Newsletter+May+2+-+May+13

May 2 – May 13, 2011

In math, students are reviewing money concepts, such as names of coins and bills, equivalent amounts and money exchanges. The children worked together to create shopping lists, estimates of their total costs, and calculations of their exact costs. This unit has also allowed us to explore the use of calculators for these money problems and estimations. Students observed that the calculators take “shortcuts” when displaying results (showing 0.6 for 0.60). Through another shopping activity, children had the opportunity to practice counting up change from the cost (cost = $5.59, pay with $10, count up from $5.59 to $10 to find change).

Poetry has continued to be the focus during reading and writing. Using metaphors and similes, students finished writing their poetic self-portraits. These self-portraits compare our eyes, hair, mouth, and heart to different objects. Please stop by to see our self-portrait displays that are outside the classroom and in the Meeting Room!

In science, students have been exploring bridges. Children are exploring the works of civil engineers in ** science ****.** Through a story that explored the engineering design process, we noticed that there is a cycle of planning and testing of prototypes that often repeats itself! While civil engineers work with many structures, our class is taking a closer look at bridges. Children tested a variety of materials and the strength of certain bridge structures. Soon they’ll put that knowledge to the test by planning and building their own bridges!

Students are continuing to explore various double-vowel syllables, such as “oa”, “ow”, and “oe”. We noticed that “oa”, “ow”, and “oe” all make the long “o” sound. However, “oa” often occurs in the middle of a word, while “ow” and “oe” occur at the end of a word (show, toe). Before the letter “n,” we discovered, “ow” can also be in the middle of a word (grown, flown).

Things to Look Forward to... • Reminder: Monday, May 30th is Memorial Day Weekend…No School! Enjoy the extended weekend!