Newsletter

May 9, 2008

Dear Parents,
THANK YOU!!!!! What a wonderful week with each day full of surprises!  You all made me feel extra special this week!  Thank you to everyone for your thoughtfulness.  I especially loved the handmade cards and notes, and the beautiful vase with everyone's thumb print and name. 
We had a great time at our All School Study about South Korea. The children saw two wonderful performances – a Tae Kwon Do exhibition and a traditional Korean dance with drums!

Mrs. McElligatt was our roving reader, and she read a story about a little Korean girl and her cat, which the children enjoyed relating to. We had a delicious Korean treat, and they made a special art project - their very own Korean special wishes pouch. We learned several facts about South Korea. Ask your child how many alphabets Korean children must learn in school (3).
SORRY – forgot to send home A-Z Countdown information – will send home Monday. Monday is
G- for green. Wear green clothes, and I will have something special for green for everyone.
We have left the Bird Unit and have entered the world of Eric Carle, a very special author. To start off our author study about Eric Carle, we watched a movie in which he described what his life was like as a child, how he got ideas for his stories, and how he illustrates his books. After reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the children wrote about the beginning, middle and end of the story, and we made a huge caterpillar which is hanging in our room. Austine Tabamo presented a wonderful lesson using Eric Carle’s, The Grouchy Ladybug, which is about a ladybug who wants to pick a fight with animals much larger than her. The children wrote and drew about how they would tell the ladybug different ways to solve the problem without fighting. Austine also lead a lesson using, Mister Seahorse. The children wrote at least three facts they learned about how different fish take care of their eggs. They also did a fantastic art project using colorful tissue paper “in the style of Eric Carle.” We also reviewed magic e, and the sounds for ar, er, or and ing.
Kara Thorstenson came in on Friday and read DogKu, which is a book using the Haiku form of poetry. Ask your child if they remember the special pattern they noticed. (3 lines and a pattern of 5, 7, 5 syllable counts for each line) She also read another poetry book using the acrostic form. Then the children had fun creating their own acrostic poems.
Our Making Meaning comprehension unit culminated with our discussing, writing and drawing about what we thought was important in our reading community, and what we liked about working with a variety of reading partners.
In science, we finished our Science Journal about our adopted tree in various seasons.
In math, we continue to work with fractions, time, money, measurement, mental math, number grid patterns, and on Friday the children had fun in math centers. They played a fraction game, practiced math facts with math fact triangles, telling time with clocks, explored measuring objects in classroom, and created a symmetrical design with pattern blocks. We also had another time test. The children are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

Happy Mother’s Day and have a super weekend!!!!

Sincerely,



Cheryl Trilling and
Austine Tabamo