February Newsletter
Mrs. Dykstra's Class
Field Trip
A HUGE thank you to all the drivers who offered at the last minute to drive. We now have enough seats and will be able to attend the performance on Wednesday. We will be leaving at noon and returning just before dismissal. We will be eating lunch at school and then leaving.
Scholastic Book Order
The February book order is coming home today in your child's backpack. If you would like to purchase books, please visit their website at: scholastic.com/readingclub. Our class activation code is H4NG3 you will be able to shop from both the catalog that is coming home as well as other on-line only options. All orders should be here at school by mid-February.
Valentine's Day
A letter regarding Valentine mailboxes and class valentines is coming home today. Please look for it in your child's planner. Also, we are in need of a few supplies for our ice cream sundaes. If you are able to send something in, please let me know and I will let you know what is still needed.
Flatting Our Classroom---taking our learning outside our walls
Mystery Skype #2
We go the chance to have another Mystery Skype with a class from rural Pennsylvania. We practiced speaking and listening skills, problem solving and map skills all while having fun!
Sunny the Bear
We are the proud adoptive class of Sunny the Bear. A class mascot from a second grade class in Kansas. Their class got to spend the Fall with him doing fun things and taking him home. Our class will have the same opportunities over the next few months! Stay tuned!
Mystery Number Skype
We had a special Skype call with Ms. Howey's 4th grade upstairs! We practiced place values, critical thinking, and teamwork to guess the 3-digit number they chose for us and they were able to figure ours out too! This picture is from Ms. Howey's room. We are on the Smartboard!! :)
Cranbrook Field Trip
Economics
In a follow-up to our money unit in math and economics unit in Social Studies. We practiced being shop keepers and purchasers. Everyone did great!
Motion
We got to experiment with magnets, balls, and race cars to discover all about how something moves!
Inquiry Lesson on Motion
We ended the Motion lesson with recording our thinking about what we learned and what we are still wondering. We are using this to help us with the rest of our Science unit!
Genius Hour
Getting Ready
Presentations
We shared our learning with our Kindergarten friends as well as our Reading Buddies.
Presentations
We shared our learning with our Kindergarten friends as well as our Reading Buddies.
Math
We are working hard on double digit addition with regrouping. In Everyday Math this is call partial sums. It looks different than how many of us "traditionally" learned but in reality, it is how most of us add large numbers in our heads. We will be moving into double digit subtraction with regrouping. This is call Trades-First. The links below will take you to the Everyday Math website where they have short videos demonstrating the two processes. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Writing
We have begun our first of two units on Personal Narratives. We will be finishing up just before Winter Break and will begin the second part after vacation. We are working hard on stretching out each part of the story and adding details of what we saw, what we did, or what was said.
Reading
Growing Readers Club has moved onto Nonfiction studies. We have just completed all of the text features and are now getting ready to enter into our Non-Fiction Book Clubs. These are interest-based and each group will be responsible for a final presentation of what they learned on their topic.
Science
We have completed the Balance portion of our Balance and Motion unit. We will move into the Motion portion this week. One of the extension activities was to balance a pencil on it's tip. We needed all of our prior knowledge to make it work. Take a look...SUCCESS!
Stay Connected
Remember you can follow our class' learning on Twitter (@MrsDykstra1) and follow your individual student's learning on their Seesaw account. Please let me know if you would like another QR code for your student's Seesaw account.