News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with r controlled vowels (er, ir, ur). 

The children read stories about different types of plants. They worked with classifying and categorizing the information in several selections. The children learned that when you classify and categorize information, you group together information or things that are alike. This helps you to organize and better understand what you have read. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children worked with synonyms and antonyms. They learned that synonyms are words that have the same or almost the same meaning and antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning.

Cooking Up “Synonym Rolls”

On Friday, the chefs in the classroom enjoyed cooking up “Synonym Rolls.” They started by writing a list of synonyms for one word or pairs of synonyms. Once they had their “ingredients list,” they baked their synonym rolls till they were golden brown. Then they decorated them with synonym frosting. Ask you chef to name some of their favorite synonyms.  

Writing: 

This week, the children published their persuasive letters. The children took their time and wrote in their best handwriting. I am proud of how hard they worked on their letters. The children are excited to see if they receive any responses to their letters next week. 

Math 

In Math, the children were excited when our classroom once again turned into the set of Math Review Mimio Vote. Using their own clicker, the children reviewed the concepts we worked with during Unit 8. On Tuesday, the children took their Unit 8 Assessment. They did a nice job on the assessment and I am so proud of them! 

On Wednesday, we started Unit 9. The children worked with finding patterns on the number grid and naming missing  numbers on the number grid. The week continued with using the number grid to add and subtract 1s and 10s from 2-digit numbers. The children also worked with solving different addition and subtraction problems using manipulatives, tools, and the number grid. 

The children enjoyed playing the Number-Grid Game. They had to move from 0-110 on the number grid. The children worked with adding by 1s and 10s until they landed on 110 with an exact roll. 

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. The scientists looked at the sun and discussed its role in making weather. They focused on how sunlight warms and brightens. The scientists compared shady and sunny locations by measuring each locations temperature and observing how long it took to melt an ice cube.

For the remainder of the week, the scientists focused on wind. They learned that wind is air in motion. The scientists watched a short video about the different tools that meteorologists use to measure the wind strength and speed. Then, they created their own wind tool, a wind sock. On Friday, the scientists went outside and observed the direction of the wind by looking at the trees, flag, and their wind socks. The scientists learned that wind direction is the direction the wind blows from. On Friday, there was a southerly wind. The scientists were excited to use the wind scale to help them determine the strength and speed of the wind. While they were outside, the scientists noted that the wind strength ranged from gentle to strong.

Earth Day

On Earth Day, the children listened to the story, Earth Day Hooray. After, they brainstormed different ways that they can heal our Earth. The children then wrote their own piece about a way they can heal the Earth. They created an Earth out of construction paper and glued their writing piece inside!

**Photo coming soon** 

Notes:

-To conclude our weather unit, we will have our Weather or Not in school field trip on Wednesday, May 1st.  

-Online registration opens May 1st. Don't forget to register using the letter sent to you that provided you with your child's individual student passcode for access to online registration.

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with r controlled vowels (or). The children read stories about determination. The characters in the stories wanted to achieve something and they kept trying until they were successful. The children worked with making inferences. They used their prior knowledge (schema) and clues from the text to help them make inferences about the characters. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children revisited adjectives. They learned that some adjectives are words for numbers. The children also worked with proper nouns. They had to select the correct day of the week to finish each sentence (the one that started with a capital letter).

Writing: 

This week, we continued our persuasive writing unit. The children used their graphic organizer from last week to write their persuasive letter. They made sure to include the correct parts of a letter (heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature). 

On Wednesday, they met with a partner and took turns reading their letter to one another. They helped each other to check for an opening opinion, three strong reasons to support their opinion, and a closing opinion. They will write their final draft next week and I will deliver them to the appropriate staff members. We are hoping to receive some responses to our letters. 

Math 

In Math, we completed unit 8. The children worked with counting equal parts of a whole. They identified shapes divided into halves, thirds, and fourths. The children labeled the equal parts with the correct fractions. They also worked with dividing pennies equally between different numbers of people. The children worked with finding fractional parts of sets. To review some of the concepts from this unit, the children moved through different explorations: making change, telling time, working with base-10 blocks, counting money, and fact practice. On Monday, the children will use Mimio Vote to review before they take their unit 8 assessment on Tuesday. 

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. The scientists continued to explore the idea that water can be part of the air. They watched as water condensed out of the air and formed droplets on a cold surface.

