February 27th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Last week was an exciting one with our work on poetry and many of our readers showing off their new understandings of how to figure out unknown words!  Many of us are very excited about bringing home books from the library that we can read on our own!  We are working on bringing home one book we can read on our own and one that our parents should read to us.  Remember, both are vital to growing readers!  

This week we are beginning to learn about "how to" writing.  We'll be discussing how and why people write these kinds of texts as we look at many different examples.  Don't be surprised if your son or daughter brings home a book that teaches them how to do different crafts, or how to draw animals!  Embrace their excitement and try it with them!   

This week we will continue learning about different shapes, including polygons, spheres, cylinders, rectangular prisms, pyramids, cones, and cubes.  We are going to investigate the characteristics that these shapes display.  The children are going to complete many hands on activities using manipulatives.  Remember to keep practicing addition and subtraction facts to 16 at home, so your child can develop fact power.  Look for Home Links 7.3, 7.4, and a subtraction practice sheet to come home this week.

We will continue working on our social studies unit Our Country this week.  The kids have been very interested in the geography of the United States and the symbols that represent the USA.

Special Points of Interest

• Read Across America is this Friday - See the Thursday folder for more information
• Thorson Variety Show is next Tuesday!

Due Date Extension - Scholastic Book Order

Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub
One-Time Class Activation Code: JBVLX

Dear Families,

Please remember to place your Reading Club orders by Friday, February 24th.

You can shop and submit your order online or return the order form with payment directly to me. No matter how you order, every purchase you make earns FREE Books and educational supplies for our classroom.

The arrival of the book box is always a highlight - thanks for making it happen!

Happy reading,

Mrs. Majinski

Ordering online is fast and easy:

• REGISTER at scholastic.com/readingclub
• ENTER the Class Activation Code at the top of this letter
• CHOOSE from thousands of print titles, value packs, and Storia eBooks
• SUBMIT the order to me by the due date at the top of this letter
• EARN FREE Books for our classroom too!

February 20th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Wow!  Such wonderful weather we're enjoying again this week!  

This week we are digging into the poems we are reading and writing even more.  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.  This is not easy work!  We took some poems in their first draft form, and re-wrote them considering where the line break should be.  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, 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!

This week in math we will be analyzing data and creating graphs.  We will also be learning about different shapes, including polygons, spheres, cylinders, rectangular prisms, pyramids, cones, and cubes.  Look for the Unit 7 Family Letter along with Home Links 6.12, 7.1 and an addition practice sheet to come home this week.  Please keep Home Link 7.1 at home for extra practice.

We will be continuing our study of the United States.  We will learn more about our countries symbols and past presidents.

Special Points of Interest

• Extended due date!  Scholastic book orders are due this Friday! You can go online to order www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and type in the Online Code: JBVLX, or you can send the order form and money to school with your child.
• 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.
• The coin drive is going on this week!

Coin Drive!

Coin Drive!

Please bring in coins for our coin drive (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters and yes even dollars).  You can also write checks to Thorson PTO with memo playground fun.  All money collected will go to playground fund.  We are getting closer to seeing a change in the playground but need help.

Dates: February 20-27

Prizes:  Classroom that collects the most earns a pizza party.

Any classroom that raises $350 or more dollars will earn an extra recess.

Thank you in advance for your donations!

Six Flags Read to Succeed - FINAL Reminder

Great America Reading Logs – Due Friday, February 17

This is a reminder to all K-5 families that the Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Log is due Friday, February 17th. If your child has read six hours, please fill out the dates and times and sign the reading log. Return the completed reading log to your child’s teacher. You will receive a free student ticket to Great America before the end of the school year. Keep on reading!

February 13th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week we are analyzing some of the poetry we've been reading about different animals and places.  We are learning about different tricks or tools poets use to make their poems more fun or more interesting!  We've already learned about alliteration and rhyming and we are using these tricks to get started writing our own poems this week!  

We are focusing a lot on vowels in reading right now.  Short and long vowels can be very difficult for kids.  It would be great if you could notice words on signs while driving or in stores, and just ask, "Hmm, is that a short vowel or a long vowel?"  This week we are learning about consonant- vowel- consonant (or CVC) words and CVCe words (words with silent e).  These words are everywhere!  Maybe you could find 2 of each, AFTER reading the book that comes home, or any book really!  That would really help!

In math, we are going to continue practicing “What’s My Rule?” problems.  We will also provide experience finding the value of collections of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.  We will review time and introduce our math reference book.  We will be playing math games using our math triangles, please reinforce this at home by practicing them at home with your child.  Look for Home Links 6.8, 6.9, 6.11 and a subtraction practice sheet to come home this week.  Please keep Home Link 6.11 at home for your child to practice with.

