It's May!  Time really flies!

We have studied about reptiles in the past couple of weeks, adding to our knowledge about animals that started with amphibian study.  We have learned that the three characteristics of reptiles are:

1. Reptiles have a backbone
2. Reptiles have scaly skin
3. Reptiles are cold-blooded

All reptiles have these three characteristics and only reptiles have all three of these characteristics.  We have also studied birds and have discovered that birds have seven unique characteristics:

1. Birds have two feet
2. Birds have two wings
3. Birds have a backbone
4. Birds are warm-blooded
5. Birds lay eggs
6. Birds have feathers - no other creature does
7. Bird have a beak or a bill

This week we are learning about fish, next week will be mammals.

Our trip to the zoo was a great success!  The weather was lovely and we had a fantastic and educational time.  Thank you to our great volunteers for helping us to have an awesome field trip!

This week is a normal week for our AM class meaning no days off and no special events.  Enrichment has a special activity with the middle school CTE class on Monday!

Please remember our Kindergarten program coming up in June - you won't want to miss it!  Students need to be here at school 15 minutes before start time dressed in "Sunday Best" style of clothes.  Who knows, I might even wear a tie...

Keep reading daily!  This is a skill that stays with your child for all of his/her life.  Please also remember to work on SIGHT WORDS!  We will have a water party the last week of school to celebrate IF all students pass all 80 sight words before then.  Lists of words still needed to be passed will be sent home sometime this week.

We have worked a lot on shapes this past couple of weeks.  Ask your student about the sides and vertices on squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, and hexagons.  This week - 3D shapes!

Please continue to volunteer.  We have had to cut back some of our centers because of lack of parental volunteers.  Come endure to the end with us!

Wow.  Only weeks left.  Now is the time to really go for it!  Let's end strong!

With that intro, I would like to put out a call for volunteers!  We are REALLY getting sparse, which has required cancelling a couple of things that we wanted to do in centers this week and the week before the break.  We really need you Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 845-945!

We have been studying about amphibians this week.  We have learned that all amphibians have:

1. a backbone
2. at least two ways to breathe
3. bare skin

No other animal group has all three of those attributes, and all three need to be there for the animal to be an amphibian!

We are studying shapes for the next couple of weeks.  Today we focused on squares and rectangles, discussing things like sides, vertices, and whether all sides of the shapes are equal.  A good discussion.

Keep on reading!  It is such an important and necessary lifelong skill.  If you and your child are bored, find something fun to read!  There are tons of Star Wars books, Princess books, dinosaur books, nature books, shark books - anything!  Please read daily with your child, and let your child see you read on your own - this has a powerful influence.

Thanks for all you do to support our class endeavors!