Update from Ms. Luria

May 24, 2011

Dear Families,

Calendar:

Mon May 27: No School – Memorial Day

Thr May 30: Last day for SUN school – Showcase 4:30 – 5:30

Tues May 28- Fri May 31: Spirit Week

Fri May 31: May Birthday Celebrations – please bring something to share – 2pm

June 3: All library books due

June 5: Rose Parade 3^rd grade only

June 6: Field Day 

June 12: Talent Show – 1pm

June 13: Jet Boats (3^rd grade only)

June 14: Last day of school for students

  

Talent Show: If your child would like to perform in the talent show, we are having try outs on this coming Wednesday in the afternoon. If your child would like to perform, they need to be ready for a try out on Wednesday after lunch. There is a time limit of 2 minutes per act. Students can be in one piece.

Classroom need: We could use more pencils. The best pencils (that don't break every 5 minutes) are the Ticondera pencils. Thanks! Also, we could use some more hand held pencil sharpeners.

Homework: This week is the last week for homework. This last homework is completing their 

final draft.

Reading: We have started a new read out loud book as a class. We are reading The New Kid at School.  Students are enjoying the book! It is a great series that you can check out at the local library as well! (Students can no longer check out books at school for the remainder of the year.)  If your child likes books about dragons, here are some other books the local library has: link. 

Students are also having some choice reading time daily. Students are keeping a journal as they read their own book and working on the skills of predicting and summarizing as they read.

Science: We compared the life cycles of humans and chickens this week. Students were surprised to learn that there are a lot of similarities between the life cycles. Students also wrote about the life cycles and drew one life cycle this week. Next week we will continue to study more life cycles.

Here is a link to the life cycle of kangaroos. Talk with your child about how they are similar or different from the life cycles of humans and plants! Link

Also, we planted some different seeds. Students are keeping the seeds at school to watch the germination process. They planted three different seeds and will be observing them to see which seeds will germinate the fastest and the slowest.

Writing: We are finishing our imaginative writing unit! Students have worked very hard on coming up with a plot that makes sense, adding in dialogue and descriptions to their stories. We also talked about slowing down the action to make a story more interesting. This week students should be finishing up their final drafts by Thursday.

Make sure your child checks their name on the blog. Many of them have comments about their writing!

Ms. Luria