Weekly News

IMPORTANT DATES
•    Friday, March 30th: Last day to order from Book Orders
•    Wednesday, April 4th: Early Release, School ends at 12:30pm, Lunch will be served.
•    Friday, April 6th: No School, Good Friday
•    Wednesday, April 12th: Early Release, School ends at 12:30pm, Lunch will be served.
•    April 16-April 20: April Vacation week. School resumes Monday, April 23rd.

WORD WALL WORDS
age                big            because        old            little  

MATH
We are wrapping up chapter 8, which focused on fractions, doubles, and the quarter. We are continuing to reinforce these concepts and practice counting with quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies often. Chapter 9 brings us back to addition and subtraction. We are planning to take this time to really strengthen our understanding and automaticity with facts through 12.  At this point, the children have strategies and tools to solve addition and subtraction problems, both simple facts and bigger numbers. These next few weeks, we will take a deeper look at facts through 12, doubles, doubles plus 1 (if I know 3+3=6, then 3+4=7), and coins (both identifying and counting). We want children to have a really solid understanding of these foundational math facts before we move on to more complicated concepts.  Thank you for you support and help reinforcing these skills!

SCIENCE
Last week, we conducted two experiments using eggs and apples to represent teeth. In one experiment, we put eggs in 3 different liquids (water, milk and Coca Cola) to study the effects of these liquids on the enamel of teeth. We then brushed the eggs with a toothbrush and toothpaste to observe how brushing can clean teeth. We made conclusions about different liquids’ effects on teeth and the importance of brushing teeth.

Our second experiment involved poking into an apple. We poked through the apple skin into the fruit. We observed the effects of the air on the hole in the apple. Cutting the apple in half on day 2, we observed that the apple turned brown around the poked hole. We can compare the apple to our teeth. Poking through the skin is similar to bacteria eating through the enamel, creating a cavity. We discussed that very small shallow cavities can be treated by the dentist and can be very painless. By looking at a cross section of a tooth, we noticed that the closer the cavity gets to the center of the tooth and nerves, the more of a chance that a person might feel a tingly feeling or tooth ache.

This week, we are focusing on ways to take care of our teeth. We will also learn about tooth traditions in other countries by reading and discussing the book, Throw Your Tooth on the Roof.

COMMUNITY
We started exploring the concepts of multiple intelligences this week. We talked about ourselves as learners; we all have different combinations of strengths and areas we can work on. The 8 areas are:
- Linguistic (Word Smart)
- Visual (Picture Smart)
- Interpersonal (People Smart)
- Intrapersonal (Self Smart)
- Bodily-Kinesthetic (Body Smart)
- Musical (Music Smart)
- Naturalist (Nature Smart)
- Mathematical-Logical (Logic Smart)
The children really started this conversation off quite insightfully, describing their areas of strength, areas they’d like to improve, and naming areas of strength of their peers.

BOOK ORDERS
Book Orders will be placed in mailboxes this week. Orders can be placed online or by form. Orders are due March 30th, and usually take 1-2 weeks to arrive. This is a great way to purchase books at a discounted price.

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Sign-up for Spring parent-teacher conferences has been posted outside the classroom. Please sign-up for a time slot that works for you. This will be an opportunity to share the spring conference report and discuss your child’s progress. Please let me know if the times do not work for you and we can find another time to meet.

ASK YOUR CHILD…
These questions can be conversation starters to discuss the week in school.
•    What is one of your kinds of smart?
•    What can we learn about our teeth from our egg and apple experiments?
•    What are some words that have a soft G sound? (giraffe, giant…) A hard G sound? (green, get…)