February 14, 2013 Update...

Hello Parents,

We've had a fabulous week in room 216!  I am sooooo impressed with the class's progress!  They amaze me every day with their reading, math skills, and writing.  Can I take them all the way through 5th grade???  I am so happy with the students' perseverance and hard work.  Read below to find out what we've been doing this week...

Phonics/Spelling:  We learned ten new and challenging words to help us become better readers and writers (taken from our chapter book). We also learned the "ment" suffix. We drew draconian letters on graph paper for the visual learners in our class, we played sparkle, and we used our words in sentences.

Reading:  We read about 12 chapters in our James and the Giant Peach books.  We looked at many of the unfamiliar words and phrases and used context clues to figure out the meanings.  We illustrated several chapters, showing our knowledge of the content through pictures.  We read out loud to improve our reading fluency, as well as in small groups and silently.  We also read the story "The Magic Listening Cap", which is a Japanese folktale. We looked at the hidden moral in the story.  We are slightly behind schedule, so we may have to push back beginning Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Please send in any chapter books, either with your child's name or my name so I can get a final count on how many books we still need.

Math:  We completed our unit on measurement.  We reviewed how to measure using standard and metric units.  We also  began looking at repeated addition/multiplication word problems as a morning work challenge activity. 

Science:  After last week's science test on the sun, moon, and stars, I decided to REVIEW the information that was a bit more challenging again this week.  We made a model of the sun, moon, and earth and learned how each body moves and how long this movement takes.  We wrote about these celestial bodies in our interactive notebook and took an open book test on the information. 

Class News and Reminders...

Thank you, Miranda, for donating Sadako to our classroom! Yippee!!!

We are still in need of nine books to make a class set.  We will probably begin the story on Wednesday of next week.  If you are able, please consider buying your child this book to use in class.

Enjoy your long weekend.  No school on Friday, the 15th or Monday, the 18th.

Thank you so much for all your love and kindness that was sent my way this week!  You and your families always make me feel appreciated, but this week was EXTRA special!

Remember the moon phases HW is due at the end of the month. This project is mandatory.  The geometric shape project is optional and it is due February 22.

Thank you Mrs. Abrams and Mrs. Farley for organizing all the food that went in my belly this week! There's going to be a whole lot more of Mrs. W to love on next week if I don't do some serious exercising!