April 12, 2024

Happy Friday everybody and WELCOME BACK!

I sincerely hope you all enjoyed your Spring Break and that your children especially are refreshed and ready to roll….into simple machines! We kicked off our new exploration this week of the six simple machines. How many does your child remember? We focused this week on the wedge. Yum, who doesn’t love a wedge salad? Just as we do with every new exploration, we used a KWL chart to record what we want to learn and what we already know about simple machines. Some of the questions we came up with were: What exactly is a simple machine? How do they help us? How do I build one? How many are there? 

Did you know an airplane is considered a wedge? The front on an airplane is wedge shaped. How does this help it fly in the sky? It has to cut through the air with force similar to an ax cutting through a tree trunk! Earlier this week, Ms. Marlena gave your kiddos a fun challenge of making their own paper airplanes, however they’d like, and we then tested them. How far did it go? What could you change next time? Why did yours fly 50 inches further than someone else’s? On Tuesday, we set up a variety of loose parts such as large craft sticks, coffee lids, different sized cardboard, etc. so everyone could build their own door stopper (wedge) and then we tested them out! Did it work? Why or why not? Ms. Marlena planned a fun Friday afternoon activity using wedges! Everyone was given a bar of soap and a plastic knife (wedge) to create their own soap sculptures! How did the knife help you? Are there other tools that could help, too? Is the knife more helpful than a popsicle stick?

We also reviewed some Secret Stories like mommy e, I tries E on for size, ou & ow, aw, when two vowels go a walkin’ the first one does the talkin’, er & ir & ur, ar, and al. Everyone then wrote a sentence about what they did over spring break and then looked to see which Secret Stories we used. It sounds like you all had a blast! 


Now that we are on Part 4 of Wonder, we are reading from Jack’s perspective. It’s interesting to hear his thoughts on Auggie before he really even met him. Ask your child about it! Hint: Jack and his brother “met” Auggie a year ago at the park. What happened? How did this interaction contribute to Jack agreeing to be one of the three kids giving Auggie a tour of the school before the school year began?

Home Connection:

  • https://www.generationgenius.com/videolessons/simple-machines-video-for-kids/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBx7Q2KtSQU
  • https://mysteryscience.com/trending/mystery-2/solar-eclipse-2017/126#slide-id-2730
  • https://www.foldnfly.com/47.html

Books we read this week:

  • Newton and Me by Lynne Mayer
  • Wonder 
  • Total Solar Eclipse: A Stellar Friendship Story by Jayme Sandberg
  • The Berenstein Bears: Bears On Wheels by Stan and Jan Berenstein
  • Kit and Kaboodle Go On a Roller Coaster by Michelle Portice

Announcements/Reminders:

  • We’re still missing 3 books from our reader set. Please search over the weekend. We want to start sending readers back home with your children! If for any reason there was a misunderstanding, please keep in mind your children should STILL be reading daily with you. Although they are not borrowing one from our classroom library, they should still be reading one of their own with you everyday. 
  • We have gym/movement on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays. These are gym uniform days. Please make sure your children are not in their dress uniforms and they are in their sweats which allow for much better and more comfortable movement. Additionally, they should be in gym shoes everyday, regardless of dress/gym uniform. 
  • Did you travel for the solar eclipse? Pictures or it didn’t happen! Just kidding, but we would love to see! Ms. Maria included a Google album in Parent Notes where you can pics! Also, many of you visited some very cool destinations! We would LOVE to see some pictures as a class! If you have a minute, please feel free to send me a few and we can put them on the tv in our class so we can see all the cool things your child is telling us about!

I can’t wait for Sunday! Get out there and enjoy the beautiful weather everybody! Have a wonderful weekend and see you all on Monday:)

-Ms. Anna

March 8, 2024

What a fantastic week!  It was a lot of fun learning about different biomes on our planet over the last year, but all that sledding and rolling has shifted our gears into new territory—ramps and pathways! We have officially begun our new exploration and after concluding our arctic exploration last week, everyone finished up their AMAZING climate dioramas as a final project. Your children are all VERY excited to unveil them in two weeks during conferences- they worked so hard! Take a sneak peek down below:)

Just prior to our dentist visit last week, we learned about good habits that help us take care of our teeth (February is children’s dental month) and how different foods and drinks can actually stain our teeth. We did an experiment where we placed one hard boiled egg in a cup with water, one with grape soda, and one with coca-cola. We first recorded our predictions on a chart and then waited 24 hours before recording the final result. Ask your children what happened to the eggs and see if they can tell you why we used eggs to represent teeth!

