Penny

Today in library Ms. Z read us another book nominated for The Star of the North Picture book award.   It is Penny and her Marble by Kevin Henkes.  It is a beginner chapter book and is found in the reader section of the library along with other great books such as  Frog and Toad, Amelia Bedelia and Henry and Mudge.

This book had a really important moral or message.    Ask your child to retell the story and then ask about the message.  

Plants, Achievement Fair, Name Scramble and Good Citizens

Wow!  That is quite a title!  We have been busy working on many different things.

Monday, we planted a cherry tomato plant, basil, cilantro and dill.  We will be studying plants as a part of our science unit later this year.  Each student will get to grow a few plants.  We are excited to watch these grow right in our classroom!

Cherry Tomato

Seeds - enough to share

Today we went to see all of the Achievement Fair projects.  Many students throughout the school selected topics they wanted to know more about.  We saw things like beavers, bridges as well as experiments like which food does a rat like best?  A. in our class studied her family tree.  One of the things she learned that her first name was a last name of one of her relatives.

This afternoon we continued learning about money and dollar and cents notation.  We also practiced thinking about the names for pennies, dimes and nickels.  For example, 1 penny is also 1/100 of one dollar.

Last, we finished our Good Citizen books.  Students will be bringing these home to do acts that show being a good citizen.  

GaGa Ball

Mr. DePrez and Mrs. Brink work very hard to be sure that our students get physical exercise, learn how to play various games and do activities that build endurance and strength.  In addition, they are always looking for new games and activities for students.  This week, they introduced GaGa Ball.

Thursday in Phy. Ed. the students learned how to play.  Ask your child about the game.  We found out that some students were already familiar with it from camp or Friendship Connection.  

The GaGa Ball Pit

Ga -Ga -Ball!

Star of the North

We have been reading picture books that are nominated for the Star of the North Award throughout the year in library.  There are 10 books and we have read 8.  This award is chosen by students, so if a few weeks, we will have the opportunity to select our favorite.  Ask your child which book is his/her favorite so far and why.  There are some really good books!

Here are the books we have read so far:
Scraps
Blizzard
Ninja Red Riding Hood
Draw
The Day the Crayons Quit
It's an Orange Aardvark
Gaston

In library today we read Brave Girl.  Ask your child what it is about and what the message is.  

Soon we will read the last two,  Penny and her Marble and The Growing Table.

Learning about immigrants and life in the early 1900s.

Special Assembly

Today we had an assembly - singer George Dyer.  He is a very skilled singer and taught us about music, singing and how songs often have a theme.  He was very engaging and he involved students and teachers in his performance.  Ms. Plana was a good sport and helped out with one song.

Jump Rope for Heart and Research

Today was Jump Rope for Heart!  Everyone did a great job participating and doing their best.  

After Jump Rope for Heart we had a quick snack and went to the Library to to research with Ms. Zbacnik.  We finished gathering information about our weather topic.  We used real books to find a few more facts.  Everyone worked hard and did their best.

This afternoon we had a special surprise!  Ask your child about the thing pictured below and a special treat we had.  It was a great way to end the day!

Community Leaders, Good Citizens and Dr. Seuss!

We have been busy these past few days.  This week we have been diving into two Social Studies units.  One was about Community Leaders and what they do.  We attended a mock City Council meeting where we were asking the council to fix a park in our neighborhood.  As a part of the meeting, we made signs that asked for action.  Community leaders can make laws, decide how to spend money and decide to build something new.

Working in paris to make our signs!

Ready for the meeting!

We also learned that being a Good Citizen means helping others, getting along and making our community a better more beautiful place.  We had some student leaders come to tell us about the March of Others Food drive.  Check in the Take Home folder for more information.

6th grade student leaders!

We celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss!  Ask your child about the special things we did and books we read.