T-1 News February 21-25, 2011

We had an a great short week! The weather continued to be beautiful and we loved playing kickball in the sunshine at recess. We even snuck in a few days where we stayed out a little longer than usual to get our extra energy out. Here is other stuff we have doing:

A PEEK AT THIS WEEK
This week we talked about describing words in sentences, specifically words that describe color, shape, and size. We also discussed the soft c sound as we see it in words that contain ce, ci, or cy (ex.-cent, mice). We took our spelling test and all did our very best. Our theme for this week was Simple Machines. We discussed the 6 different kinds of simple machines (wedge, screw, lever, inclined plane, wheel, and pulley) and how they work. I think our favorite is the lever (we watched a video of a very useful lever, the catapult!). We even built our own robots in our Creation Station for the Art center this week. We also continued talked about our Character Trait, Respect. We learned that being respectful means treating other people nicely and using our manners--even when some people make it hard to do so. In Math we began Unit 2 in the next level of our math book. Our skill was addition. I also encourage you to keep practicing time and counting money at home, as these will be skills tested on our standardized test at the end of March.

LOOKING AHEAD
Next week, we will start a two-week unit about the Food Pyramid. We will discuss healthy and unhealthy foods for our bodies. We will also talk about other ways to stay healthy. T-1 has been spending a good amount of time working on our writing skills. I am striving for the boys to be able to correctly write a six sentence paragraph by the spring, as well as make their fictional stories more exciting by adding multiple sentences full of detail. So far, the boys are doing a great job with this, but we are still working on this becoming more of an independent skill instead of teacher directed. Also, if your child has anything he would like to share that goes a long with our weekly theme, then I encourage him to bring it in. In Language Arts, our weekly skills will be the variant vowel ow /ou/ (ex.- cow, brown) and describing words:taste, smell, sound, and feel. Our spelling test will be on words that have the -ow spelling pattern. Our Word Wall words for the week are buy, warm, boy, girl, think. We will continue talking about our character trait, Respect. In Math we will continue Chapter 2 in the next level of the Math series. Our skill for the week will be solution methods; addition strategies; and counting on.

OUS AUCTION
The Oxford University School Annual Auction will be here in about 4 weeks. In the past, each class has been asked to come up with a class auction item for guests to bid on during the silent auction part of the evening. After speaking with one of our T-1 room moms, V Chapman, our class has decided to do a "Date Night" themed basket. Please be on the look-out for more information from V in the next couple of weeks! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

UPCOMING DATES TO REMEMBER
Monday, February 28: Ms. Sarah's maternity leave begins/ Ms. Carolyn Davis will begin subbing
Thursday, March 10: Leprechaun Trap project due! THIS WILL BE GRADED!
Friday, March 11- Friday, March 18: Spring Break!!!!! NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, March 23: Report Cards go home
Thursday, March 24-Wednesday, March 30: T-1 Stanford Achievement Testing (PLEASE make sure your child is here on time AND well rested!)
Friday, March 25: OUS Annual Golf Tournament
Saturday, March 26: OUS Annual Auction (6:00pm-10:00pm) See you there!!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me or send me a note at any time. I will continue to check my email during my maternity leave, so please feel free to continue emailing me. If there is an immediate concern, emergency, or transportation change please call Stephanie at the front office, 234-2200. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!