Week ending 4/28/17

Another month has passed and we have hit 141 days in school!  Can you believe it?  Only 39 days left this year with so much left to do!
Important information:

• We will continue to go out for recess, so be sure to send appropriate clothing.  
• If you have any cleaning wipes at your house that you'd like to donate, we'll gladly take them.  
• Monday, May 29th, there is no school for Memorial Day.

3, 2, 1 things happening in room 250...

3 fables we've read this week were Frogs and the Well, Boy Who Cried Wolf, and the Crow and the Pitcher.  We've been focusing on the lesson the story is trying to teach us.   

*We read the Ant and the Dove today...ask your child what the lesson/idea was for that fable.

2 math stretching your thinking activities we did this week were finishing up a Coins activity independently and working on a new one called Color Day.  It was amazing watching the students work, share ideas, discuss their math thinking, explain their understanding or confusion, and works through what was difficult to come to a start of solving it.  This one was tricky!  We focused on showing the math work and talking about it is so much more important sometimes than just the actual answer.  Students took time to check out each other's work very quietly and respectfully and noticed all the different ways the problems could be solved.  Another great mind stretching activity for all students, no matter where they are in their math journey.  

1 fabulous presentation we had this week was from the Museum of Science on life cycles!  We learned about life cycles for mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, played guessing games, and saw the largest living thing!  Amazing!  

*Ask your child what the largest living thing is!

Here's a few pics for you to see...

Bearded Dragon

 Using our bodies to show the life cycle of a plant

 M helping to show us the life cycle of an amphibian.

Week ending 4/7/17

We made it through our first full week of April and Ms. Kariotis has finished all of her take over weeks!  Have you had a chance to enjoy the better weather?  I hope you can get out this weekend and take a walk, ride bikes, and play like a kid!

Important information:

• Next Friday, April 14, there is no school.  
• Please check your email and your child's folder for information regarding the CAP program that will be visiting us in May.  

3, 2, 1 thing you should know about our week...

3 math skills we worked on were naming fractions, using pattern blocks to show our fractions to peers, and identifying equivalent fractions.  

* Show your child a square with a line down the middle or showing thirds and ask your child to show you 1/2 or 1/3.  

2 reading strategies we worked on were summarizing our non-fiction reading on the rain forest and thinking about the big ideas with books such as Secret Place and The Great Kapok Tree.  It's important for students to understand that authors write about ideas that are important to many people, such as taking care of the environment, family, and friendship.

* Ask your child what the bigger idea was in one of those stories.  

1 activity we worked on social studies was identifying people in photographs that were consumers, producers, and buyers.  We looked at various photographs of people working and buying in China, discussed what they noticed in the pictures, and chose a photograph to sketch in our journals to help us remember.

Have a  great weekend!