Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Book Sale Tomorrow
Just a reminder that the book sale for Animal Ark will start tomorrow.  Students can bring in money to buy books starting tomorrow and through next week.  Our goal is to raise $100 to we can adopt Khan, the white tiger.

Khan
Common Name: Bengal Tiger (White)
Scientific Name: Panthera tigris
Gender: Male
Birth Date: December 1998
History: When a well known theme park decided to phase out some of the animal features, the trainer of the large cat show found himself out of work with thirty-five large mouths to feed. We spend $35 a week to feed one of our current tigers so you can imagine his dilemma. He needed to place a number of large cats and contacted us. Because of the Ark’s reputation, we were offered one of his more valuable animals. In the wild, only 17 white tigers have been seen since 1900. In 1951 a male named Mohan was caught by the Maharaja of Rewa in India. The cat was bred to an orange colored female which gave birth to orange cubs. Later, when Mohan was bred to a daughter, the first litter of white cubs in captivity was born. This is due to a double recessive gene. They are considered valuable by zoos for their ability to attract visitors and thus have sold for as high as $60,000. Khan makes a welcome addition from an educational standpoint and hopefully as an attraction as well. This particular year we were made aware of many tigers that needed to be placed as a number of wildlife facilities ran low on funds or were closed by the United States Department of Agriculture because of violations. Fortunately, many were placed through the efforts of sanctuary associations.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Spelling Words
This week's spelling words are very difficult.  They are "color" words and since there isn't a specific spelling or phonics pattern they may require some extra practice.  Some students that typically get the challenge list every week may not have received it due to the amount of words they missed on the pre-test.  I want the kiddos to be as successful as possible on their test on Friday.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if you'd like to receive the challenge list if your child wasn't given it on Monday.  Thanks!
Book Sale
We will start our book sale for Animal Ark on Thursday and will continue it into the beginning of next week.  Please try to go through your books this week prior to Thursday if you haven't already done so.  Students will be able start purchasing the books for anywhere between 25 cents to $1.  Please let me know if you have any questions.  We are so excited to start raising our $100 to adopt the white tiger!
KNPB Writing Contest
The students have brought home (or will be bringing home) a blue folder from KNPB.  This was a free writing lesson that they came and taught.  The students have the option to continue the writing process and to return their completed stories and illustrations in order to enter the KNPB Writer's Contest.  This is not mandatory.  The contest guidelines are in the folder.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Online Goodies
Below are links to some great online resources that can be used to reinforce skills we've been practicing in class. 

Here is a link to a free printable ruler.  If you haven't set up an account and checked out the other free reources on this site it's great!

This is a link to an online typing program.  Typically the students don't start practicing typing skills in computers until third grade, but I know many of them have been wanting to type their book projects for extra coupons and the hunt and peck method can be time consuming to say the least. :)


And last but not least this one is a link to bookmark for sure.  It has a ton of math games that are all free!


If you want to practice some more at home or on IXL we have been working on measuring to the nearest inch and centimeter and will be starting to do to the nearest 1/2 inch and 1/2 centimeter.  We will continue to practice addition and subtration with regrouping.  In the weeks after spring break we'll be working on area, perimeter, and capacity. We are also working on telling time to 5 minutes and elapsed time, which would look like this:

If you got to the mall at 10:00 am and stayed for an hour and half, what time did you leave?

Monday, March 18, 2013

Discovery Museum
We had such a busy, busy week last week.  Thank you to all the families who came to Open House.  It was a huge success!  I also saw many of you at the Art Auction Friday night.  It was so fun to get together to support such an awesome school!  

I can't believe it was only last Tuesday that we went to the Discovery Museum.  It seems like ages ago. Here's a look at the fun times that we had.



















Making Change
Below is a link to a fun game to practice making change.  This is tends to be a really difficult skill to master. :)

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Book Character Day!
Don't forget to dress up like your favorite book character tomorrow in celebration of Reading Month!
Blue Dog
Last week Maddie's mom came and did a great lesson on color mixing and George Rodrigue.  The students painted his famous Blue Dog.   Many of you were able to take these home at Open House.  Here's a look at the rest!





Monday, March 11, 2013

Guest Author Today
Today we had author Lynnette Bellin read one of her great books to the class.  The kids really enjoyed it.  The link below has the information on her and her fun books that you can order.
 

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Let the Craziness Begin
Next week is pretty darn busy.  There are a few things that have been added to March that are not on the calendar that was originally posted. Here's what's going on...
  • Tuesday is our field trip to the Discovery Museum.  We'll be leaving between 9-9:30 and returning sometime between 11:30-12:00.  The students will need to bring a cold lunch that day.
  • Tuesday is also our Open House.  Families are invited to check out the class art auction projects and have their children give them a tour of the school and their classrooms.
  • Friday is "dress up like your favorite book character day"
  • Friday night is the Art Auction from 6-9 in the California Building at Idlewild Park.  Make sure to buy your tickets for this fun, fancy parents' night out that's a great cause for our school!! 
Also, coming up....
  • March 18th- Book Order Due
  • March 22nd- End of the Grading Period
  • March 26th-29th- Used book sale for Animal Ark in classroom
  • March 26th- Spring Picture Day
  • March 27th- Book Project Due
  • March 28th- Skate Night
  • March 29th- Report Card #3 goes home
  • March 31st- Easter
Please continue to send in any used children's books that you have at home.  We have a great collection going and the kids are excited to see if we can raise $100.