Newsletter 5-24-12

The Green Meadow Gazette

May 24, 2012

Upcoming & Important Events:

·        Monday, May 28^th – Memorial Day (no school)

·        Wednesday, May 30^th – Field Trip to Middlesex Savings Bank

·        Friday, June 1^st – Book orders due

Classroom News:

Samantha: On Monday we started drafting our poems for our poem books. Our poems are all about one topic. My topic is nature and I have 10 or 11 poems. There are all different kinds of poems. For example, a ballad is one kind. I like the poetry unit.

Cara: In Music we learned a new part of a song. Then we sang it in groups. We practiced our assigned song on the recorders. We have assigned seats to sit. Some people sat in the hall and some in the classroom.

Hannah: The four choices in literacy are read to self, read to someone, work on writing, and spelling. Lately, in literacy, Ms. Little is keeping a list of people who aren’t behaving, and those people don’t get to choose what they do next time during literacy. She will choose what literacy activity you do first and what order you do them in. But if you behave, you will be able to choose what activity you do first and what order you do them in. I think it was a good idea to make a list of kids who are not behaving.

Robbi: Last week we played dodgeball. We played because we filled up the marble jar. I loved playing dodgeball because dodgeball is my favorite game in gym. We went to the gym during a time when Mrs. Hazel did not have other students and played with our class. I got out only three times.

Kyle: Last week we went to Library. I like Library because there are computers. My favorite computer game is Sugar, Sugar. Sugar, Sugar is a game where you get the sugar in cups. I also like checking out books. The books are really good. Some are also funny.

Joseph: Last week we had Gym. We played triple bucket relay. The triple bucket relay is something that we do for a warm up. This is how we do it: we stack 6 buckets face down, 3 on the bottom, 2 in the middle, and 1 on the top. Then we did the bone relay. We have to get a word out of the bucket and put it on a certain part of the body on the skeleton. The team that gets all the parts right first wins! But the team that gets all the bones right last or gets one wrong loses. Then you take a sheet that has a skeleton on it and the word you picked out of the bucket you put on the rectangles on the sheet. Then Ms. Little picks us up.

James: Last month we started Book 3 of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The Baudelaires just rescued Aunt Josephine but the leeches are attaching the boat. Count Olaf is going to get rid of Aunt Josephine. That is what happened and what will happen.

Kate: In Art we drew faces from a card. I got a jack. After that, we did an eye exercise. There are two hard ones. One of them is a horse and the other one is an owl. This is how you do the eye exercises. You get a paper and copy what’s in the first box. In the box there is a shape and then there is a shape over it.

Morgan: On Monday, Ms. Little read a book to us in Math. The book was called Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday. The book was a math book about money! As Ms. Little read, we were subtracting from $1.00 because Alexander was losing his money.

Reese: Last week in Poetry we wrote Shape Poems. What you do is you choose something about your topic. For example, my topic is seasons, so for my shape poem I wrote about Santa Claus. We made a list of 20 describing words or more. Then we would draw a shape of something related to what we wrote about. I drew a Santa hat. Then you would write those describing words around the shape. I liked making them. J

Vinny: Last week we compared some money in Social Studies. We looked at different kinds of money, regular (2012) money, and colonial money. Then we tried to sort them into different groups and talked about what was the same and different. The 2012 dollar has George Washington and the colonial money didn’t. The colonial money had a picture of a flag. They both had signatures and borders. I liked looking at the money.

David: This week we did Spelling. We got out new lists and we wrote our words on cards. When we were done making our cards, we picked a spelling activity from the list on the Smartboard. Some spelling choices are practice with a partner, write your words three times on your white board, write in rainbow words, or put your words in ABC order.

Brianna: Last week we did a reading thing. The reasons why we did it was 1. To be a better reader, and 2. To read and know what you’re reading about. We had to go with different teachers like Mrs. Corke, Mrs. Matthei, and Mrs. Enneguess, and we had to go to a different room.

Lindsey: Last week we went to Mr. Mehigan’s classroom to see a play. It was about Paul Revere. I was sitting in the front row. It was a very short play. I had a great time. I liked Amelia’s part. She did a great job as the narrator.

Graham: Last week in Writing Workshop we wrote free form poems. Free form poems are poems that you can write however you want. On a Ballad you have to have stanzas, a Mentiras has to be a lie, a Diamante has to be in the shape of a diamond, and so on.  And you can write whatever you want on a free form, and you can make it rhyme if you want. For example:

Sardines are very bland

But when they land

They’re canned.

Kyleigh: On May 21, 2012, Ms. Little’s class was collecting postcards and reading them during meeting. Morgan had a postcard from Hawaii and I received one from Paris. It was from my grandparents. People were traveling places and sending postcards because they wanted to help us fill up the whole map! And we did it! We filled the whole map! And more postcards can still be sent.

Dorinda: Last week Ms. Little read us The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. It was a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Before we read the story, we acted out a play. I learned that Paul Revere married Sarah, and Sarah died, so he married Rachel. I also learned that Paul Revere’s ride was dangerous, and that Paul Revere was a silversmith.

Rory: On Monday we played Sparkle. Sparkle is a spelling game. It is when Ms. Little says a word like mouse. Then someone says “M.” The next person says “O.” The person next to them says “U” and two other people say “S” and “E.” Then the next person says the part of speech, like if it’s a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. If that person is right, then the next person uses the word in a sentence. The person after that says, “Sparkle!” And the person who is sparkled has to sit down.

Thomas: Yesterday in Math we were reviewing how much each coin was worth. We also did adding and subtracting with money. A penny is worth 1 cent, a dime is with 10 cents, a quarter is worth 25 cents, and a nickel is worth 5 cents. There is money all over the earth except it’s not all the same.

Alonso: Last week we had 1^st grade buddies. It was one of our last times with our buddies. I had a great time. We read Frog and Toad. I thought it was funny. I wonder when it will be over. I think it’s fun to have reading buddies.

Aiden: Last week in Cursive we learned uppercase H, N, and M. M looks like this:  M. N looks like this: N. H looks like this: H. I like cursive because it’s a different way to write.

Henry: Lately in Social Studies we have been learning about Colonial times and money. So we made our own money. Mine is called Henry Socks. The value of my money is 7 dollars. The colors on it are black, purple, and magenta. My money is square shaped also. We did this after we compared colonial money to 2012 money.

Ms. Little:  Homework assignments are going to become less frequent for the remainder of the school year. Your child will be responsible for reading 20 minutes, studying spelling, and working on their biography project each night, but will not always have a worksheet to complete. Please let me know if you have any questions.  Enjoy the weekend.