One of our ramp activities this week challenged us in more ways than one (my favorite). There were two simple directions: to work together on a team and use loose parts to build a ramp. We did not choose teams, but rather let everyone decide how they would divide and conquer. It ended up being boys versus girls which didn’t surprise us, but what happened afterwards did! One team made sure to really discuss their plans which definitely helped them once everyone knew what their individual role was. Once both teams completed their ramps, we tested them out! The boys ramp sent a marble a whomping 72 inches! The girls ramp sent a marble a total of 21 inches. We discussed as a class what are some things that worked, what didn’t, what would you do differently next time, and why? 

We had so much fun making team ramps that we then had to make our own! Everyone got to choose between five different materials and textures to test out what would work best for a strong and stable ramp. Wax paper, foam, foil, paper, corks, and cloth were all offered. Once everyone finished, we tested them out! Congrats to Carla whose ramp launched a marble the furthest-48 inches!! Let me know if you guys try this at home:)

New vocab alert!

  • steep
  • slope
  • incline
  • accelerate
  • ramp
  • stability
  • slant

Home connection:

Announcements:

Have a wonderful weekend! 

-Ms. Anna 

–“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

February 23, 2024

Woo woo!! We finished another novel! Earlier this week, we wrapped up Polar Bears Past Bedtime and finally found out the answer to Morgan’s riddle! Jack and Annie also received special golden library cards from Morgan that they could use on future adventures. Maybe your child could fill in the rest of the details for you:) As we continue to read Wonder, we will be bringing back our kindness jar, however, we will be using them a bit differently this time around. Please sit and have a chat with your child over the weekend about ways we can individually show kindness to others. This will help us be better prepared for writing our ideas down next week.

While meeting with Ms. Demetra’s class this week, we tried something new that many of our friends had not done before. Blind artist painting/drawing is when one person describes a picture to their partner and they have to draw it. Partner A can only use adjectives to describe the item without revealing what it is! This was so fun and we will definitely be doing it again soon! 

As we begin to wrap up our Arctic/Antarctic adventures, we have begun to reflect not only on past explorations of the different biomes, but continuing to be curious about things we may have not learned about…yet. With our climate dioramas this week, many of our friends had some unanswered questions about the savanna, the rainforest, and the arctic. 

  1. “Will it always be very cold in Antarctica?”
  2. “What would happen if polar bears and penguins did live together?”
  3. “Is the savanna different from a desert?”

Hopefully once we conclude our dioramas we’ll have all the answers! 

Typically we tend to read one Scholastic Let’s Find Out article a week, but we dug deep into the Scholastic archives to learn about our first president, George Washington. We learned a little bit about how differently it was to live during his time and that he was the only president to not live in The White House. Happy birthday George Washington! Our other article was all about lunar new year and can be found down below as well as this month’s Science Spin.

Your kiddos had SO much fun with one of our experiments this week! Did you check out Ms. Marlena’s blurb from Wednesday? If not, here’s what we did so you can try it at home!  “We also experimented how polar bears stay warm using coffee, white cloth & plastic wrap! We had two jars full of room-temperature coffee, covered one with plastic wrap and the other with coffee, and left them out in the sun. After an hour we checked the temperature of both jars to see which one stayed warmer. Ask your child which one stayed warm and why!”

Another fun activity this week that you could definitely do at home, was to write the word ARCTIC on the board and change around some of the letters to see how we would read it given what we have learned using the secret stories. For example, how do you read argtic? oarctic? arctice? This is an excellent (and playful) literacy activity you can try with any words at home! Let’s strengthen those literacy skills together even more, everybody! 

Home Connection:

Have an awesome weekend everybody! See you Monday!

-Ms. Anna

–“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its 00whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

February 16, 2024

Hello Parents and Happy Friday! Please check out last week’s blog, too;)

We had a fabulous week here full of love and laughter, as usual! Our Valentine’s Day festivities were very exciting and I know your kiddos enjoyed taking part in all of the day’s activities:) They ate pizza (thank you PTO), watched Elemental with friends from Ms. Demetra’s and Ms. Soraya’s classes, and exchanged Valentine’s cards with their friends. 

