March 17-21, 2014

Dear Families,

I hope you all had a fantastic Spring Break! It has been wonderful for my husband and I, as we were able to travel across the country to visit with our eldest daughter, our son-in-law, and our grand baby! Our middle daughter came home this weekend for her spring break, and she is spending time with our son at SXSW this weekend. Life is so very sweet when it can be spent with loved ones and friends. But of course, there is SO MUCH going on down town that it would take WEEKS to do all that we would like to do. Ahhh, so much to do and so little time to do it...  On that note, please read the following to see what your child will be busy doing in the classroom next week.

Math:  We will begin learning Doubles during Math this week.  There are 2 main things the students need to know about doubles.  The first is that the sum can be split into 2 equal groups, and the second is that the sum of a double is always an even number.  We will find doubles in every day life; we will make doubles with manipulatives and illustrations; we will even write our own doubles math stories. 

Reading Workshop:  This week for Reading Workshop we will dive into our poetry unit. The children will be provided with opportunities to enjoy, study, read, and write poetry. This unit will last for three weeks with this week focusing on what we know about poetry, noticing poetry in what we read, rereading poetry to create images and deepening our understanding, and learning where we find poetry in our world.

Writing Workshop:  Now that we've completed a fun week of Dr. Seuss in our classrooms, we will continue our quest to learn more about understanding and writing poetry by delving into the words that have been penned by other poets. We will learn lots about letters with alliteration and practice feeling rhythm and rhyme.

Social Studies:  As we are switching back to Social Studies this week, we will be learning about goods and services.  We will learn what each of them mean and then identify different goods and services in our homes, at school, and in our community.  We will also learn about wants and needs.  Yes, there are many things that we want, but the things that we need to keep us healthy and alive have to come first. 

Habit #1:  Be Proactive.  I am responsible.  I am in charge of my actions.  I choose my actions, attitude, and mood. 

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Library day is Thursday.

*Please remember to send back your child’s homework bag and contents on Friday.

*It helps me tremendously if you leave the reading response notebook and books in the homework bag. 

Dates to remember:

March 19:  Early Release Day 

March 21: Shamrock'n roll (Turkey Trot)

March 24: PTA board meeting

March 27: Caraway Science Night