February 10

Post date: Feb 12, 2017 10:27:08 PM

Dear Parents,

How wonderful to have another week without interruption! And we were busy!

We have been doing a lot of non-fiction writing in Writer’s Workshop. We learned how to do instructional writing and wrote stories about how to build a snowman after reading several How to books. We also began learning about the research process and how to write about factual information. In Social Studies/Science we’ve been learning about animal habitats in different parts of the world looking at geography and climate and how those impact the types of habitats animals build. Then we zeroed in on the Panda Bear because of our recent study of China and the Chinese New Year. We have been researching together the physical attributes of the panda bear as well as their diet and habitat. We are taking notes on our research (using pictures, letters and words), and next week we will begin the writing of our research papers.

We learned the letter “B” which is a tough one because most kids at this age are still mixing up the “d” and the “b”. We focused on the following heartwords:

was going like

In math we have continued to work on adding and subtracting and began measuring things around the classroom with different units of measurement.

We continue to read up a storm individually as well as in small and large groups. Students are really enjoying choosing books from the bins that are at their reading level. They read their books independently first and then to a friend. Finally they read it to me. We are also reading lots of heart words books. Please be sure to have your child read their books to you, siblings, pets, stuffed animals, grandparents, nannies… anyone who will listen! They love to share and the more practice the better.

We have been enjoying our “garden time” both in the classroom and outside. We planted seeds that we will soon transplant into the garden beds as soon as they are big enough. And we made bird feeders that we put up throughout the garden.

We have had such a wonderful time developing relationships with our High School Big Buddies as pen pals and look forward to finally meeting them for our big Zoo Field Trip on February 24^th. (Specifics will come home soon.) The High School buddies will come down to the Grade School on the bus and we will travel to the zoo together. This time on the bus is their initial meeting and it is precious to watch the bonds grow almost instantly.

I hope you’re enjoying the dry weekend!

Cheers,

Kate