OCS Newsletter

Reminders and Important Dates

ANIMAL/ PLANT PRESENTATIONS DUE THIS WEEK!

Council of Critters: Thursday April 22 @ 2:30~please join us and witness the pleas

of the rainforest critters!

View our rainforest art at Traditions this weekend for Arts Walk!

Saturday, April 24: Procession of the Species~ Come walk with us!

I am still collecting paper towel rolls! Please send in any you may have!

Math

How tall are you? How long is your foot? How many of your feet tall are you? These are some of the questions we’ve been exploring in our study of measurement! Interestingly, most of us were between 6 and 8 of our feet tall. We are wondering if this trend would continue if we were to measure more people…especially people that are taller than we are! We have a variety of predictions…so, if you’d like to figure out how many of your feet tall you are, we’d love to add your findings to our graph!

We have been measuring big things and little things, wide things and thin things. It has been fun learning to use and practicing using rulers, yardsticks and tape measures. We have also been measuring things using cubes, our hands, our feet, our pencils…because, as one student pointed out, you can use anything to measure with (just make sure you remember to include the units in your measurement!)! We’ve been comparing the lengths of many objects (including many of your feet!), and will soon be hunting for objects of particular lengths…fun, fun!

Coming soon…Our study of measurement will extend into our study of the rainforest as we learn the amount of rainfall in a tropical rain forest, as well as the sizes of the various animals we studied.

Language Arts

Spring is here! There are many exciting aspects of Spring…in fact we were able to think of many for each of the letters of Spring! After a group brainstorming session, we each wrote our own Spring Acrostic poems, and created a lovely piece of Spring art to accompany it! It was nice seeing everyone put so much thought into their creations! Check these out on a wall near you soon!

Writing workshop continues as a focused writing time. This week we spent time revising and finishing up our current stories as we prepare to move into a unit on poetry! The editing process varies from student to student. Students begin with rereading their pieces and checking that their writing makes sense and that no words or important details are missing. For some it involves circling words they are not sure of and revising the spelling with an adult. For others it means being sure to include capital letters and periods. Some may be adding an ending sound to a word or creating a space between words. One of the final steps in creating our writing workshop stories is stapling the pages together, and I must say there was LOTS stapling this week!

We read a fable about kindness this week. After reading it, we had a very interesting discussion about the story and also about kindness in our lives. A particularly interesting piece of the conversation was about times in our lives when we were feeling grumpy or just didn't think about what we were saying and said something unkind to somebody. It was really interesting hearing the kids' perspectives on this and how they felt when it happened and how the imagined the recipient felt. After this discussion, we created lists in groups of things we can do as kind friends...we compiled our ideas into one group list...check it out if you're interested!

Theme

We have been learning many fascinating facts about rainforest plants, including the many adaptations the trees have that enable them to live in such a moist environment! Rainforest trees often times have large buttresses or stilt roots to help provide support, drip tips on the leaves to prevent the collection of too much water, and smooth shiny bark to create a slippery surface for any vines trying to take root! Ask your child about the amazing walking trees…yes there are trees that can actually move! Each student created a lovely illustration of these adaptations.

Did you know that the flowers of the rainforest have evolved to attract particular pollinators? For instance, flowers pollinated by bats are typically white and bloom at night…flowers pollinated by flies typically have a moldy rotting smell…(yuck!)…We created little flip books of different flowers and the creatures that pollinate them. Each of us also sketched and water colored a unique rainforest flowers!

A rainforest would not be a rainforest without rain! Water plays such an important role in the rainforest, as well as everywhere on Earth. We have begun exploring the concept of the water cycle and how water changes forms as it cycles. We saw this first hand in an experiment using steam to make it rain in our classroom! We watched as liquid water evaporated into water vapor and then condensed back into a liquid for as it would in the upper atmosphere. It was very exciting to actually see rain fall on our table!

To further illustrate the concept of the water cycle, and to also learn how plants fit into the cycle, we will be creating our own terrariums! Look for these Monday afternoon!

FYI: You are not seeing the rainforest work come home, as all of the work we are creating will be collected together in a large rainforest scrap book that we will put together at the end of the unit.