Text Box: A NOTE FROM THE TEACHER Well, this is it! This is the last full week of school and the last newsletter (unless I just can’t help myself next weekend and do another one just for fun!) I will send another copy of the Conner Prairie information that you had initially received a few months ago reminding you of various details of the trip but next week will primarily consist of a lot of wrapping up some loose ends and getting things packed up and sent home. As you’ll notice in the Upcoming Events section, we’ve had a couple of additions. Griffin’s father has made it possible for astronaut, Gregory Harbaugh, to come speak to the students and faculty of Walden on Tuesday morning. Some of you will note that the time (10:30) is right before our lunch but Mrs. Van Houten didn’t want K-2 to miss the opportunity to miss such an event so the cafeteria will provide us lunch in the room that day! There has been another event added to Tuesday’s agenda, a math party! Mrs. Nickle contacted Mrs. Von Busch and myself last week regarding her idea. We’ll have something a little sweet with some new math games for the kids. Kelly and I couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate the end of a wonderful year of growth and fun in math. This year has been absolutely a blast! This group of kids have shown such phenomenal growth. They’ve grown physically, they’ve grown intellectually, but they’ve also grown socially. I am very, very, very proud of each and every one of them and will sincerely miss each and every one of them over the summer. They have definitely earned their break. They’ve worked hard. I also want to thank all of you, the parents, for your trust, faith, and support. What an amazing group of parents I’ve had the good fortune of working with this year. I thank you and hope that you know it’s been my pleasure to work with you in making your children’s first grade experience one of tremendous growth and successes! Please take a few minutes over the next week or so to complete YOUR homework, the parent questionnaire. Your feedback really does allow us to reflect on what’s working and what’s not. It’s been a tremendous year! THANK YOU and have a fabulous summer! Text Box: News from Mrs. Keith’s First Grade Text Box: UPCOMING EVENTS * Tues., May 20th Astronaut, Mr. Harbaugh, will speak to Walden @ 10:30 a.m. (We’ll eat in our rooms afterwards.) First grade’s math celebration will be at 2:00 p.m. in Mrs. Von Busch’s room! * Thurs. May 22nd Happy Belated (half) Birthday, Anjali! * Mon., May 26th NO SCHOOL- Memorial Day * Tues., May 27th Walden’s Graduation-Congratulations, Seniors! * Wed., May 28th End of the Year field trip to Conner Prairie (NO Extended Day) * Thurs., May 29th Last FULL day of school Last day of Extended Day LS Pizza and Ice Cream Social Rehearsal for LS Awards (1:30 p.m.) * Fri., May 30th Lower School Awards (Students are to be at Walden at the normal time and the awards ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m.) Text Box: LANGUAGE ARTS We’re going to do our best to remain in our routine to help minimize the chaos that is often associated with the end of the year but we have several things that might minimize the amount of time we’re able to devote to our Houghton Mifflin program. First of all, we’ll be completing the final stages of the writing process with our letters of advice to the kindergarteners. After having completed ALL of the running records last week in guided reading, Mrs. Von Busch and I will be spending our guided reading time this week assessing comprehension. We’ll also continue our word wall tests with our final one being next Friday. When we do get a spare minute for modeled reading we’ll read Animal Helpers and later, When I Am Old with You, and work on noting deText Box: tails, thus checking comprehension as well. We’ll also try to get in a lesson on homophones that we didn’t’ quite get to last week. Our abbreviated writing block will give us a chance to identify the proper times to use “is” and when to use “are.” MATH This week we’ll start off with the unit 9 assessment and then spend a day or so reviewing as much as we can before we begin the end of the year assessment. As is noted on the front of the homework, there is A LOT to review which is why we decided to devote the packet to that process this week. We’ll begin the test on Wednesday with hopes of finishing either Thursday or Friday.