Friday Letter April 24, 2015

Here is a re-cap of this week’s activities:

Math: We continued working with place value.  This week, we reviewed the mathematical signs: greater than, less than, and equal to.  Students had to compare numbers using base ten blocks.  On Thursday, students worked on a place value review packet.

Writing:  This week, we created a color poem.  Each student was given a color and had to write a poem about what their color feels like, tastes like, looks like, smells like, and how the color makes them feel.

Reading: Students participated in their regular reading centers.  We finished our handwriting center and will now be working on digraph books.  This week, we worked on the digraph, -ch.

Phonics:  We started our unit on long vowel digraphs.  This week, we focused on the long A digraphs, -ai and -ay.   Students worked on their digraph packets this week.

Science:  On Monday, we started our new science unit on what animals and plants need in order to survive their environment.  This week, we discussed what humans need in order to survive and compared it to animals’ needs.  We started an animal habitat book, where we are writing about all the different places an animal can live (e.g. hives, dens, burrows, oceans, shells, logs, etc.),

Social Studies:  This week, I read the story, The One-Inch Boy, a Japanese fairy tale.  We are comparing and contrasting Japanese tales to American tales we are already familiar with.  During morning meeting, we have also been practicing learning how to say 1-10 in Japanese.  We will continue to learn about Japan after Spring Break.

Have a wonderful vacation!  Andrea

Friday Letter April 17, 2015

Dear Parents:

Happy Friday! Only one more week until Spring Vacation! Now that the weather is much nicer, we started having regular P.E. outside again.  We are trying to have P.E. (weather permitting) every Wed & Thurs.  Please make sure your child has comfortable sneakers (or brings a pair to change into).

Here is a re-cap of what we did this week:

Reading:  I read the story, Knuffle Bunny Too, to the students.   We made inferences based on what the character, Trixie, did and said in the story.  Students participated in their reading centers.

Math:  We continued to work on our place value skills.   Students grouped objects into tens and ones and then added them together.  Today, we will see how dimes and pennies relate to tens and ones.

Writing:  We started our poetry unit this week.  This week, we worked on bio-poems.

Social Studies:  We learned more about Japan this week; we discussed how Japanese dragons differ from Chinese dragons.  We started a dragon project on Thursday.

Science:  We continued to work on our abstract Kandinsky projects, with most students finishing.  We will be presenting these beautiful works of art next week at whole-school meeting.

Thanks and have a great weekend!  Andrea

Friday Letter April 10, 2015

Dear Parents:

Happy Friday.  It looks like next week will actually feel like Spring!

Here is a re-cap of this week’s activities:

Math:  We have been working on place value; understanding the tens and ones place in a two-digit number.  Students have been breaking numbers down into tens and ones.  On Wednesday, students played, Race to 100, with place value blocks.  The object of the game was to continually trade in ones for a ten and tens for a 100.  The first person who reached 100 won.  On Thursday, students constructed the first letter of their name using paper base ten blocks.  On Monday, we will determine how many tens and ones are in the first letter of our names.

Writing:  This week, I read the book, Go Away Big Green Monster. After each page, the students had to draw what I read to them.  Next week, we'll be writing a poem to go along with our monsters.

Reading:  We began reading, Mo Willem’s Knuffle Bunny series.  On Tuesday, I read,Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. Students worked on a comprehension writing activity during reading centers.  Students also participated in their other regular centers.

Science and Art:  We have been studying the Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky.  Students began their own abstract paintings this week; using squares, circles, triangles, and interesting lines to show movement.  We will be presenting this project and our other Wassily inspired paintings at whole-school meeting in two weeks.

Have a great weekend!  Andrea