We need some chaperones for our field trip

CHAPERONES NEEDED

We could use a few parent or caregiver chaperones to attend our Tuesday, June 5 field trip to the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke. The bus will leave at 9:00 a.m. and return to Bridge Street at around 1:00 p.m. Chaperones are welcome to take the bus with us or take their own personal cars. Chaperones must have a CORI background check in order to attend. There is about a two week turnaround time for the CORI check, so let me know if you would like to chaperone as soon as possible.    

HOT WEATHER

Now that summer is officially here (at least temperature-wise), it is important that the kids stay hydrated during the day. Our room gets HOT! Last year we recorded almost ten days in which the temperature in our room was 90+ degrees. Kids are welcome to bring in water bottles. However, please don’t send in any other kinds of beverages for consumption during classroom time. Spills otherwise are too hard and time consuming to clean up, and the kids don’t need any added sugar or caffeine during the school day.

Field trip and new reading and writing units

FIELD TRIP

Tuesday, April 24 is our field trip to the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. We have to board the bus at 9 a.m. sharp to insure that we arrive in Springfield at 9:30. Please be sure your student arrives to school on time Tuesday so they don’t miss out.

READING – NEW UNIT ON HISTORICAL FICTION

This week we begin our unit on historical fiction. Our class read-aloud text is Number the Stars, a book about the escape of a Jewish family from Denmark during World War II. During the unit students will work in small groups to read and discuss a common text, like a book club model. Ask your student about characteristics that make a book historical fiction. Do you have any historical fiction favorites?

WRITING – NEW UNIT ON LITERARY ESSAYS

Students will learn how to write a literary essay. This type of essay is not a summary of the plot or characters, but rather a critical and careful analysis of a theme or big idea of a story. Students will support their ideas by citing evidence from the text. You may notice this unit builds on the work from our last unit on persuasive essays.  

MORNING MEETING – PROBLEM SOLVING

For the past several Wednesday mornings we have been learning about problem solving strategies, the last bend of our Second Step social-emotional learning curriculum. In the last session we discussed some ways to resist peer pressure and stay true to ourselves. It’s not always easy to do, but students agreed that it’s really important!

GARDENING

Right before vacation we had our first spring gardening class. Students selected seeds for the plants they would like to grow this season.  We also prepared the beds for cultivation. A lesson on photosynthesis connected wonderfully to our science unit on energy transformation. We head over to the garden again this Wednesday.

SUPPLIES NEEDED

Our supply of sanitizing wipes for cleaning desks and tables has run out. Any donations of wipes would be appreciated.

Geometry,opinion writing and more

The school year is zooming by, but we still have lots of important learning to do.

In math we are in the middle of our geometry unit. After that we have a unit on fractions and decimals and then another visit to multiplication and division, this time with larger numbers. Last week in writing we kicked off our persuasive essay unit. We also call it opinion writing. In reading, we are wrapping up our unit on non-fiction texts. Next we move on to historical fiction. In science we just began a unit on energy. And finally in social studies we continue our march across the United States and its regions as we turn our attention to the Midwest.  

We have made it through the year so far with very few student absences due to illness. On a related note, our supply of sanitizing wipes for cleaning desks has run out. If anyone would like to donate some wipes to Room 302, it would be appreciated.