All things April

Wow! It is hard to believe the last trimester is already half way over. I am hoping to send midterm reports home next week. The week of April 15th! :)

There has a been and will be a lot happening in our room, this sometimes means guest teachers as well changes in schedules.  So far the kids have been really good about this. 

Math- Last week we completed a review of math we learned prior to spring break. This included a review of fractions, division, and multiplication facts. We will continue to practice these skills while moving on. This week we started to discuss geometry. So far we have discussed the properties of 2d and 3d shapes. The last few days we have worked on designing open and closed boxes for cubes and determining the number and shapes of cube faces and other rectangular prisms. This helped us learn how they come together to make a whole. Today we will be working on the same concepts with triangular pyramids. 

Reading-   Last week we  read Storm in the Night by Mary Stolz. This story is about a grandson named Thomas who listens to his grandfather tell a tale about a storm that occurred when he was a boy. As he listens, Thomas begins to overcome his fear of the thunderous night while realizing that fear is a natural response.  This week we took our unit test and used reading time to work on our Text Talk vocabulary. 

Text Talk- This week we read  Angel Child, Dragon Child. Book Summary from Scholastic: Ut, a Vietnamese girl attending school in the United States, is lonely for her mother left behind in Vietnam. She has difficulty adjusting to her new life, and her classmates do not accept her because she is different. Then she makes a new friend who presents her with a wonderful gift. A heartfelt, gentle, and realistic story. Our text talk words are: tilted, tender, yearn, gleam, mumbling, and cooperative.  

Science- Last week the students chose a country and did a small research project. They created brochures with travel information, which they presented to the class. 

 

 

This week we have been learning a lot about fossils. I love when I learn new information too! :) With our trip to the fossil gorge tomorrow, we have been learning a lot about paleontology (the study of things living long ago) and what a paleontologist (a person who digs and researches things found in sedimentary rock levels) may do and use. 

 

  
 

Writing- Last week we wrote "Cloudy with a chance of..." stories either by ourselves or in a small group. We took the time to edit our writing and word process them on the mobile lab cart. We took time to write a quick story about if you dug up a dinosaur bone using a t-chart to pre-write. We will print our cloudy stories, illustrate them, and share them with the class.  

Upcoming this month:  
4/12 Field Trip to Coralville
4/15 Pictures and/ or picture DUE
4/19 I will be gone to attend my daughter's Kindergarten Roundup- Mr. Shaffer is scheduled to be in our room.
4/19 LAST day to turn in Book Club signup sheets
Other than that, I believe there is just a continuation of Good News Club and Girls on the Run.  


Have a great week!  
Mrs. Jodie Yuska