Spring Has Arrived!
The lovely warm spring weather has arrived and with it has come new opportunities! As you know, when the weather turns warm our outside classroom gets opened up and we are able to take our learning outdoors! We are taking advantage of these chances as much as we can. Whenever we are working independently, maybe during Daily 5, writing, reading or even math, we have an opportunity to take our work outside and soak up some sun and fresh air while we work.
We have learned/reviewed our outside classroom expectations and know that if we do not do our jobs outside and stay on task then we will have to come back inside to work. Some friends choose to stay inside and work anyway...it is completely up to them! As a reminder, you can send a beach towel, hat, and/or sunglasses with your child to school each day if you would like. These items will remain in their backpack until they use them in our outside classroom. Please note that we are spending a lot of time outside in the sunshine. If you would like your child to have sunscreen on to protect their skin, please apply that in the morning before they leave for school. I will not be applying sunscreen during they day and students will not be able to take that out and apply it themselves before going outside. We have been going outside for whole group lessons as well. We have spent time working on spelling and phonics, reading and even social studies, where we learned about our cardinal directions and drew things we found to the North, South, East and West!
In addition to taking our learning outside, we have even taken advantage of the space during lunch and had a combined outside lunch with Mrs. Powell's friends. We will continue this every once and a while when it is super nice out!
We have been working really hard in writing as we have moved on from writing opinion stories to writing personal narratives, which are stories of true events that have happened to us. We have learned that these stores follow a specific format where we tell who we were with and what we did, when and where the event occurred, three specific details and then provide closure with a feeling. Some friends told about funny things that their pet did, a time when they went on vacation, a sleepover they have had or something fun that they did.
This week as we wrapped up our first story, we participated in a peer review. During this time, our class found a partner and took turns reading their stories to one another. The partner who was listening was also looking on to see if there was anything that their partner could fix. They were looking for caps, ends, spelling and whether or not their partner had all of the elements of the story they were supposed to include. Next, they switched roles and then repeated the process with additional partners! It was a fun way to help them throughout the editing process!
In math, we have finished our unit on telling time to the hour and half hour, composing 2d and 3d shapes as well as measuring. I am happy to say that these kiddos have worked extremely hard and they have learned SO much! 100% of our class was proficient on our post test! They did a fabulous job showcasing all they have learned. They continue to enjoy playing review games on these skills during math stations. We have now moved on to two-digit addition. This can be somewhat tricky as they are having to learn how to regroup their ones to make new tens and then add!
During reading we have moved on to learning all about animal habitats. Our class has been extremely excited to learn about a new habitat each day. This unit is lending itself perfectly into our research about animals for our end of the year project. As you know, your child has selected an animal to research at school. While working searching through various platforms including the San Diego Zoo and National Geographic Kids websites as well as kiddle, they have been able to start collecting information about their animal's habitat, diet, predators, parents and babies and will also start finding interesting facts as well. They have been thrilled with the opportunity to research at the end of the day and will have more opportunities during our reading block next week as we will be done with our study on animal habitats and will be able to solely focus on our research collection. Don't forget to start thinking about your animal costume at home. This is the only component to our research that you will have to help with. The rest will be done here at school (research, book making, practicing, etc.). We can't wait to show off our awesome costumes and our hard work at our Morning at the Museum on June 1st!!!!
We would also like to give a HUGE shout out to the Cadillac Rotary who have donated a book to our classroom! Mr. Sparks came and read our donated book to our class. The book is called Ish by Peter Reynolds. It is a terrific story of perseverance, never giving up and the power of a little encouragement. You can listen to the story below!
Don't forget about our upcoming Color Run/Jog-a-Thon that will be happening next week Friday, May 25th!! Remember, when your raises $20 or more in pledges, they will receive a t-shirt to wear through our color blast station! This is such a fun opportunity to raise money for our school, get some exercise and get dirty, all while having TONS of fun!!!
