April 2, 2010

Upcoming Dates

* Sunday, April 4th: April Scholastic Book Orders Due (attached to last week’s 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!

* Monday, April 5th: Spring Portraits (optional)
Today you are receiving the picture envelopes for your child’s spring portraits. If you would like your child to take these pictures, please return the picture envelope to me in the morning when your child arrives at school.

* Monday, April 12th to Friday, April 16th: No School – Spring Recess
Enjoy your week of vacation!


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Dear Families,

Congratulations to Keona and Matthew N., who both participated in Eaton’s Science Fair this past Wednesday. Our class had a chance to walk through the Science Fair during the school day and see all of the projects! Keona did an experiment to see which color house would absorb the most and least heat from the sun. Her conclusion was that black absorbs the most heat and light colors absorb the least amount of heat. Matthew N. did an experiment to see what kind of liquid would help to grow a plant the best. He concluded that water is the best liquid for plants to grow. Great job!

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

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

• Story of the Week: Looking for Easter

• Language Arts: On Wednesday, we had to go to the Science Fair, so we had shorter centers. Therefore, we only had to write about our favorite part in listening center this week. We have been learning about eggs and animals that hatch from eggs. One story we read was called An Egg is Quiet. In our journals on Monday, we had to draw and write about an animal that hatches from an egg. We learned that birds, reptiles, and amphibians are some types of animals that hatch from eggs.

• Sharing: I will be using the new sharing evaluation sheet starting next week. Hopefully this will help you to see a few more areas that your child can keep practicing on. I added fluency (good pace, not rushing or pausing), participation (listening, body still, asking questions), and visual (evaluates the picture, drawing, or object that is brought).

• Math: We have been practicing our numbers from 21-30 this week. We have been working on skip counting by 10’s and counting on from any number, such as 20, 21, 22… Also, we have been learning to estimate whether a number is more or less than another. We are using tricks such as identifying 10 when seeing a ten-frame, or identifying 5 when seeing only half of a ten-frame.

• Computer Lab: We illustrated our April poem of the month called, Earth Day. We drew these pictures in Kidpix and made a landscape of things from nature. Students learned that in drawings, objects that are closer are bigger and objects that are farther should be smaller. We also added different animals in the water and land. You can see our drawings in the “Classwork” section of our website.

• Science: In addition to learning about eggs, and animals that hatch from eggs, we have been learning about the water cycle. We learned a song to teach us the big words in the water cycle, and also made a project to show how water travels. We learned that the sun helps water evaporate into the air, and that makes clouds form, which is called condensation. After many drops are added to the cloud, then it rains or snows, which is called precipitation. Students just need to understand that our weather changes and so does water.

• Social Studies: We have been doing some projects to celebrate Easter, such as making a tempura paint egg, as well as a clay chick. We have also been reading many stories about bunnies, chicks, and baby animals. Thank you to Colleen’s family for bringing cookies and juice for the kids to enjoy in celebration of Easter!

• Assembly: Our assembly today was by the Traveling Lantern performers. They told different stories from Greek Mythology using acting and different props. They are always wonderful with our audience.

• Music: We saw Ms. Disney on Thursday and we started by singing our old song, “Oh Where, Oh Where, Can My Little Dog Be?” Students who had not had a turn playing the game to this song got a chance on that day. Afterwards, we learned a song about Old Mother Hubbard and her little dog. We acted out a story with Ms. Disney, pretending to be the doggies.

I apologize to my morning class for forgetting to send home the homework envelopes again on Monday! If you pick up your child, please remind me if you do not see his or her homework folder. Thank you!!! That will help me to remember.

Have a great weekend. Many children shared that they will be attending an Easter Egg Hunt at their preschool or church or at someone’s house. I hope you have a wonderful time with your families. I will be performing with my dance group, Eight Count, on Sunday for our Easter Service, so it will be a busy weekend for me! See you on Monday!