**************************Lasko's Leaders Latest*****************************
May 1, 2012
ANNOUNCEMENT
My apologies for letting so much time go by since the last newsletter…time
flies when you’re working hard and having fun.
REMINDERS
• Open House is tomorrow night 6:30-8:00. I look forward to seeing everyone!
• Picture day has been switched to May 3rd.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Since the last newsletter we have read seven more stories. The stories are
Wings; Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest; Rocks in His Head, America’s
Champion Swimmer: Gertrude Ederle; Fly, Eagle, Fly; Suki’s Kimono, and How My
Family Lives in America. The children were exposed to more genres with each
story. The genres included expository and narrative nonfiction, biography,
folk tale, realistic fiction, and fantasy. The comprehension skills that the
children have practiced with the stories include cause and effect, compare and
contrast, generalizing, fact and opinion, and plot and theme. Each story
continues to expose the children to new vocabulary that they learn in
isolation, and also review the words in context. I wonder if your child
remembers anything about Gertrude Ederle? What did he or she learn from the
folk tale Fly, Eagle, Fly? Does he or she remember Sanu, Eric, or April from
How My Family Lives in America?
MATH
We have covered several topics since the last newsletter. The topics included
measurement, mass, volume, and geometry. The measurement unit included
measuring objects to the nearest quarter-inch and learning about line plots.
During the unit on mass, the children were able to pan balances and grams to
figure out the mass of various objects. We reviewed volume of 3 dimensional
objects before learning how to figure out the volume of objects using
graduated cylinders filled with water. Geometry included exploring points,
lines, line segments, rays, angles, polygons, quadrilaterals, similar and
congruent shapes, and symmetry. We are also working on our multiplication and
division fluency.
SOCIAL STUDIES/SCIENCE
We finished reading and learning about the pioneers and living on the prairie.
Pioneer Day was a success. The children enjoyed seeing objects from the
pioneer daysand making rag dolls. We started learning about the sun, moon,
and stars.
WRITING
The children continue to alternate between writing on a topic of their choice
and a given topic in their writing journals. They are enjoying writing more
during independent work times. They have also written a new acrostic poem,
which will be on display at Open House.
GRAMMAR
The grammar skills that went along with each story and were regularly
practiced included singular and plural pronouns, subject and object pronouns,
possessive pronouns, contractions, prepositions,and adjectives. Lately, we
have been using worksheets that reference fairy tales to practice these skills.
KIDS KORNER
“We are having MAP testing this week.” Anusha / “We’re learning about
polygons, lines, line segments, perpendicular lines, and other stuff like
that.” Amber/ “In Science we are learning all about space. After the space
unit, we’re going to learn about Chicago.” Mira/ “In Math, we are learning
about locating points on a grid.” Jihad / “We are going to learn about
Chicago.” Nick / “In Math, we are doing lots of packets” Kazmain
