February 9

Upcoming Dates/Reminders:

• February 14 (Wednesday):  Valentines Day.  We will be having a small party in the afternoon.  Is anyone willing to provide a small snack or drink?  If so, send me an email.  I sent home a list of names so that your child can provide a valentine for everyone in the classroom.  
• February 16 (Friday):  No school for staff development
• February 19 (Monday):  No school for winter break
• February 20-23- Makers week at Pine Ridge in the afternoon
• February 22 (Thursday):  Skating Party from 6-8p.m.
• February 28 (Wednesday)- Field trip to Hemlock Crossings.  We will be leaving school at 8:45 and returning around 1:00.  This field trip ties in well with our Science unit on animals as well as our Social Studies unit with Native Americans.  We will become skull detectives as we observe different animal skeletons and we will be snow shoeing as well!  I am able to take 4 volunteer parents along.  Please send me an email if this is of interest to you.  You will need to have your own transportation to Hemlock Crossings and bring a lunch.  
• Anyone want a pet crayfish??  We are done with our Science unit and four of these little creatures are looking for a new home.  If you are interested, send me an email and let me know!
• Reading minutes are due Monday.  We will not have math or word work next week due to the short week.  

Curriculum Highlights:

Bible:  We are reading about Moses and the plagues sent to Egypt.  We have talked a lot this week about Pharaoh and his hard heart.  Most of our devotions have revolved around the state of our own hearts and the importance of keeping them soft for Jesus.  We have begun illustrating our new Bible memory of Psalm 121.  I also sent home a letter this week explaining student led devotions.  I hope your child loves doing this!

Math:  Due to the snow day, I will spend next week Monday reviewing for our multi digit addition and subtraction test which we will take on Tuesday.  This week we got really good at reading carefully with reading multi step word problems.  We underline important information and make sure our answer makes sense and answers what the question is asking.

Literacy:  We focused on comparison charts (Venn Diagrams) and cause and effect text structure this week.  The concept of cause and effect is a bit tricky yet so we will spend a few more days looking for this in the nonfiction texts that we are reading in class.  We do so much writing with the nonfiction unit as we work.  I will be giving the word work assessment on Monday due to the snow day today.  

Science:  This week we finished up our popplets on the beetles and crayfish.  Your child should be coming home with a copy of this in his/her homework folder.  We have gone back to our Changes in Motion unit and focused this week on physical force of motion with several different experiments.  We are having a lot of fun!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lynae