The children are now able to read but still enjoy being read to.  I hope you continue to do that this summer, and encourage them to keep reading and writing too. A summer diary would be a nice gift.  They could write about their day's or week's activities. I am also including my home address at the end of this note.  I would love to hear from any of your children this summer.  This might give them a good reason to write too.

So have a happy and fun-filled summer!  Maybe we'll run into each other at the store or the theater this summer. Please stop by and see me next year; I'm going to miss you all very much. Until then, "May Jesus hold you in the palm of His hand".

Love,

Mrs. Marilyn Bergmann
15332 Appalachian Trail
Chesterfield, MO 63017





The children continue to practice counting to 100 by ones, twos, fives, and tens, and writing their numerals through 31. We are also counting on from 20 and 100, emphasizing tens and ones, estimating, and reading a calendar correctly. We are practicing telling time to the hour and half hour. We have continued working with money. The children should be able to recognize the Penny, the Nickel, the Dime, and the Quarter, and be able to count combinations of these coins. Please practice counting some of your coins at home. Make sure they are placing the correct value on the coins and are counting on correctly. Some of the children still have a great deal of difficulty with this. We continued working with Addition and Subtraction, learning how to add one or two more, and how to make one or two less. We also learned how to read and write Addition and Subtraction sentences: 2&2=4 and 4&3=7, 6-2=4 or 5-3=2. It is necessary to answer questions in complete sentences both in language and in math. We did some more problems orally, or as we said, "in our heads", and did some problems that the children had to figure out by themselves if addition or subtraction was needed to solve the problem. The children  enjoyed this; feeling very grown up. We are beginning our last chapter: counting in different patterns to 100.

The children have practicied tying and are getting more able to tie by themselves, but they should keep practicing so that they can tie a tighter bow. Please encourage them to tie with first one loop and then going around it to make the other. Making "bunny ears" is just not a secure bow; they get so frustrated when their bow doesn't hold.

We continue going out for recess unless it is raining. Please make sure your child can zip his/her coat and has a hat, and mittens or gloves to wear.

Subject/Material Covered
Religion: We talked about being a friend of Jesus and what that means. Jesus loves little children and wants them to come to Him and be His friend always. We talk to and listen to our friends so we need to do the same with Jesus. We did a quick overview of the Rosary and were very attentive to the May crowning and the praying of the rosary. This week we also learned the "Doxology". Ask them to say that prayer for you. We began discussing the Mass.  The children all had many good questions about the Mass and Holy Communion.  They seem ready to attend Mass regularly and pay attention to it.

Math: The class is really enjoying estimating for our Estimation Jar.  It's fun to see them becoming more aware of what is a realistic estimate.  We have finished the chapter reading analog and digital clocks and counting pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, but by no means are they proficient with these skills. We will continue working with time and money throughout the rest of the year. They should keep practicing with a clock and coins at home. We continued working with Addition and Subraction, learning different ways to make 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. We are using the terms -more- and -fewer than-. We are now reading, writing, and solving Addition and Subtraction sentences; using the +, -, and = signs. We are practicing counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's.

Reading: We did added a new "sight" word this week: friend. Our words now are: a, the, on, my, what, go, you, we, I, have, to, no, come, look, do, for, like, see, me, little, from, because, are, said, here, friend, and one; the color words; days of the week words, number words and the months of the year. We are writing sentences with more of these words. We are also reading words in Word Families, such as the -and Family, the -eg Family, the -ump, and the -est Family, and continued to add more 2 syllable words this week.  We finished the Letter X,x, and Y,y book and are beginning our final book Z,z.

Handwriting: Continue practicing holding the pencil correctly; making circles and O's going to the left from the top; continued writing our name with the beginning letter a capital and the rest of the letters in lower case; using the lines on our paper to make our letters the correct size.  We are trying to remember to write complete sentences with only the first letter a capital, unless we're using names.  We are practicing writing the D,d's, A,a's, G,g's, S,s's, L,l's, I,i's,  T,t's, F,f's, E,e's, H,h's, U,u's, B,b's, R,r's, N,n's, P,p's, M,m's, W,w's, V,v's, K,k's, Q,q's, J,j's, X,x's, and Y,y's correctly, and using the lines provided on our paper. Please make sure when they do their handwriting homework that they take their time, follow the arrows, and make the letters the best that they can.

Science: They have been very inquisitive with the 5 butterfly larvae that remain. Children observed them each day and were very aware when they spun their chrysalises. Four of our butterflies have emerged; we're waiting for the last one in order to set them free.

Social Studies: We have been getting ready for Mother's Day. We hope you like your present.