicing with your child at home. The goal is for students to be reading at an independent level E by the time they leave kindergarten. This requires them to have mastered all of the sight words we have introduced as well as be able to apply concepts like word families, silent e, bossy r, the king of -ing, long vowel teams, and y as a vowel to their reading. If you'd like some examples of level E books to see where your child measures up, check out http://www.readinga-z.com/. As always, thank you for all you do to support your child and this classroom!