Leo Lionni

Spring has sprung, but the weather sure does not feel that way.  I am hoping that warmer days are ahead for all of us. I can't believe spring break is just one week away!  This year is flying by!  This week we studied author, Leo Lionni.  He was born in the Netherlands, and later moved to Italy and then the US.  He was the first author/illustrator to use the collage technique, and is often compared to Eric Carle.  He has written more than 40 children's books.  His first book was, Little Blue and Little Yellow.  He uses lots of earth tones in the illustrations of his books, and often writes about animals and things in nature.  Most of his books have a mouse as one of the characters.  His book, Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse, won a Caldecott Honor award.

In our centers this week we did some color mixing, just like in the story Little Blue and Little Yellow.  We used blue and yellow play dough to mix together and found that it made the color green, just like in the story.  Have your child retell you this story at home.  Each student painted a kindness rock that they either hid on our trip to the park for someone to find, or some decided to keep theirs to bring home to share.  This activity was a follow up to Leo Lionni's book, Frederick.  Our next center activity involved lots of nonstandard measurement.  Students used inch worms they created (like in the book Inch by Inch) to measure lots of items around the classrooms.  Students first made an estimate about how long they thought an item might be, and then he/she measured it to find out the actual length.  We are working with students to make them understand it is absolutely okay if your estimate is not the actual answer.  We are trying to help them understand they do not have to be right with an estimate, it is like a guess.  Our final center revolved around the book, Pezzettino, by Leo Lionni.  Students used colored packing peanuts to create a sculpture and then wrote about what they made.  They were very excited to see that with just a tiny dab of water the packing peanuts will stick together....just like magic! :)

In math this week we continued with our range charts.  We added in cubes to create fact families, along with our beans.  We also worked on telling more number stories as well with fact families.  We also continued our work with nonstandard measurement.  Nonstandard measurement is measuring items using something other than a standard unit, such as inches, feet, centimeters, meters, etc.  The students are getting very good at measuring.  

During our literacy time this week we introduced Stretchy Snake.  He helps us remember that when we are solving unknown words we need to stretch the sounds out and then blend them together to help us solve the word.  This is a great strategy to use in both reading and writing.  We also worked in our journals this week.  I am so impressed with all the writing our students like to do.  They are really taking off in this area!  

This week we were fortunate to be able to attend The Little Mermaid performance by the middle school students.  It was FANTASTIC, and our class was very excited to see our Friday intern, Grace Ann, as one of the cast members.  This week we are excited to be able to attend one of the fifth grade operas.  We are very lucky to be able to see such phenomenal shows!  

Please remember that we have our school wide parent safety meeting this Tuesday.  It will be in the high school black box, and we are running two sessions.  One session will be at 3:30 and the other will be at 6:30.  Please, please, please make it a priority to try to attend one of these sessions.  

Upcoming Events
                

March 27 - Love and Logic class 8:30 am

Parent Safety Meeting 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm HS Blackbox

March 30 - Spring Break begins (no school on Friday)

April 9 - Classes resume from spring break

April 10 - Love and Logic class 8:30 am

April 17 - Field Trip to the Laurels Nursing Home

April 18 - Poem in Your Pocket Day

April 20 - Jill and Dickie Clark CSD Golf Tournament

April 24 - Kindergarten Earth Day 9:00 am

April 25 - Kindergarten Walking Tour of Davidson