April 4 - 15

We have been extremely busy the last couple of weeks!  Thanks for your patience as you waited for the latest blog update!

Language Arts:  Our letters of study were J and E.  Our sight words were "see,"  "me," "look," and "little."  We read Peanut Butter and Jelly and created our own "How To" sequence.  We read many different versions of Jack and the Beanstalk and compared a few using a Venn Diagram.  We read elephants books like Elmer and Tuscanini and focused on beginning, middle and end.  We read non fiction books about elephants and jellyfish.  We recalled facts by writing an non fiction page and a four square.

Math:  Fractions were introduced!  We read a few different books about fractions and have had lively discussions about them.  We will be manipulating math materials to create different kinds of fractions.  The quarter was introduced.  We read about the quarter and used magnifying glasses to study its features.  We played a trivia game about all the coins that have been introduced:  penny, nickel, dime, and quarter.  The students need to recognize each coin and state its worth.  We continue to practice sorting, more and less, addition and subtraction stories, and estimation.  We will be practicing grouping items in sets of tens.  Any extra help at home would be appreciated

Social Studies:  Our Cool Tools for the past two weeks have been reviewing playground expectations and the I Can Problem Solve approach.  This includes talking it out using I Messages, crating a win win situation, and remembering how to cool off when angry.

Notes:  Thank you to Mrs. Marron, Mr. McHale, Dr. Platt, and Mr. Parrilli for running our Literacy Centers last week.  The kids had a blast.  We will have just one more center day (We are cancelling the week of May 11 due to Kinderpress.) so our last one will be Wednesday April 27th.  I hope we can have four volunteers that day.
Welcome Pranav Manur to our class!  We will also have a new student coming next week.  Her name is Ariel Schultz. 
We have a new author study.  Our author this month is Mem Fox.  She was born in Austrailia, grew up in Africa, and now lives back in Austrailia.  She loves to use different kinds of animals in her stories.  She addresses gender racial, and age equity beautifully in her books.  She likes to write with her family in mind.

Earth Day is this week, April 22nd!  Happy Earth Day!