March 2-6

Writing and Reading:  

Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!  This week will be “Seuss-tastic” with our Read Across America Read-A-Thon.  We will also have a Dr. Seuss book study and plan out the very best birthday party for Dr. Seuss.  We will use procedural writing to explain the birthday party and read a read collection of his books.  We will complete a “reading passport” where we will have a written response to all of the books that we read during the week.  
**March 2nd we will kick off our Read-a-Thon so we invite you to send your child in their pajamas with some Dr. Seuss books (with their name on it), a snack, a pillow and blanket!  We will do this during our language arts/reading block.

Here are some other optional fun ways to celebrate this week.  Your child can pick to wear pajamas or the “Mixed up” Monday dress listed here.  

 

Math

We are moving onto division this week! All week long we will be using different situations to practice the skill of putting items into equal groups. We will read Pat Hutchins’ The Doorbell Rang and practice dividing cookies equally among our friends. We will also put M&Ms into equal groups.

We strive to make our lessons authentic and engaging. If you could send in either of the following, please let me know!

• 2 boxes of Cookie Crisp cereal
• 2 large bags of regular M&Ms

Science:

We are going to be covering science for the next several weeks.  We will be talking about both animals and plants during this time.  We are starting with discussing the basic needs of plants and animals.  We will discuss what a basic need is and list out the basic needs of both plants and animals and compare how plants and animals meet their basic needs.

At-Home Enrichment (optional homework):

Research: research the “question of the week” and bring what you find out to school.  It can be any type of presentation such as a poster, powerpoint, game, etc.

Question of the week: Is blue cheese really blue? Why or why not?

Math enrichment:

Remember Figure Me Out with addition and subtraction? Come up with new numbers about yourself and see if you can make a matching multiplication or division sentence!

Also try this fun game: Race to create an equation in this game will help your child and his opponents get creative with addition, subtraction and multiplication. Math skills will be in full force while everyone tries to outsmart the competition!

What You Need:

• Deck of playing cards with the face cards (jacks, queens, and kings) removed
• Scratch paper
• Pencil
• 2 or more players

What You Do:

1. Have your child remove the face cards from the deck and set them aside.
2. Ask him to shuffle the deck and deal out four cards to each player. Make sure he deals them face down, so nobody can see the hand they were dealt. No peeking!
3. Place the remaining deck face down in the center of the table.
4. Have one of the players flip over the top card and place it face up on the table. This is the target number.
5. Announce that aces = 1.
6. Count to three and have all players turn their cards over at the same time.
7. Encourage players to add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers in any combination to try to reach the target number. Make sure that players use all four of their cards. Have players use scratch paper to verify their math.
8. Whoever can create a equation that hits the target number first gets one point.
9. The player to reach 3 points first wins!
10. When four cards become too easy, try playing with five cards instead.

Science Enrichment:

Have your child pick a plant that they want to learn about.  They can write about the needs of the plant, life cycle, habitat and important facts.  Have them make a poster and bring in to share with the class.

Learn about animals and plants on these websites:

http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/curriculum/quicktip/science/plants/plants.htm

http://www.neok12.com/Plants.htm

http://easyscienceforkids.com/plants/

http://www.biology4kids.com/files/plants_main.html

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/plants.html

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/plants.htmlhttp://www.kidsbiology.com/biology_basics/needs_living_things/living_things_have_needs1.php

http://www.kidsplanet.org/

http://www.e-learningforkids.org/science/

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html

http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids

http://climatekids.nasa.gov/menu/plants-and-animals/

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/kidscorner/foodchain/foodchain.htm

https://jr.brainpop.com/

Reminders

March 7- Family Dinner Night

February 23-27

February 23-27
Question of the week: What is the purpose of a lighthouse and where is the tallest lighthouse located?

Writing:  

This week we will use Legos to build our own creation.  Then we will use procedural language to explain how we did it, step by step.  We will get to share our creations and explain to the class what we did to create them.  We will work on using singular and plural words correctly in our writing also.   

Reading

We will be moving on to media literacy this week. Students will understand that media refers to the most commonly used form of mass communication such as television, radio, internet, newspapers, and much more! We will learn that media can have different purposes: to entertain, to inform, or to persuade. We’ll also be looking at different forms of media this week and decide what kind of audience they target.  

Math

We are learning about multiplication this week! We will be finding different situations and seeing how we can make a multiplication sentence out of it. We will make a mushroom with groups of spots and make a matching multiplication sentence. We will learn how to solve a multiplication problem using an array and a play a fun game to practice!

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies we are learning about “Me on a Map”.  We will discuss the locations and characteristics of places and regions in the community, state, and nation. Students will identify major landforms and bodies of water, including each of the continents and each of the oceans, on maps and globes.  Students will understand how physical characteristics of places and regions affect people's activities and settlement patterns. We will identify the characteristics of different communities, including urban, suburban, and rural, and how they affect activities and settlement patterns.

At-Home Enrichment (optional homework):

Math enrichment:

This is an entire page of games to help your child practice his/her multiplication facts! http://interactivesites.weebly.com/multiplication.html

Social Studies Enrichment :

• Construct a diorama with various geographic features and landforms.
• Choose a country to research.  Write a paragraph or more about their ethnic groups and aspects of their life, past and present.  Draw a map of the country including the capital and geographic features.

