MATH: The children did a great job drawing objects of teen numbers and locating the 10-groups within their mini teen number book. I hope that you were impressed when they showed it to you. Finding partners of numbers was also practiced along with numbers that are greater than and less than other numbers.
SOCIAL STUDIES: We completed our booklets relating to Me on the Map by adding the United States and the World. We sang a fun song to learn the names of the oceans too. The children have been fascinated with this and are amazed by how they can zoom in and pinpoint exactly where they are on this great big earth! We had fun zooming out using Google Maps to see exactly where Georgetown Elementary sits in reference to our entire globe. The children brought their books home on Friday, ask them to read them to you! We will continue to talk about ways we can be responsible to take care of the Earth next week!
SCIENCE: Rocks, Rocks, Rocks! We began the week by sharing our favorite rock from our collection to the entire class. It was fun to talk about all the differences and similarities we saw in our rocks and hear where everyone found their collections! We did three experiments with our rock collections throughout the week! We sorted our rocks by texture, rough or smooth, we had fun exploring the different colors of our rocks, and finally we weighed our rocks to compare the heaviest to the lightest in our collections. Thanks so much for helping your child in their rock search!
WRITER’S WORKSHOP: ‘Authors using mentor texts’ was still the theme for learning to be better writers. We read Shortcuts by Donald Crews to explore how Crews used sound words to add to his story. We went back to our small moment stories and worked hard on adding sound words. We also explored how authors can add feelings to their story by adding character feelings to the words and/or pictures, like Kevin Henkes did in Lily’s Chocolate Heart. We had fun sharing the feelings we added in our stories with a partner. Later in the week we worked hard on going back to our stories to check for capitals ( I, names and to start a sentence) and periods! We all need to continue working on this while we write! Finally, we ended the week by reading Pete the Cats Big Lunch, where the author adds thinking and talking bubbles to his pictures. The children did a wonderful job this week of growing their stories! We will continue to revise and edit a story this week for our writing celebration on Thursday with Mrs. Iwema’s class!
SPLIT LIT: We have begun something new and exciting. For the next few weeks we are using our knowledge of popcorn words, reading skills and reading strategies to read familiar stories in the format of reader theater plays. We were each assigned a special role in a play, a character or a narrator. The children are really working on studying the characters in the play to use expression and act with feeling when preforming their parts. They ‘re having so much fun practicing their roles! We will be performing these plays the beginning of next week for each other! Be sure to ask your child what role they have!
5TH GRADE BUDDIES: On Friday we visited our buddies in Mr. Gort’s room to read books and enjoy our popcorn together! We had lots of fun sharing books together!
MYSTERY READERS: This week we had two very special mystery readers! Mrs. Williams, Cadence and Cole’s ‘Nana’ visited us on Thursday, she read 2 wonderful books to the class! Hello Ocean was a beautifully illustrated book that told of the 5 senses of the ocean. She shared this book because it reminded her of the wonderful spring break trip with her grandchildren to the ocean in Florida. She also shared an old favorite that Cadence and Cole’s dad used to hear when he was little, The Sheepish Lion. The students loved listening to these books and being visited by a very special grandma! She got to meet each of us and have a special room tour! Thanks for visiting us, Mrs. Williams!
Our second mystery reader this week was Elizabeth Ball, Isaiah’s sister from Mr. Bowen’s 4th grade class! Elizabeth was our very first sibling mystery reader and what a great treat it was to have her visit! She read Berenstain Bears, Lend a Helping Hand, a book with a great message and one of her favorites as a kindergartner! I was so excited to have Elizabeth volunteer to surprise our class! Thanks Elizabeth for joining us!
REMINDERS AND INFORMATION:
*Popcorn word this week was “they”. Ask your child the fun song we learned to help us remember how to spell ‘they’.
*Library day is Tuesday. Bring back that book! 
*Our playground is wet and muddy! When the rain stops and it will, PLEASE, PLEASE send boots or other outside shoes for your child to wear so that we keep our classroom floors clean and tidy. They will need to stay on the pavement if not dressed appropriately. Thank you so much!
*The last book order forms will be coming home this week! If you would like one more opportunity to purchase some wonderful books for summer reading please don’t pass this opportunity up! This will also be the final chance to use up you $5 free book coupon from a past book order.
*The annual art show for all HPS students is next week. The special day for Georgetown is Tuesday, April 23rd from 5:30-7:30pm. Please click on Mrs. Brower’s art blog to learn more http://josettebrouwer.
*Field Trip: We will be visiting the Outdoor Discovery Center, in connection to our living/non-living and plant units, on Thursday, May 9. If your interested in joining us or would like to order your child a sack lunch from school please return the pink form back to school on Monday, April 22! I will be in contact with all my interested chaperons this week as I may need to limit the number of wonderful volunteers for this trip. I will be allowing all parents that didn’t go with us on the fall field trip priority to join us first then it may be first come first serve after that. Please also send $2 with your child in a marked envelope with your child’s name and field trip money to school no later then May 3rd!
*Summer Tutoring: I will be tutoring Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at Georgetown this summer. If you’re interested in keeping your child’s skills fresh and helping them improve over the summer to be well prepared for first grade please e-mail me. I would love to continue to work one-on-one with your child!
Enjoy this beautiful sunshine today!
~Ms. Yankee