A Few People Can Make A BIG DIFFERENCE!

WHAT A GREAT WEEK WE HAVE HAD!

Friday we got together with second grade to celebrate the EARTH during this week of Earth Day! The four classes rotated between the four classrooms and your children were mixed with the second graders for something different. When they came to our room we read THE LORAX and talked about how ONE person/a few people can make a BIG DIFFERENCE! We will be living that in a week when our 4th annual lemonade and cookie stand takes place! The children cannot wait! 

The children also took part in a nature walk, they decorated paper grocery paper bags that will be returned to the Price Chopper in Brookside for reuse, and they looked at the difference between polluted and clean water! WE ALL HAD A BLAST celebrating the EARTH!

Decorating paper bags!

This small water bottle is full of polluted water! They could not locate the fish food because of all the trash!

 

THE LORAX!

Creating our TRUFFULA TREES!

We have also  been hard at work during our language arts block in the mornings.  Take a look at the pictures below as we continue to read with the teacher, learn all about VERSATILES- a fun way to review skills, practice our spelling, work with nouns, verbs and adjectives and much, much more! 

The children have learning about synonyms and antonyms as we compare and contrast words.

Spelling Practice

Sofia uses a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast two versions of the same folktale.

ABC order using words from The Emperors New Clothes! This has become a favorite folktale in our classroom!

Elizabeth and Jackson read a story while preparing their Literature Circle discussion!

Carmen draws a line to connect the two words with opposite meaning.

VERSATILES! The kids use tiles to answer questions on a skill review sheet. Once they have answered the questions and placed the tiles accordingly, they flip them over to check the pattern. If it matches, they have answered all of the questions correctly!

Ms. Lorfing guides the children through their first lesson using VERSATILES!

Charlotte sorts nouns, verbs and adjectives and then places them in sentences!

In math this week, Mrs. Waller continued to work in small groups with children to differentiate math instruction. Those not working with the teacher are working independently with a tic tac toe board. This math tic tac toe board, similar to our language arts boards, covers the many different skills we have covered throughout the year. They have also been working on creating and discriminating between shapes such as hexagons, pentagons and octagons! Soon we will dive into our 3D shapes! YOU'VE GOTTA LOVE GEOMETRY!

Using a checklist to create a variety of shapes on the geoboard!

In social studies the children completed their story maps! WOW! They look amazing, please stop in to see them. They have started to present their hard work as well....they have done such a good job with this collaborative project! We have also begun the hard work that it takes to put on our first grade LEMONADE AND COOKIE STAND! We broke into small groups to brainstorm a name for this stand. We narrowed it down to two names by voting.  We then got together with Miss Fate and Mrs. Wyllie's class to hear their two names and voted on our final favorite....are you ready????? The name this year will be: 

YUMMIES 4 YOUR TUMMIES 

2 HELP HAITI

We have also discussed pricing and marketing. We will sell cookies for $.50 a piece and lemonade for $.50 a glass. The children have started creating their fliers which will come home next week for distribution. 

The Three Bears

Little Red Riding Hood

The Three Little Pigs

Hansel and Gretel

Jack and the Beanstalk

Holden, Jackson, Kate and Sophie present their hard work!

Eli, Emma, Lamar and Naomi share their hard work as well!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOFIA!
We loved celebrating with you!

Sofia gets ready for her seven jumps!

SPELLING:
Skill: irregular plurals

Words: brushes, foxes, bosses, boxes, lunches, dresses, glasses, matches, wishes, dishes

Challege: period, children, comma, geese 

SURPRISE!!!!!????????

 

INFORMATION FOR OUR STAND:

1. The children will create fliers to help market their lemonade and cookie stand. We realize this is somewhat "old school" but it is one way the children can really be involved. We are instructing the kids to distribute the fliers around their neighborhoods with an adult. We also encourage distribution at parents' workplaces- only if appropriate.

2. On Tuesday or Monday of next week, I will send out an email blast that you can forward on to anyone and everyone you know-as a means of further advertisement; friends, family, neighborhood associations, etc.

3. You can drop off items starting Thursday afternoon at 801 Huntington (the corner of Huntington and Summit). Dana Gould will be home the evening of Thursday, May 1st and all day Friday, May 2nd. You can drop off items during any of those times. If for some reason she has to step out she will leave a cooler on her back porch area if needed. 

Thank you for your support! The response has been amazing. WOW! Your children are learning what it truly means to give and how good giving makes you feel.

OTHER REMINDERS:

1. Wednesday, April 30th-your child may come to school dressed as their favorite fairy tale or folktale character. The information on this came home Tuesday in their backpack folder. This is completely OPTIONAL! It is the last day of our theme and just one way we celebrate.

2. Friday, May 2nd-Pillar Luncheon....a part of the 50th anniversary celebration! All children will need to bring a COLD lunch that day. The kitchen will NOT be open and HOT lunch WILL NOT be an option. We will eat in our rooms or outside if able.

3. Friday, May 2nd: YUMMIES 4 TUMMIES 2 HELP HAITI! FROM 4-6PM at 801 Huntington!

Another thank you to our volunteers this week: Sophia's mom, Sophie's mom and Emma's MIMI! We have appreciated your help.....can't imagine what we would do without it!

WOW! It is almost May. We are trying to take in every last minute possible with your children. We can't imagine a day without them! We will soon be moving on to our MERRY MONTH OF MAY theme as we introduce the children to the wonderful world of poetry! TIME IS FLYING BY.....have a great weekend!
Love,
Sara and Carey