**The students have been kept very busy this week working on their space stations. Per the teams specifications, I cut and taped the boxes together. Each team discussed the color palette--white, gray and black were the colors. I observed lots of discussion and compromise related to what color and where to used that color. The students spent 3 days painting and are now ready for the detailing part which will begin on Monday. They are looking pretty cool already! The students did a wonderful job of keeping the paint contained to their area. Very few spills! There was discussion and praise for each other on the work completed. Monday and Tuesday will be our detail days. If you have some spare time in the afternoon, stop by and I will put you to work with a glue gun! Email me for the exact times.
**The Egg Drop/Academic Fair is Wednesday, April 23rd. Students with projects can bring them for set up in the gym before school begins. Our class will visit the Fair in the morning. The projects will be displayed during the day. Students with projects will return in the evening from 6:30-7:30 pm. when families and the community will view and hear about the projects. Students can bring in their Egg Drop Vehicles on Wednesday morning. The contest will begin at 12:30 on the black top. Students will drop their vehicles from the third floor window. Please join us if you can. It should be very exciting!!! We have quite a few students who have created vehicle and 2 students with projects!
**Route to Reading Rotation 7 will begin on Tuesday, April 22nd. At that time, you will receive notification of your child's skill level.
**A SHOUT OUT to Reid and Samantha whose writing was featured in the Irving School Newspaper, "The Irving Inquirer." All of you received a copy!
**Our GREEN TEAM reps, Reid and Gina along with all the Green Team members have prepared some great activities to celebrate EARTH WEEK! See the flyer in our child's homework folder. Monday--Sunny Notes will be sold for 25 cents. Don't forget to fill out your Earth Day Report Card for home!
**Our class came in 5th place in the Scholastic Books for All Coin Challenge! Our class alone raised more than $100!!!! Our school raised over $1000!!! Thanks to all who participated!
**OPERA for the YOUNG'S presentation of the "Barber of Seville" is Tuesday, April 29th at 9:30 am. in the gym. Ms. Hiolski has been working with students on some interactive singing parts!
This event is always lots of fun!
**Please read the information on the Tasty Dog Challenge.
**The Irving Book Fair will take place this week (4/21-4/24.) A flyer with information is in your child's homework folder.
**Upcoming Event--Traveling Poets, under the direction of Ms. Noonan will begin traveling in early May. Look for information on how this all works soon. It is really something!!
**Run With Me!! Join the Fun Run on Saturday, May 10th at 8:00 am in Lindberg Park celebrating National Fitness Week. Information on this will be in this week's Tuesday Packet!
This week:
It was all about space stations, the moon and Easter bunnies! Much of our afternoons were spent painting and thinking about details that each team wanted on or in their space station. We will see how it all comes together! Look at the science section to hear about the moon. The students shared their family traditions about Easter in both religious and social contexts. Julia brought in a Ukrainian Egg to share. The students had many questions about how the paint got on the egg and why the egg didn't crack. Together we gathered some information on Ukrainian Eggs via the internet. We learned that the inside of the egg is emptied by making a tiny hole. The design is drawn on and the pattern is made thru wax resist. Very beautiful. You can view on the thumbprint photo. Julia shared that she got it while in the Ukraine when she was very little. Thanks, Julia!!
Reading/Social Studies: The students have nearly completed Unit 8 Plants in our Treasures Reading series. We will tie up any loose ends at t he beginning of next week. This week the students read and talked about what grows in a garden. Students thought aloud and accessed prior knowledge about gardens in their backyard and other gardens they know about. The students listened to the trade book, "Sunflower House." They paid special attention to the beginning , middle and end of the story. They responded to the literature by making connections in their own lives about the process of growing a sunflower and seeing how big it can get. All students reviewed the target words here, little, said and was. We played, "Hands Up, Hands Down" for a good review. The students continue to review target wounds short u, Kk and use of ck. The students also reviewed use of adjectives and created a group list to describe a sunflower. We read the story and students contemplated aloud clues that help them draw conclusions about the story. The students worked in small groups using the retelling cards to retell the story in their own words. Robust Vocabulary included ARRANGE, TEND, BASIC, SENSES, GARDEN. We continue to work in the Haggerty Blue Book on blending, segmenting, adding, deleting and substituting phonemes. Workstations this week included leveled readers discussion and fluency checks, word family word building, hide and seek words, mixed up sentences, short vowel round up activity, silent e word find and playing the "Super Sweet Parts of Speech Game."
Math: The students continue to work on story problems in their math process journals. Being able to show how they got their answer is becoming easier to figure out. They are beginning to understand the relationship between numbers in a number family using both addition and subtraction. The students continue to work on reading and writing 2 and 3 digit numbers, rote counting from 1-130, counting on from a random number and using ten frames to describe 2 digit numbers. Math workshop activities included solving addition and subtraction story problems, telling time by the hour and number writing practice. The students continue to work on 3 dimensional structures using magnetos, straws and pipe cleaners and Connects. Our "Structure Museum" looks really cool!
Writing: The students are working on their final copy of their shadow pose paragraphs. I have begun to put them up in the hall. Stop by and see them!
Science: The students pondered the question--What is the moon? They compared elements of the daytime and nighttime sky. They discovered that unlike the sun, the moon can be seen in both the day and night sky. The students discussed the terms sunrise and sunset and their true meanings. Thru our internet sources and pictures, they examined the moons surface. In an experiment, students recreated the surface of the moon using flour and cocoa powder as the moons surface and dropped marbles in it to create craters, seas (flat dark areas) and mountains. Very cool! The students took a look at the different shapes the moon appears to make at night in the course of a month. It appears that the "phases" repeat themselves like a pattern each month. The students reflected their thoughts in their science journals. They continue to study space travel, space vehicles and travel to the moon. Next week--let's try some space food and make some star gazers!
Technology: The students continue to help video tape our space station project phases on the iPad. They have watched short sequences about the moon via the app BrainPop and checked in with app NASA for latest updates in space during science. In reading small group, the students used the app iTalk to record their reading for fluency and used the reader's checklist to critique themselves. In math whole group the app Subitize Tree was used to reinforcement "mental" math skills. The students continue to use the app Math Rack for adding and subtracting activities on the rekenrek.
Literature: "Life in Space," "One Giant Leap," "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "It's Spring," "I Want to be an Astronaut," "Mooncake," "Black Holes," "The Moon Book," "Finding the Moon," "Magic School Bus-Walk on the Moon," "Phases of the Moon."
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