3-10-08

Dear Parents,

We are heading into a new nine weeks, spring break, and longer days, life is good! Testing will begin after our break. Please reassure the kids that they will do fine, I know a few are a little apprehensive. I will be sending a few testing tips home that you can go over with your child.

We will go back to our spelling books, start back daily math, and discontinue DOL for the last nine weeks of school. I'll send a new reading log home and the kids will be doing a short book study. I will ask that they read and discuss the book with you. It is a very short book that prompts some good discussion. You can read the book with your child, or seperately. The important part will be the discussions you have. Details will be coming home.

Our read aloud is Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Rober O'Brien:

The kids are really enjoying it, ask your child about "the plan" of the rats of Nimh and how they became so smart. I think I've read more read aloud books about rodents :) this year than any other year, but it has brought on some meaningful text to text connections and the kids have really begun relating to the characters and it seems they have a deeper understanding because of the common theme. I model and we discuss reading strategies during read aloud as well as during our reading mini lessons. We've practiced connections, mental images, re-reading, predicting, using context clues to figure out the meaning of words, and inferring to name a few. The kids are fluent with these terms and better yet, they are getting to be experts at using these strategies in their own reading. During independent reading time, some of the kids are reading books on ipods, reading with a buddy, some are in a book club with me, and some are just enjoying a book on their own.

In writing we are studying different types of poetry, we began with free verse and are now branching out to more structured types. It is fun investigating, experiencing, and trying out these forms of poetry. All of our poems will be published in the Student Treasures book. If you have not sent back your signed form or a picture of your child, please do so as soon as possible. Everyone will receive one free copy but I have to have the signed form to get it.

We are working on fractions and division in math, they go hand in hand, and the kids are beginning to make connections between the two. We have not run into remainders yet, well let's just say the kids just do not quite believe a problem like 12/5 can be solved, but we are getting very close. A math game called "Leftovers" will be coming home soon to help practice this concept.

Although technology is integrated into all areas of our curriculum, here are a few highlights: The kids are still working on publishing their online video tutorials, we have about 6 so far and I will be adding them to the tutorial link on our site soon. We also continue to Skype with our pals in Italy, this Friday we will continue sharing math strategies. Last week Hoover's math coach, our tech coach, the reading coach, our vice principal, and other classes all joined us to observe the strange Italian accents that were coming from our room. Our kids felt very important!! Sherry Parrish, our math coach, was impressed with the math strategies we shared with our Italian friends, and everyone was impressed with our multicultural connections! We expect more visitors this Friday!

We have a trip to DeSoto Cavern's coming up in April. More information will come home soon.

As always, thank you for your support and have a wonderful spring break with lots of quality family time!

Tanya Constantine

Important Dates: http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=2bcvmamhc3752ej4tsltk671sk%40group.calendar.google.com&title=Mrs.%20Constantine

Site of the week: this is the site that some of the kids are making tutorials on: http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/students/

Have your child go here to practice vocab words and donate rice to the poor for each correct answer! Add the total grains to our "help us learn link" on our web site, click on Free Rice, then type the password constantine to add your total grains to our class total: http://www.freerice.com/