Happy Mother's Day!

Has it really been over three weeks since my last post?!?  I apologize for letting so much time pass...where has the time gone?

Happy Mother's Day!  Children were very busy Thursday and Friday making special Mother's Day presents.  I hope your child remembered to give you his/her special gift!

The week back from vacation we celebrated Earth Day by reading The Lorax, discussing it's message, and discussing how we can take care of Earth.  Each child made a marble painting of Earth and then wrote what they would do to take care of Earth if they were the Lorax.

 In reading we have been learning about characters in stories.  The children learned the following strategies for developing a better understanding of characters:

• Before reading, look at the pictures on the cover and the title to think about what the character(s) in the story might do.
• Pay attention to the facial expressions on characters.  A character's expression often reveals information about a character's personality or how the character might be feeling.  Pictures help us gather more information about a character than what the text might reveal.
• Characters often change throughout a story.  Readers think about how the character might be different at the end of a story than he/she was at the beginning/middle of a story.
• Readers think of a how a character is feeling and make their voice show that feeling when reading dialogue.
• Readers talk about internal thoughts a character might be having.

By using the strategies listed above, children improve their comprehension by reading for meaning versus just reading the words.  I encourage you to prompt your child to use these strategies when reading at home.

 In math the children have:

• Learned the name and value of a quarter.  The children learned different combinations of coins that are equivalent to a quarter (5 nickels, 2 dimes and 1 nickel, 25 pennies, etc.).

• Practiced exchanging pennies for nickels and nickels for dimes.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Learned there is an equal chance or tossing heads as tails when flipping a coin.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

•  Practiced addition facts by rolling two dice and adding the total number of dots.  The children graphed their sums to determine which sum you are most likely to roll.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

•  Played the Plus or Minus game to practice adding and subtracting.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Learned that there are many different ways to show one number. 

  

  A Name Collection showing different "names" for the number six

  
  

• Practiced building two-digit numbers with sticks.  Children used bundles of ten sticks to represent the digit in the ten's place and single sticks to represent the digit in the one's place.

 As you can see, your children have been very busy these last few weeks.  It's hard to believe that we only have five weeks of school left!

Until next time,
~Katie