Poetry, Flowers and Fractions with the Shocking Sugar Gliders!

Important Dates
Friday, April 16th - Field Trip to the Procession Studio
Monday, April 19th - Animal Research Project Due
Thursday, April 22nd - Council of the Critters
Saturday, April 24th - Procession of the Species
Friday, April 30th - Field Trip with Stream Team (9:00-11:30)

Friday Workshops
Friday, April 16th
Claire

Animal Research Presentations
Monday, April 19th
1:00 Owen
2:30 Zachary

Tuesday, April 20th
1:00 Oliver
2:00 Cedar
2:30 Sequoia

Wednesday, April 21st
9:15 Kat
9:45 Jack
10:45 Claire
11:30 Maggi

**If you need to make a change to the time your child is presenting please try to contact another family to switch times and let me know. Thank you!**

Math
Halves, fourths, eighths, sixteenths....why yes, its fraction time! We have begun our exploration of fractions by looking at a whole and dividing it into parts. Pattern blocks have been a fun and handy way of helping us learn this concept. Our hexagon equals 1 whole. Two red trapezoids fit on a hexagon so they can each equal one-half. Our blue diamond is one-third and our green triangles are sixths. For some who have used our pattern blocks in this way in the past were challenged with the idea of giving our hexagon a different value. Say what?! Yeah! What if our yellow hexagon is equal to two, what would our trapezoids equal? Diamond? Triangle? What if our hexagon equals 12?

We played Fraction Hexagon to see how different fractions can be added together to make a whole (1). It also showed us that fractions can have different names, their equivalents like three-sixth is the same as one-half. We also created patterns or pictures with pattern blocks and were then challenged to find the value of our picture by adding up the fractional parts. This seemed really hard at first until we realized we can make wholes (1's) by putting our blocks together. We will continue with thinking about fractions as parts of a whole with other games like Hexagon Wipe-Out (where we are subtracting fractions) and adding fractions from a grab bag. Oh, learning about fractions would not be complete without our daily dose of “Action Fraction” dancing!


Language
We continue to be inspired by the rainforest and have turned our attention to poetry. We read poems from”Looking for Jaguar” that gave us wonderful examples of poems that sometimes rhyme, use vivid language, and how spacing is used to help the reader read the poem as the author intended. We created our first drafts of our poems this week and will work with these in the following weeks as we craft our final version.

Word sorts this week focused on “y, ies, ied,” “ge,” “ie, ee, ea,” and “ight, i-e.” Some of us who are working on cursive challenged ourselves by recording our words in cursive - yahoo!


Theme
We spent some time this week looking at the water cycle and the role trees have in this cycle. We had fun watching transpiration at work with our carnations in colored water! We also created a “water cycle column” (on our window sill). The column contains all the parts of a water cycle. We even planted broccoli and radish seeds to play the part of trees! Check it out!

The beautiful flowers are hard to miss in the rainforest so we spent time learning the anatomy of flowers. After looking at a few flowers in our classroom and learning their parts we ventured outside to put our anatomy identification skills to the test! We found so many different flowers and were amazed at the different sizes stamens and pistils can be. Even the tiniest flower had all the parts (oh so tiny)!

How plants have evolved and adapted to the rainforest environment is pretty interesting. We looked at some of the major ways, such as how trees develop buttresses or stilt roots. Or, how plants have drip tips or really large leaves. And, then there our liana (vines), bromeliads, and epiphytes! All of these have developed characteristics to help them survive and thrive in the rainforest. Ask your child about these plant adaptations and how they help the plant.

These rainforest flowers also inspired us to create some art. Look on our wall for our beautiful pastels of heliconia, rafflesia, bromeliads, bird of paradise, and orchids.

We also spent parts of our afternoon doing groupwork. This week we discussed “put-downs,” what they are and how we feel when we hear them. We worked in pairs and as a whole group to discuss this issue. We decided that these words did not support us and it was not ok to say them to others or to our sweet selves! I invite you to continue this conversation with your child at home.

Our trip to the Procession of the Species Studio was inspiring! We were all in awe as we admired the wonderful creations. Batiking our flags was great fun. I can't wait to see them flying high at the Procession!

**No math or spelling homework this week or next! Also, since we have our big animal research project this month, a book share does not need to be turned in this month.**