Happy Easter!  I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter and vacation with the family.

 

 

 

The students are busy dropping the treats in the Easter baskets.  Thanks to the parents who brought in treats for our party! 

Reading!

     We have had a very busy PARP month.  I saw many of my friends at DeSales Reading Night.  Everyone had a good time playing reading games and eating pizza and Cat in the Hat cookies.  We were so excited to have the author Peg Thomas come in and talk to the school.

     Ms. Thomas talked about her books, read Snow Dance to us, and called students up to illustrate the many steps it takes to publish a book.  Snow Dance is about a little girl who gets everyone in the school doing a dance and chant so they could have a day off of school.  We tried the dance and we did get snow, but not enough!

     A grandmother of one of our students came in to read one of her favorite childhood books, Madeline.  She brought a doll with her and even showed us the appendix scar that each of the Madeline dolls have because, in the story, she had her appendix out.  The children loved listening to this favorite classic, as did I .  If any other parent or grandparent would like to come in to read, just let me know.

We worked on a simple art project for Easter which symbolizes Jesus overcoming death and rising again.

The children made their own dioramas and acted out the Easter story with a partner.

     Was I surprised to see our classroom the morning of my birthday!  Thank you so much for the wonderful birthday wishes and especially thank you to our room mothers who sneaked in to decorate the night before.

     The students have been working on their "Best School Day Ever" books for the past few weeks.  We voted on our favorite ideas and next week we will implement them.  The class voted for: Morning Work- paint and color, Math- graph, Reading- perform a play, Science- learn more about Space, Religion- learn about Jesus, and Recess- a Lego party.  It should be a fun day!

     On Monday we will be welcoming back a student who has moved back to the area.  The students made a big banner for the door to make her feel welcome.  I don't use names on my blog so just ask your child who it is- everyone is excited!

     Please join us for "Challenge for Charity" on Monday night in the gym.  The teachers will take on the eighth graders in volleyball and basketball.  It should be a fun night!

Each year I go to Wolf Maple Farm in Middleport for Maple Weekend and we buy syrup, maple donuts, and maple popcorn among other things.  The owner is always nice enough to give me a cup of sap so I can bring it into class and do a little tasting of sap and syrup.
 We also watch a youtube video of how syrup is made.  Maple Weekend also runs the 23rd and 24th and I highly recommend visiting Wolf Maple as a fun family activity.

Flat Stanley's Adventures

Most of the Flat Stanleys have found their way back to Lockport.  We have had such fun reading about his adventures!  He has been as far away as California and as near as Newfane.  He has been to zoos, museums, and out to dinner.  It was reported that he even had to spend some time in Time Out so apparently he wasn't always well behaved. :-)  Everyone did a great job using their imaginations when writing about all of his adventures.

The map shows all of the places Flat Stanley has been along with some souvenirs he picked up on the way.

This Flat Stanley went all the way to Texas and came back dressed as a cowboy!

Our evaporation experiment shows that in 5 weeks the water level in the uncovered container dropped from 1 3/4 cups to less than 1/2 cup, while the covered container shows very little water loss.

 

Don't forget to come to the Reading Night tonight!

Constellations!

I recently showed the students constellations on the Smart Board and the program was so cool I wanted to share it.  (Click on Stellarium on the Link list)  You can set it for a Lockport sky, show the constellations, speed up the time, and all sorts of other things.  Have fun exploring!

Parents As Reading Partners

     One of our parents came in to help kick-off the first week of PARP by reading a Dr. Seuss book to us.  The students loved having a guest reader!  If any other parents would like to come in to read a favorite childhood book please contact me.  We can work around your schedule.
    Don't forget to put Family Reading Night on your schedule for 3/14.  It doesn't cost a thing and we have fun reading games to play and treats to eat.
       The students are very excited to be learning about Space.  If you still have a VCR ;-), there is a great video from Lockport Public Library that has a lot of information about Space called Way Cool Science, Space Trekkers.  It gives information and then asks questions for comprehension.  The students each took notes while watching it and then shared their most interesting fact with the class.

 
       Dr. Seuss is our Author of the Month.  Check out the link posted for a fun filled website.

 
      Graphing has turned out to be a popular chapter in Math.  Our chapter test will be Monday and your child should go over the review work pages sent home on Thursday.  The test will mostly consist of interpreting information from the different kinds of graphs.

If there are any parents who would like to come in to read a favorite childhood book during PARP, please contact me. :-)

Kind Words

     The students were so happy receiving their "Nice Things Your Classmates Say About You" lists.  They were smiling and calling "Thank you!" out to each other.  It just goes to show that a few kind words can go a long way in raising a friend's spirits.  I know I wanted to get them out for Valentine's Day but I had to wait until everyone finished them - it was worth the wait!  Below are photos of the children pouring over their lists.

         

      Our February cooking lesson was making bread in a bread machine. The students were amazed at how it rose; and at the smell that wafted through our room into the hallway.  We read The Little Red Hen about a hen who didn't get any help when she was making her bread but when it was done had many offers to help her eat it.  We are making a classroom book that turns the story around with everyone helping the teacher make the bread and enjoying the reward when it is finished. 

                                                       Monday is the official kick-off for PARP- Parents As Reading Partners.  The committee has planned some wonderful events, starting with PJ Day on Monday.  Wear your favorite PJ's, eat popcorn, and relax with a good book!  Reading Night is scheduled for March 14th.  I will be joining some other teachers and parents in presenting fun reading activities in the gym that night.  Please put it on your calendar and plan on joining us for a fun night of reading.
     Our evaporation experiment has shown us that in only 3 weeks, over 1 cup of water has evaporated from the container with no top and less than 1/16th of a cup evaporated out of the container with plastic over it.  We are going to leave it until the first container has nothing left- we'll let you know how long it takes!