Week ending 5/27/16

I can't believe Memorial Weekend is here already!  This year is certainly going quickly and after today we only have 18 days left!  Wow!

Important information:

• Please be sure to fill out this form for your child about how proud you are!  Please complete over the weekend so I can put things together early next week. 
•  https://docs.google.com/a/newton.k12.ma.us/forms/d/1YSDTjphRw-j1DVR87z9oVvArJi5Yxx4ipxNLu4PrucM/viewform
• We hope you can join us next Friday am for our end of year celebration!  It will be at 8:45 and last about an hour.  Please see the Sign Up Genius for food/plates/etc. sign ups.  Thank you for your help with this!  
• http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4ea8a928a20-endofyear
• Our field trip to the Museum of Science is June 6 all day.  We will send more information home next week! I'm really looking forward to it!

3, 2, 1, things you need to know about our class this week...

3 types of poems we've been working on writing are Bio-Poem, Haiku, and Cinquains.  I'm amazed at their writing...it's so fabulous and we can't wait to show you!

2 math skills we've been working on are organizing numbers into equal groups and Kojo's Math which is a tie in to our Ghana unit.  

1 activity we did today was "Stump Mr. DeKing!"  For two weeks now we've been trying to stump Mr. DeKing through FaceTime by asking questions about things we've learned about to see if he knows.  :)  It's been so fun!  

Week ending 5/20/16

Hello families!  We've had a busy week in room 250!  Please read the important information below as there's some dates and other info that you need to know.  Thanks!
Important information:

• Monday, May 30, there is no school.
• Friday, June 3 at 8:45 is our classroom celebration!  
• Please see the sign up genius link to bring in an item if you are able.  Thanks! :)
• http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4ea8a928a20-endofyear
• Monday, June 6, is our field trip to the Museum of Science.  More specific information will be coming.
• Please follow the link below to complete something special for your child.  I am proud of them for so many reasons and I know you are too!  Please read the form and write your words there.  I will then use them for our celebration.  
• http://goo.gl/forms/51K8mUl8dN2XCfI12
• Ask your child about "Stump Mr. DeKing!"  We started it last week and they have loved it!

3, 2, 1 things you should know...

3 elements of poetry we've been working on are: noticing stanzas and longer line breaks, many poems rhyme, and punctuation can be used in many different ways.

2 math skills we've been reviewing are subtracting money, breaking down numbers into place value, and solving number stories.

1 thing Jayden wants you know is we had our chrysalises change into butterflies!  They were beautiful!  We released them yesterday and it was awesome to see them take off!

Week ending 5/13/16

We've had a great week!  The weather has been nice, the class has been working so well together today and we have finished up some units, such as math for place value…and we started some new ones, such as poetry for reading and writing.
We had an in school creative arts presentation today from the Museum of Science on life cycles.

Here's some things the class wanted to share with you that we learned today at our in school presentation:

• The animal life cycles are not always the same as humans.
• Pine trees, the Sequoia,  start out as seedlings and the grow to pine cones with seeds in it.  
• The Sequoia trees need forest fires for the sap to melt so the seed pods can open up.
• The Sequoia trees could be as large as three blue whales stacked on top of each other, 350 ft. high.
• The life cycle of a reptile is an egg, hatchling, juvenile, and then adult.
• When mammals are born, you can tell it's a bird but maybe not which type of bird it is.  
• Frogs have a big change in their life cycle, metamorphosis.
• The life cycle of a butterfly is an egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and then butterfly.  
• The whole group practiced growing as trees too.  
• We saw a reptile, the Chuckwalla.
• We saw the largest living thing…a Sequoia…well, we actually saw a seedling of a Sequoia.
• We also saw Caatinga Horned frog.

Here's some pictures from today's presentation as well:

 Museum of Science Life Cycles presentation

 Chuckwalla lizard

Sequoia seedling

 Practicing growing as a tree.

 Sequoia full size

 Egg stage

 Caterpillar

Chrysalis

 Butterfly

Caatinga Horned Frog