Mrs. Keane's Class: Week of April 5, 2010

First, I would like to take care of a few housekeeping notes. I want to apologize for the confusion with the book order from last month. When I received the initial shipment, half of the order was missing. I contacted Scholastic, and they sent the remaining orders. At this point, everyone has their books. I will not be using the online ordering option in the future because that was the root of the problem. Also, report cards will be going home this week.

The students continue to work hard each and every week. This week was no exception. We learned several new concepts in math and writing.

In math the students learned about the nickel, three-dimensional shapes, and counting beats to keep time. The students learned that a nickel is worth five cents, that it is silver, bigger than a penny and dime. The students also learned the difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. The three-dimensional shapes that we learned about include the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder.

In writing, the students learned about informational writing. As a class, we wrote about the process we completed to plant our green bean seeds. In science, we illustrated the book that details the process. In reading, we learned that the illustration on a page help tell the story, so the pictures should match what is stated in the writing. Also, we worked with rhyming words by using the word "an" to build other words. In phonics and word study, we learned that we can locate number words in text. Each student had a number word, and they had to find its match in the poem that is pictured below. Once the child found the match, we worked together to make sure the two words matched by checking letter by letter.

Building rhyming words using the word "an"

Locating number words in text

In science, we completed two more pages in our plant journals and measured our plants. The little boxes on the right-hand side of the page are equal to one inch. For example, if six boxes are colored in, the plant is six inches tall.