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!