Weekly Update 3/21/14

It's Spring!  Are you as excited as I am?  Running outside…biking…playing in the yard…all activities I love about Spring weather!  I hope it changes really quickly and starts to warm up!
A few reminders:
* The reading response is due at the end of the week.  I know it is not much to write but it is another way for students to connect what they're doing in class with what they're reading at home.  It's also a way for you to see what we are working on in class.  I know families get busy and believe me I understand and feel the same way at my house sometimes, but please plan your week so it can be done by Friday morning.
* Although the snow is mostly going away, there is still a lot of mud on the playground area so you may still want to send in boots with your child for recess days.
* Don't forget to check out "What did we learn this week?"
* Also, please help me in welcoming David Gershon to our classroom beginning next Monday.  He will be an assistant with our class from now on.  Ms. Torchetti will be around but will also be working with 5th grade.

What's happening in room 235?
In literacy, we've been focusing on paraphrasing information from non-fiction texts we read.  We have also been working on summarizing our information using post it notes to keep track of what we've read before we put it in a summary paragraph.  In writing workshop, we're still working on book recommendations by adding our opinion, the details from the story, and we've started working on adding paragraphs to separate our ideas.  We also received our pen pal letters and we'll write them back next Monday!
In math, we've focused on a unit called Ages and Timelines.  We have been working on adding and subtracting on timelines using all the years you all were born!  The students are so excited as they determine everyone's ages.  We'll finish this unit next week and then move on to our measuring unit.
In social studies, we flew to China!  The students loved "taking off", watching the inflight movie, and "landing in Beijing". We started our unit on Thursday focusing on what we think about China and what we wonder about.  This helps us keep thinking through the unit about questions we are interested in.