Weekly Update, April 16 - 20

Hello Super Pre-Second Graders and Stupendous Pre-Second Grade Parents!

Upcoming Dates and Important Information
* First grade is creating a date night/family night basket for the Funfest. If you would like to donate an item or money to be used for the gift card, please send it in by this Friday, April 20.
* The Funfest is Friday, April 27. I hope everyone can attend; it will be a lot of FUN!
* We will study careers for an upcoming social studies unit (April 30 – May 4). I would like to invite all parents who would like to teach students about their careers to come visit our classroom. The best time to visit would be in the morning, between 8:30 - 10:00. If you would like to participate in career week, please let me know. The kids absolutely love having visitors in our class!

This week in science, guided reading and writing we are learning all about plants and seeds. Today we learned super seed facts (parts and functions). Tomorrow we will learn about the life cycle of a peanut seed. On Wednesday we will read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle and we will also learn about plants by observing stems. On Thursday we will learn about types of bulbs. On Friday we will learn what the expression “Green Thumb” means and we will also learn how to care for plants.

The kids continue to be wonderful writers! We finished a district writing assessment. Last week the kids wrote their first draft and began to edit it and today they completed the revision process. We will also write a fiction story on what it would be like to be a seed. The kids will get some practice in scientific non-fiction writing by describing the life cycle of a peanut seed.

The kids came home with Rainbow Words and they are due tomorrow. This week in making words we are reviewing problematic sight words (they, was), reviewing the "ou" chunk and introducing the "they're" contraction. I am so impressed with how the kids have tackled the contractions we learned thus far (it's, can't, don't, you're, we're) and I LOVE seeing them in their writing. Way to go, kids!

The kids enjoyed their plant centers today! The centers for the week include:
1. Listening - The kids listened to "I'm A Seed" and they made a pop-up baby plant and labeled its parts.
2. Science - The kids predicted where seeds would be and what they would look like in eight different fruits. The fruits were cut open for the kids to study. They counted the seeds in each fruit and compared them.
3. Writing - The kids wrote about what it would be like to be a farmer.
4. Math - The kids sorted a cup of seeds by type. They graphed the seeds and answered questions about the different seeds.
5. Reading - The kids read plant books and shared different facts with their reading groups.

The kids did a super job with our calendar math chapter last week. There were lots of A+ test scores! This week we are working on place value and writing 3, 4 and 5 digit numbers. We are practicing making different combinations of three numbers that add to six.  We are also learning to compare and compose shapes, both flat and solid.

We have a fun activity planned for computers this week. If you’d like to see what the kids will do, check the blog on Friday for the blog posting called “Computers, 4/20.”

Have an A+ week!
Mrs. Johnston