We are currently working on our social studies unit called Our Country.  In the next two weeks we will be taking a closer look at a map of the United States and we will be locating different states.  We will also learn about the locations of the continents and the oceans.  Additionally, we will be learning about important symbols of the United States.  We will be learning about a few of our presidents and taking a close look at George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  We will also be comparing and contrasting George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

Special Points of Interest

• THANK YOU in advance to all of the families that donated items for our Valentine's Party. The kids are looking forward to the party tomorrow!
• Scholastic book orders are due Monday, February 20th. You can go online to order www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and type in the Online Code: JBVLX, or you can send the order form and money to school with your child.

Looking for a few donations...

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!

We are also in need of more socks for our dry erase boards.  If you have a sock that is missing its partner, please send it in!  They make great erasers!

One last item... 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.

Thank you in advance! :-)

Great America Reading Logs

Great America Reading Logs – Due Friday, February 17

This is a reminder to all K-5 families that the Six Flags Read to Succeed Reading Log is due Friday, February 17th. If your child has read six hours, please fill out the dates and times and sign the reading log. Return the completed reading log to your child’s teacher. You will receive a free student ticket to Great America before the end of the school year. Keep on reading!

100 Days Smarter!

February 6th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We hope all who attended the Thorson Winter Carnival had a great time!  If you were there, maybe you had a chance to see our latest piece of community writing hanging in the hallway?  We finished our class book about Arctic animals and now the boys and girls are working in partners to create a zoo poster for our hallway!  Each partnership worked together to write what they knew about their animal, then they researched online using Pebble Go (which you can find on the IMC page) and they are now thinking and planning together how to lay out their facts, their illustrations and their title.  

In the beginning of the year, many of our students were going crazy for the Elephant and Piggie books (by Mo Willems) and we now are fascinated with Dory Fantasmagory (by Abby Hanlon)!  I have the first three books (I believe that is all there are right now) and have been loaning them out for kids to take home to read with parents.  I just wanted to give you the title and author in case you wanted to check the public library or look on Amazon, because I'm not sure everyone will get the chance, but I'll do my best!  Dory is a girl who explodes with imagination and of course that sometimes gets her into trouble, which readers just LOVE!  (from Mrs. DeRosa)

In math, the children will continue to use the Addition/Subtraction Facts Table to solve subtraction problems.  We will also be learning about the centimeter as a unit of measure.  Look for Home Links 6.5, 6.6 and 6.7 and a problem solving sheet to come home this week.  Please keep Home Link 6.7 at home so your child can practice math facts with the math triangles.

This week we are celebrating the 100th day of school today.  We will have fun exploring different activities using the number 100.

A great resource for all subject areas is BrainPopJr.  From Thorson’s homepage, go to students and click on Destiny, then click on the link for BrainPopJr. Username:  csdthorson  Password: cedarburg There are many videos and games that are fun and educational for the children!

Last week we began a new Social Studies unit called Our Country.  We will be learning about the location of our country, important symbols of our country, and much more!

Special Points of Interest

• Valentine's Day classroom parties are on February 14th - Thank you in advance to all of the parents who are donating food and items for our party!
• Scholastic book orders are due Monday, February 20th. You can go online to order www.scholastic.com/bookclub and type in the Online Code: JBVLX, or you can send the order form and money to school with your child.

January 30th Newsletter

Dear Parents and Guardians,

This week will be an exciting one in literacy in our classroom!  Last week we finished up our first informational writing piece, which will come home soon.  Everyone worked very hard to tell facts about the topic they chose.  (By the way learning about what a topic is, choosing one and then telling facts we know about that topic was a lot to learn!  We are so proud of them!)  We also worked hard to name our topic in the beginning and organize the different parts onto different pages.  This is an early step that will really help them to understand the genre of informational writing better, as well as with paragraphing in their own writing later on.  

This week we put everything we've learned to the test as we will be assigned the task of working with a partner to create a poster for a variety of different Arctic animals at the (pretend) zoo.  We will be including facts, considering illustrations & labels, and even using headings to help the reader understand.  

Our students seem to really love informational writing.  Try encouraging your son or daughter to write an informational book at home.  They don't have to do hours of research, just have them write about something they know a lot about!  Animals, sports and activities work great!  We're beginning to understand more about glossaries, some students might even include them in their next piece!  How exciting to see the growth happening!  

In math, we are going to continue using name collection boxes.  We will also be practicing our fact families and learning about fact triangles.  The Unit 6 Family Letter was sent home last Friday.  Look for Home Links 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 to come home this week.  Again this week our math home links were copied on white instead of yellow.  Sorry about the confusion!  Please keep the fact triangle home link (6.4) at home so that your child can practice with the fact triangles.  Remember to keep practicing addition and subtraction facts at home.  This quarter we will be working on facts all the way up to 16.

Scholastic book orders are due Monday, February 20th. You can go online to order www.scholastic.com/bookclubs and type in the Online Code: JBVLX, or you can send the order form and money to school with your child.

Special Points of Interest

• Thorson Winter Carnival this Saturday!