April 5 Update...

Hi Parents,

Thank you for checking in on Room 216 today!  We are officially speeding down the hill to 3rd grade!  This means we are moving ahead very quickly and much of our work in the next five weeks will be previewing 3rd grade concepts.  Behavior and academic expectations will be raised.  As soon as we return from spring break, I will be explaining our new behavior system, which will be utilizing the checkbook registers and making additions and subtractions based on student actions.  The culminating activity will be Market Day. Please make sure you sign and return the form, checking all the activities that you will give permission for your child to do.  I need lots of volunteers for our room!  Please let me know on the form if you are available on that day.  We should have all the supplies you will need. I hope everyone has a nice and relaxing spring break.  I'll miss my sweet kiddos next week!  Here's what we've done in class...

Phonics/Spelling:  We reviewed the spelling patterns -oy/-oi/-au.  We played several games to help us remember these patterns and we used these words in context clue sentences.

Reading: We began our new chapter book called A Wind in the Door.  We also read several versions of fairytales (classic and modern) and compared the characters, settings, and lessons.  We worked on reading dialogue with expression with our 5th grade book buddies (finger puppet activity).  We visited the library and were introduced to a wonderful author, Margie Palatini. 

Math:  We continued our work on multi-step computation. For some reason, this proves to be a challenge for many children. The students are excellent when computing one step problems of even greater difficulty, but doing the two steps gets some of them. This is a skill that your child may need extra work on at home. Simply write out 5-6 multistep computation problems on a sheet of paper and ask your child to practice every night...(78-30+52=) . We are doing two digits in these problems for now.  In math, we also learned three strategies for solving multiplication problems; making sets, drawing an array, skip counting (multiplication chart). 

Writing:  We completed our Jimmy Carter nonfiction books. They are on display in our hallway.  We wrote these multi paragraph papers after completing research from several resources.  They are awesome! Come check them out.

Social Studies:  We began our unit on our new country, the Declaration of Independence, and our early leaders.  We read out of our textbook and then independently answered questions.

Class News and Announcements...
Thank you to Mrs. Farley for donating all the check book registers for the kids! 

Thank you to Allie Webb and her family for babysitting Joe over spring break!

Please consider making any donations for our Market Day. The list of supplies came home with the permission slip. You can send in donations and I'll make sure they get to the right room.