Weekly News May 16-20

It seems as though Mother Nature is playing tricks on us with the mix of sun and rain and warm and cool temperatures...we are hoping for sunshine from here on out!  It is crazy that we are entering into our last FULL week of the school year!   As the year wraps up and many fun activities come into play, we continue to be impressed with the students' motivation to keep learning and growing!  How lucky are we to work with these kiddos?!

Upcoming Dates:

May 23: Family Event at the Kaukauna Public Library 6-7pm

May 26: 1/2 Day--Dismissal at 11:30

May 27 and 30: No School

June 1: Field Day Afternoon

June 2: Last Day of School--1/2 Day for Students

Reading: This unit on characters has been so much fun so far!  This week we will continue to study characters, but will also focus on the setting and the role that has in the way the character talks and acts.  We will also review using the picture to help us decode new words and make sure they make sense in the story.  We will wrap up the week by focusing on retelling our stories part by part and using important details about what the character said, did and felt.

Writing:  This week we will enlist the help of an editor to make our writing the best it can be!  We will spend 2 days working with a partner to revise our true stories and make sure they include: a beginning, a setting, a big character feeling or action and and an ending.  We will also have our editor check for neat printing, correct sight word spelling, punctuation and using ALMOST all lower case letters.  

Math:  This week our centers will be all about measuring and comparing!  We review concepts of comparing quantity and will explore different ways to measure and compare length.  We will also be working to solidify equation writing and recognizing we can write equations more than one way (2+3=5 or 5=2+3) and will take one more look at partners of numbers 2-10.

Our math centers will be:

• taking inventory of and comparing the contents in various bags of classroom objects
• writing about the counting strategy we used when taking inventory
• using a stick of 10 cubes to measure objects in the classroom and sharing our finding through writing
• creating our own book of measuring comparisons

Science:  This week we will conduct official "trials" to measure the effectiveness of ramps and balls.  
We will work in three different centers:

• One to observe and compare how ramp height affects the distance a ball rolls
• One to observe and compare how the size of a ball impacts the distance it can roll
• One to observe and compare how the weight of a ball impacts the distance it can roll

Word Work:  We will be spending the remainder of the school year reviewing sight words we have learned in fun ways.  We will also work to ensure we can transfer our knowledge of all these words in both our reading and writing!