February 12, 2010

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, February 15th to Friday, February 22nd: No School – Mid-Year Recess
Enjoy your week of vacation!

* Monday, March 1st: Class Photo
We will be taking our class group photo on this day. Come to school in nice clothes and you will be receiving a photo envelope the Friday before.


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Dear Families,

Here are some highlights for the week:
• Star of the Week: Aditi
(On our website under “Curriculum” and “Star of the Week.”)

• Letter of the Week: K
(You can see our computer center drawings in the “Classwork” section of our website.)

• Story of the Week: Five Little Sharks

• Language Arts: This week we talked about poetry and how poems look or sound different. Some poems rhyme, some poems don’t. Some poems are written in the shape of something, and this is called a concrete poem. We wrote a concrete poem in the shape of a heart using words that remind us of Valentine’s Day. Afterwards, we used tear art to decorate our poems. We practiced using patience to complete this activity with our best effort!

• Math: We are starting a new unit to continue practicing reading, writing, and counting the numbers from 11-20. Continue working on showing addition and subtraction facts using pictures, manipulatives, and in words! Some students are still getting confused how to draw and demonstrate subtraction sentences!

• Computer Lab: We illustrated our February poem of the month called, “Dear Valentine,” using Kidpix. Students stamped a tree made of hearts. You can see these pictures under “Classwork” in our website.

• Science: On Monday, Happy Hollow came to our school and did a 45 minute presentation for our class. This was our in-school field trip. They taught us about four animal groups: birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects. For each animal group, a volunteer in our class dressed up as that animal and we learned facts about that animal group. Then, they showed us real animals including a crow, a rabbit, a turtle, and a walking stick. We had a great time learning about the animal groups!

• Social Studies: This week we continued to read stories about Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Years. We made a Photo bear during Friday centers today and we also passed out our Valentine’s to our classmates! It is always so fun to share cards and gifts with each other. Also during centers, we continued making our Red Envelopes from last week. This was a difficult project to complete because of the weaving through felt, but students’ tried their best! They took home as much as they could complete.

• Buddies: On Tuesday, we saw our fourth grade buddies. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we were challenged to create all sorts of animal pictures using only heart shapes. Students learned to cut out hearts by folding paper in half, and big buddies helped the little buddies think of ways to add details to their animals. Students brought these heart pictures home on Tuesday.

• Music: On Thursday, we saw Ms. Disney for music. She started by teaching us a song using the story, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” We were able to use instruments to sing this song. Afterwards, we learned a fun Valentine partner dance. We danced using our heels and toes, and switched partners throughout the song.

• Code Red Drill: On Thursday afternoon, Eaton School had a Code Red Drill. We have this drill once a year to practice what to do during certain emergencies. Code Red refers to situations where we have to lockdown the doors of our classroom and barricade our doors. This would only happen if there was a stranger on campus or anything where it is unsafe to leave the classroom. Students have to practice hiding quietly in the corner of the room, and the local police department even comes to test our doors. Only the afternoon class had to participate in this drill.

Thank you to Aditi’s family, who donated a class gift card to Lakeshore last week to celebrate Aditi’s birthday. We are very appreciative for the generous gift! Also, I am sad to announce that Sean’s family is moving to San Ramon and his last day with us will be the Friday when we return, February 26th. Please say your good-byes to him and his family, and we will miss him very much!

I hope all of you have a wonderful week of vacation. I will be flying to Los Angeles and spending time friends there. Then I will be in San Diego to re-visit my college town! I am excited to go to the Zoo and Seaworld (I never went there when I lived in San Diego!). See you when we return!