May 14th-18^th

Important Things and Events

We do NOT need parent volunteers for Thursday as the children worked really hard today and we are almost done publishing. Yippee!

Our Curriculum Celebration will be on Friday, May 18^th from 5PM-7PM in the A-Wing space.

Please put Thursday, June 7^th on your calendar for the A9 Parent Breakfast. We meet and eat from 7:45-8:30 with a slide show at 8:30. Preschool-aged siblings are welcome.

I am very behind on getting student work back via Friday Folders and I apologize. Hopefully, that wicked virus has left my house and my boys’ sports schedules will settle down this week!

• May 18^th: Curriculum Celebration
• May 22^nd: Spring Concert (It’s on a TUESDAY this year!)
• May 28^th: No school: Memorial Day
• Friday, June 1^st: PE Play Day
• Thursday, June 7^th: A9 parent breakfast
• Friday, June 8^th: Last day—Half day!

Spelling Schedule:

May 14th: Test, lesson for the week then test on May 21st

May 21st: Test, lesson for the week and final spelling test for the year on Friday, May 25th.

Intra and Inter Personal Topics

We’ve had some unique experiences with solving problems around playground equipment and a long-standing battle with pencil sharpeners. Some things we’ve learned from these experiences:

*It’s better to wait until you’re calm to write or talk about the problem

*Studying the problem to find out what is really happening is helpful

*The more specifically you can define the problem, the better

*There is a time, a place and a manner in which to express your frustration

*Finding the right person to help you solve the problem is a good idea

Reading

We are using the reading skill of “’reread” or “read carefully” as we write and publish this week. Going back and rereading what students wrote is not their favorite thing to do, but we’re working on using this skill more carefully. During this careful, overall reading and look at our writing, we often find words that need an s or that we used the wrong way or we find a better way to say something.

Writing

With publishing on the agenda this week, I have been doing a lot of editing with the students. It’s often a fine line between making the writing correct, or the best it can be, and keeping the voice of the individual student. While I will always edit for spelling, capitalization, punctuation and basic grammar, sometimes I let the stylistic things slide in favor of not changing the student’s voice.

Math

We will be diving into story problems again this week, both solving them and writing them. When a student can write a story problem for a specific operation, it usually shows that she or he has fully internalized this concept. Knowing this, it is no surprise that writing division story problems is the hardest type! 2^nd graders are focusing on addition and subtraction and 3^rd graders on multiplication and division. While we focus some on the key words on each operation (find the difference, how many in each box, how many in all), I also want children to be able to visualize and think about what operation makes the most sense. I also have children write the equation as they solve word or story problems. You will see this on the homework this week!

Science, Social Studies and Miscellaneous

Our field trip to Hudson Mills was a great introduction to many of the plant concepts we will dive into next. One thing I have students do is dissect different flowers to find specific plant parts. If you have extra flowers in your garden, or having a bouquet that is fading, we’d love to use these (starting NEXT week!) in our classroom.

Salli’s List:

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Tammy’s List:

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Mary’s List:

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Language Arts/Math/Science:

This week’s blog will be short since the big focus is wrapping up our curriculum project.  I am looking for parents to assist us with this project since many students were out sick for quite some time and are a little behind.  If you are available please let me know and I will coordinate a time with you to come in.  I have one parent coming in on Tuesday afternoon from 1:30-3:00. If your child was out, rather than the pressure of trying to finish the project by Friday, you will see a “work in progress” unit at the celebration.  This will allow for quality completion of the project to be concluded after the celebration.  Darnell and I will be working to help your child get caught up this week.

Spelling & Homework: We will have a spelling test on the following days, May 14, 21st and 25th.  The last day for spelling and homework will be Friday, May 25th!

Thank you to all of the volunteers who chaperoned our field trip to Hudson Mills Metropark on Friday, May 11th.  We had a wonderful time and we had a great review of the plant cycle and got to get wet and dirty in the stream learning about biodiversity and the importance of a healthy stream.  The students got to catch and release many critters such as crayfish, yellow perch, frogs, water beetles, mayfly larva and much more!

Tuesday, June 5th 8:00 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Volunteer/Parent Appreciation Breakfast in room A-10

Please join us for this breakfast as the students will prepare assorted muffins, fruit, juice, tea and coffee to celebrate your support!  If you plan to attend, (all parents are invited) be sure to contact me by May 25th so that I may shop for the supplies. If you have a food allergy, please let me know as well.  As of this date, I have heard from 4 parents.  We look forward to hosting you in honor your support.

