February 19th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we are digging into the poems we are reading and writing some of our own in the writing center.  Along with understanding that poetry is written to describe things, we are learning about how a poet arranges the words into lines, so that the reader pauses at those line breaks.  It is hard work but the students are catching on!  We're also noticing the interesting words poets use to explain things.  For example, in a poem about a puffin, the poet wrote "A puffin loves stuffin' its bill full of fishes."  And many of us had no idea what meant by "stuffin'," so we learned he was referring to "stuffing" like "stuffing yourself" or "I feel stuffed," when you're full after eating.  

If you're thinking about ordering from Scholastic next month, maybe choose a poetry book!  Poetry is excellent for vocabulary, comprehension and fluency!  Your child will love learning to recite a favorite poem with you!

During writer's workshop, the students will continue their narrative writing based on Nicola Davies about the animal of their choice.  We will also continue working on editing our writing.

This week in math we will learn to tell time on an analog clock to the half-hour and quarter-hour, learn to tell time on an analog clock by 5-minute intervals, and work on calculating elapsed time.

We will be finishing up our study on the Olympics this week.  Next week we will begin a new social studies unit on Our Country.

Special Points of Interest

• We are almost out of tissues!  We have had a lot of runny noses in our classroom, so we have been going through tissues very quickly.  If you are able to donate a box of tissue to our classroom, it would be greatly appreciated!
• If you have a Connect Four game at home that you no longer use, we'd love to use it for a math center.  Even if you are missing some pieces!  I will be writing numbers on the chips, just as a heads up.