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