Ms. Marlena planned a fun Mystery Science for us https://mysteryscience.com/mini-lessons/wild-animals-costumes#slide-id-16691 . We took a look at how some animals can camouflage themselves for protection and how others are born with unique patterns that mimic their surroundings. 

This week we took another trip to the Antarctic where we will be staying for the next couple of weeks. A few questions our friends have are:

  1. How is the antarctic different than the arctic?
  2. How is it the same? 
  3. What lives there?
  4. Do only penguins live there?
  5. Where is it colder? 

Have you been checking out our Scholastic Let’s Find Out issues for this month? With President’s Day on Monday, we read a new issue this week introducing us to Abraham Lincoln and showing us how he used to calm down with writing!

Our Secret Story this week was about ar. 

“These two are best friends, but it’s not always easy being best friends with a superhero! A is always flying around doing superhero stuff, so r rarely gets to see him! Having a superhero as your best friend does have one perk, though. Whenever a and r do get together, a will always loan his superpowers to r so that r can see what it feels like to say HIS name! ‘ARRRRRRRR!’ And that’s the sound they make!

art, car, hard”

For our weekly review activity, we did mad libs today! Your kiddos had to plug words in that were spelled with an ar to complete the sentences. Words such as park, yarn, car, dark, etc. See if you guys can try this one out at home, too!

Yay! We got to test out our North poles this week and talk about why some worked for some friends and what we could change in the ones that didn’t work. Was your child’s able to stand in the moving waters? Why or why not?

Our 8 foot tall polar bear was a little bare (hehe) last week so we’ve been dressing him up! Last week we measured how tall each of us is in inches using a yardstick. We reviewed what a yardstick is, how many inches, how many feet, how many for a football field, and then took turns getting measured in comparison to our class bear. This week, however, we CONVERTED our height from inches into feet! Does your child remember how tall they are?

Books we read this week:

  • Polar Bears Past Bedtime
  • Pup and Bear by Kate Banks
  • How Big is a Million? by Anna Milbourne
  • Love Monster by Rachel Bright
  • Valensteins by Ethan Long
  • One Day On Our Blue Planet: In The Antarctic by Ella Bailey
  • Wonder

That’s all for this week! Have a wonderful and long weekend. Remember, no school on Monday and hopefully I will see you all at the Apokreatiko Glendi tomorrow! 

-Ms. Anna —

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

February 9, 2024

100 days of school! We did it and oh boy, was it fun! 

We just celebrated our 100th day of school this week and we got together with Ms. Demetra’s class for a few different activities. First, on Tuesday we began building our bridges from our previous blueprints. We then met altogether again on Friday to make some Valentine’s love grams for the rest of the school where each card had 100 decorations to celebrate the 100th day of school! 

Every Monday, we learn about a new Secret Story. This week Ms. Marlena did a fun lesson teaching us how to read words that have two vowels together. 

“When these vowels go a-walkin, the first one does the talkin’ and it always says its name! (The second one covers its mouth and stays quiet.)

ee,ea,ai,oa,ui,ue

feet, beat, bait

boat, suit, blue

But sometimes, when ea walk together, e’s too tired to say her name, so she makers her short & lazy sound instead! 

head, ready, bread”

For our secret story review this week, we filled out bingo game cards and played a couple of rounds! 

Earlier this week, we began Part Two of Wonder and it is written in Via’s perspective. Via is Auggie’s older sister and not much is known about her quite yet, expect for the fact that is a freshman in high school. We begin to understand Via a bit more as she tells us what life was like prior to Auggie and how she dealt and continues to deal with this new family life that seems to center around August. In one chapter, Via describes what Auggie looked like as a young child before all the surgeries. She painted a very vivid picture and afterwards I had the class draw a picture of what they believe Auggie looks like based off of Via’s description. Take a look down below and ask your child what they heard in the book that made them draw Auggie the way they did. 

I love when our explorations flow and mesh through the year! I especially love when I ask the kids to draw back on prior knowledge at any given point and they are able to tell me! We seem to really enjoy learning about the different biomes and this week we made a venn diagram altogether seeing how the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic region are similar and different. Your kiddos remembered SO MUCH about the Amazon and we actually had to research a question because we weren’t sure if it rains in the Arctic-spoiler, it does!

Is there a pole in the North Pole? After watching a cool (pun intended) Mystery Science on why they are called the North Pole and South Pole, we learned that there isn’t REALLY a pole in either of these places. Well, except for the funny scientists that did indeed place a pole in Antarctica where the “pole” location is. Since the exact coordinates of the North Pole are in the water, I asked the class to conduct their own experiment. Build a pole that can stand in water independently. Check back next week to see the results after we test them out!

