5-22-15

5-22-15

Happy Red Nose Day!

One Day Without Shoes!

Thursday, May 28th from 6:30-8:30




Field Trip is on Tuesday, June 2nd.  Let's try to have all money and permission slips in early next week.

  
Math

Module 8:  Time, Shapes, and Fractions as Equal Parts of Shapes

Topic A Attributes of Geometric Shapes

Language Arts

We continue with our unit on surprises as we read two new selections this week. Two of Everything is a folktale from China. A farmer finds an unusual brass pot that doubles everything put inside it. But is that always a good thing? In the traditional tale of Stone Soup, we’ll read about a clever man who figures out how to make soup from a stone. With both stories, we’ll explore the question “What clues help you understand a story character?” 

Target Vocabulary: contained, grateful, startled, odd, search, leaned, tossed, village 

Phonics Skills: Reading longer words; vowel diphthongs oi (boil), oy (toy) 

Vocabulary Strategy: Antonyms 

Comprehension Skill: Understanding characters—tell more about characters 

Comprehension Strategy: Summarize— stop to tell important events as you read

5-18-15

5-18-15

Growlers Baseball Game

Mrs. Jensenius has made if possible for us to attend Growlers Education day on Tuesday, June 2, 2015. The children are so excited.  We are allowed to bring 4 chaperons per class.  The price is $5 per student and chaperone.  A hot dog lunch will be served that day at the park.  This will be a great way to celebrate the end of the year.

  

Schedule:  Education Day presented by Stryker
Pre-game STEM Expo for Children from 9am – 11am

Game at 11:05

One Day Without Shoes

Click the link to see a video about this great event!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXiQABwCD6k

May, 2015

Dear Parent(s),

Hopefully, this letter meets you in a joyful mood as this crazy Michigan weather has finally rounded a corner! I trust that many of you are taking advantage of this sunshine and warmth. As we are approaching the home stretch of school, I want to issue a challenge to you and all of Lake Center Elementary.

Many teachers here spend time discussing the concept of thinking outside of ourselves and how fortunate we are to be in the situation we are in (having a beautiful school, amazing technology, a caring community, and, of course, a loving, dedicated staff). We live a daily reality that does not exist for many students across the globe. I feel that it is important to enjoy the gifts we have and not take anything for granted, as it is easy to do in the society our youth is growing up in. Therefore, I want to issue the challenge of spending a day in the shoes of someone else and go barefoot for an entire day!

The inspiration behind this concept was completely driven by the TOMS Company, which calls this international challenge One Day Without Shoes. This is an annual event that takes place in May (May 21^st this year) in order to spread awareness, not raise money, of the impact a pair of shoes can have on a child’s life by taking off our own. The best part about this event is that it gives students a real sense of what it would be like to not have shoes and the implications that come without having them. Aside from just the fact of not having something on our feet, participating in this gets students feeling (externally and internally) different from our day to day routine. This event will stick with your child and hopefully help mold each student into a more caring, considerate, and connected citizen of the world.

Please authorize your child to participate in this event by either emailing your child’s teacher or by signing the bottom of this sheet and returning it to your child’s teacher byMay 13^th. I encourage you to be bold and participate on this day as well! Please refer to the link below for further information or get a hold of me. Address any concerns/questions you have to Todd Chappa at tchappa@portageps.org or 269.447.4569. Thank you!

www.onedaywithoutshoes.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My child is allowed to participate in One Day Without Shoes on May 21, 2015. I am fully aware of the potential harm that may occur due to not wearing shoes and release all liability from Lake Center Elementary and Portage Public Schools, including all staff therein.

Student Name:                                                           

Parent Signature:                                             

FAQ:
Q: Does my child wear shoes to school that day?
A: If your child rides the bus, he/she will be asked to wear his/her shoes to school. As soon as your child gets to school, assuming he/she is participating, shoes will be put in the lockers for the rest of the day.

Q: Can my child wear socks without shoes?
A: Yes! However, to get the best experience, I would encourage your child to try and go barefoot.

Q: Will my child wear shoes during recess?
A: That is optional. To get the best experience, I would encourage your child to try and go barefoot.

Q: What about lunch? If my child gets lunch at school, isn't there rules about being barefoot where food is served?
A: If your child gets lunch at school, before going through the line, he/she will get foot covers to be worn through the line so that we are following the health code. 

Language Arts:

This week we found out how astronauts explore new places in the informational text, Working in Space. We pondered outer space further when we watched videos of astronauts online and read Space Poems. The students also explored the question “What can you learn from headings and captions?”

This week’s…

Target Vocabulary: astronomy, force, orbit, repair, explored, future, space, and float

Phonics Skills: Words with vowel diphthongs ow (cow), ou (pound)

Vocabulary Strategy: Classify/categorize

Comprehension Skill: Text and graphic features—tell how words go with photos

Comprehension Strategy: Analyze/evaluate—tell how you feel about the text and why

Math

We are wrapping up Module 7 early this week.  I will probably give the end of module assessment tomorrow.  We spent most of last week on number lines and learning how to make a line plot graph.  We will try and get through as much of Module 8 as possible before summer break.  Module 8 focuses on time, shapes, and fractions as equal parts of shapes.

Science

We entered a classroom full of emerged butterflies this morning.  Unfortunately a majority of our butterflies emerged over the weekend.  We still have about 10 or so in their chrysalis so hopefully we will be able to witness a few emerge first hand this week.  Even though it's suppose to be a little chilly this week, we will set our butterflies free so they can continue their life cycle.

5-8-15

5-8-15

Language Arts

This week we will explore the question “How do you know if something is a fact or an opinion?” We’ll begin by reading the biography The Dog That Dug for Dinosaurs. Can you guess what the surprising discovery might be in this story? Then we’ll read an informational text called La Brea Tar Pits, where there are more surprising discoveries for us to find!

Target Vocabulary: discovered, guard, remove, souvenirs, amazed, explained, exact, growled 

Phonics Skills: Words with vowel diphthong oo (book); possessives, singular and plural 

Vocabulary Strategy: Synonyms 

Comprehension Skill: Fact and opinion—tell if an idea can be proved or is a feeling 

Comprehension Strategy: Question— ask questions about what you are reading

Math

We started off the week taking our Mid-Module 7 Assessment.  This test was all based on interpreting graphs and being able to solve word problems with money.  The second half of the module is all on measurement.

Lesson 14 & 15

Objective:  Measuring objects using an inch ruler.

Lesson 16

Objective:  Measure various objects using inch rulers and yardsticks.

Lesson 17

Objective:  Develop estimation strategies by applying prior knowledge of length and using mental benchmarks.

Lesson 18

Objective:  Measure and item twice using different length units and compare; centimeters and inches.

Science

All of our caterpillars are either in their J-shape or have gone into their chrysalis.  All the caterpillars will emerge as butterflies in 7-10 days.  During that time we will learn about all the body parts of a butterfly.  Every butterfly has a head, thorax, abdomen, wings, 2 compound eyes, antennae, 6 true legs, and a proboscis(straw-like mouth).  I'm thinking we might even have a few emerge towards the end of next week.

Typingweb.com

I set up an account for all of our students on typingweb.com  Typing is a skill that we introduce to second graders but are not responsible for mastery.  Typingweb is a great resource to use and is free.  They teach the students the basic placement of your fingers while typing.  There are also a lot of fun games.  Try to encourage your children to not peck at the keys anymore with 2 fingers.  All usernames are firstname.lastname and the password is type.