March 18th

The last two weeks we spent on trying to persuade the Leprechaun to come and visit our classroom. The students wrote a persuasive essay and even typed it on their own.  We made a shamrock stamp rubbing and played math games with fruit loops. On Friday the leprechaun left us a whole bunch of star burst that led to a giant black cooking pot.  We counted the star burst by 2's and put them on a parachute and counted them again.

March 10

Look for report cards. They are coming home on Monday.

March 2

 

Reading:  We got to use the new reading program our district purchased to view different stories.  We read about the Statue of Liberty and came up with the main ideas of different paragraphs.  We were able to come up with different questions that we wanted to know.  We read “John Henry” and them compared it to a class version.  We also started to practice writing 10-minute summaries, which is a new assignment for our weekly homework.

Math:  We reviewed the different strategies to do addition in 2 digit regrouping.

Science:  we finished our unit on matter an are preparing to take the test.  We still have a cup of water that we are waiting to evaporate.

Social Studies:  We introduced the continent of Australia.  And talked about government and the Arctic and Antarctic.

Art:  We are trying to finish up our name art project.

Feb. 25

Math:This week we have been reviewing greater than, equal too, and less than.  We also reviewed base 10 in preparation of starting double digit addition and subtraction with regrouping. This is an important concept that we will be spending lots of time on.
Reading: We just keep reading and reading and writing summaries.
Spelling:  We reviewed many of the spelling patterns we learned this year.  The test scores were impressive.
Science:  We did 2 experiments on matter.  We turned the liquid "cream"  into a solid "butter"  by shaking and mixing it. Then we ate it on crackers.  Our last experiment we took a solid "chocolate"  and melted it using heat.  We burnt the first batch and saw how it quickly turns back into a solid.  The next batch we heated at a lower temperature and enjoyed pretzels dipped in chocolate.

Feb 17th

Reading:  We have been working on different strategies in Non Fiction Text.  Some groups worked on comparing different Extreme Weather, finding the main details, asking questions that will help them understand the text and finding the meaning of words through and encyclopedia. The Later Gators earned pizza because they were able to sustain silent reading for 1 hour 3 different times. 

Spelling: We worked on contractions.

Math:  We took the test on "Time".  The class did very well. There are still a few who are struggle with a quarter to the hour.  On Valentines Day we used chocolate kisses and fruit loops to start to add and subtract double digits. The kiss represented "10"  and the fruit loops were "1's".

Science:  We continue to study about Matter.  We also looked at the temperatures around the world. 

Art:  We are just trying to finish old projects.

Feb.12th

Reading: We have been practicing finding the main idea and note taking in nonfiction books. 
Math:  We introduced a "quarter to" this week.  This is hard for most children because the hour hands are different for digital clock.  I sent home their pretest we took about 2 weeks ago.  We should be ready to take the post test next week.  It would be wonderful if parents took the time to review the pretest with their child.  We went over it in class.
Social Studies:  We talked about voting, elections, and map studies.
Science:  We are studying matter and looking at the ways we can change solids.  We also had a visit from the dentist and talked about being healthy.
Art:  We finished our warm and cool pictures and started working on designing our names using different patterns.

We will be having a Valentine Party on Tuesday.  There are 28 children in our class.  The class list were sent home on Thursday.

Feb.3rd

Reading:  We have been working on Authors Purpose and making our details in our summaries thicker. We look at some of the thin answers and try to add more details.
Math:  We continue to work on clocks.  We learned a quarter past/after and quarter to.  The quarter to is the hardest part for most children to learn.
Art:  We are working on a cool and warm art project.
Social Studies: We are finishing up the continent of Asia and starting to work on a Patriotic theme.
Science:  we started our unit on Matter.  Our first experiment was to take ice and watch it turn into a liquid.  Now we are keeping track of how fast it turns into a gas.