Classroom Happenings ~ September 14th

Dear Parents,

It has been an amazing first week of school. The students are fantastic, the curriculum is engaging, and the energy level is through the roof! Everyone seems very happy to be back at school and we are beginning to settle into our routines. I can't express how impressed I am with each and every student this year!

As the month of September progresses, there are a couple of things we could use in class.
SNACK DONATIONS:
Each child is encouraged to bring a snack everyday. By recess time, we are getting quite hungry. A simple morning snack of fruit, cheese, or crackers helps a lot! Not all children remember each day, so I like to have some extra snack items on hand. If you are in a position to donate snack items for our class, we would VERY MUCH APPRECIATE IT! Some healthy snack suggestions from our district wellness policy include: Graham Cracker based items, Teddy Grahams, Animal Crackers, Wheat Thins, Cheese Nips, Goldfish, Ritz Crackers, and Pretzels. These items also store well. Thank you for your kindness!!!!

REFRIGERATOR BOXES:
Do you have any idea where we can get some VERY LARGE boxes? I have a very special project in mind and would love to get 2 or 3 refrigerator boxes brought to our classroom! Please Contact me if you can help!

RECYCLED ITEMS:
Thursday and Friday we are beginning our recycled space sculptures. If you have clean items in your recycling at home please send them in as soon as possible so we can begin creating. Items we need include, clean plastic bottles, containers, lids, corks, boxes, unusually shaped items, etc... Any item you have which can be turned into a rocket, alien, space station, or planet will be very much appreciated!!!

HAPPENINGS BY SUBJECT!

Reading ~ This week students are continuing to read self selected chapter books. Students are keeping record of the books they read and identifying the genre, as they fill in their reading logs. In our Treasures Reading Anthologies, 5th grade students learned about Space Camp in Alabama, and 4th grade students learned about our solar system. All students are working on summarizing information.

Writing ~ All students were given a writing portfolio this week. The portfolio is where students will keep all writing compositions for the entire school year. The Young Writers Association of Lane County is sponsoring a scary story writing contest. Some students have decided to write a scary story. Other students are working on Alien stories, comic strips, and/or choice writing compositions.

Social Studies ~ We have started a geography unit. We will be working on distinguishing between continent, country, state, county, and city. We started this week by identifying countries of the world and listing which continent they are located in. Students are encouraged to bring in small objects/artifacts from around the world for our 'Where in the World' bulletin board. It would be amazing to obtain one item from every country in the world!

Science ~ September is the month of Space exploration! Our classroom wall now has many planets hanging among the constellations. It looks stellar!

Speech ~ Students continue to present their '3 things in a bag'. The presentations have been very well done. Everyone is enjoying telling about themselves and we are learning a lot about the members of our classroom community.

Math ~ This week we are reviewing the vocabulary words product, factor, and array. Students have created arrays using puffy stickers, dots, pencil drawings, and each other! In the coming weeks we will be working hard on memorizing our multiplication facts. Practicing at home every night will help your child become fluent with their facts. Students who are fluent may want to extend themselves by learning 12's and 15's!

Art ~ Art Smart vocabulary this week included, Color, Mood, Line, Sketch, Horizon Line, and Action Lines. Students have been sketching aliens and working on choice sketching art. I hope you come by and see our amazing alien art work. It is out of this world!


Wow... all that work and we have only been in school 5 days! It IS going to be a great year.

~Ms. DuBois