April 4, 2008
Dear Parents,
We started our science unit on The Human Body this week. The students
traced and cut out their body shape to put body parts on as we learn
about them (check them out in the hallway by our classroom). We have
focused on the skeleton and they have learned what it does for us and
how many bones are in an adult body. We had a visit from “Mr.Bones”(a
skeleton that lives up in the 8th grade science room) and they have
drawn a skeleton and labeled its body parts. Ask your child what bones
do for us and how many there are in our body. We talked about muscles
today and how they help us move like the strings on a marionette
puppet. If any parents would like to come in to share their knowledge
on this topic please let me know. We love to have guest speakers.
In writing this week we have been focusing on editing our stories with
a friend. They read their journals to each other and they have an edit
card checklist to help each other with spelling, organization, and
“does it make sense”. Wow! They have learned so much about writing
this year. Now when they come to share their writing with me they have
circled words that they need to work on and they show me how they added
periods and added detail to their story. They are also starting to
publish their stories themselves on the computer using a program called
text edit. Mrs. Billings (Mrs. Billings) is helping out with this.
They are really excited when the computer reads the story back to them.
In spelling and phonics this week we have been working on long vowel
sounds (silent e words and ea words). We have also been working with
compound words and learning about diagraphs (sh, ch, th, and wh).
In math we have been focsuing on 3-D shapes (pyramids, cylinders,
cones, spheres, cubes, and rectangular prisms) and working on our
addition and subtraction facts to 12. Thank you for sending in some
shapes for our shapes museum. We have been sorting them into the above
categories.
Again, thank you for sending in those love notes. It does help with
accountability and it shows your child that you are excited about their
reading. They so enjoy every day at circle listening to me share them
and filing them in our “Love Note Box”.
