October 4, 2013

Dear Families,

We finally completed our first full week of school! 

In my math class we began to look at fractions. We learned that they are equal parts that make up a whole and we learned how to "read" a fraction. For example, 1/2 is read as "one out of two" or "one half." We had a few tricky problems to solve such as: if there are 8 lady bugs and you need to color 1/4, how many do you color? The kids learned that sometimes the bottom number of the fraction can mean a certain number of groups rather than the total number of parts.

My class also had their first spelling quiz. Next week our goal will be to have the full 10 words.

In science this week grades 1 and 2 completed ocean food chain posters. I hope that everyone was able to see them displayed in the front hall. We learned all about dolphins and how they use sound or "echo-location" to find their food. And, last, we learned that there are different parts of the ocean; the abyss, the surface, the ocean floor, a tidal pool and the open sea. The kids were given five different ocean animals and by reading rhymes about them, they had to figure out in which part of the ocean each animal lives.

And, finally, grades one and two began STAR (Sit Together and Read). We are reading and discussing Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is a very funny story about a fourth grade boy named Peter whose biggest problem in life is his 2-year-old brother, Farley.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Proudly displaying our Ocean Food Chain posters.