The Cookie Fiasco is one of my favorite books that I try to read every year because other than the obvious that it’s a funny book with lots of excitement, there is a GREAT math lesson introducing fractions. In the book, there are 4 friends and they are given 3 cookies. They aren’t sure how to share them and one of their friends begin to break them out of nervousness. Ask your child if the cookies were split evenly and how many pieces everyone got. 

Do you know how big a polar bear den is? What’s a chamber? How long are they down there? Ms. Marlena planned a really fun and informative lesson on polar bear dens. Take a look down below!

Home Connection:

Books:

  • The Polar Bear Son: An Inuit Tale Retold by Lydia Dabravich
  • Polar Bears Past Bedtime
  • Wonder
  • The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat

You can find this week’s Scholastic Let’s Find Out article on different animal’s teeth with the link above.

Thank you and have a great weekend! 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

February 2, 2024

Hey Parents! What a wonderful week we’ve been having and I hope you’ve all enjoyed the daily blurbs! This is a great (and quick) way to connect with your child on what they did THAT day in school. 

Have you checked out our Scholastic Let’s Find Out issues yet? If not, click on this link and take a look at what we’ve been reading! https://letsfindout.scholastic.com/issues/2023-24/010124.html You can also find the Science Spin articles on there. This week we read about the snowy owl and penguins in Antarctica.

We have been having so much fun conducting all of our experiments! If you haven’t read the blurbs from earlier this week, be sure to go back and check them out! Which one was your child’s favorite? For one of today’s experiments, our friends were given different materials to use to test out on ice cubes. They divided a paper into six boxes and wrote down different check-in times. The first box was their prediction at 9 a.m. of what they believed would happen to their ice cube using whatever materials they chose. The last box was titled conclusion where they drew what the end result was and in the remaining four boxes they drew a picture of their progress throughout the day. What did your ice look like at 10 a.m.? What happened to it by 12 p.m.? The available materials were flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, aluminum foil, and a zip-lock bag. Ask your child what they used and what their conclusion was at the end of the day!

Did you know that snowy owls flap their wings to cool off? Our Science Spin for this month talked about snowy owls in the arctic and one special snowy friend that ended up in California. How do they stay warm? How do they stay cool? We did another fun little experiment pretending to be snowy owls! Everyone put their jackets on and we tried different things to see what would work. Be sure to check your child’s folder for this week’s Let’s Find Out and this month’s Science Spin.

For our partner activity this week, Ms. Demetra’s class came to learn a little bit about different types of bridges and the basics to building bridges. Everyone partnered up and then they drew their blueprint of how what kind of bridge they want to build using only large popsicle sticks. Next Tuesday, our classes will be getting together to build them and then test them out!

Did you know that the Aurora Borealis is in the North Pole and the Aurora Australis is in the South Pole? They are also called Northern and Southern Lights! Sometimes they look red and blue and other times they look yellow and green! We had a lot of fun drawing our own with wet chalk on a black paper. Take a look!

Climate change as you know is a huge issue. But how can we teach this in an age appropriate manner to our 6 year old friends? Show them the polar bears’ melting ice of course. We briefly talked about what greenhouse gases are and what are some things that are contributing to this change and how we can stop it. Using less electricity, walking instead of driving, and not using single-use plastics are all great and major ways that we can all help our planet!

Secret Stories has been going AMAZING. I hope you are all enjoying reading our special books at home, but are also continuing to read with your little ones every night. If you would like some book suggestions, please let me know!

Books we read this week:

  • The Way Home for Wolf by Rachel Bright
  • Polar Bears Past Bedtime
  • What’s That Noise? by Naomi Howarth
  • Wonder
  • Max & Ruby! Max’s Half Birthday by Rosemary Wells
  • If Polar Bears Disappeared by Lily Williams

Home Connection:

  • https://multiplicitylab.northwestern.edu/videos/#organize
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVOnRPefcno
  • https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/bridge/basics.html
  • https://multiplicitylab.northwestern.edu/project/ltt_co-018-more/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2Ou58p_D7k

Vocabulary:

  • colony
  • aurora borealis
  • conclusion
  • tundra
  • iceberg

Sentence builders:

  • eat
  • big
  • drink
  • here
  • pizza

Have an awesome weekend everyone! Yay for the sun:) 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

January 26, 2024

Hi everyone! We are having so much fun learning all about the arctic this week! Brrr it was colder here than Alaska last week! 

