Swimming Time

Hello all.  This week (and next) will be an exciting time for many of the students at East Elementary.  Our swimming portion of Phys Ed has all the students excited.  We (the grade 1's) are swimming at the LRC from 1:00-1:30, Monday through Thursday this week and next. If you would like, you can send an extra snack with your child these days as we will have an opportunity for a snack when we return to the school.  Swimming is a very draining activity and the students are hungry when they return.  As for the rest of the day, it is business as usual.

Language Arts

Spelling:

Our spelling words for this week are as follows:

as, run, who, jump, would

Writing:

For writing this week we are finishing up our second piece of persuasive writing.  We read half of a story called Splat the Cat.  Splat is a cat who will be going to school for the first time,  He is very nervous and trying any and all means to not go to school.  It is the students job to have letters written to Splat convincing him why school is such a great place to be.  Again, this is their second attempt at persuasive writing.  Look for their writing about a T-Rex with an assessment rubric in their agendas by the end of the week to give you an idea of where their writing is at.  When it gets sent home, I would like to see it returned after you get a chance to read it.

The high end of the rubric will show where the students should be at by the end of grade 1.

Math:

In math, we finished our unit on measurement and today went over the assessment together.  I sent it home to show what the students took from it.  We will be continuing with our unit, subtraction from 12, the rest of the week.

Science: 

In science, we have just begun our unit on needs of plants.  We have had a brainstorming session about anything that the children know about plants.  They were to come up with types of plants, things that plants require to live, and anything else they could think of to do with plants.  We will be working toward seeing some plants in action as well as growing our own plants in the classroom.  I will keep you posted as well as put up some pictures when that time comes.

Art:

For art, I had the students each create a painted heart (3 different colors).  They each got to keep the top left corner of their own heart.  They then proceeded to trade the other 3 pieces of their heart around the room.  They received a heart piece from three other students in their class complementing and completing their own heart.  What resulted was a very cool heart mosaic.

Odds and Ends:

I will again be away for professional development on Tuesday all day.  Also, please remember to dry your child's bathing suit and towel each night so they do not have to put on a wet bathing suit the next day.  If they forget it at school, well, they do not really have a choice then.

As always, have a wonderful week.

Mr. Aasen