Circle Letter 01/28/16

January 28, 2016

Dear Families,

      Another full and busy week together.  And a great focus on the

5-2-1-0 healthy lifestyle program this week.  The week started with “jovial” life sized vegetables and fruits (Jack and Delia!!)  greeting us off the bus on Monday morning! And great job to our kitchen staff for focusing on healthy food choices each day. 

       The biography posters have been a great home and school project.  We all have enjoyed watch the progress over the course of the week and hearing kids share interesting bits of information about their famous person… names like Leonardo DiVinci, Genghis Khan, Ferdinand Magellan, Elvis Presley, Hope Solo, Albert Einstein… and of course Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr… just to name a few.  It is interesting when connections can be made from one person to another, like the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart. Next week we will build our “hall of fame” in the hallway after short presentations from each researcher.

       We have been having a persuasive writing share this week because all of our writers’ have finished their writing.  Big round of applause to all of our writers!  And lucky you, families… the final drafts are coming home today for you to hear (and perhaps be persuaded…J)  Please make time to listen and respond on the family share paper over the weekend.  Afterwards could you help remind your kiddo to bring back the writing so we can put it into the portfolio.  Thank you for your help with this.

       On Thursday we had a presentation and short puppet show about Safe and Non Safe Touch.  Check in with your child and have them tell you the gist of  it. An important message was reviewed…

Lastly, just a reminder that next Wednesday is an early release.  Thanks for all the home support each day.                          Warm regards~

Circle Letter 01/22/16

January 22, 2016

Dear Families,

      What a great and super fast week together with the kids!  Our days have been filled up with many varied and rich activities.  Our persuasive writing unit is on a fast track at this point.  Thank you to the much needed (and appreciated!) parent help for typing student drafts.  Many will be close to finishing with just a bit of fine-tuning at this point.  Our next writing unit is Information Writing.  Students will share their knowledge and expertise on a self-selected topic.  Stay tuned!

       In Math, Unit 5 has us exploring fractions… we have been using color-coded fractional parts to help understand basic concepts and extend and push our thinking.  This will continue next week.

       Our biography unit has picked up momentum as well.  Kids are finishing their in class biography books and will be doing some on-line research and picture searching of their famous person as well. You’ll get a first hand glimpse of the biography posters each student is working on next week.

       Also yesterday we finished our read aloud book, Hoot.  Ask your kiddo what they thought of it.  In the end… good prevailed over bad and we learned that just one person, even a kid, can make a difference in this world.  A good message for all of us to remember.

       Book Orders are coming home today.  If you are interested in ordering, one check made out to Scholastic is preferred.  If you could hand orders in by Monday or Tuesday that would be great.

Lastly, a big shout out to our School Board presenters at Tuesday night’s meeting.  They did a super fabulous public speaking job.  Woohoo…!

       Thanks for all the home support each day. 

Enjoy the weekend!

Circle Letter 01/15/16

January 15, 2016

Dear Families,

      Our mornings have been dedicated to drafting our persuasive writings… and the students are making great progress as they develop each reason to support their thesis or opinion.  Many are working on their conclusion at this point and will revise next week.  Great job writer’s.

       In math this week we have finished unit 4 which started out with a geometry focus and moved to measurement, perimeter and area.  We have taken a two-day assessment that has also included a cumulative test on concepts taught thus far in the year.

       And we have officially begun our biography study with our non- fiction narrative genre study.  At this point most students have selected a person (or two!) to read about.  Please consider stopping by Rice Public Library this weekend and check out the kids’ biography section.  It’s a good one!  Our focus will move beyond dates and basic facts as we read.  Rather we will try to understand the person’s character traits and what helped him/her prevail; also teasing out obstacles and difficulties that the person faced perhaps due to the time period that person grew up in; and lastly who was influential in this person’s life to help him/her succeed.

        Our cursive practice continues, slow but steady.  You might consider writing a sentence in cursive for your kiddo to practice reading in the Family Letter! It is great watching the kids practice each new letter for they are very focused, attentive and determined to master it.

       Our read aloud book, Hoot is a highlight after lunch.  Each chapter is a rollercoaster of excitement as the various sub plots come colliding together for a big bang of a conclusion.  We are on the edge of our seats.                            Have a great MLK three-day weekend…

Circle Letter 01/08/16

January 8, 2016

Dear Families,

       Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday time and enjoyed the long break from school. Thank you for all of the wonderful holiday cards, sweet sentiments, and the lovely gifts! I felt very spoiled by you. J Also, we love our new classroom supplies!  New pencils, erasers, art items, dry erase markers, Sharpies, glue sticks, soft tissues, hand soap and great books just to name a few! W-o-w! We are in good shape as we head into winter! Also, thanks to our awesome volunteers who helped at the Winter Celebration and for the contributions of various items for our holiday event.  We had great food and treats for our afternoon party!  Truly without you and your help we couldn’t make these types of things happen for the kids.   Thanks Parents!

              It was great to see all the kids after our time away! We have had a good week together getting right back into the swing of things.  We have officially started our cursive practice with a few letters under our belt. Kids seem to love learning it and have good focus and attention to detail.  In writing we are now in the drafting stage of persuasive writing.  Students have chosen a topic that is important to him/her and will develop it and argue their case.  Stay tuned… ! Lots of work this week with perimeter and area in math. We continue with our read aloud Hoot, which is getting interesting as the plot thickens.  And we continue to explore and investigate weather topics.  Thursday we did an interesting exploration with humidity.  Find out more from your kiddo! Lots of new things to start off the New Year… including our new classmate!  How exciting for us.  We happily welcome Malcolm to our class.!