Short, but Busy!

It has been a short week, but we have stayed very busy. We continue to write in our Australian journals, we are finishing up our Australian animal research and we are learning more about the Aboriginal Dreamtime symbols and their artwork. Please enjoy the pictures below. We are having a blast! 

Our entry about the Aborigines....

Animal Research!

DINGO, DINGO! ...a story on Starfall.com

A coral reef puzzle!

Aboriginal artwork and their DREAMTIME symbols!

In math this week, we have continued our study of fractions. They are so much fun. When the children return from their long weekend we will wrap up our study of time and fractions and start to learn about measurement and 3 dimensional shapes. WOW! Your children are doing so well in math!

Matching the picture with the words: one whole, one-third, one-fourth, etc...

TOSS FOUR CHIPS: the children tossed four two-sided chips (one side = yellow/ one side= red) and had to determine the fraction for the red part and the fraction for the yellow part. For example, in the above picture Jack ended up with 2 yellow chips and 2 red chips, so 2/4 are yellow and 2/4 are red! THE DID SO WELL!

Campbell hard at work....

On Tuesday, we used Ed Emberly's book, Picture Pie, to illustrate our fractions. In the picture above, the student wrote: My mouse has four equal parts, 3 parts are orange. My mouse is 3/4 orange! WOW!

In social studies this week we have continued to study the Aborigines and their influence on Australia. We have also begun to study some Australian animal vocabulary so we can get ready for our Australian animal presentations, which will start next week. Some of the animals have started to trickle in! We can't wait until our room is full of them!

VOCABULARY

The echidna slurping up an ant!

The gray-headed flying fox! 

In TNT on Wednesday, the children all chose an Australian fact to write on an Australian lizard. Then they placed some Aboriginal Dreamtime symbols and artwork on the lizards....they are quite colorful! SO FUN!

SPELLING
Skill: controlled vowel- "ar" and "er"

Words: farm, part, card, chart, yarn, start, fern, her, perch, kernel

Challenge Words: Perth, computer, Outback, spring

SURPRISE???????  

REMINDERS

Monday, March 9th: Australian animals are due!

********Wednesday, March 11th: Please have your child wear all black for the International Festival.  Do not go out and buy anything...just do your best. They will be taking part in an Australian Animal Parade.  The focus will be their animal, but we would love for the kids to look uniform; hence the reason for all black!  We thought this would be easy and keep it simple.

SPRING BREAK  is the week of March 16th, No school Monday, March 23rd for faculty development. Classes will resume Tuesday, March 24th!

We are looking forward to seeing you at conferences over the next few days! Good luck working on your Australian animals. Let us know if you have any questions. 
 Thank you.

See you at conferences,

Sara and Carey