News: Week 29, March 19 - 23, 2012

Egg Drop Contest – The class has been divided into teams of four students each. The teams have met and planned their containers. Please ask your child what he or she has said they might be able to bring from home. If you have additional packing materials, containers, etc. that you can spare, please send them to school. We will build our containers on Wednesday morning and the big event will be on Thursday afternoon at 1:45 PM.

Report card envelopes must be signed by a parent or guardian and returned as soon as possible.

Spring Break "Gotchas" – Coming home later this week will be a "Gotcha" for parents to give to their child for doing something respectful, responsible, or safe over Spring Break. Your child can explain how these work. Please return on the Monday after Spring Break.

Language Arts - Unit 5, Growing & Changing

Main Selection: The Tiny Seed

Genre: Informational fiction

Skills & strategies: Summarize, draw conclusions, context clues, pronouns, quotation marks.

Vocabulary: Written – burst, desert, drifts, drowns, gently, neighbor. Oral – appear, expect, fertile, sprout, thrive.

Spelling: closed syllables.

Book It! – Last call for any completed calendars for the school year. I will be shredding any leftover pizza coupons at the end of the week.

Math – We will begin Unit 7. A letter will come home this week with details about the unit. Because the end of the year is fast approaching, we will skip some of the lessons in this unit in order to cover fractions, measurement, and data more thoroughly. No math packets this week due to Spring Break.

Science – Science Fair information went home last week. Please help your child start planning their project. Remember, this is to be an experiment (a question is asked, a controlled experiment done, and a conclusion is reached), not a demonstration (no baking soda and vinegar volcanoes).

Social Studies – We will be studying the Jamestown and Plymouth colonies.

4^th Grade still needs many clear 2 liter plastic bottles (cleaned out) for science. If you use these please save them and send them to school. I will see that they get to the 4^th grade science teachers.

From Nurse Angie - any child with a fever of 100 degrees and cough or respiratory symptoms should be excluded from school until they are fever-free for 24 hours without fever-reducing meds.

PTO News – Please help our wonderful PTO earn much needed money by supporting these programs:

Escrip – Already buying things online? Sign up for Escrip and Longfellow earns a percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you.

Market Day – Stock up for those busy days when there is no time to cook.

Coming Up –

Art Start – We will be working with local artist, poet, and author, Sallie Wolf for six sessions doing visual arts and, perhaps, some poetry beginning in mid-April.

Upcoming events and homework:

Read for at least 20 minutes every night. Home Links and social studies pages are due the next day unless otherwise noted.

Tues., Mar. 20 – Library;
Wed., Mar. 21 – PE – Wear appropriate clothing - remember gym shoes;
Thur., Mar. 22 – Spelling/Vocabulary due; Egg Drop contest at 1:45
Fri., Mar. 23 –Spelling test; Path to Math homework due (Mr. Pod's group only); Writing sheets p. 53, 54, 55, 56 due;
March 26 – 30 – No School, Spring Break
Mon., April 2 -PE – Wear appropriate clothing - remember gym shoes

News: March 12 - 19, 2012

This is the last week that Mrs. Renn will be with us as our student teacher. She has done a fantastic job in our classroom and I know that the children and I will miss her. She will be finishing up her student teaching in her own preschool classroom at Concordia. We wish her all the best in the future.

This week is PACK  Week – Pack Assorted Colors for Kids – Each day wear the color highlighted and eat healthy fruits or vegetables that are that color. The colors are listed at the bottom of this page.

Language Arts - Unit 4, Better Together

This week we will be doing the unit assessment. There will not be any spelling/vocabulary homework this week.

Book It! – If you have any filled out Book It calendars that have not been turned in, please do so ASAP. The program is finished for the year. Any child who has participated in all five months of the program will be invited to a special celebration at school.

Math – This week we will review unit 6 and take the unit assessment.

Science – Coming home tomorrow, Tuesday, will be very important information about our science fair, which will take place on April 24^th. Each child will be responsible for completing a science fair project at home. We will present them on the 24^th at school and there will be an open house that evening before the school's Science Night for students to informally present their projects. Please read the information packet carefully and let me know if you have any questions. The most important thing to remember is that this is a 2^nd grade science project; therefore, keep it simple.

Social Studies – We will begin our unit on history this week, studying Native Americans and early explorers.

4^th Grade still needs many clear 2 liter plastic bottles (cleaned out) for science. If you use these please save them and send them to school. I will see that they get to the 4^th grade science teachers.

PTO News – Please help our wonderful PTO earn much needed money by supporting these programs:

Escrip – Already buying things online? Sign up for Escrip and Longfellow earns a percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you.

