Happy Valentine's Day!

The children had a wonderful time delivering their Valentines to each other.  Below is a photo of the class wearing their animal glasses from one of their classmates. 
We also sent and received Valentines from our pen pals in North Carolina and Maine, and our preschool reading buddies.  There was a lot of love going around!

 Thank you everyone for my Valentine treats- you are so very thoughtful.

 This week we spent time learning about two presidents, Washington and Lincoln.  The students wrote about how they would change the country if they were president. 


In Math we learned 3 digit addition with regrouping.  The class has a good handle on this concept so we'll be moving quickly.    Don't forget to study the +7's during our break.  We'll be having a quiz the Wednesday we get back.


Our Generation Celebration is scheduled for Feb. 26th.  I hope the postponement didn't inconvenience anyone too much.  The students who have been assigned readings should practice them over the break.  If you know how many are coming from your family please email me the number so we can have your child save enough seats. 

Flat Stanley!

I hope Stanley arrived safely at your home today.  Enjoy some adventures with him over the weekend and be sure to write about it in the journal.  We will share some of the entries with the class next week.  Stanley has been all over the world.  Visit the official website to see photos of Stanley in Egypt, India, almost anywhere you can think of! Flat Stanley Site

We had fun making (and eating) Rice Krispie Treats this week.  They were supposed to be a January treat but we ran out of time. Go to this link for the recipe:  Rice Krispie Treats





What a great few weeks to talk about weather!  We have finished our unit but we'll still be checking the weather sites and reading weather books.  For a fun activity visit the snowflake site to make your own virtual snowflake.  Make a snowflake.

One of my former students (now a fifth grader) came in to read The Mitten by Jan Brett.  We love to have visitors!

I sent away for some fun items from the "Think Breakfast" program.  The program promotes healthy eating and exercising.  We received a workbook, erasers, stickers, and a pedometer which went home with the students today.  I hope they do a lot of walking this weekend.

I just had to share a photo of some cupcakes a birthday girl brought in today.  Maybe it's because my grandson loves minions, but I think they are adorable!

What's the Matter?

We were excited to welcome a guest presenter in to our classroom this week to explain matter to us.  One of our parents is a scientist and he brought in science equipment to demonstrate the four phases of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.  Our presenter used different sizes and shapes of beakers to demonstrate that matter in a liquid state takes the shape of its container.  The beaker on the blue hotplate next to him contains Sammy the Snowman who went from a solid (snow), to a liquid (water), to a gas (water vapor) when energy (heat) was introduced.

The students are pretending to be molecules in a solid by holding hands (bonding) and staying close together.  Then they pretended to be liquid molecules by moving freely about the room.  This demonstrated that molecules in a solid are closer together than in a liquid.

Here he is letting gas, which was released when he mixed vinegar and baking soda, blow up a balloon.

Our presenter and his son.  Thank you for the presentation.  The students learned a lot and had a great time!

With our evaporation experiment it took a little over a week for all of the water to evaporate from the cup without a lid.  The cup that was covered still has most of its original water.  We even noticed condensation on the inside of the baggie and inferred that precipitation had taken place when the droplets fell off the baggie back into the water.  We made our own little water cycle!  Remember, our open note test will be on Monday.  Use the links or prezi from last week's post to review cloud, the water cycle, and weather measurement tools with your child.

The students did a great job writing and presenting their sandwich book reports.  Great reading everyone!

   


Our chapter 5 math test is on Tuesday.  Please review the pages sent home.  The test will cover expanded form, place value, and comparing two numbers.  Use the ConnectEd link and your passwords given out at the beginning of the year to access more review materials if you would like. 

 Monday is Transformation Day.  Your child may dress up as something they would like to be when they grow up.

 We have started writing to our pen pals!  We have a 2nd grade in Maine and in North Carolina that we will be corresponding with.  We worked on Valentine notes this past week to introduce ourselves to our new friends.