Weekly News March 9-13

It was a great week to choose for our mini trip to the mailbox!!  Hopefully some homes have received their mail and been persuaded already!  Also, some students did choose to send letters back to our classroom or school...we are anxiously awaiting those too!

NDLC Spring Service Project

We are excited to announce our 2020 spring service project Happy Tooth - Day - a collection for St. Joseph’s food program in Menasha.  We will be collecting and creating birthday bags and dental hygiene bags for kids in need.

Each grade has an assigned item to collect. Donations are OPTIONAL.  If you wish to donate,  please bring NEW items to conferences on March 24 &26. 

Families are invited to fill the dental and birthday bags at the Knowledge-athon dance on April 17th. 

4K Kids toothbrushes (both toddler and child size needed)
Kindergarten Kids toothpaste
First grade Birthday candles
Second grade Cans of frosting  (please check expiration dates)
Third grade Cake mix  (please check expiration dates)
Fourth grade Kid’s birthday cards ( no age specific cards and please
Leave them blank)

Thank you for your participation in this important project.

Important Dates and Reminders:
March 24 & 26: Parent Teacher Conferences--info coming soon
March 27: NO SCHOOL
April 6-10: Spring Break NO SCHOOL
April 17: Knowledge-a-thon (KAT)
                Celebration Dance 6-8pm

Reading:This week we will learn that non-fiction readers don't just read to ask and answer questions and keep them to themselves...they share their knowledge with others!  We will do this by pretending to be both teachers and reporters to share what we have learned.  One structure we prompt kids to use to share information they have learned in their own hand! They can share the main topic and touch their palm and then list key details about the topic on their fingers!

Writing: This week we are starting to write All About books. The goal is for students to write an entire book that teaches about one topic.  To kick off this unit we will be using book from our classroom library to study what other authors (we call them mentor authors) do to make sure their writing teaches all it can AND looks easy for others to read!

Math:This week we will focus on using the +1 pattern automatically.
One way we will be working on the +1 pattern is by playing the game speed.  Students play as a pair and hold 5 cards each in their hand, they then flip one card over from the deck and need to lay down the card the comes after that card as quickly as they can.  This is a fun way for them to practice using the +1 strategy and to recognize that addition pattern automatically. We will also work on using strategies for equations that do not have a pattern (2+2, 4-3, 2+3, 3-2...).  We will learn that using fingers and tools can help use to visualize what happens in these equations.  We will also make our own bead racks use as a tool.  Stay tuned to see how we use these on SeeSaw!

Researcher's Workshop: This week we will use our knowledge of weather to create an art project that shows the 4 seasons.  We will focus on making our art work match the sky, temperature, wind and precipitation for each season.  This will be a great way to use our creativity and also tie in some direction following in a playful way!