May 7th-11th

Important Things and Events

Thank you for all the fruit donations!

We are in need of some parent volunteers on Thursday, May 10^th and 17^th from 1:30-3:00. We have the computer lab and will be typing, editing and formatting all of the animal reports! This is a new skill for many of the 2^nd graders, so extra hands are welcome! You can let me know you’re coming or just appear that afternoon.

Please put Thursday, June 8^th on your calendar for the A9 Parent Breakfast. We meet and eat from 7:45-8:30 with a slide show at 8:30. Preschool-aged siblings are welcome.

• May 11^th: Field Trip to Hudson Mills Metropark
• May 18^th: Curriculum Celebration
• May 22^nd: Spring Concert (It’s on a TUESDAY this year!)
• May 28^th: No school: Memorial Day
• Friday, June 1^st: PE Play Day
• Thursday, June 7^th: A9 parent breakfast
• Friday, June 8^th: Last day—Half day!

Spelling Schedule:

Monday, May 7^th: Lesson as usual, but take the test on May 14th.

May 14th: Test, lesson for the week then test on May 21st

May 21st: Test, lesson for the week and final spelling test for the year on Friday, May 25th.

Intra and Inter Personal Topics

Thursday, May 10^th is Move-Up Day. Our 3^rd graders go visit the 4-5 classrooms and the 1^st graders visit us. This is usually a pretty exciting day for everyone! If your child is feeling unusually nervous about next year’s transitions, please let me know.

I am also looking for any advice 2-3 parents have for the incoming K-1 parents. Mary, Salli and I may be sending out an email to new parents later this spring or in the summer. We can always use firsthand experience to help with this big transition.

Science, Social Studies, Reading, Writing and Math

We are adding more pages to our animal books each week. Each page helps sum up a skill(s) that children have been learning this year. We’re using measurement and graphing concepts to make scaled drawings, finding our animal’s habitat on a world map, writing parts of speech poetry and more! Just today all children finished the first draft of their reports and we have added introductions and conclusions. Later this week, we’ll get out our blue pens for revision and editing and then we will publish.

Last week we came upon several examples of onamotopea and idioms, so we have been exploring and playing with figurative language. We will also begin to look at simple, compound and complex sentences as a whole class. 2^nd graders need to just understand the first two, while 3^rd graders should start to add the idea of complex sentences to their writing.

Many children are noticing huge jumps in their timed-math scores and are excited and proud of their progress!

Your child will need a snack, lunch and drink.  Please have your child dress appropriately for the weather with proper shoes.

Library:  We are visiting the library on Wednesday afternoon since we are on a field trip on Friday.  Please remind your child to bring their library books in on that day.  Also, please check with your child to make sure they are not taking home another student’s library books.  This is causing a problem when the child puts them in the library crate in the classroom and they receive a notice that they are overdue.  Your child should only be taking the books they have checked out. 

Language Arts/Science: 

We are still focusing on completing our drafts of our animal research reports. I am looking for a parent volunteer for the afternoon of Tuesday, May 8th from 1:30-3:00 to assist us with this process.  If you are available, please contact me. The students have their introductions written and are beginning to organize their notes into a coherent report.  This week, I will be introducing how to write a conclusion.  They are using a rubric to check off each area that they have included in their report as well as using the editing process and COPS (Capitalization, Organization/Overall, Punctuation, Spelling) to complete their final draft.  We will begin to type these on Tuesday. We will also be creating a poem that uses the parts of speech to add to our projects.

Math/Science: We will be focusing on completing a graph of the animals that are being reported on in our classroom. Students drew a picture of their animal and I am reducing it down to have them incorporate it into a graph.  We also continue to practice our math facts and review fractions, regrouping, money and time too.

Science: Our Painted Lady Butterfly larva arrived on Thursday and the students are excited to watch the process of the life cycle of this beautiful insect.  They have begun to fill out a journal to record their observations. We read about the life cycle of a butterfly and how it goes through the stages of an egg, larva, pupa and emerges as an adult.  This process takes approximately 4 weeks and once they have emerged as adults, we will release them on the school grounds.  Some of the students have asked about how to obtain these larva and I purchased them from a website called www.insectlore.com.

Homework will still be due on Friday, May 11th but our spelling test will be taken on Monday, May 14th.  Due to the Curriculum Celebration, the test for May 18th will be taken on May 21st. Our final spelling test of the year will be taken on May 25th.

