A few announcements before we go through our new learning for the last two weeks.
*Our field trip was a great success! Our class was AMAZING! Thank you to all of the volunteers who joined us. (see pictures below)
*If you have not yet joined our class Facebook page, please click https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008815694667&fref=ts or search for MrsYuskas Class and friend request us! :) I post information and daily messages as my email often does not send everything out.
*We have had the first case of Influenza A in our classroom over the weekend. We're doing our best to keep our hands washed, but I also wanted to encourage you to talk with your child about appropriate hand washing and ways to avoid the spread of germs. We want to keep everyone healthy and safe. Also just a reminder that our school policy states that if your child has had a fever, thrown up, or has had diarrhea that they should be free of these symptoms for at least 24 hours before returning to school. It's also helpful if you could let us know if your child has been diagnosed with any contagious bugs (like pink eye, strep, influenza, etc.) so we can confidentially let our families know so they can also be vigilant about watching their own children for symptoms. Thanks for all your help with keeping our kiddos safe, comfortable, and in their best health to learn!
*I know this is a way off yet, but I just wanted to send out a note about our Valentine's Day exchange. In past years I have had a few parents/ students ask if they are required to make their own "mailbox" at home to bring for the party. As a community building activity we will be decorating white paper bags together in class prior to the party, so your child does not need to (and should not) bring their own mailbox for Valentine's. Hopefully that helps save some stress of having to do it on your own. Thanks!
*This week we will begin our Science unit on the Physics of Sound. As part of this unit the students participate in a culminating project that requires them to bring "trash"/ recyclables from home in order to create a new instrument. Please collect, but do not yet send it in! :) The students will be bringing a letter home about this soon, but I just wanted to give you a heads up so you could start collecting those egg cartons, paper towel rolls, rubber bands, etc. The students should NOT build their instrument at home but instead bring the raw materials to construct in class in about a month's time. Thanks for your help with this!
*This week we had an assembly for "ThinkB4You Speak Week." He taught the kids to "look strong, speak strong, and report."
*PTO sent home a questionnaire about our next fundraising event. Please share your thoughts and return to school.
Math
We are about ready to wrap up our unit on two step word problems. As expected, this has been a difficult unit as it requires students to not only show mastery of the basic facts for all operations but also apply them in a much harder context of problems with regrouping and two step word problems that involve several operations. Please encourage your child to be practicing their basic math facts at home as well. This practice does not need to take a long time each night, but just a few minutes each day can really build up and pay off. By this point in the year your child should be fluent with their addition timed facts and making strong progress with their subtraction facts as well if they are on target with the end of year goal of mastering addition, subtraction, and multiplication. If you would like additional ideas for how to practice please reference the "50 Ways to Make Homework FUN" sheet.
Reading
We have read two stories out of our purple reading books one called The Living Desert, the other called The Wild Ride. Both were very short so we talked about using and reading multiple resources to formulate a main idea. We also created Main idea posters.
Writing
We are continuing our expository writing. In the last few weeks we finished our third paragraph about the End of Slavery and we are now in the middle of our fourth paragraph about Segregation. We will continue learning about segregation and civil rights during our writing time as we will be starting our next science unit this week.
Social Studies
Our class just can not get enough Social Studies. We have been talking about Segregation and talking a lot about the Jim Crow Laws as well as the Civil Rights Movement. This has also lead us into many different time lines starting with the beginning of slavery, through the election of President Obama.
FUN FROM THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM:
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| Checking our President Obama's signature on a podium made in Iowa. |
Have a great week!
Mrs. Jodie Yuska
