Please keep in mind that Wednesday, January 27th is a 12:45pm dismissal day for the students. The children will not be having lunch in school that day, but may need a bigger snack than usual to get through the morning.
Valentine Projects went home last week. This project can be a quite labor-intensive and time consuming if left until the last minute to do. Please help your child pace him/herself so that it does not become overwhelming. Completed projects should be returned to school by February 10th.
Here's what we were working on in the classroom last week:
Reading : This week, we used our schema about our life experiences to make connections with the texts we're reading. In the classroom, we call these text-to-self connections. A text-to-self connection is when a text reminds you about something that has happened to you. Meaningful text-to-self connections will help you have a much deeper understanding about the text you are reading. For example, if I am reading a book about a character getting his/her name made fun of in school, it could remind me of when my classmates made fun of my name when I was growing up. When it happened to me, I was very hurt and didn't want to come to school, so it could help me understand how the character in the book felt. When you're reading with your child at home, ask if he/she has any text-to-self connections.
Writing : The students spent time getting their 'how to' books ready for publishing this week. They made sure their books make sense, checked for capital letters and periods, and made sure that they have all the important parts of a how to text.
Math : We continued learning about comparison symbols this week (<, >, and +). We also talked about finding how the difference between two numbers.
Science : This week, we focused on the water cycle and how it plays into our weather.
Social Studies : We got back to our geography unit this week by learning about map keys and how maps use symbols to show different places. We also spent some time looking at weather maps and how many inches of snow the forecasters thought we were going to get. :)
Here are a few pictures from last week: