I don't know if your child told you, but as of last Friday the class had earned enough compliments on their behavior that they won a popcorn party. Since it happened so late in the day, we celebrated today. Our letter of the week is Qq and our spelling words are what and where. We will be talking about things that hatch from eggs all week. A group of students, including Christian, Izaak, and Ian formed a trash patrol and picked up garbage during recess. Thanks, guys!! In math, we talked about fractions and equal parts.

I forgot to put in my newsletter that book orders are due this Friday and that we have our class picture on Thursday.

Greetings! This week's newsletter has been posted to the class web page.

This morning we played a different version of BANG! in which students collected words they could read. When we ran out of word sticks in the can, we put all the word sticks in the middle and each student had a turn to put some words together to make a sentence. In science, students cut apart and assembled the parts of a plant and labeled them. We learned the words perhaps, certainly, and resourceful. In math, students painted their butterflies so that the patterns on their wings were symmetrical. We added sticks to turn the butterflies into puppets and reviewed lines of symmetry. Reef provided some yummy birthday treats at the end of the day. Thanks to Mrs. Eliason for helping students check out books this afternoon. Have a great weekend and enjoy the warm weather!

Today was Mrs. Webber's last day with us. We wish her well with the rest of her training. She will make an awesome teacher! Ms. McSweyn, one of our counselors, taught a lesson on using "I messages." An example she gave was that if someone cuts in front of you in line, rather than hitting the person or yelling at them, you should say, "I feel angry when you cut in line. I want you to go to the back of the line." Everyone had the opportunity to practice the new language. Using I messages is a great way to diffuse a tense situation. In their journals, students wrote I statements, such as, "I feel sad when I don't get a latte in the morning." (oops, that was fron MY journal) In math, we talked about symmetry. Students traced a butterfly, cut it out, folded it in half, and drew a design on one half. Next, they repeated the same design on the other side. Tomorrow, we will paint the butterflies.

Sound muncher (the trash can that we feed word cards to) lost a tooth today so we sang him a lullaby at the end of the day, put his tooth under his pillow, and now we're hoping like crazy that tooth fairies come to schools! I taught a lesson about fairness today. I had a bag of 14 cookies and offered the entire bag to one student and asked the rest of the class how they felt. It was interesting, and impressive, that the student with the bag of cookies said she wasn't happy about having all of the cookies because it made everyone else so unhappy. Good answer! I shared them fairly--one for each student. We talked about if those cookies had been in someone's lunch box. Would they have to share? No--your lunch is yours and you don't HAVE to share them, but you could if you wanted to.

A couple of plants have sprouted!! You can imagine the excitement! We hope that some more have sprouted by morning. Your brilliant children wrote haikus today! Cool, huh? We collaborated on one and then students were given the option of simply copying the one we wrote together, changing only bits and pieces, or starting from scratch. We had a little of each. I will hang them in the hallway. The bake sale is still going on tomorrow and Friday, with baked goods selling from 25 cents to $1 for larger items.

We were lucky enough to go out for each recess today without being rained on. Mrs. Webber taught a great lesson about recycling and we were impressed with how much students already knew about reducing waste, reusing items and recycling. Students wrote a list poem about a sport that they enjoy. We reviewed shapes, specifically the rectangle and the square. We were fortunate enough to get a used rice table from the pre-school teacher, adding a learning new center to the rotation. After school, I called the zoo to set up a date for our class field trip. It will be on Friday, May 28, from 10:30am to 1pm. The cost will be $3.25 per person. More information will come.

This week's newsletter has been posted to the class web page. Hope you had a great day and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.