This week was all about thinking outside of the box, and being innovative in several subject areas! While the main focus of Reading this week was to find the main idea and details of nonfiction text, the students also learned through their reading about starting a business, what makes a business successful, and how businesses contribute to the community. They read about many different children who started their own business, and the steps to starting your own business. The last part of the week was spent writing their own “business plan” for the business of their own they would like to start. Have them share these innovative ideas and plans with you at home! Please make sure students are reading each night for their reading log. I continue to encourage students to be reading and filling out book reviews to meet their goal of 20 books before summer for our Royal’s Reading Challenge! We started a new chapter in Math this week, and it is still focusing on fractions. We learned how to add/subtract like fractions, and used our knowledge of last chapter to simplify them. We will continue on with more fraction concepts next week. Here is a fun adding/subtracting fractions game the students can play at home: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/fractions/FruitShootFractionsAddition.htm The other part of our thinking outside the box this week came during Science time. We started our electricity unit. Students learned about static electricity first, and then before learning anything else they tried to make a circuit that would light a bulb. After some trying, some groups were successful and some were not. We discussed how this relates to our lives, and how if we aren’t successful the first time, we need to learn more about what we are doing and then try again. Then, students read about circuits and looked at different drawings. They tried the circuits again, and every group was successful! Please see below for pictures of these experiments. We will finish our electricity unit next week, and then after conferences we will return to Social Studies, focusing on the 3 branches of government. We continued on with our opinion writing this week over which M&M tasted the best. The students read my five paragraph example, and we discussed how to turn our opinion, reasons, and examples into five paragraphs. The students have been writing a paragraph a day, and then we will begin the editing process. The weekly business note will be coming home today. There will be NO spelling list coming home today, as next week is a two day week for students. Reading logs are due on Monday, and we will also be going to preview the book fair, where students will have a chance to make their wish lists! A flyer is coming home today highlighting some of the books that will be at the book fair. No classroom book orders will be sent home for February since the book fair will be here, so make sure to visit it when you are here for conferences. Parent-Teacher conferences are next Wednesday and Thursday. I look forward to meeting with each of you to discuss the growth your child is making! There is also NO school on Friday! A flyer came home about our classroom theme for the PTC Carnival silent auction baskets. Our classroom theme is KU items! If you would like to donate any KU items for our classroom basket which will be auctioned off at the carnival, it would be greatly appreciated!
Some upcoming dates to notice:
The classroom Valentine’s Day party is on February 12th, from 11:00-11:30 a.m. This is a different time than in the past, but I will give more information about that at conferences. Spring pictures are February 16th. The PTC Carnival classroom basket items are due by February 22nd if you would like to donate any! The PTC Carnival is on February 27th. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about anything! Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Schrant
Some upcoming dates to notice:
The classroom Valentine’s Day party is on February 12th, from 11:00-11:30 a.m. This is a different time than in the past, but I will give more information about that at conferences. Spring pictures are February 16th. The PTC Carnival classroom basket items are due by February 22nd if you would like to donate any! The PTC Carnival is on February 27th. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about anything! Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Schrant