Our Secret Story this week was about Sneaky Y:”Y got sick and tired of saying ‘YUH’ all the time, so he snuck in to the closets SUPERHERO e and SUPERHERO i and took one of each of their super cares! So now, whenever he’s at the END of a word (and thinks no one can see him!) he will always be sneaky and wear either his e or i cape-so he can say their name, instead! <mommy, daddy, by, my>

But when he’s at the BEGINNING of a word, he’s a good little line leader, and does exactly what he should, which is say ‘YUH!’ <yellow, yes, you>

I wonder how many sneaky y words could be found around YOUR home!? 

Earlier this week, we were introduced to the Inuit people. Some friends were shocked to learn that people actually live in the Arctic! We heard some new words such as parka and mukluk and learned about some of their traditions that included using every part of an animal and why. We also compared their diets to ours and discussed how environmental factors play a major role in dictating what is available to eat. For example, can you grow fresh fruits and vegetables in arctic temperatures? Why do they eat musk ox instead of steak?

One of our experiments gave the class an idea about how helpful blubber can be in the cold! Everybody started off with a glass jar full of ice cubes and water. We estimated vour water’s temperature to be about 40 degrees F. We each then spread a thick layer of vegetable shortening over our finger(s) to act as a barrier between our skin and the cold water. They took turns dunking their fingers into the jar to feel how differently the ones without the shortening felt in comparison to the ones with a layer on. Our conclusion? Blubber is warm! 

With so much snow and ice in the Arctic, how do polar bears stop themselves from sliding and slipping around everywhere? When I asked our friends, they said that it’s because they are so big, they use their bellies, their paws are huge, and they can balance, etc. Sounds about right! But did you know that polar bears have something called papillae on their pads that are similar to a dog’s? This is what helps them grip and not slide or slip! So we made our own invention! What could we use on the bottom of our shoes to keep us from slipping and slidding? We had so much fun with these! Some inventions included salt dispensers, cubes, sticks, and more. What did your child create?

You may remember from last week we began working on our “Who Am I” clue game to play with our buddies in Ms. Demetra’s class. We had SO MUCH FUN getting together and taking turns reading clues about friends from our own class and Ms. Demetra’s. Ask your child what clues they wrote about themselves and if they could correctly guess the one they received!

Home connection:

New vocab alert!

  • Inuit
  • ancestors 
  • migration
  • papillae

Books we read this week:

  • Wonder
  • One Very Big Bear by Alice Briere-Haquet
  • Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse
  • Oona in the Arctic by Kelly DiPucchio
  • Polar Bears Past Bedtime by Mary Pope Osborne

Announcements/Reminders:

  • It’s Pledge time! Our class will be saying the Pledge of Allegiance every day for the next 3 weeks beginning on Monday. The goal is for everybody to get at least one chance to say it and this is where you come in. Parents, regardless of saying the Pledge or not, please make sure your child has arrived at school no later than 8:40! We say it promptly at 8:45 and I’d hate for your child to not have a turn because they weren’t at school on time.
  • Please remember dress uniforms on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but also uniforms need to be matching. For example, navy shirt with navy bottoms, maroon shirt with maroon bottoms (gym uniforms only).

Sentence builders:

  • now
  • they
  • jump

Have a great weekend! 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

January 8-19, 2024

Hello Parents! We have had an awesome first two weeks back and I loved hearing about everyone’s fun activities over the last few weeks. We have also been busy adventurers in Room 103 and are excited to jump in our next super cool exploration-the Arctic! Here is this week’s and last week’s newsletter:

One of our morning challenge questions this week was to think about what would freeze faster :a cup of cold water or a cup of hot water and then explain why. We graphed our predictions and then just like the true scientists we are, we headed to the lab (in this case our courtyard). We measured one cup of boiling hot water and one cup of cold water. Both cups were styrofoam and both cups were put outside at the same time, in the shade, and on the snow. We then discussed how long we thought the process would take and came up with some great theories! Take a look down below:)

After jotting down what we know and what we want to know on our KWL chart, we decided to jump in with polar bears. Learning about the Arctic, and in particular polar bears, always fascinates me and I hope some of my curiosity and excitement has influenced your child’s wondernment, even slightly! We took some time this week to read up on Earth’s largest land predator. Did you know that there are only about 25,000 polar bears left? This sparked a conversation about ways we already help the planet (limiting single use plastics, reusing and recycling, etc.) and what more we can do. We also learned about what they eat, how they hunt (ask them about breathing holes), how their bodies are made to keep them warm (black skin and blubber), and much more. Afterwards we drew a picture of a polar bear using just a white crayon on black paper and everyone chose a cool fact they learned to share. 

