The Jungle Plants Some Seeds

The life cycle is under way! Hopefully by now your child has told you what they did with the egg carton they brought in before spring break. Each student has learned about the necessities of plant life and is now the proud caretaker of their own egg carton garden. Children were able to select seeds from a large variety of flowers and carefully place each hopeful seed in a egg carton slot. The children were excited to connect the caretaking skills from Frog and Toad's "The Garden" to their own garden!

As the life cycle continues in Room 108 children will be exposed to a number of different kinds of insects and the features they all share and the features that make them unique. Living insects, such as meal worms and ants, will soon be filling the classroom and this has motivated the children to learn about them. We will continue to read, write, and discuss all about basics concepts of biology and botany. Hopefully the bright sun and warm weather will keep up!

Everyday Math is continuing to move right along with money and polygons but is now progressing with deeper concepts such as fractions and making change (subtraction.) Fractions can be difficult for many students but do not fret because this the first time many of the children have really examined what fractions are. (These is also the beginning steps of division.) Please continue to complete the Home Links and turn them in the next day. Thank you to those of you who have been consistently bringing in Home Link requests. It is a fantastic way for students to apply what they are learning in school to the things around them at home.
Open Court Reading is now in the middle of the Unit 8 titled "Games" and just about smack dab in the middle of the student anthology reading books. The big skills we are we are working on as we reading are comprehension skills such as summarizing, predictions, and making inferences. We are also connecting writing skills to our reading by making story maps and composing short excerpts of our favorite, or most interesting, parts of our stories. Many of the stories have silly game concepts or ideas that students are latching on to and becoming naturally engaged in reenacting, or inspired to create on their own.

** Upcoming Event **
April 16 - Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum - Please submit a signed permission slip and check payment if you have not already. Thank you!

Welcome Back!

Greetings Blogger Readers! Room 108 is back in session at Horace Mann School and the children came back with a ton of energy and great things to say about their spring break experiences. I enjoyed the break immensely and was fortunate to be able to embrace the baseball season with my family at a couple spring training "Cactus League" baseball games in Arizona. The weather here in Illinois is not exactly baseball friendly but it will soon look up and the sun will be shining again!

A big thanks and "stamp of approval" goes out to the students that took the initiative (or parent initiative) to work in their Creative Writing packet over the break. All of your children have creativity inside and it is a pleasure to read anything your child is willing to share. I want to also thank the families who have helped their child complete and return the Reading Logs. I am glad to know the log has become such a motivational tool!

I must draw your attention to a new feature of the Room 108 blog. On the left hand column you will see a slideshow linked from a "Flickr" account created for our classroom. This slideshow will display photos taken from parents and myself and updated as often as pictures are available. (Big THANK YOU goes out to the creator and main picture suppliers) If you have any Room 108 pictures you would like to share on the blog please e-mail them directly to me.

Thanks to all you blog readers out there and please keep up the e-mail comments, posts, and questions!! See you on the blacktop!