April 15th- 19th

Dear Families and Friends,

   This has been an amazing week of learning about the life cycle of a chicken first hand! We had three little, baby chicks hatch in our classroom as the week progressed. On Friday, one of them even decided to use it's egg tooth to break out right in front of us. It was a looong, laborious ordeal that started on Thursday and took more than 24 hours for that little guy. He (or she) was still damp and quite wobbly at the end of the day on Friday. (I will be posting a video of the high-lites on here or Shutterfly in the next week.) The children voted on names for the chicks as they hatched. We have Brownie, Jellybean, and... last but not least... Fuzzy Leyva! They are commedians, aren't they!? lol We did have three children cry about names and knowing that the baby chicks will not be able to live in our classroom for the remainder of the school year. Somehow, I think the health department might have a problem with chickens roosting in our loft! :) 

   Now, as if this isn't all exciting enough, Hanna Horsey offered their family to foster the chicks over the weekend. So Brownie, Jellybean, and Fuzzy Leyva are all safe and sound with the Horsey household, and we will have the chicks in our classroom with us again on Monday! Yippee!! But, the chicks will be going to the farm after school on Monday.  

Reading Workshop:

We will continue our unit on Poetry during our reading lessons this week by reading and examining different forms of free verse poetry.  We will read and write acrostic poems, shape poems, emotion poems and friend poems.  We will continue to add poetry to our poetry folders and in our book boxes to read during workshop.

Writer’s Workshop:

During Writer’s Workshop we will also continue our Poetry writing unit.  We will continue to write our own poetry while learning about various types of poetry.  This week we will write sensory poems and feeling poems.  We will focus on using adjectives to describe objects in the form of poetry.  We will also use the same descriptive language to write Feeling Poems.  We will brainstorm words to describe things and utilize a planning form to collect our ideas before we write.

 Math:

In math we will begin our unit on Doubles Subtraction we will “think addition” that help us quickly recall our math facts.  We will apply the strategies we are learning to problem solving situations.  During this unit we will apply all of the addition and subtraction facts we’ve learned in first grade and be able to identify them in our math notebooks.

 

Science:

Over the past couple of weeks, we have learned so much about animals and their body parts, their special adaptations, and about their basic needs. We will now be learning about how animals and plants need each other and how they help each other survive.

Thank You:

Tuesday Folders - Mrs. Horsey

Homework Helpers-Mrs. Van Metre and Mrs. Bhatia

Computer Lab- Mr. Alagar

Classroom Helpers- Mrs. Rodsari-Sayyar and Mrs. Loschke

At home volunteers- Christi Wright

Reminders:

**STAAR testing on April 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th.  No Parents allowed in the building!**  

Friday, April 19^th  First grade Field Trip to Elgin Christmas Tree Farm

Monday, April 22^nd Earth Day