Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful Break. My daughters returned to college in Florida and we are back to an empty nest. Thank you so much for your generous Christmas gifts. You are very thoughtful.
We've been busy with many things already in 2016.
Our class learned about Martin Luther King Jr. We each wrote a letter to Emerson. We hope she will be excited to hear fro us. Our Bridges math program is introducing several penguins to us. We have been measuring our heights and comparing them to penguins. Did you know there are several different types of penguins. They are different sizes and they don't all lay the same number of eggs. Your child should learn a lot about then in the next few weeks. We found Antarctica on our classroom map.

Last week Mr. Baird's 5th Graders stopped by so we could share our Opinion Writing with them. We have several pieces to share with them. One will go home this week.

We also enjoyed a 5th and 6th grade band and chorus concert. 

This week we are are beginning to learn about animals.  Below are the standards.

1-LS1-1: Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.

1-LS1-2: Read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.

1-LS1-3: Make observations to construct an evidence-based account that animals are like, but not exactly like, their parents.

We will also be learning about non-fiction texts and their features such as photographs, captions, headings, labels, close-ups, glossaries, indexes, etc. By the end of the unit, students will be writing non-fiction reports. 

We will be celebrating the 100th Day of School on Friday, February 5th. The students are super excited. We will spend most of the day celebrating the number 100 with several fun activities. Colleen Boyce will be sending out information and an invitation to sign up to contribute to our special day.