While we do continue to read our novel of the year, Wonder, we are simultaneously reading a new chapter book part of the Magic Tree House series-Polar Bears Past Bedtime. We are very excited to show you all our new “chapter check in book project” when completed and I know the class is happy to finally have a larger sketchbook for their pictures that they can use markers without bleeding through! Yay! 

Have you ever played WAR?! What about DICE WAR!? We started playing last week and it has quickly become a favorite! If you have even just one die, you can play! I sent home a copy of the record keeper so your child can play a few rounds with you at home this weekend:) 

I hope you have all gotten a chance to see how your child has been using Secret Stories. The Better Alphabet song, the “secrets” for different letters or groups of letters, and the hand gestures for each make them a fun way to learn how to read! Last week, we were introduced to Babysitter E and spent this week really focusing on words with Babysitter E. Your children are so proud of themselves once they decode a word on their own and in an effort to continue support at home (and for you to get a chance at seeing their faces light up!), please try to read about 10-20 minutes a night with them. About once or twice a week your child will come home with a book from school that he/she and I have partially read together. They will read it with you before bringing back to school the next day. Please just sign your name on the inside post-it when done.

Last week, Ms. Demetra’s class partnered up with us for weekly buddy time. Activities will vary week to week, as will partners. Last week we visited Ms. Demetra’s class to play board games and this week their class came to ours to read with us! Partners took turns reading to each other. In preparation for next week’s activity, our classes have written clues to a “who am I” riddle that we will do together next week. We began our rough drafts this week and they look great so far- take a look! 

Our Scholastic News this week was right on par with our exploration! If you have not had a chance to sign in yet, make sure you check out your child’s Let’s Find Out account where they can play the games, read the articles, and more. Just a quick reminder to only have your child open the same article we read together in class and not to jump ahead. The articles we have read are titled Warming Up in Winter and Working For Justice. 

Check out our cozy cabins! We watched a Mystery Science video (link below) on how animals stay warm in the cold and made our own warm homes!

Home Connection:

Books we read this week:

  • Wonder
  • How Big is a Million? by Anna Milbourne and Serena Riglietti
  • The Invisible Leash by Patrice Karst
  • Polar Bears Past Bedtime by Mary Pope Bedtime 
  • The Mitten by Jane Brett
  • Over in the Arctic by Marianne Berkes

Sentence builders:

  • into
  • bag
  • and
  • wish
  • with

New vocabulary:

  • hibernate
  • migrate
  • compass
  • endangered
  • camouflage 
  • speeches
  • justice

Have a WARM weekend everyone and see you Monday! 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

December 15, 2023

Who knew that the sloth used to stand upright on its two back legs AND was HUGE! Check out the mystery science link down below to see just how big they used to be! 

Now that we have learned all the Secret Stories for the short and lazy vowels, we are moving on to some new, a bit more complex, secrets! This week, we focused on Mommy E:

             “When Mommy E sits at the end of a word, or is one letter away from another vowel,                    she will tell that vowel, “You say your name!’ Then she covers her mouth and won’t talk. But, if Mommy E is not at the end of a word, or is MORE than one letter away from another vowel, that vowel gets to be short and lazy…just like you’d be if your mommy weren’t right there, close enough to make sure that you do what you should!” 

For example, tape/tap, hope/hop, cute/cut, super/supper, biter/bitter. Of course, there are some acceptable exceptions such as river and have that we will continue to learn about. Maybe you can help your child come up with some over the weekend!

Besides being super busy with special surprises for you all this week and rehearsing (always with gusto), we began discussing the Ice Age and watching a great Mystery Science video explaining what exactly an ice age is. Afterwards, I asked the class to participate in the suggested activity of writing/drawing/reflecting on what they would do if they had to live through an ice age. I think we have a couple of survivalists amongst us! What would your child do?

Our class REALLY enjoys the weekly Scholastic Let’s Find Out and monthly Science Spin articles. Please don’t forget you all have access to these at home so your child and you can discuss at home, too! Our shared classroom password is “Werock123!” and I have included the direct link down below. This week was so perfect! It was a holiday one that talked about….TRADITIONS! How great! 

