Good evening! 

I hope all of you are having a great beginning to your week.  I was absent from school both today and last Friday to attend science trainings in Cedar Rapids.  These trainings provide me with excellent background knowledge and hands-on experience (and I mean "hands-on"...see picture below!) with the new units I will be teaching this year. 



Note the horrified look on Mrs. Nove's face as I was trying to identify the gender of the crayfish!

Curriculum Update:

Reading:  This week's main selection is titled Aero and Officer Mike by Joan Plummer Russell.  This story, our small group books, as well as books pulled from the library will be used to help us identify the authors' purposes for writing.  We will also be practicing summarizing (both orally and written) what we have read. 

Writing:  Students are identifying the important parts of an autobiography.  Toward the end of the week, they will be choosing an important event in their lives that they want to take through the writing process next week.  They are very excited about this topic!

Grammar:  This week's focus is an extension of last week's subject-verb agreement.  We are now applying our learning to pronouns and verbs. 

Spelling:  The patterns this week are spelling the /är/ sound with ar (artist, March) and the /ôr/ sound with or (thorn) and ore (forehead).

Math:  This week we will be moving away from place value with whole numbers and beginning our exploration of place value with decimals.  On Monday, the students assured me that they were up to (and even excited about) the challenge! 

Science:  We are continuing our investigations of water.  Students explored the amount of drops of water that could fit on the surface of a penny to demonstrate surface tension.  They also experimented with soapy and salty water to see what effect they have on surface tension.  This week will begin our exploration of the properties of hot and cold water.  Check back every now and then for picture updates of our fun! 

Reminders:

*Students brought home their December reading log on Monday.  Please help your child remember to log his/her minutes each night as well as the title of book(s) that have been read. 

*The Scholastic Book Fair is open for two more days!  Its hours are:
  Wednesday  8:00-8:30am and 3:00-4:00pm
  Thursday   8:00-8:30am, 2:00-3:00pm, and 6:00-8:00pm

Have a great week!
Mrs. Johnsen
johnsen.jill@iccsd.k12.ia.us