May Happenings
May 11th - Mother's Day

Please send in a picture of you and mom by Wednesday, May 7th
May 21st - Zoo Trip
NO SCHOOL - May 23rd & 26th

Memorial Day
Outragehisss...Pets

May 27th & 28th
April Highlights:

A visit from Mrs. Wickersham.

Meeting our 3rd Grade Book Buddies

Reading and Writing Celebrations

The hatching of our chicks sometime around the 21st of May!

Click on the link below to try some fun activities at home:

Starfall

Click on the letters below for some math information.

Family Letter 1: Introduction to Everyday Math

Family Letter 2: Classroom Routines

Family Letter 3: Mid-Year Update

Family Letter 4: End-of-Year Message

Themes:

Mother's Day, Chicks, "What hatches out of an egg?", Animals, The Zoo, Memorial Day
Open Circle: We will use the traffic light as problem solving techniques. The red light will remind us to stop and calm down before acting. The yellow light will remind us to think of the ways we can solve our problem and the green light will remind us to make a plan and try it.
Word Wall Words:
 REVIEW WORDS: and, an, at, am a, come, go, here, I, is, it, in, look, like, me, my, see, this, to, the, up, we

ADDITIONAL WORD: for, all, your, on, our

In addition: color words, number words

We will beging to explore making new words with some of our word wall words. For example: taking the word at and making the words - bat, cat, fat, hat etc.
Word Study / Phonics Students will be introduced to the letter sounds and handwriting formation throughout the year through meaningful activities.

Please review the following: Cc, Oo, Aa, Dd, Gg, Qq, Ee, Ll, Hh, Bb, Tt, Kk, Ff, Ii, Jj, Mm, Rr, Nn, Pp, Uu, Ss, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz

We will revisit the letters and sounds and focus additionally on the ending sounds of words. We will then move into short vowel sounds in the middle of words and using this as a tool to read words such as cat, pin etc.

Writing Workshop: We will begin our Non-Fiction unit of study and write a "How to..." book and and "All About Book". We are learning that we can teach others about things we are "experts" in. Our "All About Book" will include a table of contents, diagrams, pictures with captions, a "fun fact" page and and a Meet the Author page. We are so excited to celebrate at the end of this unit! After our celebration of our "All About" books, we will begin our unit on Poetry which will take us through the month of May. We will compile our poems in an anthology presented to you at our "End of the Year" celebration.
Reading Workshop: We continue our "Just Right" unit in Reading Workshop. During this month the students will learn to read with fluency and expression. Students will be taught to pay attention to tone, action and character. They wil use the pattern to be able to read with a smooth voice. Students will also be taught to use punctuation as a clue to figure out how text sounds.

A special thank you to all of the families who donated books to our class library from our "wish" list. We are using many of them now in the Non-Fiction Unit of Study.

Science: We have begun our next science unit: Animals 2 x 2. We will be taking care of the eggs in the incubator for 21 days until they hatch. During this time we will be "taking a peek" inside a fertilized egg and discussing the development of the chick, the needs of the growing eggs and the needs of the chicks once they hatch. We will compare the life cycle of a chick to the life cycle of a frog, turtle and butterfly.

Just a few reminders:

* Please make sure your child has a light jacket as spring weather can be very unpredictable. We go out site everyyday when the eather is not too cold and rainy. It may warm up in the afternoon, but morning snack recess is still cool.

* Pack a healthy snack along with a lunch for your child everyday. If your child receives a hot lunch, please be sure to send in a healthy snack that day.

* Check your child's folder each night and empty it.

* Remember to have your child get to bed early to ensure a good nights sleep and come to school on time.