McKinley Learning Center
The 3- and 4-year-old early childhood special education classrooms at McKinley Learning Center are working on developing school readiness skills and participate in a variety of hands-on learning activities that encourage cognitive skills, communication skills, social skills, motor skills, and self-help skills that they will need to be successful when starting kindergarten. To help keep learning activities fun and relevant all school year long, each month their learning activities focus on a different theme.

The 3-year-old classroom has been buzzing with learning and fun this month with a spring theme. The children have been exploring spring vocabulary words through a variety of engaging activities. A few of the favorites have been sorting bugs in the grass, matching raindrop shapes with umbrellas, picking colorful flowers from the garden, and getting dressed for rainy weather. Music and movement time is also a favorite for the children and is a great time for them to practice action words and gross motor skills. It is fun to watch the children’s energy and creativity in action as they hop like bunnies, move like different bugs, and pretend to jump in puddles. 

The 4-year-old classroom has been busy learning about spring, flowers, caterpillars and butterflies, birds, and weather. The class has been enjoying different spring crafts, such as making blue birds with feathers and making paper kites! They enjoyed reading “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and learning more about caterpillars and how they become butterflies. The 4-year-olds have been taking advantage of the nice weather by going outside and working on their social skills. The children have been enjoying playing games and make believe playing with each other. They even got to experience flying a kite outside, which the class loved!

Submitted by ECSE teachers Alyssa Aker and Marisa Krekelberg

Huron Middle School

As they wind down the year in sixth grade Language Arts, they just finished Smarter Balance testing last week. This week they are studying and test prepping for the NWEA testing that starts Monday, April 29. Students are looking forward to finishing the state testing and moving into summer break.

Submitted by Sonia Malley, M.Ed.