Dear Parents of Room 10,
This was a short, cold and
productive week! The children worked
hard as we finalized the ABC Book and began two new writing assignments; their
Wax Museum speech (which will be done in school) and their DARE essay (which
will be finished at home).
Whales. Whales.
Whales. This week we began the
Whale Unit with the first two lessons.
After making their Whale Unit divider, we focused on the differences and
similarities between whales and fish. On
Thursday I shared a power point presentation introducing seven whale
behaviors. Ask your child to name and
explain each of the seven behaviors. As
I explained to the children, these are just seven of many behaviors whales
exhibit. Next week we will begin the
whale-to-scale project where we will do scale drawings (1 inch: 1 foot) of a
variety of both toothed and baleen whales.
This is a fun and very mess project…and I LOVE IT!
As I mentioned earlier, the children
have selected their Wax Museum subject, we have conducted research and have
written facts in their writer’s notebook.
I gave the children directions for both the one-minute speech and the
poster. Except for putting together a
costume for the Wax Museum, THIS PROJECT WILL BE DONE ENTIRELY IN SCHOOL. The Wax Museum is scheduled for the evening
of February 28th, and the proceeds will benefit the Marillac
Shelter.
The children had their final DARE
class with Officer Dave Harrington on Wednesday. Officer Harrington explained that he is in
the process of planning their DARE graduation for sometime in late February,
although an actual date has not yet been established. As soon as I am given the date, I will let
you know. I suspect it will be a morning
event, as the last few graduations have been at 9:45am.
I am happy to announce that I have
an extra pair of hands in the classroom every afternoon. Matt Viglucci, my former 5th grade student
and a current Lab School Senior is doing his internship in Room 10. He wants to focus on writing, so he spent the
week finalizing the students’ memoirs. He
also did an outstanding job reading aloud to the children. Welcome Matt!
Is your child reading a minimum of
30 minutes nightly? I did a “State of
the Class” Thursday to get an idea of where each of them is with Betor’s
Bulls-Eye. At this point your child
should have read a minimum of 15 books.
Please check in with your child to see if he/she is on the right
track. Stay warm! Lester Betor & Class
