I hope you all had the chance to play in the snow this week! It looks like the weekend will be gorgeous, so take this opportunity to enjoy some outdoor winter fun! Despite having two snow days this week, we accomplished a lot in our classroom. Our animal reports are almost completed and we hope to give you a sneak peak at our conferences soon.
Reading:
All reading groups are currently reading non-fiction books together. While participating in guided reading instruction based upon individual needs, the students are also practicing specific strategies for reading and understanding non-fiction texts. We continued to explore non-fiction features, such as headings, sub-headings, glossaries, captions and diagrams. Ask your child to find them in books at home! The students also started creating their own Non-Fiction Conventions Booklets. Together, we "hunt" for features in magazines and cut out the appropriate features which we glue into our own booklets. The kids are doing a great job explaining the purposes of these features as they find them in our magazines. We hope to share these at our upcoming conferences as well.
The Iditarod:
While the real Iditarod race already has a winner (Mitch Seevey), our Iditarod Reading Challenge will continue until March 30th, the last school day of March. Thank you for supporting your child's reading and writing at home. The logs are terrific and the writing is getting more complex and thoughtful. The children track their own progress in the classroom, and each child has his/her own Iditarod map. There are 27 check-points between Anchorage and Nome, so 27 reading responses are required to finish the race. We decided that the half-way point is at 13 check-points, at Ophir. All certificates and prizes will be distributed on March 30th. Keep it up, and once again, thank you so much for supporting literacy at home!
Technology:
The students started a Voicethread about the Iditarod earlier this week. Voicethread is an online platform that allows its users to share information and their understandings about a particular topic sing videos, text or voice. The students are currently learning how to share their knowledge of the Iditarod using their voice. We hope to finish our entire thread next week and will share it with you as soon as everybody is on it. Stay tuned.
Science and Engineering:
This week, the students continued to work in their small groups preparing for the Kid Iditarod Race, which will take place in the afternoon of March 30th. This week, they finished their team flags and started working on a plan for the construction of a structure that will protect the un-cooked egg which will be traveling with them along our own Iditarod Trail on the field behind our school. We are still looking for volunteers to help us man the stations/check-points, get the children/teams ready and to cheer them on. Please let me know if you are available from 12:15-dismissal on Thursday, March 30th to help us with this culminating event. Thank you.
We are also looking for clean recyclables, such as cardboard, paper towel tubes, and newspaper to use for the engineering challenge. If you have some of this at home, please send it in with your child. Thank you!
Upcoming Events & Reminders:
- Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled for the week of March 27th. If you have not signed up, please do so. If the times available do not work for you, please let me know so we can find a better time for you and your family.
- ABS is scheduled to attend the WCS Play on Thursday March 23rd. Buses will leave ABS at 12:45 and we will return to ABS shortly after 2pm. Dismissal will be from ABS that day.
- Jump Rope for Hear is after school on March 24th. Please contact the front office or Lyn Porter if your child needs additional information or sign-up forms. Thank you.
Best,
Maria
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