We have been having so much fun learning about Japan. Our Far Away Friday "trip" to Japan is coming up on Friday, April 12th. Thank you so much to all of our parent volunteers, it is most definitely going to be a great day!

Here are some highlights from the past 2 weeks:

• learning Japanese numbers and creating a mini-book
• practicing how to say Japanese words such as "ohayo gozaimasu" (good morning) , "sayonara" (goodbye), "Genki?" (how are you?) and many more!
• using "ink" (black paint) to try writing some Japanese "kanji" (Japanese system of writing)
• reading and making our own Daruma dolls. Ask your child about the wish they made while creating their doll.
• learning about haikus and even writing our own haikus about cherry blossom trees

We were very lucky to invite author Andrea Pinkney Davis to our school last week for a visit. She shared with us about her writing process and inspired us all to continue reading and writing.

We have been doing a lot of writing in Room 3 over the past few weeks. Our latest writing piece was about "If I Ruled the School". The children were very creative and imaginative while writing about what they would do if they were in charge of the school day.

I have been encouraging the students to use graphic organizers prior to writing in order to brainstorm and organize all of their thoughts. See the image above for an example of the graphic organizer we have been using.

I look forward to sharing your child's hard work in their writing journals with you at the upcoming conferences!

Math: We are currently finishing our work in Chapter 8 - Adding and Subtracting Two Digit Numbers. Be on the look out for your child's Chapter 8 assessment in their folder next week.

Fundations (our phonics program): Your child's unit 8 assessment was sent home in their folder Thursday. Please make sure to look it over. If it seems like your child had a harder time with this unit (blends can be difficult) please check out the Fundations website for some ideas for extra practice. We will also continue to work on blends throughout the rest of the year.

For more information on our Fundations program, please visit our classroom website and find the "Literacy Links" tab under "Important Links".