3/18 to 3/22

Hello,

I look forward to seeing all of you at conferences this week. We will also have the Book Fair going on if you are interested. Let me know if you have any scheduling conflicts or questions before conferences. Thanks!

Upcoming Events: 
3/19: Conferences
3/21: Conferences
3/22: No School for Students
4/5: Knowledge-a-thon and pledges due, Knowledge-a-thon Dance at night

Reading:  This week we will learn more about the main character in our books.  We will also learn to pay attention to the relationships that characters have in the story.  We will reread and to get to know the characters better so that we aren’t just following the characters but we practically become the character in our reading.  Our voices can show the character feeling and bring the character to life.

Writing:  This week in writing we are continuing to write realistic fiction books. We have created our characters and have been working on storytelling. This week we will work on getting our characters out of problems and learn spelling strategies to become serious spellers! At the end of the week we will take some time to set goals for our writing, using a checklist.

Math:   In math we will learn more about collecting data and comparing our data points. Students have been really working on questions like: How many more? Or how many fewer ___? We will also introduce a tool called a comparison bar to compare data and find out what is missing. We will start working on story problems that sound like this: Emma runs 13 miles. Brian runs 4 fewer miles than Emma. How many miles does Brian run?

Science: This week, students will be introduced to the idea that the natural world can provide insights for designing products to meet human needs. Students will examine the structures of trees that keep them from blowing down in the wind, using their observations to design umbrellas that can stay up in a strong wind.

You can share another amazing story with your child of how living things can guide the design of man-made materials: the invention of Velcro! This video describes the structure of “hook and loop fasteners” and how the idea for Velcro came from looking closely at seeds, similar to how students’ ideas for improved umbrellas came from looking at trees. http://safeYouTube.net/w/JUBb

Here are a few photos of us creating traps for the Leprechaun:

3/11 to 3/15

Hello,

Conference Meal 
http://signup.com/go/pfBkphc

Book Fair 
http://signup.com/go/kQrXeuw

K.A.T. sign up
http://signup.com/go/nBAoaqP

Here are a few photos from our celebration of the end of poetry.

Upcoming Events:

3/19: Conferences (sign up will be open tomorrow)

3/21: Conferences

3/22: No School for Students

Here is the link to our video of what we are learning this week:

https://youtu.be/8XVji2mWEhg

3/4 to 3/8

Hello,

Penny Wars: This week we will be collecting pennies in our classroom. The class with the most pennies will win a pizza party! You can also bring in silver coins or dollar bills to give to other classrooms to subtract from their penny count. This will end on Friday.

March Madness: This week we are starting our Book March Madness. Each class submitted a book and teachers will be reading all of them to their class. Then they will vote for which books they like best until we find a winner! Ask your child what book our class chose!

Upcoming Events: 
3/4-3/8: Penny War
3/8: Early Release
3/19: Conferences (sign up will be open tomorrow)
3/21: Conferences
3/22: No School for Students

Reading: We are continuing to get to know our characters in our books.  We will begin to describe the character traits and compare the character across books. We will form book clubs and read the same series of books.  We will talk about the characters and spend time performing our books.  We will have to look at the feelings of the characters, the dialogue in the books, and use what we know about the characters personality. 

Writing:  We are completing our centers this week.  We are exploring rhythm, songs, imagery, and sensory poems.  We will then look at using line breaks and repetition in our poems. 

Math: We will work with numbers through 120.  We will begin to look for patterns in the hundreds chart to help with adding and subtracting 10 and then with multiples of 10.  We will end the week with math test. 

Science: This week in science we are starting a new unit: Organisms (Plants and Animal superpowers). We will start this week by asking questions and seeing what we want to learn about organisms. We will then conduct a few experiments this week. The first is asking ourselves why birds have beaks and we will experiment to see why beaks are useful. We will also ask ourselves why baby ducks follow their mother. Throughout the week you could point out different plants and animals you see! You could ask what those animals have that help them survive the winter.

Questions to ask:

• What book series are you going to perform?
• What writing center did you go to today?
• What experiments have you done in science?
• What book did you read for March Madness?
• How many pennies does your class have?

2/25 to 3/1

Hello,

It’s Read Across America week! There are dress up days planned this week and we will be listening to many Dr. Suess books.  If you follow NDLC on Facebook be sure to tune at 7:00 for a live night time read alouds by many of our teachers. 

We also have our Knowledge-a-thon coming up in a few weeks. If you would like to volunteer to quiz students, here is the link to volunteer:

http://signup.com/go/imLqCBE

Upcoming Events: 

2/25-1/1: Dress Up Days (see below)

2/26: Six Flags Sheet Due

2/26: Family Night

3/8: Early Release

Additional Dress Up Days:

Read Across America Week

Feb. 25: dress like your parents

Feb. 26: dress like a game (board game, etc.)

