Week of April 16, 2012                                                          

Dear Families,     

         Welcome Back!  I hope you all had a fun and restful spring break.                                                                    

         We are looking forward to our upcoming field trips in May.  Please make sure you have sent in your child's money and permission slips for both trips.  

         Please remember to send in your child's reading calendar at the end of each month.  The reading coordinates with the Phanatic about Reading Program information that was sent home in mid October as well as the MOT required reading.  If you need a blank calendar or information about the program, please let me know.

      Mystery Readers: Our class has been enjoying mystery readers on Fridays.  These mystery readers come in and read to the class on Friday afternoons around 3:00 and read to the class a book of their choice.  Throughout the day, I provide clues for the students to see if they could figure out who is coming to read to them.  Please let me know if you are interested, and I will get you scheduled.  Remember it is a MYSTERY, so don't tell your child that you are coming.   

Here is what we are working on this week............

    For Reading we starting our last unit. Wow, where did the time go?!  Unit 6 is titled America's People.  The selections of the unit focus on how America has changed and how early Americans have influenced how we live today.  The unit also focuses on understanding and appreciating diversity.  Our selection of the week is called April and Her Family.  It is the story of how April and her family incorporates their family traditions from China and Taiwan into the American lifestyle.

Focus Questions:  Is everyone who lives in America alike?  How do our differences make America stronger?

Genre: Nonfiction

Skill: Fact and Opinion

Vocabulary: explorer, orchid, chores, discovered, sesame, popular, and wiser

      For Writing we are wrapping up our poetry unit.  We are  finishing our poetry books and writing MOT poems.  We hope that you can come to Academic Night next week to take a look at our poems.  Here are some pictures of of the poetry activities.....

 For Math, we are starting Unit 14 which is called Fractions: The Whole Idea.  The students will work with concrete and symbolic representations of fractions as they explore parts and wholes by folding pieces of paper.  Students represent fractions with square inch tiles and solve fraction puzzles.  Students compare two fractions and determine if one is more than, equal to, or less than the other while playing two different fraction games.

         For Social Studies we are starting a new unit called Writing the Story of the Past.  This unit focuses on learning about the past by studying artifacts and documents.

  Upcoming Events:

• 4/20 - Progress Reports come home
• 4/25 - Ice Cream Wednesday
• 4/25 - Academic Night - 6:00 to 7:30 PM
• 5/1 - Any Pants Day $1.00
• 5/4 - Field Trip to Fort Delaware State Park
• 5/22 - Field Trip to Coverdale Farms
• 5/28 - No School-Memorial Day
• 5/30- Ice Cream Wednesday
• 5/30 - Spring Fine Arts Night - 6:00 to 7:00 PM
• 6/1 - Any Pants Day $1.00
• 6/5 - Step Up Day
• 6/6 - Ice Cream Wednesday
• 6/8 - Field Day/Last Day of School/End of the Year Party
   

Grading Scale:

• E - Exceeds the standard
• M- Meets the standard
• A - Approaching the standard
• W - Well below the standard
• NA - Not addressed (meaning we haven't taught it yet)
   

*Please continue to work on your Phanatic About Reading program by reading every evening!  This is MOT required reading.  Please continue to turn in your monthly calendars.

                                                                               Sincerely,

 Kristy Walsh

                                                         kristy.walsh@mot.k12.de.us

 (These times are tentative and may change) J

Special Schedule

A – Wellness

B – Spanish

C – Technology

D – Music

E – Art

F - PE (wear sneakers)

Any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me at kristy.walsh@mot.k12.de.us.

Please check back for updates!

         For Science, we will continue our unit entitled, "Engineering is Elementary: Designing Bridges.