Hawaiian Stars News 10-19-06
The Hawaiian Stars would like to thank SC for donating the math game "Dogs Are the Best" to the class library. We will be able to play this new board game when we have a rainy day or extra time in math class.
BK celebrated his birthday with GoGurt treats and fruit snacks for the class. He also donated two books to the classroom library. They are Goosebumps: The Campfire Collection, by R.L. Stine, and Dragon Rider, by Cornelia Funke. These books will be available for all to read after he presents them at the school assembly next week. He decided to donate one book for third graders and one book for fourth graders.
Our third graders have been working hard on their Wordly Wise corrections, and we have two students who have moved on to their second book. It is important to get the corrections completed before a new book is issued to the students. The fourth graders are mostly working on lessons 8 - 11 at this time, but some of them still have a lot of correcting to do.
Reading during SSR time has been improving with better concentration and progress. Most of the Hawaiian Stars are reading books which are challenging and fun. Their Reading Log entries are more detailed and truly express their interpretations of the stories they are reading. We have had some very creative response entries this past week, too.
Our math continues with good progress being made. We played with fake money and counted large amounts of coins in groups. We checked each other's work and found that we were pretty accurate. We will also be including bills in our next set of math exercises, and the numbers will get larger. Everyone is doing a great job on the computation practice exercises and CML problems. They love to discuss their strategies for solving these challenging problems.
Most of the Hawaiian Stars have completed their Earthquakes and Volcanoes books and have written reports to share their understanding. A few still have about five pages to complete.
We were fortunate to have Mrs. Collier and three of her friends visit our class to teach us about non-point source pollution and how to preserve the environment. Everyone received souvenir photos with Apoha, their mascot.
Our Writer's Workshop sessions have been very productive. Many have published their Hawaiian legends about how the islands were created, and we will share them soon. Personal narratives and fiction stories have also occupied some of our writing time, and each student has a collections of stories in their folders. They will select one to publish soon.
Our trip to the Big Island is being planned, and we are excited about the opportunity to have this wonderful learning experience. You will receive a sign-up sheet soon.
As you plan for Halloween, please do not send in any goodie bags for the class. Mrs. Hussey has recommended that we just have the snacks provided by the groups in charge of the celebration at school. Students may change to their costumes after lunch that day. Since they have a book report presentation that morning, that will be fine. Please remember: no weapons of any kind may be used as part of the costumes.
My husband and I will be going to Las Vegas for a few days next week. We leave late at night on the 26th and return at night on the 30th. He will be attending the exciting NASCAR races with his friends while I go shopping and visit new casinos with his two sisters who live there.
Posted on October 19, 2006 6:09 AM | Permalink