Track and Field Day

Track and Field Day: 

Friday, June 1st at 12:30

Kettunen Center Field Trip

We had a great Field Trip to the Kettunen Center.  Thank you again to all of the volunteers that took time out of their day to spend with our class.  Below are some of the activities including messy science, nature walks, bird exhibit and whole group activities the Kettunen Center Staff put on.  It was a fun day of Science!

Bond Proposal

I hope everyone is having an enjoyable weekend.  As you prepare for this week don't forget to mark May 8th on your calendars.  If you have not seen the informational video, please click on the link below and don't forget to vote this Tuesday!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1zBJqkCook&feature=youtu.be

Fine Motor Activities

Yesterday we were talking about our April calendar and the reason we have an umbrella as our calendar date is because normally there is a lot of rain in the month of April, not snow!   So here we are in the month of April with a snow day.  Craziness!  I decided to post some fun indoor activities you can do with your child to help build their fine motor skills and keep them occupied when the weather keeps us indoors.  Hope they help make your indoor days a little brighter!

1.  Play with play-dough.  If you don't have any play-dough at hand there are a lot of great recipes to make play-dough online as well.  While playing with play-dough they can work on their sight words by rolling out the different letters and then reading the word.  Here is a recipe I found online:
https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/

2.  Use tweezers to pick up different objects.  Tweezers are a great tool to help build fine motor skills.  They force your child to use their pointer, middle, and thumb fingers (which are the same fingers they use while writing).  Find different objects around your house to have them pick up and put in a bowl (beads, rice, or cereal are great small objects).  Also, if you have an egg carton your child can count objects into each egg slot.
If you don't have tweezers you can use clothes pins as well.  

3.  Use hole punches and scissors to cut scrap paper.  Kids LOVE to play with hole punches and scissors.  The best part is they don't have to have any special paper.  They just need the freedom to cut or punch holes in paper.  I usually use junk mail or paper scraps and put them into a big cardboard box.  I'm a bit of a neat freak so to keep my sanity I say they have to keep all the paper in the box.  That way they're having fun and I'm not losing my mind over the mess. 

4.  Play puzzles and card games.  Go-Fish and Top It (War) are great card games that your child can play.  Not only can you have a fun family time but they can practice their number recognition as well.  Its a win-win :). 

5.  Water bottle fun.  Get a tub and water bottle and have your child squirt the water bottle into the tub.  If you want to make use of this fresh snow you can go get a ball of snow and put it in the tub.  Then have the children squirt colored water at the snow ball and make different designs.

6.  Writing with Shaving Cream.  Pull out the shaving cream and squirt some on the table.  Then spread it out and let your child write or draw pictures with their fingers.  This is also a fun way to write sight words and numbers!

I hope these ideas are helpful and make being stuck indoors a little more enjoyable!

Tom O'Hare and the Robotics Team

This week we had a couple special guests/assemblies.  The first one was a visit from Tom O'Hare.  Mr. O'Hare discussed the weather with us and shared some weather tools; such as the anemometer.  We were able to see how this tool measures wind speed and the temperature.  Also, he read us a story called Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  The children enjoyed imagining what it would be like if the weather produced different types of food.  Thank you Tom O'Hare for taking time out of your busy day to share your passion of weather and read us a story for March is Reading Month!

The second special assembly was from our very own McBain Robotics Team.  During our assembly the robotics team showed us the robot they built and we got to watch a clip from their last competition.  Next, we were able to ask them questions about their robot and how to be on the robotics team.  The students were fascinated with the robot.  My favorite questions entailed: "How does the robot come alive?"  Technology is truly amazing and it was eye opening for the students to see what can be built when you work as a team.  

Enchanted Engineering

     It is hard to believe March is here which means we have officially begun "March is Reading Month!"  Today we had our kick off assembly with the Michigan Science Center.  Be sure to ask your child about this assembly.  Ask them what they remembered about the fire! 
     This month we will be carrying out S.T.E.M. activities based on "The Little Mermaid."  Also, every Friday we will have special dress up days. 

Listed below are the special Dress Up Days:

March 2nd (tomorrow): Career Day: Dress as your favorite profession/ career
March 9th: Math Day: Wear clothes with numbers
March 16th: Fairy Tale Friday: Dress as your favorite fairy tale character
March 19th: Mad Scientist Hair Day (Family S.T.E.M. night from 6:30-7:30 pm)
March 23rd: Green Giant/ Goldilocks: Wear Green and Gold

***Don't forget to bring in $1.00 if you would like to purchase Safety Glasses***

Dental Health

On Friday Brilliant Smiles Family Dentistry came to our school and gave a presentation to the kindergarten class.  The students did a great job listening and learning about dental health.  We learned how important it is to brush our teeth two times a day and floss at least one time a day.  Also, we learned to avoid sugary drinks and foods.  Two students from our class were picked to help our presenter demonstrate how to floss our teeth.  They were vey excited when they were able to keep the gloves and mask.  Brilliant Smiles was very generous with both their time and for providing each student with a care package.