Happy New Year! We have had a busy first two weeks of 2014!
We are "Beary" excited to let you know... that our first Publishing Party will be on Thursday, February 6th from 8:30 to 9:20 a.m. The writers/illustrators in our class have been hard at work writing drafts, revising, editing, and publishing their very own books. They are so excited to share them with you! I hope that everyone will be able to attend!
Just the "Bear" Facts!
In Science, We have been having a beary good time learning all about how animals get ready for the winter. We learned about animals that hide, migrate, and hibernate. We learned that an animal's heartbeat is much slower during hibernation and we did a fun activity where we sat very still and counted our heartbeats for one minute. Then we did 25 jumping jacks and counted our heartbeats! The children were able to see that animals heartbeats and breathing rate is lower during hibernation because the animals are not active.
We also have been working on our unit on weather. We have been learning all about air and we did a few fun experiments with air. Ask your child to tell you about them. Here a few pics...
Reading
We have been reading many different books about animals in winter and bears in our guided reading groups and during Science.We have been focusing on bears and have been learning about the eight different species of bears. We have been working on identifying the main idea and details of a story/passage and we just began distinguishing between facts and opinions. We also learned the decoding strategy called "Flip the Sound", which is when you are reading a word if you notice that it does not sound right, then look at the word... if you read it with a short a sound then you could try it with the long a sound. We also have been working on rereading for meaning and fluency.
Phonics Fun!
In Phonics we have started the Long A sound. We distinguished between the long and short a sounds. We worked on the Magic e rule and learned that when there is a CVCE the e makes the vowel say it's name. We played some fun games to practice the long A sound. This week we are focusing on the ai and ay sound of long A.
Spelling
This week we had our first Spelling test! The children were so excited and everyone did a fabulous job! They did a wonderful job using their Spelling Menus for homework.
Math
In Math, we worked on Estimation and Even and Odd Numbers. We learned how to use groups of ten and information that we already know to make smarter estimates. We used snowballs(cotton), raisins, and different counters to practice making smart estimates. We also have started to pair up with a buddy to measure and create a life size bear during our bears unit. We worked on solving word problems and adding three numbers.
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| A fun estimation activity using raisins! |
We will be visiting the Scholastic Book Fair on Thursday, January 23rd at 2:15. All parents are welcome to attend. Please fill out the order form that was sent home last week and send back to school on or before Thursday if your child would like to purchase books.
International Family Fun Night is on Friday, January 24th and the Book Fair will be open that night too.
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| Spanish and Art presentation... |
Some cute pics...
