News You Can Use!

Welcome back to school, 1-1 families! From what the students have told me, it sounds like everyone had a very nice spring break. We had a busy first week back at school! Here is a look at our week.

Reading 
This week's close reading tied in with our current science unit, Living Things, as well as our writing unit, expository writing. As a class, we read the book, What's Alive by Karen Weidner Zoehfeld. Before reading, students shared examples of things that are alive and things that are not alive. Then, students brainstormed ideas about what they thought made things alive in comparison to things that are not alive. After reading our book, students completed a graphic organizer, which helped organize their ideas about similarities and differences between living and nonliving things. In addition, we read multiple nonfiction texts about living things. While reading, students used a scavenger hunt to help them identify features of a nonfiction text such as headings, table of contents, glossary, etc.

Writing
During the month of April, students will be completing a nonfiction expository writing about an animal of their choice. To prepare students for writing a nonfiction piece, we read the book Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters From Obedience School by Mark Teague. We also used the website Pebblego.com to learn some information about dogs. After, students practiced writing a fiction sentence about a dog as well as a nonfiction sentence about a dog. Students were able to see the difference between writing fiction and writing nonfiction.

To get in the mood for Spring, students completed a writing activity centered around the saying, "April showers bring May flowers." Everyone shared ideas about what to do on a rainy day. Some students identified that they prefer to stay inside on a rainy day to watch movies, read a book, complete a puzzle, etc. Other students prefer to go outside, play in puddles, and catch raindrops on their tongues. After our rainy discussion, students shared their ideas by writing about it. Each student gave their writing an umbrella background so that our room can be decorated for the month of April.

Math
To start our week after spring break, we began Unit 8 in math. This week our math lessons focused a lot on money. Students practiced with their coins. They were also introduced to the dollar and the many ways to make a dollar. To practice this skill, students played the math game, Dollar Exchange. One day, our classroom became a store and everyone brought their classroom coins along to practice making purchases.

Just a gentle reminder to please continue practicing math facts with your student.

Science
We began a new science unit as well this week. Our science unit will be about living things. Students had the opportunity this week to observe living things first hand. The students watched brine shrimp eggs hatch into brine shrimp. We also closely observed crickets under magnification. The students observed the different body parts of a cricket including the antennae, head, thorax, legs, and abdomen. To examine even more closely, students were asked to identify how many joints crickets have in their legs and why it is important for crickets to have joints. Students drew pictures and took notes of all of their observations.

Other
Unfortunately, I have to apologize for forgetting the camera cord to upload pictures at school this weekend. I promise to upload this week's pictures on Monday!

I hope everyone had a great weekend and enjoys the nice weather!