April 4

Dear Parents,

Well, it HAD felt a little bit like spring…

R  Please continue to send your kids prepared for recess for all types of weather patterns.  We’ve been going out this week, and many students have been miserable from lack of warm attire.  I’d love for it to be warmer too, but until it actually happens, be prepared to send winter wear.

R  Continue to practice and refine book talks this week and the first part of next week.  Students will be presenting in class April 9, 10, or 11 (see your child’s informational letter.)  The kids should have books home now, or have them traveling back and forth if you prefer.  They will need to create their visual aids and to practice the public speaking portion with you at home.  An example has been given in class, so you should be ready to roll if you haven’t yet started. J

R  We will have the opportunity to have an outreach program come in to Pine Creek from the Omaha Children’s Museum.  This is scheduled for April 11.  They will be doing a unit in conjunction with our next Science chapter on the planets and the solar system. 

R  We’re working on paragraph writing for an assessment piece for the kids’ portfolios.  This is a difficult topic area for the kids each year.  When you write with the kids at home, encourage proper use of topic sentences (main ideas), focus on sentence fluency so that all of the sentences don’t start in the same manner, and practice indention and writing to the edge of the paper for the remaining lines. 

R  Reminder to mark your calendars for two “no school” days on April 18 and 21. 

R  My HOPE (as in I cannot guarantee this is yet set in stone) is that our books will be back from the publisher for our class to host its publishing party the afternoon of April 24.  I will get you more details to follow when we find out more about the time frame from the publisher, but for right now, pencil April 24 in to your calendars.  It will be the last “parents at school” performance day for you this year with the exclusion of Awards Day and Fun Day, of course. 

R  April 25 we will have our last field trip.  It will be to Lauritzen Gardens in connection with our Earth Day/Arbor Day holidays study.  Permission notices will be sent in a few weeks.  Parents will be allowed to either carpool from the school or meet us at the gardens.  We will be arriving to the gardens around noon to eat lunch there and go on a self-guided tour/scavenger hunt.  Parents who wish to attend will be able to mark so on the permission notices when they are sent, and will be responsible for their own payment into the gardens, which I believe is $7 per adult. 

R  We’re in our last quarter for AR and the kids are once again working diligently on their three set goals.  I promised them I’d remind you at home that all students earning 25 points for the year (all quarters combined total of points equaling 25) will earn a pizza party in May.  Students achieving 50 points will attend the pizza party in the pajamas with a stuffed animal friend.  We’re pretty close to having our whole class with 50 points.  Keep reading!

R  While on the subject of rewards, please remember to continue practice with basic facts.  Students who have beat the 5 minute time test goal will earn an additional award at the awards assembly. 

R  April book orders are due April 10.  Please use code H7QMC on the scholastic site to order online.  Start planning ahead for some summer titles your child might enjoy and stock up!

R  Next week the kids will be participating in a couple of earned bonus activities.  Plan for an extra recess on Monday, April 10 for third quarter AR goal rewards, and Tuesday, April 11 the kids will be allowed to bring a board or card game for a DWP party.  (No electronic devices, please.)

R  Curricular notifications:

o   The next Science chapter focuses on the solar system.  We did a lab this week making our own constellation out of a Styrofoam cup, and we amazed at the difference between it “shining” in our classroom vs. in the darkened mechanical room.

o   In Math we’re moving on to a unit on Fractions.  This can be another great study topic for IXL if the review categories mentioned on the weekly calendar have already been mastered.  It’s a fun unit for the kids and will move pretty quickly. 

o   In Social Studies we’re still moving through our unit on Government and the process of voting and making laws.  Next week we’ll create our own versions of some of the commonly known national symbols.

o   We continue to work on the proper ways to build paragraphs:  topic sentences, 3-5 solid details, and a conclusion sentence.  For practice at home, have your child take a question you ask (such as “What’s your favorite animal?”) and turn it into a topic sentence that uses the main idea of the question (such as “My favorite animal is a ___ “ or “The ____ is an amazing animal and is my favorite of all the animals.”)  You can also take questions and have the kids practice setting up the paragraph and work with them to add in details that strengthen the content of the paragraph for added emphasis.  It’s a difficult assessment, to be very honest.  This year we’ll try to master getting one paragraph nailed so that next year, the kids will be ready to build into a 5 paragraph report.

o   LA- The study of problem/solution in stories will be big the next few weeks.  We’re still going to be reviewing reference sources and how to locate information (as the past theme test has told me we are in need of more review.)  Our grammar focus is making the subject/predicate (which are now called the naming/action or telling part of the sentence) to match without making all of our sentences be worded in the future tense.  (An example:  I study for my math test.  Sally studies for her math test.  NOT: I will study for my math test.  Sally will study for her math test.)

Happy April birthdays to Ava and Janessa! 

Wow!  That’s a lot.  Toward the end of the year there is so much information to tell you, I am certain I could have missed something.  Please email if you have a question about a specific piece of all this that directly affects your child.  Finish strong!

Have a great day!  Cheers!