Happy Kansas Day!

We have made it through our first full week back since winter break! We were finally able to make it to an outdoor recess. Although this was a long week… it was full of many exciting activities!

Curriculum notes:

Reading- We have been studying the author Tomie DePaola. This week we have spent time reading his books and learning about his life. He has a great website www.tomie.com. As a class we have been studying the rules to make words plural.

Writing- Our poetry writing is now in full swing. This week we learned our last style of poem, the free verse poem. Next week each child will narrow down their favorite poems that they have written and will begin a final poetry project. Thank you for practicing your child’s poems for the Poetry Café at home. We will continue to practice at school!

Math- This week we wrapped up Unit seven about graphing. When we return next week we will begin two digit subtraction. We have been working on addition and subtraction fact fluency. Flash cards are a great way to help your child with speed and memorization of their math facts. This Thursday was the 100th day of school! Thank you for sending in snacks for our 100th day treat! We had so much fun measuring, counting, and thinking about 100.

Science- We have taken a break from our study of weather, we have recently learned about the water cycle, to spend some time talking about the history and important symbols of our state. This Friday we celebrate Kansas day with classroom rotations and activities such as making butter, measuring with sunflower seeds, Kansas songs, and so much more!

Thursday we went to the Leid Center to see puppet performances of books by Leo Leoni. The sets and puppets were truly beautiful! You can check out the traveling troop from Canada at: www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/

Upcoming events:
No school January 31st
Class Pictures February 3rd
Book Fair February 7-9
Poetry Café- February 11th
Conferences February 23-24 (Information about times will be coming home soon. Please let me know if you will not be able to attend and we can find a time the following week.)
March- Science Fair (More information will be coming out soon!)

Let it Snow!

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

I hope you stayed warm and that your kiddos enjoyed their two snow days this week! We have had a very busy start back to the month. Here are a few curriculum notes about last week and this current week. Following the notes you will find a few dates and events to make sure to add to you calendar!

Writing: We are really enjoying our study of poetry! So far we have learned about the basic couplet. (two lines of poetry that rhyme) This type of poem serves as a building block to many poems we read. We have also learned about list poems. For these poems each child chose a color to create a “list” of all the things they think about when they see this color. They have really surprised me with all of the creative and thoughtful things they have thought of! Our favorite poems so far are shape poems! We love writing and creating different shapes! There is a link on our blog to make your own shape poems at home!

Math: In math we have been spending a lot of time looking, creating, and interpreting graphs. Collected data has been displayed in bar graphs, tables, pictographs, and picture graphs. Along with basic practice of graphs, this unit is also highlighting patterns, problem solving, and basic fact fluency.

Science: The falling flakes from the sky have been a great introduction to our new unit about weather! So far we have had a review of the four seasons and have studied about the main types of clouds. Everyday we make written observations of what the weather is like. This week we will be creating our very own clouds while highlighting the basic details about each. We will also study about the Beaufort scale for measuring wind… along with other weather instruments used by meteorologists. There will be new links on our blog for weather practice!

Dates:
January 26th- The 100th day of school! (a note will follow soon about materials for this day)
January 27th – Leid center in the afternoon
January 28th- Kansas Day
February 7-9 Book Fair/ Pancake dinner on Wednesday
February 11th- Poetry Café performance (in the afternoon time TBA)
February 14th- Valentine’s Day Party