Viruses have invaded our classroom! We have had several students out each week due to a bad virus that causes a temperature, sore throat and stomach ache.  Most students are out anywhere from 2-4 days with this virus.  Thank you for alerting me to this so that I can let Karen know.  She keeps a record of the illnesses that the students are out with.

Salli’s Spelling Group:

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Tammy’s Spelling Group:

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Mary’s Spelling Group:

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May 4: 1/2 Day for teacher professional development

May 10: Third graders visit 4-5

May 11: Trip to Hudson Mills Metropark

May 14 and 21 Spelling tests on two consecutive Mondays to make up for busy Fridays

May 18: Curriculum Celebration

May 22: Spring Performance

A Call for Parent Volunteers

While we are working on our research projects we will need a few parents to come in and help us with our typing.  If there are a couple of parents out there who could spare an afternoon on the next two Wednesdays  (5-9 or 5-15) to help us type our fabulous reports and poems please send me an email!  Our times are from 1:00 until the end of the day.

Also,  we have a fantastic gardening project underway thanks to Christine Billick, aka Anneka’s mom, and some other parent volunteers.  If you have some time to spare and don’t mind getting a little messy please contact Christine.

Lost and Found

Many things are filling the racks in the lost and found department (outside the gym and cafetorium).  If you have some time check for missing boots, jackets, and gloves.

Research Project

Our research project requires each student to choose an animal that they are interested in and learn as much as they can.  So far your children have done a fantastic job of locating information, with the help of Marion our Librarian, taking notes about their critters, and using their critters in an art project with Lindsay.

During that process we have been learning the difference between mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, and birds.  We are also discovering what it means to be an invertebrate. Our next step is to write what we know about our animals in report form.  This will bring together many of the skills we have been practicing this year as writers.

As mathematicians, we have been graphing information about the animals in the class and will continue showing off our math skills with story problems about the critters.

All of these fabulous pieces will come together for you to see at the Curriculum Celebration.

April 30-May 1

Important Things and Events

Our fruit bowl has been empty all month (except for the PTO week).

The spelling schedule will change for the rest of the year due to activites, trips and busy schedules. Here’s how it will work:

Monday, May 7^th: Lesson as usual, but take the test on May 14th.

May 14th: Test, lesson for the week then test on May 21st

May 21st: Test, lesson for the week and final spelling test for the year on Friday, May 25th.

• May 4^th: Half day-dismissal is at 12:00
• May 7^th: Earth Day (rescheduled)
• May 11^th: Field Trip to Hudson Mills Metropark
• May 18^th: Curriculum Celebration
• May 22^nd: Spring Concert (It’s on a TUESDAY this year!)
• May 28^th: No school: Memorial Day
• Friday, June 1^st: PE Play Day
• Wednesday, June 6^th: Tentative date for A9 parent breakfast
• Friday, June 8^th: Last day—Half day!

Intra and Inter Personal Topics

Every spring, the same phenomena happens in classrooms across the country—large groups of children would prefer to socialize rather than do classroom activities. So, we’ve been talking about talking lately. I do give them times throughout the day when they can chat with friends. When it gets really intrusive, I will ask that certain pairs or trios of children not work together for a few days or even weeks. The term we use when this happens is “velcro partners.”

Science, Social Studies, Theme and Miscellaneous

We were excited when the school purchased several balls and frisbees for each level of children! The 2/3 students have a locker for their items and a system of pictures and equipment managers from each class to help keep track of playground equipment. Don’t feel you have to purchase anything, but if you do run across extra balls, jump ropes, sand buckets, shovels or sidewalk chalk (even over the summer) keep us in mind as a donation site!

Many students are still amazed that humans are actually animals! This concept was reinforced as we learned more about cold and warm-blooded animals. While reading Jean Craighead George’s books, we’re learning about the many different adaptations animals and plants make to survive in their environments. We’ll use these great books to easily swing from animals to a deeper study of plants in the next few weeks.

Our class is in love with the science books by Simon Basher. They are full of great information, humorous and at a good reading level for this aged children. I’ve asked Marion to have them at the next Nicola’s book fair.

Reading

A lot of our reading last week was centered around our animal research. Children are still reading books they choose during Read-to-Self time. While I still check in and read with them periodically, a lot of my instruction time has been diverted to helping with the research. It has been wonderful to see the stamina they are building and how their books choices reflect more mature reading levels, yet still fit with their personalities and preferences.