• MAP Activity - Draw a map of what you think the US will look like in 2250. Draw a large scale map of the US in present time. Draw a map of your state in present and future time period
• Plan a trip to another country or countries.  Include a detailed map and intersting facts about your trip to share.
• Check out these websites for interesting maps and activities:

Enchanted Learning worksheets on geography for extra practice

Research continents or countries on Fact Monster Atlas

Historic Maps

Lots of Social Studies Enrichment Websites

Reminders

February 26- Caraway Talent Show (K-3rd) @ 6:00pm

February 27- Jump Rope For Heart during PE AND  

Caraway Talent Show (4 & 5) @ 6:00pm

March 7- Family Dinner Night

February 17-20

Question of the week: Why do you blush when you’re embarrassed?

Writing:  

We sure had fun using sensory language and poetry the past few weeks.  Now it’s time to practice responding to prompts.  We will have various topics that range from academic areas to our own experiences.  We will be looking for complete sentences, staying on topic, spelling, and having enough content to convey the ideas.      

Reading

This week in reading will be doing a poet study! Our class will be learning all about Shel Silverstein and what inspires him to write children’s poetry. What inspires us as students to write poetry? Nature, family, friends? We will be reading and responding to many of Shel Silverstein’s poems throughout the week.

Math

We are continuing to learn about money this week. We will calculate how much our name is worth in coins and practice making change using the fewest coins possible. We will play Money War and Money Memory before assessing what we learned at the end of the week.

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies we will begin with thinking like a geographer.  Students will interpret information on maps and globes using map elements such as title, orientation (north, south, east, west), and legend/map keys.  We will look at maps of the school, Austin, Texas, United States and the World.  We’ll learn that maps and globes help people understand the location of places and model where things are located.  Students will learn how to read a map and label the continents and oceans.  If your child has any fun maps they would like to share, they are welcome to bring them to class.

At-Home Enrichment (optional homework):

Math enrichment:

Money riddles: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/change-game.html

Change Maker: http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/cr.cgi

Social Studies Enrichment :

• MAP Activity - Draw a map of what you think the US will look like in 2250. Draw a large scale map of the US in present time. Draw a map of your state in present and future time period
• Plan a trip to another country or countries.  Include a detailed map and intersting facts about your trip to share.
• Check out these websites for interesting maps and activities:

Enchanted Learning worksheets on geography for extra practice

Research continents or countries on Fact Monster Atlas

Historic Maps

Lots of Social Studies Enrichment Websites

Reminders

February 16- President’s Day- Student Holiday

February 26- Caraway Talent Show (K-3rd) @ 6:00pm

February 27- Jump Rope For Heart during PE AND  

Caraway Talent Show (4 & 5) @ 6:00pm

March 7- Family Dinner Night

February 9-13

February 9-13
Question of the week: Where did Groundhog Day come from and who is Punxsutawney Phil?

Writing:  

This week we plan to use sensory language while explaining an experience.  We will have a gift to open on Tuesday that contains Pop Rocks (this is a surprise so don’t tell!).  We’ll use them to trigger some sensory language to describe taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight.  We will also concentrate on writing about the experience in the correct order from beginning, middle, and end.

Reading

This week we will understand ways to analyze a poem to better understand what it’s about. We’ll preview the poem and read it aloud a few times, visualize the images, clarify the words and phrases, and think about the author’s heart and message of the poem. We will also recognize that some words and phrases have literal and non-literal meanings. We will explore many books that contain idioms. On Friday we’ll make a class idiom book for our personal classroom library!

Math

This week we are assessing what we learned in our 2D geometry unit before starting our new unit on money! We will review the names and values of coins and practice counting collections. We will play a fun matching game and solve some money riddles. To celebrate Valentine’s day, we’ll take a trip to the candy shop to see what we can purchase and what coins we will need.

Want to practice at home? Have your child count your change at the grocery store or dig out that old jar of coins and have your child practice making different amounts.

Social Studies

This week we will continue in Social Studies with thinking like a historian and chronological order of events.  Students are to please bring in a copy of one baby and one current picture about the size of a 4x6 by Tuesday, February 10th.  This will be glued down for an activity, so please do not send an original that needs to be untouched.  Students will do a past and present activity about themselves.  Looking for a fun nighttime story to tell your child this weekend?  How about telling them about the day they were born or a funny anecdote when they were a baby?  That will help them this week in their past writing activity.  Kids love to hear stories about themselves!  We’re also going to discuss how our city has changed over time.  We’ll view pictures of Austin to see buildings as they existed in the past and how they exist in the present.  We’ll learn about what a historian is and how they record historical information.  At the end of the week, we’ll discuss primary and secondary sources of information and give examples of each to help us be historical reporters of an important event.

At-Home Enrichment (optional homework):

Math enrichment:

Here are a few fun games that allow kids to practice counting money:

Money Bingo: http://media.abcya.com/games/money_bingo/flash/money_bingo.swf

Lunch money challenge: https://content.usaa.com/mcontent/static_assets/Media/magazines_game_lunch_money.swf

A money riddle: Jenny has $2.46 in coins. The coins are of 4 different denominations , and she has the same number of each coin. How many of each does she have?

A bag hold 50 coins that add up to 1 dollar. What coins does the bag hold?

Social Studies Enrichment :

• Timeline Maker:  This timeline generator can be used to make vertical and horizontal time lines with events of your choice. http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/materials/timelines/

Reminders

February 11th: Valentine’s boxes are due

February 12th: Spirit Night at Jason’s Deli

February 13- Valentine’s Day Parties 1:30-2:30

February 16- President’s Day- Student Holiday

February 26- Caraway Talent Show (K-3rd) @ 6:00pm

February 27- Jump Rope For Heart during PE AND  

Caraway Talent Show (4 & 5) @ 6:00pm

March 7- Family Dinner Night