Thursday, November 22nd,
2012
Grade
Two News from BVE
Dear Families,
Reminders
Ø The
computer lab is open before school (Mon-Thurs), at recess, and after school
(Mon-Fri) for students to take AR Tests.
Many of the books in our classroom library are AR books (even if they
don’t have a sticker on them!) If you or
your child is unsure whether a book is an AR book, please ask – I can easily
check for you!
Ø Water
bottles – I will be sending home water bottles at the end of each week to be
cleaned. Please return the water bottle
to school each Monday. I cannot stress
how important a hydrated brain is for learning!
Units/Topics of Study
In Language Arts we
have been busy writing (among many other things!) and I am SO impressed and
proud of the hard work I have seen happening.
We have discussed how writing is just like “talk written down,” and that
what we say about a topic or an idea is the same as what we can write
down. My mom, a retired primary teacher,
visited us last Friday to do a story drama on the Aesop’s Fable, “The Ant and
the Grasshopper.” Wow – what creative
minds we have in our class! We did a
written response to the activity and had students read them aloud on Monday –
they were very well done. Good job
everyone! Here is a link to the Aesop’s
Fable we based our story drama on – the quality isn’t the best, sorry!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM1DgihKHVI
In Math we are
continuing to explore numbers from 0-100.
We have moved on from our focus on estimation, and are continuing with
place value, equal/unequal, comparing numbers, as well as money. We have been discussing pennies, nickels,
dimes, and quarters. These coins are
excellent for practicing our skip counting skills. You can support your child at home by
encouraging them to count any change you have, or find the right coins to pay
for an item. A fun activity to play
is “How Many Ways.” With a collection of coins, challenge your
child to find how many ways they can make a certain amount. For example, “How many ways can you make 25
cents?” (2 dimes, 1 nickel – or – 5
nickels – or – 1 dime, 3 nickels)
We wrapped up our Science unit on Matter this Tuesday, by
making Oobleck. Oobleck behaves like a
solid AND a liquid at the same time!
I’ve included a link that has directions and a video if you would like
to do this fun activity at home.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=oobleck-bring-science-home
Our Georgia O’Keefe inspired poppies will be ready to go
home next week. If you would like to
pick up your child’s poppy (to carefully transport it home) just let me
know! They are SO beautiful!
Our Chinook salmon eggs arrived on Tuesday. We are very excited! They will hopefully hatch before we break for
our Christmas holidays!
Thank-you for your continued support!
Naomi
