Welcome Back! Hope you all had a restful and relaxing Spring Break! Now…let’s “SPRING” it on!!

Widis’ Weekly Hoot! Spotlight on Math

Unit 5 - Geometry Focus: Fractions and Equal Sharing

Essential Questions What is a fraction and how can it be represented? How do we apply the use of fractions in everyday life?

Week of April 8, 2013 Working to gether to learn and grow b eyond our dreams!

CRCT Testing: April 10, 11, 15, 16 and 17

NO SPECIALS: April 10*, 15 and 17* *Computer Lab volunteers not needed

DEAR Readers: NEW TIME 10:50 – 11:15am

Wednesday, April 24 – School Governance Council Open Meeting; 7-8:30am Tuesday, April 30 – HSES Annual Art Show, Writing and Science Fairs; 5-7pm

Sign-up to volunteer on my web site

Dates to Remember

Our LUNCH TIME has changed due to the CRCT! Check the CRCT dates below.

New Time for 2nd Grade – 11:20-11:56am

Upon our return to school from a week long vacation, we will

begin our week by reviewing the concepts we were studying

before the break by completing an “I can…” worksheet that I

developed to make sure that the students are comfortable

with plane and solid figures, their attributes and names, as

well as identifying rows and columns within a rectangle and

recognizing equal shares within a square and a circle. Then,

we will move into studying fractions by demonstrating how

fractions are just a smaller share of a whole or a set of

objects. Students will work with groups to divide ribbons into

thirds and fourths and then will need to

explain how they can divide it into eighths

and sixths! Other “fraction” activities will

arise as we work our way through this

concept this week.

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Spotlight on Reading

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Story of the Week: The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the

Wash

Focus Skills: Sequencing; Vocabulary; Cause

and Effect; Suffixes; Research; Speaking and

Listening

Essential Questions:

-How does the proper sequence of a story help you to comprehend

what you are reading?

-How does understanding suffixes help us become better readers?

-How do we record new information without copying directly from

the text?

-Why is it important to know the meanings of vocabulary while

reading a new story?

A boa constrictor! On a farm! Oh, no…what will the class do?

Students will enjoy this story filled with multiple cause and effect

situations. Jimmy, the main character, decides to bring his pet boa

constrictor on the class field trip to the farm. While a girl from the

class recounts her experience from the trip with her mother upon

her return from school, they will learn that Jimmy finds a another

non-traditional pet to bring home instead!

Students will also experience how to research about snakes,

specifically boa constrictors, through the use of a web quest, and

practice putting what they learn into their own words and phrases,

then, compose an expository piece of writing.

Students will also continue to work on their writing fair books for

the Curriculum Showcase on April 30!

What’s this? This is a FREE app and web

site (scootpad.com) that supports the Common Core

curriculum online!

Letters will be coming home with your children on

Monday, April 8 with an explanation about how to

access the site.

Right now, I will be using the program in my classroom so

that I can closely monitor how they work on each customized assignment. I hope to try and

use this for homework in May.

Scholastic Parent Videos

Over the break, I was “surfing” through the Scholastic Books web site and found a great

section for parents. This section shows videos to help you better understand how your child learns and other ways to engage your child in

learning while they are not in school.

I had a chance to look at a few of the videos, they are short (about 2-3 minutes each), and

thought they were informative!

Enjoy!

Click on the picture for a direct link!

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