Feb. 27: crazy hair day

Feb. 28: dress like your favorite book character

March 1: camp out with a good book (dress in camping wear, bring sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.)

Reading: In reading we are focusing on getting to know the characters in our books. We will think about how characters change throughout the text, the feelings that characters have and using evidence in our books to support our ideas.  Later in the week we will chart out feeling words and fid ones that specifically match our characters. An example would be using the word joyful or ecstatic instead of happy. 

Writing: In writing this week we are starting a new unit: Poetry! This week we will be listening to poems and songs to see what we notice. We will also record our ideas on a notebook necklace. At the end of the week we will start poetry and song centers. The five centers will be illustrating a poem, listening to songs, finding the rhythm, everyday objects/sensory center, and experimenting with line breaks. 

Math: In math this week we are continuing with Unit 5. We will be listening to math stories and find out what is missing. Is the story missing an addend or the total. This week we will also find efficient ways to count groups of large numbers. This could be something fun to do at home! Have them lay out all of their legos, cars, or shopkins and have them count how many they have. An efficient way to count is to put them into groups of 10 and then see how many are left over.

Social Studies: This week we will be doing a mini-unit around U.S. Symbols.  Each day we will focus on a new symbol and a new note taking strategy. 

2/18-2/22

Hello,

Wow, what a busy past few weeks! We have been having a lot of fun at school celebrating the 100th day and Valentine's Day. Since this is a short week I am going to keep the blog short and share some pictures from our field trip! Thank you so much to everyone that chaperoned! I also want to thank everyone that brought if treats for our Valentine's celebration, the students had so much fun!

We also have our Knowledge-a-thon coming up in a few weeks. If you would like to volunteer to quiz students, here is the link to volunteer:
http://signup.com/go/imLqCBE

Upcoming Events: 

2/21-2/22: No School

2/21: Funset Boulevard Night
2/25-1/1: Dress Up Days (see below)

2/26: Family Night
3/8: Early Release

Additional Dress Up Days:

• Read Across America Week
• Feb. 25: dress like your parents
• Feb. 26: dress like a game (board game, etc.)
• Feb. 27: crazy hair day
• Feb. 28: dress like your favorite book character
• March 1: camp out with a good book (dress in camping wear, bring sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.)

2/11 to 2/15

Hello,

Here is the link to this weeks video!

https://youtu.be/RudR2MA92ZI

Upcoming Events: 

2/14: Valentines Celebration

2/21-2/22: No School

2/21: Funset Boulevard Night

2/26: Family Night

Additional Dress Up Days:

• Read Across America Week
• Feb. 25: dress like your parents
• Feb. 26: dress like a game (board game, etc.)
• Feb. 27: crazy hair day
• Feb. 28: dress like your favorite book character
• March 1: camp out with a good book (dress in camping wear, bring sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.)

2/4 to 2/8

Hello,

Valentines Day: You will be receiving a letter today with information about our Valentine’s Celebration. We will celebrate the afternoon of Thursday, February 14th. Let me know if you have an questions.

Field Trip: Reminder if you have not sent the field trip form back for next Monday, please do so as soon as possible. If you volunteered to be a chaperone you will be receiving an email today.  

Upcoming Events: 

2/11: Field Trip and 100th Day of School

2/14: Valentines Celebration

2/21-2/22: No School

2/21: Funset Boulevard Night

2/26: Family Night

Additional Dress Up Days:

• Read Across America Week
• Feb. 25: dress like your parents
• Feb. 26: dress like a game (board game, etc.)
• Feb. 27: crazy hair day
• Feb. 28: dress like your favorite book character
• March 1: camp out with a good book (dress in camping wear, bring sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.)

Reading: In reading this week we are working on visualizing our stories. We will make “movies” in our mind of what is happening in our story. We will also work on a few more comprehension strategies. We will keep track of who is talking in our stories and learn how to understand new vocabulary words.

Writing: In writing this week we are continuing to write reviews! We will be doing some partner work and help each other with writing checkups. We will also start organizing our reviews into categories to share them with the class. We will then end the week with starting book reviews.

Math: In math this week we will continue our work with the bead racks and number combinations to 20.  We are working on using strategies like make a ten, doubles plus one or two. 

Science: In science we will be exploring light and sound through centers.  We will be using the iPads, reading books, making artwork that is translucent, and creating our own instruments.

Pictures from our P.A.C. field trip: