Week 23

 Dear Parents,

            It was so great getting back to a full week of Learning. Next week our Valentines Day Party is on Friday. Homework for Parents had been sent home. Your assignment? Write a Valentines Letter on the heart I provided written to your child. This is a keepsake for your little girl or boy. I can see how proud they are pointing out their heart in the hall. Please if you have not turned in your heart, do by Wednesday so everyone has a heart on our hall bulletin board. We are missing 5. Also, if you have not sent in the $3-$5 dollars to help our room mothers pay for this party please do so before the party day as I will give them the money that day. I brought all my saved shoe boxes to school to let anyone who needs one take them home. Please have the decorated boxes and Valentines by next Thursday so everyone is sure to have a box by Friday.

             This week in math we learned our 4 addition facts and had our quiz on Friday. On Monday we celebrated the 100^th Day of School. We had many fun activities such as writing about if we were 100 years old ( and I aged their picture with the  free app aging booth). You should have heard the giggles as they saw pictures of each other looking very old. We did 100 exercises and created a piece of art with the digits in 100. We  also made our 100 piece snack, which they loved! Thank you to all of you who provided part of this snack.There were other activities throughout the day like rolling a die with a partner and racing to see who got to 100 first. There was also flipping a penny 100 times. We took our test on ordering and comparing numbers on Tuesday. The rest of the week we focused on problem solving reading varying word problems.

             In Writing we wrote our 100 year old me papers and researched an African American Athlete for Black History Month. We continued working on our poetry books. 

             In reading/ social studies we learned about Groundhogs Day and predicted if he would see his shadow. Our class was unfortunately correct as he did see his shadow which means 6 more weeks of winter. We learned about Cardinal and  Intermediate directions on a compass rose and practiced finding things in the classroom in the cardinal directions for a grade. We read Whatever the Weather poems and practiced visualizing them to add to our poetry books.

              In science we went on a natural and manmade scavenger hunt and answered questions about what surprised us. We learned that natural resources are used by humans to create manmade resources. We even played a fun game practicing what we learned. Table 3 won!  We learned about recycling as we read a Scholastic News article and answered questions.

Week 22

 Dear Parents,

          This was a very short week! In math today we reviewed the skills for our math assessment we will take next Monday. We took our two lessons in iready reading and math. We worked on our poetry books and caught up on projects we started last week. We talked about the kindness week challenge and colored some kindness posters. We read a story about Abigail and John Adams and then sorted cards as fact or fiction. I hope you all stay warm again this weekend.

Week 21

 Dear Parents,

           This week in math we reviewed writing numbers in standard form, expanded form, word form and by making a model of numbers up to 1,200. We learned how to draw a 3-D thousands cube! We also ordered and compared numbers to 1,200. We told if they were greater than, less than, or equal to another number up to 1,200.

             In writing this week we are finishing up previous projects such as our New Year’s resolution, MOY writing, and poems for our poetry book. We love it when a child finishes his/her resolution. The child gets to blow a noise maker and we all yell, “Happy New Years!” Then the noisemaker gets glued to his/her project.

              In reading we began learning about map skills as we looked at maps and globes to compare them. We had a chart to use as a reference as we did a sort for a grade. We read a Scholastic News article called “One Lost Penguin”. We took a comprehension check. On Thursday we learned the difference between facts and opinions. We sorted cards that had facts and opinions about bubble gum on them. We then chewed some bubble gum and had a bubble blowing contest! Congratulations to Jabbar for blowing the biggest bubble! He got a treasure box prize. We continued learning about facts and opinions on Friday and sorted cards independently for a grade.

                    In science we began a new unit called Natural and Manmade Resources. We looked at some real objects and sorted them as natural or manmade. We discussed if a person did anything to something, it becomes manmade. A tree is natural, but if a person cuts down the tree, the log is then manmade. We listened to the story “The Three Little Pigs” and discussed what materials would be best to build a house. We did a talk, read, talk, write activity and then used the article to fill in a cloze procedure paper for a grade.

 

From our counselor Mrs. Sandhir:

The Great Kindness Challenge is coming up!
During the week of January 26th–30th, students are invited to participate in the Great Kindness Challenge at home. This is a wonderful opportunity for families to talk together about kindness, empathy, and giving back — not only at school, but in our community as well.

Students will receive a Kindness Challenge worksheet to complete at home. They do not need to complete every activity; however, we ask that at least 5 acts of kindness be completed to earn a small prize. Please be sure the sheet includes the student’s name, teacher’s name, and a parent signature, as this is a home-based activity.

Students will have the full week to complete their acts of kindness and may turn in their sheets to their teacher by Monday, February 2nd. All completed sheets will be returned with a small prize as a thank-you for helping spread kindness and positivity!

We hope this challenge encourages meaningful conversations and kind actions at home and in the community. Thank you for partnering with us to help build a caring and compassionate school community!

Week 20

 Dear Parents,

          In math this week in math we focused on comparing numbers as greater than, less than, or equal to. We learned the symbols and how to read the math sentence correctly from left to right. We then learned to compare numbers from greatest to least. We learned to start with the largest place value to compare two or more numbers. We need to make sure we are comparing the same place value. If one number has the largest place value of hundreds and the other number starts with the thousands place, the first number has a 0 in the thousands because there is no thousands. That would be the smaller number. We then did a practice packet for our Math CBA, which is an  assessment over everything we have learned so far. We took the Math CBA on Thursday and Friday.

           In writing we began our poetry unit. We learned about the Elements of Poetry. We learned poems may have rhythm, rhyming, describing words, figurative language, ora visual pattern. We filled in a Circle Map together about seasons and weather. We then filled in a Bubble Map choosing our favorite season. Each child then began writing a poem about their chosen season making sure to add some of the elements of poetry. We took two days to write our MOY Writing Sample, that will be scored on a district rubric. This is a nonfiction writing in which they compared tornados and hurricanes.

          In reading we read Wild Weather and learned about making inferences. We read half a poem, then visualized what we heard by drawing a picture. The next day we heard the entire poem and visualized a completely different picture. We also read a Scholastic News called Dr. King: A Leader and a Hero. We took a comprehension check over this article. We saw a movie about Martin Luther King and  each child created his/her own “I have a Dream” cloud.

          In science we continued learning about our unit about the effects of wind and water. We did an investigation in which we showed the power of water on rocks, sand, and gravel. We recorded what we observed in our science notebooks. We did a talk read /talk/write activity. We then filled in a cloze procedure paper about the article. We had a review, and took our assessment over the unit.

Week 19

 Dear Parents,

          This week in math we learned three ways to find out if a number is odd or it is even. We practiced on many numbers and lined them up with a pair or put them in teams. We learned that a number is even if everyone has a partner or the teams have the same number of players. We learned that a number is odd if there is one left over who does not have a partner or if one team has one more player than the other team. We also learned that no matter how large the number is, if you look at the ones number and see if it is 0,2,4,6,or 8, then it will be even. If you don’t say that digit when you count by 2s, then it is odd. We also learned how to count our base ten numbers to 999.We built numbers by rolling a die for each digit of a 3 digit number.

          In writing we have been writing our notes and friendly letters. Most are edited and in final copy form and they went home Thursday to be delivered. Ummmmm- they may need some help with delivery as a few wrote to Santa or their elf on a shelf.

           In reading /social studies we read a Scholastic News article about the history of gingerbread and took a comprehension check. We even tasted a gingerbread cookie! We continued researching our American Symbols and turned in our page for a grade.

           In science we read an article, did a talk, read, talk, write and took our assessment over weather.

           A BIG  Thank you to my room moms Lori Hayward and Angela Giancola for planning an amazing  Winter party for our class! The children were talking about how much fun they had the rest of the day. Several children said it was the BEST winter party ever!

Week 18

 Dear Parents,

                This week in math we finished up our unit on multiplication as addition and division as repeated subtraction. We had many opportunities to build array and even made an Array City. We took our assessment on Friday.

                 In writing this week we learned how to write notes and began writing a Friendly Letter. The children will get to deliver their notes and letters upon completion. You may need to help your child deliver their messages and may have to get creative as some of them wrote to Santa!

                 In reading we learned what the word culture means and discussed that there are many different cultures in our school. We then took two days to research American symbols. We chose our four favorite and picked an important fact we learned. We read about the history of gingerbread and took a comprehension check. We also got to taste a gingerbread cookie!

                 In science we continued learning about weather as we learned about severe weather through many activities, slide shows and videos. We will continue learning about weather and take our assessment next week.

 

• Please, if you have not sent in the $5 for the winter party, send it in as soon as possible. The room moms spend their own money to make a wonderful party and this money goes to help cover that cost.
• Thank you for all of you who registered for BOOSTERTHON. We need 7 more families to sign up. There is no cost to signing up.If you can support our school we appreciate a donation of any amount. This is our school’s main fundraiser, plus the children love the run!

Week 17

 Dear Parents,

                This week in math we finished up our unit on multiplication as addition and division as repeated subtraction. We had many opportunities to build array and even made an Array City. We took our assessment on Friday.

                 In writing this week we learned how to write notes and began writing a Friendly Letter. The children will get to deliver their notes and letters upon completion. You may need to help your child deliver their messages and may have to get creative as some of them wrote to Santa!

                 In reading we learned what the word culture means and discussed that there are many different cultures in our school. We then took two days to research American symbols. We chose our four favorite and picked an important fact we learned. We read about the history of gingerbread and took a comprehension check. We also got to taste a gingerbread cookie!

                 In science we continued learning about weather as we learned about severe weather through many activities, slide shows and videos. We will continue learning about weather and take our assessment next week.

 

• Please, if you have not sent in the $5 for the winter party, send it in as soon as possible. The room moms spend their own money to make a wonderful party and this money goes to help cover that cost.
• Thank you for all of you who registered for BOOSTERTHON. We need 7 more families to sign up. There is no cost to signing up.If you can support our school we appreciate a donation of any amount. This is our school’s main fundraiser, plus the children love the run!