Life Cycles

Life cycles are all around us. They are part of us and part of every living thing. Explaining and illustrating life cycles can be an important milestone for children, helping them to learn how better to respect and care for those around them. This can be shown in a large number of ways and can help children to understand and deal with death, births, and everyday changes and growth around them. This month we will learn about the life cycle of frogs, butterflies, plants, and water.

LANGUAGE ARTS

We are now in Unit 5 of Fundations. We will focus on writing sentences, using capitals, punctuation, commas, and joining two thoughts together into one sentence. We will continue to work on sight words. They cannot be sounded out. Do not tap these out.

In Language Arts, we will be working on a topic study or research project. Students will use informational text to complete a project. Students will research and gather information to compose informative writing. They will present this information to the class. We will work on question words and complete sentences. We will also learn about how plants grow and life cycles of plants and animals.

Social Studies

April 22 is Earth Day in the United States. On this day, the focus is the planet itself and how to better take care of it.

Among the things that Earth Day promoters urge people to do on Earth Day are plant trees, travel without cars for a day, and test their drinking water to make sure it's safe.

The story of Earth Day began in the 1960s, when many movements to protect the environment began to be popular. A best-selling book at the time was Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, about the dangers of pesticides (chemicals used to kill bugs and other animals that ate crops and fouled water). Large companies were also routinely dumping their oil and toxic waste in rivers and lakes, killing fish and contaminating water that could be used for drinking.

Many, many people were upset about this and other ways in which other people weren't taking care of the planet, so they got together and spread awareness, telling everyone about how people needed to not poison rivers and lakes and not use chemicals to kill bugs that might also harm people. The driving force behind this movement was Senator Gaylor Nelson.

The movement grew and grew. In 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated, with thousands and thousands of people gathering all across the country.

Today, Earth Day is celebrated every year on April 22. How can you help celebrate? Ask your teacher or your family or friends. You probably know someone who is celebrating. You can also do things yourself, like recycle paper and plastics and also tell everybody you know to respect the planet and not be so wasteful with trash.

MATH

This module focuses on solving and interpreting word problems. We will also provide experiences counting coins, earning values of each coin and telling time.

Committees

This month groups are focused on

SCIENCE

We will be learning about: how to use and read a dichotomous key, life-cycles of butterflies, chickens, frogs, and trees, seeds and vegetables, earth week, recycling, water conservation and characteristics of insects

Items we need

*Treasure Box items

*Ziploc Bags (Gallon Size)

Please have you student bring a water bottle and use sunscreen or a winter jacket incase it snows the day after being 80 degrees.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Field Trips

The kindergarten had an amazing time visiting Kirtland Air Force Base flight line. They meet aircrew and maintainers. The kids will gained an introduction to aviation, as well as the local Air Force community. Thank you Lt. Colonel Shrull for giving us this unique opportunity.

Aquarium

Tuesday, May 7th

Our last field trip will be the Rio Grande Aquarium and Botanical Gardens.

Earth Week

April 20-25

We will have a toy exchange (reuse) and a homework project made of recyclable materials (recycle). More information to come.

Tuesday, May 14th

It is a fun day dedicated to playing outside. We will need volunteers!

Variety Show

April 4th

Don’t forget to come out and support the Hubert Humphrey Annual Variety show, at 6:00 PM on Friday, April 4th at the Performing Arts Center. It’s so much fun to see all of our talented kids. We even have a couple from our class performing.

Wish List

Please visit my SignUpGenius to help our class out.

Science

Life Cycle of Plants and Animals

Plants

There are over 375,000 different species of plants on the earth. They range from tiny, single-celled algae to huge sequoia trees. Life on earth would not be possible without plants because they are the only living things that are capable of converting sunlight into energy. That energy fuels the other processes of life on earth.

Because plants make their own food, they are able to live almost everywhere on earth in a wide range of habitats. Many plants have developed special adaptations to help them survive.

Animlas

The life cycle of an organism refers to the sequence of developmental stages that it passes through on its way to adulthood. Mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, insects and other invertebrates--they each have their own unique way of reproducing life. There is an amazing variety of life cycles within the animal world. Surprisingly, only about 3% of all animal species give birth to live young as part of their life cycle. Most animals lay eggs.

Animals need to eat, to grow, to be safe, and to reproduce. This is all part of the life cycle. Their bodies are adapted in a wonderful range of ways to solve these problems of survival.

Water

All of the water that is on the earth has always been here. Earth never gets water added to it--nor does water disappear from the earth. Water is constantly recycled in a process known as the hydrologic or water cycle.

Fresh water is more scarce than you might think. 97% of all the water on the earth is in the oceans, and so only 3% is fresh water. About 2.4% of the water on earth is permanently frozen in glaciers and at the polar ice caps. About 1/2 of 1% of the water on earth is groundwater. Only about 1/100 of 1% of the water on earth is in the rivers and lakes. Water is essential to life on earth, so it is important that we protect our water resources.

Nature has a way of keeping the amount of water on the earth relatively constant. A large amount of water evaporates from the surfaces of oceans, rivers, and lakes every day. It forms water vapor that rises into the air until it cools, condenses, and forms water droplets. Millions of these droplets come together to form clouds. When clouds get heavy enough, gravity tugs on the droplets, and the clouds release their water as rain or snow. This precipitation falls into streams and rivers, which flow back to the oceans, seas, and lakes, where the water cycle can begin again.