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April 16, 2007 Issue The Stroud Crowd Newsletter > April 16, 2007 What's New in Room 202? I hope you had a chance to visit our class tables at Science Night. Room 202’s projects for Science Night were fabulous! The students enjoyed sharing their projects and science knowledge with their classmates. In Math, we played Get to 100 to practice adding multiples of 5 to equal 100, and we continue to work on Putting Together and Taking Apart by solving and writing story problems. Last week we read Jalapeno Bagels and are now reading Carousel by Pat Cummings. We have been researching facts about marine life and writing a book of facts. We used a categorization strategy with ocean words and did a word sort and list / group / label. We looked through our Marine World books for new vocabulary words and looked them up in the dictionary then used them in sentences. We also learned a bit about the giant Pacific octopus and we each drew a picture to enter in the Seattle Aquarium’s octopus art contest . We did some much needed spring cleaning before break and continue to work on organizational skills. Students are reminded each morning to put their back and forth homework folders on their desk for me to see, then they put them in their desks for the day. They must remember (with the usual reminders : ) to put the folder in their backpack at the end of the day, and must take it home even if it is empty. We also attended a ukelele concert last week given by a high school group from Canada. Homework for the next 2 weeks will be to read and record books read on the West Woodland Reads form sent home last Friday. During intermediate WASL testing for the next 2 weeks, the only homework all students will have is to read and practice spelling. There will be no additional homework. Enjoy! What's the Buzz? The Buzz Group theme for Monday, April 23 will be oceans. Story Corners Practice your story. 4/20 3:00 Declan, Paige, Leo, Wren 4/27 10:30 McKenzie, Jessica, Briana, Will Reminders Week of 4/16
The Stroud Crowd Newsletter > April 2, 2007 What's New in Room 202? Hopefully your child has begun work on their Science Night project or has finished by now. Cecilia’s mom (former Science teacher) led a great discussion about project ideas with our class. Your child received a handout detailing how to make a project 2 weeks ago Friday. The most important thing is to have fun with Science. Projects are due on Wednesday, April 4, but can be turned in early when completed. We have had books with ideas for experiments in our classroom for the last few weeks, had discussions about projects in progress, and had daily reminders to be working on the project. It has been the only homework assignment for the last week and a half (except for the usual reading 20 minutes and spelling practice) to help with getting it done, and although it is not required, it is strongly encouraged. In art we are almost finished making our paper Mache masks. We covered our masks with features then painted them with details. We had a great field trip to glass artist Roger Nachman’s studio to learn about fused glass for our auction project. We have drafted our sea creatures for our glass project, and this week we’ll put our plan into action. In writing, we used the 5 W’s and an H organizer (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How) to write a news article. We learned about headlines that grab the readers’ attention, exciting lead sentences, and why details are important. We wrote about soils, the ideal babysitter, if I had springs in my legs, letters to our parents for report cards, the coral reef mural, and the video Dive to the Coral Reef. In Math, Emily Lauderback (Hazel’s mom) has been individually assessing each child on his / her basic facts to see which facts are at the recall level, which is the standard by the end of second grade. I will use this information to have her work with individuals and small groups that need to learn the same facts, and will also send the information home to you so that you can see where your child is with his / her basic facts. We worked with geoboards to explore geometry and shapes, make arrays, discuss area in square units, and make shapes that were congruent to my shapes. We also began a new TERC math unit, Putting Together and Taking Apart. In this investigation, the students will gain more proficiency with addition and subtraction. They will continue to develop and be introduced to new strategies for solving addition and subtraction problems, and will play games with cubes, coins, and hundred charts. Throughout the unit, they will solve and create a variety of story problems and discuss their solutions. We continue to model addition and subtraction of 2 digit numbers with place value blocks while recording the equation. Please read the attached handout on how students learn to add and subtract. We also read to our reading buddies, looked up vocabulary words in the dictionary and broke them into syllables, read in our poetry packet for fluency and reviewed the importance of “punching” the right words when we read (have them explain this to you using “Did you feed my cow?”). We also read Brothers and Sisters and Jalapeno Bagels in our reading book, and listened to Stone Fox for read aloud. Yes, the teacher cried at the ending, as she does every year she reads this book. We also began our Marine World Storypath unit on the Great Barrier Reef. As with our Kenya storypath, the approach is built on the key principal that learning, to be meaningful, has to be memorable, and that we can use children’s enthusiasm for story-making to teach important content and skills. Active learning, cooperation, critical thinking, and reflection are essential components of the process. As the storypath develops, the students will gain a sense of ownership for their learning as they tackle the problems presented. We have created the setting (the underwater mural), and they created the characters as scientists who will study sea life on the Great Barrier Reef. Next, we will write job applications for our marine biologists and practice mapping skills by designing the rooms of their underwater sea lab by creating floor plans, a model, and simple maps. What’s to come in this unit? The students will decide on the jobs and rules needed for living and working together in a sea lab, research and create models of sea animals, conduct a mock radio interview asking their characters about marine life, experience an “oil spill” on our reef and determine the best way to clean up the spill by conducting experiments to record the effects of oil on various items, and attend a mock international conference on the world’s oceans. If you have a special interest in marine science, in protecting the world’s oceans, or have an experience or talent to share that relates to this unit, please let me know and I’d love to schedule you as a guest. We made a Spanish Language Word book, did some Mad Libs for fun and to work on parts of speech, learned about and practiced using pronouns and exact verbs, and got a new seating arrangment. We had a wonderful guest speaker from the Seattle Tilth, Lisa Taylor, who brought her Soil In a Box for us to explore. We will follow up with her on May 30 with a fieldtrip to the Children’s Garden at the Seattle Tilth. We looked for signs of life in the soil samples, and Beck even found a pregnant worm!~On Hayden’s birthday we made birthday cards for a 7 year old boy (Shane) in Canada who has leukemia and wants to be in the Guiness Book of World Records for receiving the most birthday cards. We had an AMAZING turnout for the Drum a Thon and Keep the Beat fundraiser for ELAND. Our class presented Moses with a check for $1, 250 for the education of Maasai children in Kenya, and the money is still coming in, so the final figure will be even greater! Thanks for your wonderful support of this project and for inspiring the children to make a difference in their world. I am so proud of their efforts. Finally, we had a goodbye party for Carmen, who moved to Olympia. Please check with your child to see if they need any supplies. Things like glue sticks, glue, pencils, even scissors, seem to get misplaced or used up this time of year. Thanks for all you do that makes room 202 great! What's the Buzz? The Buzz Group theme for Monday, April 16 will be Spring. Story Corners Practice your story. 4/6 3:00 Beck, Cecilia, Greer, Deena 4/20 3:00 Declan, Paige, Leo, Wren Reminders Week of 4/2
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