February 28 All School Meeting and Spirit Day (Flag theme)
March 2 Read Across America Day
March 16 Library Visit - Chaperones Needed
March 23-27 Spring Break
Homework Due by Friday, February 28th
1. Read for at least 20 minutes every night.
2. Complete at least 30 minutes of math practice (click here for DreamBox).
3. Complete 20 minutes of typing practice.
4. Optional: Compete Paragraph of the Week writing assignment.
Prompt: Sometimes things happen that make us upset. Write about a time when you felt angry.
Upcoming Out and Abouts
This week, we will have our second visit from a Pacific University doctoral student, Claire, who will teach short lessons about academic and social skills. Claire will come in for the next several Wednesdays to lead activities about managing emotions, friendship, organization and staying focused. We will also have a "book tasting" event at the UCC to get ready for book clubs!
Volunteer Opportunities
1. Breakfast Donations - Fruit needed 2/28 and 3/6
2. Library Chaperones - Needed 3/16
3. Out & About Chaperones - Needed 2/26 for "Book Tasting" at the UCC.
Read Across America Day
Grab your hat and read with the cat! The Plovers will celebrate the National Education Association's annual Read Across America Day on Monday, March 2nd. The Plovers will honor Dr. Seuss's birthday with a day of reading! We will also have special guest readers, read alouds, opportunities to read with a buddy and read-to-self time. Students are allowed to bring a stuffed animal to read with, but they should not bring blankets or sleeping bags. For more information about how to generate excitement for reading and a list of recommended diverse children’s books, click here!
Weekly Review
Thank you to all the families and Plover friends who stopped by to watch the stop motion movies at Celebrations of Learning last week! I am working on uploading all of the videos so I can share them in next week's newsletter. This project was the culmination of our fairy tale adaptations writing unit, which we began in November! We started by reading and listening to many traditional folk tales and fairy tales. Students learned that the important features of a story are: characters, setting, motivation, trouble, and resolution.
Then, we studied modern fairy tale adaptations to get ideas for writing our own. We looked closely at the changes that authors made and noticed that they usually made one big important change to improve the story. Students each drafted, revised and published at least two adaptations before starting on their stop motion project. In January, the Plovers created storyboards, characters, title pages and backgrounds for their movies, and then we spent 2 weeks in February filming and narrating! It has been a lot of hard work and I know the students were so proud to share their final products with you!
Communication
Please contact me with any questions or concerns. Parents and students can e-mail me at [email protected]. You can also leave a voice message on the class phone or set up a time to meet with me before/after school.