Home Connection:

Books we read this week:

  • Wonder
  • Paulie Pastrami Achieves World Peace by James Proimos

Announcements:

  • Holiday Program TOMORROW! Please meet us at the Des Plaines Theatre at 9:45 a.m. dressed in your holiday best! No pajamas, sweats, or gym shoes please. Make sure your child uses the bathroom before you bring them to their seat.
  • Boots, snow pants, hats, gloves, etc. will all be sent home NEXT TUESDAY! Please be on the lookout, but also, some of our friends don’t have appropriate winter weather gear and they are very cold:/ Ask your child to check their backpacks with you for all gear needed for the day. 

Have a great rest of your week and see you all (hopefully) tomorrow! 

-Ms. Anna

—

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein

December 8, 2023

Hello Room 103 Parents and Happy Friday!

We had a great week and it ended on such a fun note with the Holiday Shop today! We all had such a great time choosing special gifts for the special people in our lives. It was also a great lesson in learning to budget and track spending;) Math is everywhere!

That’s a wrap on the savanna! Some friends had a few more things to write down under the L column of our KWL such as caracals can growl, ostriches run fast, their acacia trees in the savanna, and the lion is the apex predator of the savanna. With the holidays right around the corner, it seemed like the perfect two week exploration to learn all about different cultures’ winter holidays and festivities. We learned about so many cool traditions from around the world! For example, in Iceland, children will put their shoes out on the window sill to either be filled with rotten potatoes or candy, and in Japan since the 1970’s, it’s tradition to eat KFC for Christmas dinner-sometimes resulting in hours long waits and pre-ordering meals month in advance! The home connection links down below are some of the videos we watched. We didn’t finish a couple, but I highly suggest watching them and talking about them with your child. I hope your child brought their representation of their country’s tradition home yesterday and was able to tell you a little bit more about it:) Some of the countries we’ve “visited” so far are The Philippines, Germany, Austria, Australia, Japan, Iceland, Canada, South Africa, Italy, and Sweden.

On the topic of traditions and customs, our Scholastic News this week was about a little girl named Jheneli Skye Huff. She is a member of the Seneca tribe and she plays lacrosse. Her mom played lacrosse and it is a very common sport for girls in her tribe to play. These were sent home on Thursday so you and your child can read and talk about them together, too!

This week’s Secret Story was about short u! What kind of sound does short u make? What’s his secret? See if your child can show and tell!

We read a few more chapters of Wonder this week and today we read one of my favorite chapters. Mr. Brown is going to be Auggie’s English teacher for the year and on the first day of school he instructs the class to write down the word PRECEPT in their journals and asks them what it means. The class starts listing off various important things after he told them a precept is a rule for something important. After the class finishes coming up with their list, he tells them they forgot the most important thing: who we are. Rather than a chapter check-in, I asked your children to do a little self-reflecting and write down in their journals who THEY are. The answers were incredible: “I’m kind because I help my family clean our house.” “I’m good because I help my friends when they fall.” “I’m nice because I make people laugh when they’re sad.” Wow! Love these answers and the wonderful, thoughtful, KIND mouths they came from!

Books we read this week:

  • What Does Peace Feel Like? by Vladimir Radunsky
  • If You Were An Elephant by Leslie Staub
  • My Bibi Always Remembers by Toni Buzzeo
  • Wonder

Sight words of the week:

  1. help
  2. make
  3. can
  4. I

Home Connection:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlbVewBUsk
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8L4LjqOKmE
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7Ei78g65cU
  • https://www.mobymax.com 

Announcements:

  • Holiday Program NEXT FRIDAY! We will be meeting at the Des Plaines Theatre at 9:45. The show will begin promptly at 10:00 a.m. Please have your child dressed in their “holiday best” attire. No gym shoes, sweats, Christmas pajamas.
  • Are you checking your child’s backpack every night? We began our class library check out this week and some friends forgot they had a book in their backpack to read with an adult at home. Please make sure you are frequently reading blogs and emails for current events happening in our class and school:) Let me know if you have any questions!
  • Wednesday, December 20 is an early release day with a PTO sponsored lunch! Winter break begins the 21st through January 8th.  

That’s all folks! Have a fabulous weekend and see you Monday! Go Bulls!

-Ms. Anna

“Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”- Albert Einstein