May 2, 2008
Dear Parents,
In math this week we have been focusing on fractions and number stories
(word problems). We have written a class number story book. They have
a good understanding of addition number stories, but we are still
working on the clue words for subtraction number stories (how many
left, how many more, and the difference). The students brought in some
great fraction items and pictures for our fraction museum this week.
They have a better understanding of a half and a fourth.
We also had two representatives from Bar Harbor Bank and Trust visit to
teach the students about saving money and how they can do it. They
were in for “Teach Kids To Save Day” on Monday, April 30th. Thank you
Mrs. Gray and Mrs. Bannister. The students brought home a Bar Harbor
Bank and Trust change purse with the new New Mexico quarter. The bank
ladies were impressed with the students’ knowledge of money and its
value.
In science this week we have focused on the digestive and nervous
systems. We made nerve necklaces, had a guest speaker (Jeff Scheff),
and have written about and made a mobile about cells. Next week we
will be finishing up our body unit. We will be fisnishing our bodies in
the hallway and focusing on nutritution and having a heathy snack
celebration. The PTF provided us with a new Nutritions Unit and an
updated food pyramid from Healthy Peninsula.
We had our last schoolwide writing prompt of the year. The prompt was
“I looked at the tree...” Most of the children were able to come up
with some great tree stories about spring and how to plant a tree, and
take care of it, or fictional stories about magical tree houses. They
are still working on rereading their stories so they make sense and
using periods and capital letters appropriately. We will continue to
focus on this and to add more detail to their stories. After reading
their books, have them retell their stories from beginning to end.
This will help with students who are having a difficult time with story
organization (stories having a beginning, middle, and end).
We also focused on our schoolwide theme this week too. We had a guest
speaker from Rwanda and the students gave him their t-shirts they made
for him to take back and give to Rwandan children. We also have
pen-pal letters from Lesotho to whom our students are writing, and
Sandra Pheonix will be deliviring their letters when she returns to
Lestotho.
Wow! We accomplished a lot this week and still managed to get in our
reading and love notes. Again, the children look forward to reading
their love notes at circle. Thank you for still filling them out!
Enjoy your weekend.
Sincerely,
Judy Cole
