Plant and Garden Guest Speakers, Parent Teacher Conferences

Today started off slowly, probably due to the time change, but soon we had the energy level up in the classroom.  We have a number of exciting learning activities coming up.  We finished an opinion writing essay today on the growth of cities.  We read both sides of the issue and chose a side for a fictional city.  We will have more opportunities to write to persuade, but many of the students are really getting the hang of it.  I like how they are using more complex transition words, like however, therefore, and additionally rather than first, next, and last.  It is helping their writing sound more like middle school writing, which is our goal at this point in the year.  

In projects, we are excited to have expert speakers coming to talk to us about plants and gardens in Nevada/  Rick and B. Ann Latin, of Latin Farms, will come to our classroom on Thursday.  They will speak to us about gardening tips for Fallon.  They will talk to us about what plants grow well, when to plant, and how to prepare the soil for best results.   We hope to have time for them to answer our questions about our garden plans.   We are excited to learn from the experts!

Parent Teacher Conferences will be scheduled on Monday, March 30; Tuesday, March 31; Wednesday, April 1 (that is no joke!); and Thursday, April 2.  These are all school days, the week right before Spring Break.  I can take appointments from 4:00 - 6:00 each night.   If you are not free during these times, we will have to schedule after the break.  Please email me your preferred time to schedule.  

Have a great week!

Plant Project

Our denim project was a huge success!  The students made some really neat items and sold them to each other, for Bighorn Bucks, of course.  It was a fun experience, but my favorite part was the reflection time afterward, when students thought about what they could do better or what they did well this time.  It was a great opportunity to have an idea, try it out, assess how it is working, then adjust.  We have some very creative minds here, both with product making and with the business side of it.

Now we are working on a gardening project with our study of plants, the water cycle and ecosystems.  The students' final product is a garden design.  Of course, no one has to plant the garden, but your child will be bringing home a garden design for your yard.  Together, decide where you would plant, what you would plant, and how you could help your plants grow.  Students will need to think about water, where it is and how the garden will get water.  This can be a flower garden, herb garden, vegetable garden.  We even talked about a salsa garden, growing the items needed for some delicious salsa.  The point of this is to make it real, so each student will plan what is realistic to his or her gardening space.  No one's garden plan will be graded on how big it is.  Have fun with this.  Most of the work will be done in class, but it will come home this weekend for parent approval.

Blue Jean Projects

Tomorrow is our project making day with our denim!  We finished the book Mr. Blue Jeans, so  now we are creating a product out of denim.  Your child may want to bring in some good fabric scissors for Tuesday.  We have some in the classroom, but we will share those supplies.  If your child's design involves a lot of cutting, it would be helpful to have an individual pair.  We will take good care of them and send them home on Tuesday.

After we make our products on Tuesday, we will sell them, using our class Bighorn Bucks, to our classmates.  This will be a really fun way to learn about economics.  We are super excited for this week.  Thursday will be the test day on this book.

In other news, we are trying to keep our terrariums and earthworms alive with the right amount of sun and water.  We are learning about the water cycle, energy transfer in organisms and photosynthesis.   Trickier than it sounds.  It is a fun week!

Terrariums, Blue Jeans, Christmas Play Link

We had a great time building our terrariums.  Thank you, parents, for sending in the supplies!  The kids did really well with reading the directions, splitting the plants carefully, helping each other, and cleaning up afterwards.  We are excited to observe them and see how we can help our plants thrive.

Our next request is for jeans by Feb. 2/24.  We are reading the biography of Levi Strauss, Mr. Blue Jeans.  We will finish this book this week.  Next week we will create a product out of the denim from the jeans.  Your child will use the jeans he or she brings in.  It will be a fun way to imagine the process Levi Strauss went through as he came up with the idea for sturdy pants for the miners of San Francisco.

Keep your child reading for reading log at home. Just a reminder, the 20 minutes is  a minimum requirement, but if your child is able, please have him or her read more!

Thanks to Cody Deegan, we have a link to view the class Christmas play.  It is pretty cute.  Have a great week!

http://youtu.be/F7cNIUU8t9c  

Ecosystem project

We are starting a really exciting new project this week.  We will be making soda bottle terrariums in the classroom as a way to learn about living things.  We will learn about photosynthesis and be able to show how the sun's energy is used for producers and consumers, and that plants get what they need for growth mostly from air, sunlight, and water.  Your child came home with a list of supplies they need.  Each student needs a clear 2 liter bottle with the cap.  Each student also has another assignment for a shared item, such as potting soil or small rocks.  Our planting day is Tuesday Feb. 17, so please make sure supplies are in by that day.  That is the day after a Monday holiday, so don't let that sneak up on you!

We are reading a biography in class, Mr. Blue Jeans, which is about Levi Strauss.  We will make some things out of denim in a few weeks, so each student will need a pair of jeans that he or she can cut up and use the denim to make an item.  It will be a fun way to put what we are reading about into practice.

Thank you for sending these things in!

Have a great week!

Classroom Projects

This week we will be presenting our projects on Matter to the 2nd and 3rd graders.  We have rehearsed and the students have prepared some really neat demonstrations.  We will end it with some homemade root beer, a solution because sugar and dry ice are dissolved in water.  We will have a vocabulary quiz on our project words on Wednesday.

We are working on reviewing some language standards in Writing, parts of speech like prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, then moving into verbs and verb tenses.  In Reading we are preparing to read a biography of Levi Strauss.  We will be focusing on content vocabulary and creating an informal outline of facts as we read, as well as the overall structure of the text.  For this book, each student will need a pair of denim jeans that he or she can cut up.  Any size is fine, if you have a spare pair, please send them in.

Coming soon:  Oasis Family Math Night - lots of fun learning!

Busy Week

We are starting off our really busy week!  We have our cereal box book report due this week.  Remind your kiddos to bring a prize from home for their cereal.  They will need this on the day they present, either Wednesday or Thursday.  The boxes are looking really nice.  It will be good to hear from them as they share about books.

In writing, our research report is also due this week.  The students have been hard at work on these.  Thank you parents, for your revising and editing help!  That makes a big difference.  Your child will also present briefly about their animal.  On Tuesday, your child will find out which report he or she will present which day.  Each student will present one on Wednesday and one on Thursday.

In projects, we will share what we are learning about matter and physical and chemical changes to the younger students.  Your child may have come home with a supply list for this.  We will teach the lower grades on Feb. 3.  We are having fun learning and investigating in the classroom!