We can’t wait to read the PaleoJoe book the STEM committee bought us after we finish One Day in the Desert!

Writing

Reports, reports, reports! As we begin taking our notes and turning them into sentences, we are focusing on writing good sentences and using paragraphs. The skill of writing in paragraphs is abstract and one of the more difficult 3^rd grade objectives we have to teach them. Still, we soldier on and notice everywhere we see writers using paragraphs and how this helps the reader.

Math

Math last week and this week will be a mix of fractions, operations and things related to our animal books we are making. Students will use measurement, graphing and story problems in their animal books to show mastery of these subjects.

We’ve covered everything in our required math curriculum this year. This is the time when I start checking in and reviewing what we’ve done this year as well as make sure students are extra strong in the operations and facts required at each grade level. 2^nd graders are focusing on subtraction facts and regrouping (carrying and borrowing) with at least two, 2-digit numbers. 3^rd graders should have multiplication facts mastered, be starting to use multiplication to solve division problems and be able to multiply 1-digit numbers by powers of 10 and 100 (4×90, 3×900, etc).

This will be a whirlwind month with wrapping up lessons, curriculum projects, and final assessments. Some important dates to mark on your calendar:

May 4th: Early release time: 12:00 p.m. Teachers attending Professional Development

May 7th: Earth Day Celebration

May 10th:  Third graders will be visiting the 4/5 classrooms to get an idea what it will be like when they move up.

May 11th: Field trip to Hudson Mills Metropark.  The bus will leave at 8:20 a.m. (please have your child to school on time that day) and we will return around 2:45 that day.  Your child will need appropriate outdoor clothing, shoes as well as a snack, lunch and drink too.

May 18th:  Curriculum Celebration: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

May 22nd: Music Performance (Note date changed from May 24th)

June 1st: P.E. Play day

June 8th: Last day of school, release time 12:00.

           Language Arts/Science Integration:  Our big focus for the next two weeks is to wrap up our rough drafts of our animal research reports and to implement them into a final copy for our project.  The kids have really been enjoying learning a lot of information about their animal. We have had a lot of discussions about their animals, the habitats they reside in and if the animal is endangered and the causes for the label.  One side note; as a part of the GLCE’s the students have to know how the animal starts out in the life cycle.  For example, they may read something like the mother is pregnant for x amount of days, gives birth, baby stays with the parent, grows into an adult and finds a mate to mate/reproduce as a part of the life cycle until its death.  Some of the kids have read how some animals attract the mate and we hear some responses like, “Eewww, gross, oh my gosh etc.” With these responses I explain to them that they are animals and it is a natural part of their life cycle and quickly move on to something else.  I have had some questions about how animals mate.  I just mention that they come together and nothing more.  If your child has a question regarding this topic, I suggest  to them that they speak more about it with you.  If you have any questions pertaining to this topic, please feel free to contact me about it. We also continue to read informational text about animals and this week we will focus on adaptations.

I am looking for one or two parent volunteers to come in on Tuesday, May 8th and May 15th from 1:30-2:30 to assist some students with the final typing of their research paper.  I have the computer lab reserved and if you are available either one or both of those days, please let me know.

       Math:  We continue to look at different types of graphs and one integrated project regarding science is the classification of animals. The students work in groups of three and classify the animals in categories such as vertebrates and invertebrates.  Then they put them in subclasses as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Then they complete a table for the number of animals that have fins, lay eggs in water, lay eggs in nest or on land etc. They will take the information from this table and make a line graph.  We will also be measuring each other and comparing our height with our animals height.  In your child’s graded homework, you will receive the first complete graph of your child’s timed math facts.  Tomorrow your child will be making flash cards based on the facts they have not yet learned and they will come home to be a part of your child’s homework. If your child has mastered one set of facts, they will not have these cards but in the following week they will do the flashcards should they not master the next set of facts.

HOMEWORK NEWS: The second graders will be asked now to write a summary of their reading that includes the who, what, when, where, why/how of their reading.  You can expect them to write 4-5 sentence summary at this point.  Some of our second grade students are already at this point and they should continue. I have noticed that some of the third grade students are getting a little lax about completing the math portion of their homework.  This is beginning to show with their timed multiplication facts. At this point, most of the 3rd graders should have 90% of their multiplication facts mastered!

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Mary’s List:

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Tammy’s List:

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