March 12, 2010

Upcoming Dates

* 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. We will also be working on the district writing assessment.

* Tuesday, March 16th to Friday, March 19th: No Homework Envelope
Since we do not have school on Monday, we will not be going to the library next week to check out a new book. Therefore, I will be sending home the homework packet on Tuesday in your child’s daily folder, however, they will not be bringing home the large manila envelope. Please return the homework on Friday as usual.

* 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,

Thank you for all of the cute cards, flowers, and gifts to help me celebrate my birthday this past Wednesday. It really made me feel special, and it was really unexpected. I am so fortunate to have such caring students and families! Thank you so much!

Here are some highlights for the week:
• Star of the Week: Last week’s star was Caroline, and this week’s is Sara
(On our website under “Curriculum” and “Star of the Week.”)

• Letter of the Week: Z – we had to learn a few new words in our dictionaries since Z is so uncommon. We learned about a zebrafish, a zebra swallowtail butterfly, zinnias, zither, zeppelins, and many more unfamiliar words!
(You can see our computer center drawings in the “Classwork” section of our website.)

• Story of the Week: I Like the Rain

• Language Arts: This week we reviewed what a concrete poem is again. We remembered making a Valentine’s concrete poem in the shape of a heart. This week our theme has been rain, so we wrote a poem in the shape of rain. We started by reading several rain poems and short stories. Afterwards, we brainstormed our favorite words or phrases that reminded us of rain. We wrote these words down in our own rain poems and illustrated them.

• Math: Everyday since the beginning of the year, we have been doing calendar. Students have learned songs about the months of the year, days of the week, yesterday/today/tomorrow, and morning/afternoon. This next chapter is a review of these calendar concepts. Students have to be able to answer different questions about the calendar, and also give examples of what would happen in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening.

• Computer Lab: Our March poem of the month is called, “Rainy Day.” Students have memorized the words to this poem and had to recite it back to me independently. During our computer lab, we used Kidpix to illustrate this poem by learning how to draw an umbrella. We learned a little bit about fractions when we drew our umbrellas. Afterwards, we added a person and decorated the background with appropriate pictures for a rainy day. These pictures turned out great! You can see them in the “Classwork” section of our website.

• Science: This whole week has been all about weather, in particular, rain. We read a non-fiction book called “Weather” and learned about all the types of cloud cover or precipitation. Cloud cover includes sunny, cloudy, foggy, and partly cloudy skies. Precipitation includes rain, snow, or hail. We also talked about stormy or windy weather too. Then we discussed what activities people can do in different types of weather. Students chose their favorite weather and activity to write about in their journals and illustrated them.

• Social Studies: We started learning about St. Patrick’s Day by reading some books about wearing green and finding leprechauns. We talked about how leprechauns are tricky and try to find gold. We took a picture of ourselves with a “tricky” face, and then made ourselves into a silly leprechaun. These projects turned out really cute because everyone has an orange beard =) During Friday centers, we also learned how to make shamrocks by cutting hearts!

• Art: Ms. Abada came to our classroom again this past Tuesday and helped us with our second half of our projects from last time. We made a wallpaper background last time of a setting of our choice. This week, Ms. Abada gave us Magic Clay to shape and sculpt into a person. We learned how to make all the body parts on our people, and she also gave us some tools to use to add decorations such as lines or dots on our people. These clay people were placed on the wallpaper backgrounds from last time, and needed to airdry for a few days. Be extra gentle with them!

• Assembly: Today we had Mobile Ed Productions come to our school to do a presentation for us called “Magic of Science.” They demonstrated different science experiments using concepts such as chemisty, light, magnetism, optical illustions, physics, and mathematics to show the students amazing magic tricks!

Remember to fill out the Eaton Survey! PTO is trying to get 100% participation at Eaton and that is why they are giving out pencils as an incentive for students to encourage their parents to complete the survey. Also, we have raised over $1000 for Haiti so far. Student Council decided to continue the fundraiser to raise more money, so you may send pennies or coins to school if you would like to donate more.

Also, congratulations to Matthew N., who was shown on television during a Sharks Pre-game Show. They highlighted Matthew for almost a minute and showed clips of him scoring during some of his hockey games! Great job Matthew! If you’d like to see it, I have a video I can pass around!

I have uploaded the photos of our March classroom decorations on the “Photos” section of our website. You can see examples of our Dr. Seuss Cat in the Hats, our Rain Poems, our March Handprint Quilt, and also our Leprechauns! Have a great 3-day weekend and I will see you on Tuesday!