March 31st-April 4th

It has been a busy week but we are sure glad the weather has been so beautiful! We are really looking forward to our field trip today too!




Science:




On Monday we preformed a science experiment called "dancing raisins." We made predictions based on what we thought might happen! We filled a glass with water and each person added a raisin. Then we added baking soda and vinegar. The raisins danced! Because of the reaction between the vinegar and baking soda, the raisins were floating up to the top and then back down. Someone mentioned it looked like the raisins were riding on elevators up and down! Then we tried the same experiment using seltzer water. We poured seltzer water in a glass, added the raisins and watched the same thing happen. Cool!




Literacy:




We learned a new site word this week...that! Look for this word when you are out and about and while you are reading. We also continued to write informational books this week in writer's workshop. We are really growing as writers! We have also started to really focus on capitalization. This is so difficult because there are so many "rules!" As you read and write with your children, start to notice different capital letters and discuss why certain words are capitalized and others are not.




Math:




We started a new concept in math this week. We learned how to count and add/subtract numbers using tally marks! We are still working on range cards but also introduced a new way to count things. Tally marks are easy to count because when you see a group of 5 you do not have to count each one individually. You can count by 5's and then by 1's if you have any leftover. We sent home a tally sheet yesterday that we worked on. You may noticed lots of eraser markers and ripped numbers. This is because it was hard! But we are learning and will do more with tally marks the rest of the year.




Thematic Centers:




We are reading lots of books written by Leo Lionni this week. On Tuesday we read the book A Color of His Own and made a chameleon glyph. We kept these at school because they turned out so neat! each child received a blank chameleon and had to color it based on the answers they gave to certain questions. An example is: "If you are 5 years old, color your chameleon one color. If you are 6 years old color your chameleon more than 1 color." There were several questions and steps for each student to follow. On Wednesday we read another Leo Lionni book called Little Blue and Little Yellow. We began a two day art project where we first stamped black circles on white paper. Then we colored in the circles with oil pastels and noticed when we mixed certain colors it made a new color! We also added more dimension and color by using the dot are markers.




Do not forget, picture day is next week. April 9th (Wednesday).
Half day: April 11th followed by spring break April 14th-April 18th (we now return to school on the 21st because it is a make up snow day)


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Happy weekend!
Hugs,
Mrs. Schultz