March 19-23, 2012

Hello!  I hope everyone's Spring Break went well!  I certainly enjoyed some R&R at home with my family.  The weather was gorgeous!!  I'm hoping the nice weather keeps up!  Over Spring Break I was able to go and visit our pen pal class.  Mrs. Salus and the Kindergartners of St. Rose in Proctor did have school this past week, so I went to see them on Thursday, March 15th.  They were excited to see me, but bummed to find out that my students didn't come with me.  I told them not to fret...they will meet up at the end of the year...which is just around the corner!  We exchanged pen pal letters and they were so excited to get ours.  I know our students will be anxious to get the letters from their pen pals too!

Here's what we're doing this week:

Language Arts:
We will revisit the past weeks stories:  'The Wheels on the Bus' & 'Vroom, Chugga, Vroom-Vroom!' and talk about the wheels that we find in all of them.  We'll review our reading strategy focus:  questioning while reading.  This strategy will help us understand different stories that we read!  We'll also review our comprehension focus: making predictions. 
We'll review the alphafriends:  Dudley Duck and Zelda Zebra and do different activities throughout the week while practicing their sounds and printing. 

Math:  We'll continue to work with our larger numbers.  As we continue to practice those 'teens' we'll work our way up all the way to recognizing and writing to 30!

Religion:  We'll be learning about St. Patrick on Monday and doing a fun St. Patty's day project.  The rest of the week we'll be learning about Jesus as a leader and following him with all that we say, think and do.  Wednesday we DO NOT have Liturgy.  The older children will be receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation during our regular Mass time.  We will also be ending the week with Stations of the Cross.

Science/Social Studies:
We'll have a special treat this week as we travel to the Great Lakes Visitor Center on Monday.  For the afternoon we will be attending a presentation on archeology and paleontology.  It's sure to be a great time!  Thanks to Mrs. Mukka and Mrs. Mika for being drivers and chaperones!

Another special treat this week...Mrs. Leona Pliss will be doing a fun dinosaur cookie activity with the Kindergartners on Tuesday afternoon!  Thanks Mrs. Pliss!
Well, that's all for now!  Thanks for the great snacks that you send...the children love them!  Our healthy snacks really help to give us that boost we need to stay focused and stay happy at school!

Have a great week!
~Mrs. Westlund  =)