Ants!

As part of our study of the needs of living things our class has begun observing live ants in the classroom!

Here is the update for the week:

Postponed - A2STEAM Used Book Sale and Heritage Festival
The used book sale I wrote about last week has been postponed a couple of weeks.  The book sale will now be held on the same night as out STEAM Expo, March 31st.  The Heritage Festival that was supposed to be held on March 12th has also been postponed.  A new date for the Heritage Festival is in the works but has yet to be confirmed.

Curriculum Overview
Science - For our current Project Based Learning unit we are studying the needs of plants and animals and how plants and animals adapt to, and change their environment to meet those needs.  We have studied the parts of plants (stem, leaves, roots, and flower).  Last week we explored the specific function of each of the plant parts.  This week we are starting an experiment to show that plants need water, light, and air to survive.  We are also beginning to study the needs of animals, and how different animals are categorized and classified.

Math - This week we will study skip counting, how it relates to multiplication, and add that that to our understand of different types of computation--last week we studied subtraction and reviewed addition.

Literacy - We continue to look at the features of nonfiction texts as we study the needs of living things for our Project Based Learning unit.  I highly recommend going to the library and checking out some non-fiction books--so often we read fiction books at home and it is good to give students a varied experience.  Find a topic that interests your child and use the table of contents and index to read up and learn.

Writing - This week students are attempting to stretch our their writing and ideas into a longer narrative with multiple parts.

Word Study - Identifying the vowel sounds found in simple words.  We will compare the short o and short u sounds, as well as bringing in short i.