February 26, 2010

Upcoming Dates

* Monday, March 1st: Class Photo
We will be taking our class group photo on this day at 11:00am. Come to school in nice clothes! Afternoon class, make sure you are not late to school that day or you will miss the picture!

* Sunday, March 7th: March Scholastic Book Orders Due (attached to this newsletter)
Please try to order your books online. Our class earns free books with online purchases. Thank you!
1. Go to: www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
2. Class User Name: Beebear
3. Password: MrsYu (no spaces or periods)
4. Browse books and place order using your credit card (no need to send money to school)
5. About 2 weeks after I receive all the orders, your books will be delivered to school!
If you prefer not to order online, you can return the order form directly to me with ONE check payable to Scholastic Book Clubs. Please hand it to me by Friday, March 5th.

* Sunday, March 14th: Daylight Savings
Turn your clocks forward one hour!

* Monday, March 15th: NO SCHOOL – Staff Learning Day
The teachers will come to school on this day to share classroom management ideas with each other.

* Friday, March 19th: Second Trimester Report Cards Go Home
You will be receiving your child’s report card for the second trimester. Please keep the report card at home, but please return the manila envelope to school.


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Dear Families,

I hope you had a nice week of vacation last week! Congratulations to Lauren’s family and their new addition, baby Rachel! She was born on Saturday, February 20th and we are excited for them. Also, Wednesday was Sean’s last day with us. We said our goodbyes and he gave everyone a high five, handshake, or hug, as he left. We will miss him and his family!

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

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

• Story of the Week: Giraffes Can’t Dance

• Language Arts: In our journals on Monday, we talked about the things that we love. Students chose one sentence to write in their journal, starting with the prompt, I love ______. We are still working on remembering capitals and periods! Students then illustrated their journals.

• Math: This week’s math was an introduction to the numbers 11-20. We learned how to use a ten-frame to help us count on faster. Students should be able to immediately identify a ten-frame instead of counting to ten, and then count on from 10. We also reviewed how to make a bar graph and practiced interviewing classmates about their favorite sea animals.

• Computer Lab: Since it was Sean’s last week with us, we used our Computer Lab time to create a booklet for Sean to take home with him. Each child was asked to write one sentence for Sean as well as their name. This was the first time for many of them to learn about the space bar, the return button, and the period key. Then they illustrated their letter any way they wanted to using Kidpix. Afterwards, we bound the book together for Sean!

• Science: Our focus for the next few weeks in science is to talk about weather, specifically rain. This week we introduced the poem, “Plip! Plop! Raindrop!” to students, and we also talked about different clouds.

• Social Studies: Since last week was President’s Day, we learned about some of our famous presidents this week. We read stories and made portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Barack Obama. We also learned several facts about each president, including Washington and the Cherry Tree, and Lincoln and his log cabin.

• Art: On Tuesday, Mrs. Abada started the first half of a project that will be completed in two-sessions. We used wallpaper to cut out a background of trees, hills, houses, flowers, etc. Students were able to be as creative as they wanted to. Next time, we will be making a clay person to glue on our backgrounds.

Have a great weekend everyone! I can’t believe it’s already March and springtime is fast approaching!