Weekly Update

Dear Families,

It does not feel like May nowadays with all the rain and the colder winds. Thank you for sending your child to school with warmer clothes as we have recess every day. The classroom feels a little bit colder too, so a long-sleeved shirt and pants feel great. It is very muddy outside, so please remember to bring rain-boots for outdoor play.

Thank you all for bringing in tropical rainforest animals for our classroom. We have started to decorate our space to make it look like the rainforest and we are very proud of our work so far. We have an assortment of birds, reptiles and amphibians. We also have mammals and plants on display. Please ask your child to explain these types of animals. Also ask your child to explain where toucans, macaws, jaguars and gorillas live. We have learned that there are different types of rainforests. Gorillas, for example, live in the “Cloud Rainforest” in Africa, while the Giant Panda lives in the “Temperate Forests” of China!

The students have continued their research and writing on their tropical rainforest animals this week. They are reading to learn facts about their animals, specifically how this information pertains to what it looks like, its habitat, its babies and what it eats. Please encourage your child to find facts and read for facts at home as well. Reading non-fiction texts is very different from traditional fictional stories as readers encounter different sentence structures and content-specific vocabulary. To encourage re-reading and a foundational understanding of non-fiction texts, students will take home many already familiar texts next week (in addition to other books). Thank you for supporting your child’s learning and reading/discussing these texts every day.

We have new penpals! We will exchange a series of letters with a 2nd grade class in Great Neck NY as part of a study of how technology can be used to communicate and connect with people around the world. We will exchange letters and pictures of our local community; our school, our town and state. We already have a class in Sweden listening to our podcasts so they can hear the English language spoken by native speakers. We hope to connect with other classrooms around the world as well and will keep you posted! On a related note, don’t forget the WSC Multicultural Festival on Thursday May 12 between 6-7:30pm in the WCS Cafeteria. Also, do not forget to check our Daily Flip Share site (located in the right sidebar of this blog) and our recent podcasts for new and exciting tech shares. Thank you!

Team Harmony will attend WCS’s production of “Willy Wonka” on Friday afternoon. We are very excited about this opportunity. Buses and dismissal will occur directly after the show. If you did not receive information regarding this change, please contact the main office for assistance or let me know so I can assist as well.

Have a great rest of the week!
Regards,
Maria McCormack