On Wednesday, the scientists learned about dew and frost. They learned that liquid water droplets that condense out of the air during the night are called dew. The scientists learned that ice crystals that cover a cold surface when water comes out of the air are called frost. 

On Friday, the scientists investigated some properties of air. They observed a demonstration of how air fills the “empty” space in a bottle. Then they experimented with air trapped inside different objects and plastic bags. They learned that the layer of air that covers the entire earth is called the atmosphere.

Jennifer Ward Author Visit

On Tuesday, author Jennifer Ward came to Dryden school. She gave a wonderful presentation to the children. Mrs. Ward talked about her journey to become an author. She shared beautiful photos and how she comes up with all her different book ideas. Mrs. Ward also had the children help her read one of her stories, There Was An Old Pirate Who Swallowed A Fish. The children enjoyed her visit and were very excited to try and write their own book about, There Was A Dolphin Who Swallowed...

You can learn more about Mrs. Ward by going to her website: http://www.jenniferwardbooks.com/index.html

Earth Day

This week, the children worked some Earth Day activities. They listened to the story, The Wump World. After listening to the story, the children worked together to sequence the events of the story using sentence stripes. Then the children each illustrated their own retelling of the story including their favorite part.

Earth Day Acrostic Poems:

On Friday, the children wrote an acrostic poem using the words, Earth Day. The children brainstormed different words and phrases to go with each letter. They chose their favorite word/phrase for each letter and created their acrostic poem. They completed the activity with a photo of themselves holding a construction paper Earth.

Happy Birthday

On Monday, we celebrated Liam’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Liam!

Have a great rest of the weekend! 

News You Can Use!

Literacy 

Treasures:

This week, the children worked with an r controlled vowel (ar). The children read stories about inventions. They learned about some famous inventions and about inventions made by children. The children worked with identifying cause an effect. They learned, that a cause is the reason something happens. An effect is the thing that happens. 

For example: 

Cause: I didn’t wear sunscreen.

Effect: I got a sunburn. 

Grammar Packets:

This week, the children revisited adjectives. They learned that some adjectives tell the color of something. The children also worked with contractions formed with the word not. They had to place the apostrophe in the correct place.

Writing: 

This week, we continued our persuasive writing unit. The children brainstormed a list of problems that need solving or things they feel can be improved at school or in our classroom. To help the children brainstorm a list of topics, we went on a brainstorming walk around the building. The children wrote down problems that they saw during our walk. 

On Thursday, the children met with a partner. They chose the problem or improvement that they wanted to write about. Then, they took turns telling each other who their “audience” is, their opinion, and at least one reason to support their opinion. The children then completed a graphic organizer, including their opinion, three reasons to support it, an a closing. They will use their graphic organizer to compose their persuasive letter next week.

Math 

In Math, the children made up, solved, and recorded money number stories. They worked with using different strategies to add and subtract the 2-digit numbers presented in the money stories. The children recorded number sentences to match their solution strategies. They also worked with making change by counting up. On Thursday, the children worked with making equals shares. They divided shapes into halves, thirds, and fourths. 

Science

This week, the scientists continued their exploration of Weather. The scientists worked with understanding how water changes from a liquid to a solid and back again. They experimented with placing small objects into a glass of water and observing what happens when they freeze. They learned that freeze means to change from a liquid to a solid. 

On Friday, the scientists experimented with their frozen water. They explored different ways of making their ice melt. The scientists came up with many different techniques: breathing on it, rubbing it, placing it near the heater, wrapping it in a paper towel, carving it into smaller pieces, and running it under warm water. They learned that the term melt means to change from a solid to a liquid. 

The scientists also worked with understanding how water changes from a liquid to vapor and back again. They explored the idea that water can be part of the air, an invisible gas called water vapor. They did three experiments where they watched liquid water disappear into the air as it evaporated. The scientists used the terms; evaporate, humidity, and water vapor to explain what they noticed about the disappearing water. 

**Exploring Humidity**

Star Student

Evie was our star student this week. Thanks Evie for sharing all about you!

Royal Reader

A special thank you to Evie’s Dad, he joined us this week as our Royal Reader. The children enjoyed listening to the two stories that Mr. Bartels read, Let’s Go, Cubs! and Bear Stays Up For Christmas. 

Have a great rest of the weekend!