Market Day – Stock up for those busy days when there is no time to cook.

Longfellowville – Is your child a Lego master builder? Help design Longfellowville out of Legos. See the flyer for more information.

Ethnic Fest Art Contest – Please see the attached information regarding the art contest that second graders may participate in for the upcoming Ethnic Fest in May. Entries are due before Spring Break.

Coming Up –

Egg Drop Contest – We will be working in teams to design a vehicle that will allow a raw egg to be dropped from a 2^nd floor window without breaking.

Art Start – We will be working with local artist, poet, and author, Sallie Wolf for six sessions doing visual arts and, perhaps, some poetry beginning in mid-April.

Research – We will be starting our 2^nd grade research project with Ms. Pearce next week – watch for more information.

Upcoming events and homework:

Read for at least 20 minutes every night. Home Links and social studies pages are due the next day unless otherwise noted.

PACK Week ; Longfellowville Lego creations due this week
Tues., Mar. 13 – Library; Wear white
Wed., Mar. 14 – PE – Wear appropriate clothing - remember gym shoes; wear red
Thur., Mar. 15 – Wear green
Fri., Mar. 16 – Wear yellow/orange; Spelling test; Path to Math homework due (Mr. Pod's group only); Writing sheets p. 49, 50, 51, 52 due; Report Cards home
Mon., Mar. 19 –Math Packet 4 or Challenge Math due; PE – Wear appropriate clothing - remember gym shoes
Thur., Mar. 22 – Egg Drop contest at 1:45
March 26 – 30 – No School, Spring Break

News: Week 27, March 5 - 9, 2012

Nourish to Flourish – In honor of Nutrition Month, we will celebrate PACK (Pack Assorted Colors for Kids) week next week. Bring a fruit or veggie to school for snack to match the color of the day. Please see the PACK flyer for more info.

 

Language Arts - Unit 4, Better Together

Story: Mice and Beans

Genre: Fantasy

Skills & strategies: analyze text structure; fantasy and reality; sequence of events; contractions; apostrophes.

Vocabulary: Written – menu, fetch, simmered, assembled, devoured. Oral applause, deceive, display, exquisite, vain.

Spelling:  Diphthongs /aw/ spelled au, aw. Spelling & Vocabulary homework will be due on Friday of this week.

Book Reports – Third trimester book reports will all be due at the end of May. More details to follow.

Book It! – If your child has completed their Book It! calendar for February, please send it in, with a parent/guardian signature by the end of the week.

Math – We will concentrate on multiplication and division this week. The unit assessment will be next week

Science – We will finish up our science unit by studying fossils and doing the final assessments.

4^th Grade still needs many clear 2 liter plastic bottles (cleaned out) for science. If you use these please save them and send them to school. I will see that they get to the 4^th grade science teachers.

PTO News – Please help our wonderful PTO earn much needed money by supporting these programs:

Escrip – Already buying things online? Sign up for Escrip and Longfellow earns a percentage of your purchase at no additional cost to you.

Market Day – Stock up for those busy days when there is no time to cook.

FYI from the Library – You may use Encyclopedia Britannica Online at home with our district's login. Other Oak Park Public Library databases are free from home, but require an Oak Park library card.

Longfellowville – Is your child a Lego master builder? Help design Longfellowville out of Legos. See the flyer for more information.

Coming Up –

Egg Drop Contest – We will be working in teams to design a vehicle that will allow a raw egg to be dropped from a 2^nd floor window without breaking.

Science Fair – The 2^nd grade Science Fair will be held on April 24^th,, which is also Science Night at Longfellow School.  Each child is expected to do a science experiment to be presented to the class. More information will come home next week.

Art Start – We will be working with local artist, poet, and author, Sallie Wolf for six sessions doing visual arts and, perhaps, some poetry beginning in mid-April.

Research – We will be starting our 2^nd grade research project with Ms. Pearce next week – watch for more information.

Upcoming events and homework:

Read for at least 20 minutes every night. Home Links and social studies pages are due the next day unless otherwise noted.
Tues., Mar. 6 –Library; Math Packet 2 or Challenge Math due

Wed., Mar. 7 – PE – Wear appropriate clothing - remember gym shoes
Fri., Mar. 9 – Spelling/Vocabulary homework due Spelling test; Path to Math homework due (Mr. Pod's group only); Writing sheets p. 45, 46, 47, & 48 due,
Mon., Mar. 12 – Math packet 3 or challenge math due; PE – Wear appropriate clothing - remember gym shoes
Fri., Mar.16 – Report Cards home
Thur., Mar. 22 – Egg Drop contest at 1:45