February Newsletter

February Newsletter

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it certainly is busy.  We will celebrate the 100^th day of school and Valentine’s Day the week before February vacation.  We are learning more about how to write a quality journal entry and we are also going to be working with writing number sentences in math.

The 100^th day of school is Tuesday, February 12^th.  I will be sending home baggies for each student to fill with 100 objects.  These 100 objects should fit into the baggie.  You can fill the baggie with toothpicks, q-tips, pennies, etc. 

Valentine’s Day will be Thursday, February 14. On the back of this newsletter is a class list if your child would like to make valentines.  I would love to have a small Valentine’s celebration in the classroom and welcome healthy red and white snacks.  See if you and your child can think of a healthy treat that is red or white.

I am attaching a copy of our new journal rubric.  The kids are challenging themselves to improve the number of stars they earn for each journal entry.  The purpose of this rubric is to get the kids to give their work their best effort.

Our sight words for February are:  all, an, not, up, and so.  You could practice these words by forming them with cooked spaghetti, writing them in shaving cream, finding the words in magazine, or sticking on of the words under each plate at dinner time to read as you clear the table.

Here’s to a healthy and happy February!

                                                                                

PS: Don’t forget the Early Release Day on Wednesday, February 6.

Playing to Learn

It's another inside recess day.  But at least this indoor recess is due to rain instead of bitterly cold weather.  As the students decided what to play I was thrilled to see the majority of the kids head toward our giant floor map trying to find Iowa and Kansas.  Then I turned around to see some more little learners pulling out all the math tools.  When I asked what they were doing they responded, "We're playing MATH of course!"  Every moment these kids are here they are learning.  They are learning how to problem solve with their friends, how to read, how to write, how to take care of each other and the classroom and how to be the best kids they can.  I am so proud of this class.

Counting by Fives

Mrs. Keach has been teaching the children about counting by fives.  Yesterday she had the children use a hopscotch game to count by fives, and today the children put jewels and popsicle sticks into groups of five.  They also worked on making tally marks.  You can help reinforce counting by fives at home by counting all the fingers on the hands at your house, or by counting the value of nickels, or by simply counting by fives while waiting at a traffic light.  Have fun with fabulous five!

Map Buddies

Today we met with our fourth grade buddies to create a map of Maine.  We discussed the borders of Maine, places of interest, and major roads.  Then the kids were given a blank map of Maine and were cut loose to create their own Maine maps.  The partners used paper maps and Google Earth to discover Moosehead Lake, Mount Katahdin, and I95.  Studnets used the paper maps to show their partners how their parents traveled to work.  One group loved finding their houses using Google Earth.

Taste of Maine Day

Farm Abby came to visit today with a basket filled with Maine produce.  We have learned that we live in the town of Wiscasset, and now we know that Wiscasset is in the state of Maine.  As we have been reading books from Maine authors we thought it would also be fun to eat some Maine food.

Farm Abby brought in root vegetables for half the class to prepare as I worked with the other half to make ployes (a buckwheat pancake).  We talked about how the root is part of a plant that grows underground.  We also watched a liquid ploye mixture turn solid with heat.  When all was ready the kids had a buffet of carrots, turnips, cabbage, ployes and maple syrup.  The kids made a great text to world connection when they remembered their favorite part of "The Wicked Big Toddlah" (by Kevin Hawkes) was when the baby Toddie squeezed a maple tree to get the syrup.  We also learned that the ployes came from northern Maine and decided that northern Maine is a long way from Wiscasset.

We made a chart of how many people liked each food we sampled.  The results are as follows:
Ployes:  15
Syrup:  15
Carrot:  13
Cabbage:  8
Turnip:  9
Everyone also wrote a sentence to share what their favorite food was.  We took Maine foods and covered social studies, science, math, reading and writing standards today.  It was a tasty way to learn!

Retired Word!

Today everyone was able to read the word "can."  It is the first word on our wall that we can retire.  To celebrate everyone is taking home a water balloon with the word "can" written on it. We wonder which word we will retire next......

Calculators

We worked with calculators today. The students explored the + and =  keys and learned what each key does.  We made some adding sentences and tried doing a "big number" sentence as well.

We worked on the conclusion to our snowman story and also listened for the long vowel sounds in words.  You can do this with your child in the car by saying the following words and figuring out what the vowel sound in the middle is:
lake, snake, like, bike, soap, rope, goat, sheep, comb, pine, tune, rude, mule, seal, heel, feet, boat, sign, pike, hike, road, toad, gate.........
Picking out sounds from the middle of words will help develop both reading and writing skills.  It takes just a few minutes, and no supplies other than your brain.  Give it a go!

We have been enjoying stories by Maine authors this week.  The kids have looked at Maine on several different maps.  We have discovered our state is bordered by New Hampshire, Canada and the Atlantic Ocean.  The kids noticed that Wiscasset is very close to the coast.  We found roads and routes.  It's been fun to see where we are in space.  Next week we will take a look at our country and compare our climate to climates around the country.