Mrs. Baltos' Kindergarten

The end of the year is upon us!  We have had a wonderful year, learning SO much, and having a lot of fun along the way!  It has been a pleasure working with your child everyday!  I wish them much luck in 1st grade! This week in celebration of the end of Kindergarten we will be doing special activities: Wednesday- PJ and Stuffy Day Thursday- Game day (NO electronics) Friday- Field Day - Wear sneakers and bring a water bottle Monday- Bubbles and Chalk Tuesday- Step-up day! Here are some pictures from our Field Trip on Friday!  

Dear Kindergarten Families, First of all thank you so much for your kind words, cards, gifts, and surprises this teacher appreciation week!  I feel honored to be your child's teacher.  I love watching your child gain skills, grow, and learn.  It could not have been better timing that our Donor's Choose project was also fully funded!  On Wednesday, we received our second Osmo kit!  We also got several new games, two coding games and a pizza game.  In addition, we got a coding mouse!  I did not get pictures of the Osmo in practice today, but here are some from when we opened our package! In writing, students have been working on opinion pieces.  Students have been exploring different ways to communicate.  In the past few weeks students made lists for reasons to have a certain pet (such as dog or a cat) or not have a certain pet (such as a tiger or shark). Students created signs to help remind others of the school rules and why we have these rules.  F

We have had a busy April so far! Dinosaurs, science experiments, and fun Friday's have made our learning fun and engaging. See the Google Slideshow for pictures of our learning! In literacy, we have switched to new flexible groups.  Most students are working with a different teacher for an hour a day.  These flexible groups allow for us to best meet the needs of our learners.   We have finished learning about dinosaurs!  Students have worked with partners to create their own dinosaur.  I am proud of all of the learners for their communication, collaboration, team work, problem solving, and creativity. In math, we have finished the addition unit and will be starting our 7th unit: Data collection.  Students will be learning how to collect, organize, and interpret data.  The parent letter will be going home in red folders this week. We have also stared our 2nd science unit!  Students have been doing several experiment to learn about solids and liquids.  This week we tested out

Dear Kindergarten Families, Our library is excited to announce that Kevin Hawkes will be visiting our school this year!  Our students will be able to meet him and hear him present.  We will be meeting him on April 29th. As part of the author's visit, families may purchase some of Kevin Hawkes' books at a discounted price.  This is great opportunity for students to get a new book signed by the author! Book order forms came home today in red folders.  All purchases MUST be made in advance.  There will be no  extra books available for purchase during the visit.   This is simply due to the volume of books that will be needed. If you wish to order some of his books, please make sure that the order form is returned by Tuesday, April 2nd . If you need a new form, please let me know as soon as possible!  Thank you! I cannot wait for our students to meet Kevin Hawkes in person! While we wait, he is the link to his website:  https://www.kevinhawkes.com/ Sincerely, Mrs. Bal

We are in full swing of our dinosaur project!  Students have learned about many different kinds of dinosaurs.  We used a great resource: PebbleGo  to learn about them.  Students created focus questions: What did they eat? How did they move? Where did they live? What did they look like? How did it defend itself? How did they become extinct? Students wrote their own dinosaur books, which were shared at conferences.  We also shared these with our book buddies! Next, students picked partners to plan, design, and create a dinosaur.  Student could re-create a true dinosaur or "discover" a new one!  Students also had to decide what the dinosaur eats and how does it defend itself.  Students planned with their partner what materials they needed and how it was going to be put together.    I am so proud of the work that the students have done so far!  They have truly been working on most of the 21st Century Skills!  They are collaborating, communicating, being creat

Hello! We have had an exciting month so far! We have started learning about dinosaurs! Students came up with several research questions to help us focus on our learning. Questions include "What did they eat? Where did they live? How did they protect themselves?" And the famous: "Why did they disappear?" We have been using a fantastic website for our research: PebbleGo.  This website is available through our school's library website: http://libguides.spsd.org/skillin We have been learning about what dinosaurs eat. Ask your child what carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, and scavengers eat! Thank you for your cardboard, feathers, and other donations for our dinosaur creations. There is still time to send in recycled materials, such as cracker or cereal boxes, plastic containers, and paper towel rolls. Please no glass, milk containers, or peanut butter jars. Thank you! Students have been writing non-fiction books about dinosaurs.  I cannot wait to share

Good Evening! Please make sure to check your child's red folder for a lot of important information! The FREE literacy night is tomorrow (Thursday) at Skillin from 5:30-6:30pm.  There will be games and you could win a prize!  Make sure to visit our classroom for some activities! Parent-Teacher Conferences!  I would LOVE to have an opportunity to meet with you.  There is a sign-up (Pink paper) in your child's folder.  Please pick at least TWO  times.  This is first-come, first served.  I do my very best to be flexible around schedules and to find a time that works for you! Dinosaurs!  We have started learning about dinosaurs!  Today as a class, we listed all of the things that we knew about dinosaurs.  We also made a list of questions that we wonder about them.  We will be learning what they ate, how they may have behaved, and how they protected themselves.  We will be writing about the facts that we learned. As part of our learning, students will be working together to

Happy 100 days of Kindergarten! We had an exciting day celebrating 100 days of K today!  Students made necklaces will 100 beads, wrote to 100, ordered tiles to 100, made hats, built a tower with 100 cubes, and built with 100 cups! Lots of pictures below! We ended the day with a special visitor, Mrs. Connolly, to read to us: 100 Snowmen by Jen Arena. She has been visiting classrooms in our school as part of the Maine #ReadtoME challenge.   Save the Date! On Thursday, February 28th please join us for a literacy night at Skillin.  It is from 5:30-6:30pm.  We will have activities in many of the classrooms.  There will be raffles, books to check out in the library, and a ReadtoME photo booth!  I look forward to seeing you and your child there! Happy Vacation! Finally, I hope that you have a wonderful vacation!  I can't wait to see your child back to school on Monday, February 25th!  Enjoy! Love,  Mrs. Baltos