It is so hard to believe that April is upon us already! Where has the year gone? The children are applying all that they have learned daily now. It is truly amazing to see the growth that they have made!
Math continues to find us working on the concept of subtraction. The children have found this to be an easy concept to understand because we have worked so hard on the concept of addition and have learned that this is the opposite. We continue to work on word stories and deciding which operation to use - addition or subtraction. They are so good at this activity! We also continue to review counting to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's, ordinals, tally marks, as well as reviewing the addition and subtraction facts to 5.
We began discussing Space this week. The children are so excited about this topic! We discussed our solar system, what planets make up our solar system, what planet we live on, and the sun. We have learned a fun song to remember the planets and the children love acting it out as we sing it! Many of them know it by heart already, be sure to ask them to sing it to you!
We are winding down our 'How-To' informational books in Writer's Workshop. We will finish this unit next week and will start our last unit, Persuasive/Opinion writing, when we return from our break. Besides working on our informational pieces, we will also be writing in our Space Journals.
On Wednesday Grace Lin, author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, visited our school. The children loved listening to her as she told them the different steps of how to publish a book. At the end of her talk she taught the children how to draw a 'good luck' tiger! The children each received a signed book plate from her to put in one of their books. She was wonderful!
 |
| Grace Lin discussing with the children what 'published' and unpublished' means. |
 |
| Discussing the different steps that it takes to publish a book. |
 |
| Teaching how to draw a 'lucky tiger'! |
Thank you to Tate's Mom for being our Mystery Reader this week!
Today we got together with our 3rd grade buddies and created beautiful flowers to hang in our classroom. As always, it was a great time!
Conversation Starters:
- What planet do we live on?
- Is the sun a planet? (no, it is a medium sized star)
- What is Pluto considered now? (a Dwarf Planet)
- How many moons does the Earth have? (1)
- Is there water on the Moon? (Just recently a NASA rocket found about 25 gallons of water in the form of vapor and ice on the Moon's surface)
How You Can Help:
- Encourage your child to practice the sight words and math facts that were given out at our parent/teacher conference.
- Encourage your child to practice writing the letters of the alphabet, both uppercase and lowercase.
- Take your child to the public library and take out some books on Space!
Looking Ahead:
- Spring Break - April 14 - 23
