March 6, 2009

Upcoming Dates
* Sunday, March 8th: Daylight Savings Time
Remember to change your clocks one hour forward (Spring Forward, Fall Back!) this weekend!

* Friday, March 13th: Book Orders Due & Cupertino Library
Please write ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs if you would like to purchase books. Also, we will be walking to the Cupertino public library in the afternoon. Remember to send your child’s blue library card to school and have him/her remember the 4-digit password. Your child can check out 2 books. Please return them directly to the library on your own.

* Monday, March 16th: No School – Staff Learning Day
Teachers will be coming to school to work on writing strategies. We will be using rubrics to look over grade-level writing assessments.

* Friday, March 27th: Summer School Forms Due
In today’s Friday Folder, you will find either a blue or green summer school form. This is a free program offered by our school district, and it is optional. If you are interested in having your child attend summer school, please complete and return the form by March 27th.

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Dear Families,

It has been raining everyday this week. Fortunately, on a few of the days the kids were able to go out to play, but everyday we have been eating inside. I think not going outside has been difficult for some children because they do not get a break from the classroom setting. Please continue to remind your children to follow classroom rules and to treat each other nicely.

Here are some highlights from the week:
Star of the Week: Emi
Poem of the Week: What the Rain Said
Song of the Week: Four Hugs a Day
Kindness is … eating healthy for your body
Story of the Week: What is the Sun?
Vocabulary of the Week: People 2
Word Wall: been, evening, far, forest, goes, hungry, near, soon
Next Week’s Sharing: Regular – Your Favorite Book
(at least 4 sentences memorized and bring book or picture to show)

• Language Arts: Theme 6: Animal Adventures – Week 3
• Stories: Red Eyed Tree Frog
• Strategy and Skill Focus: Predictions and Inference
• Word Families: -ay
• Sounds: vowel pairs ai and ay
• Grammar: Naming Words for One or More

• Math: We are doing two chapters simultaneously in the next few weeks. We are reviewing our addition and subtraction facts up to 20 as well as starting our chapter on measurement. We have been learning lots of vocabulary words such as shorter, longer, taller, heavier, and lighter. We started practicing using a ruler to measure items using centimeters and inches.

• Writing: Since some students are finishing up the Mitten stories, we are starting Writer’s Workshop. Students are going to be writing expository pieces on their own, following the five steps of writing. We are practicing how to outline and organize our pieces.

• Science: We are starting Weather and it is perfect because of the rain! We read several books about rain and made a rain poem using words that describe rain. Also, we made umbrellas and raindrops to hang from our ceiling.

• Social Studies: On Monday, it was Dr. Seuss’ birthday! We have been reading many stories about Dr. Seuss, and we even had a special visitor from the Cupertino Rotary club who read and donated a new book to our classroom!

• Music: We saw Miss Rachel again this week. She came into our classroom since the MP room was used for class pictures. We practiced listening to beats, and writing down the beats we heard. We are learning how to notate half notes, quarter notes, and rests.

• Computer: To go along with our Weather circuit, we used Kidpix to make a rain and umbrella picture. In our umbrellas, we practiced making fractions, specifically 1/8th. Students had to decorate the setting of a rainy day.

• Buddies: To go along with Dr. Seuss’ birthday, we read the story, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Then we learned how to make fish origami with our buddies.

• Class Pictures were on Thursday. We should be getting them in a few weeks. Please remember to check your child’s backpack everyday to make sure you don’t miss any important information! Class picture envelopes are usually given out only the night before.

We are losing another student in few weeks =( Kinako and her family will be moving back to Japan, and her last day with us is on Friday, March 20th. We will miss them very much!