Library cards...

Our trip to the library is coming up this Monday, 28th of Feb. If you would like your child to be able to borrow a book please send in her library card by Friday. Parents will be responsible for returning the book that was borrowed.

Thank you,

Morah Rivki

Personal Spelling Tests

Starting from this week on Friday we will each be taking a spelling test on words that we have personally misspelled in our writing...

Each child has a 'personal spelling list' which I have taken from misspelled words in their writing. On Thursday they will check off 10 words to learn. On Friday they will test each other on the words and their meanings. If they spell the words correctly, they will highlight the word and not need to be tested on it again. Otherwise it will be included in the next weeks test and they will have a chance to relearn it.

We will still be continuing with 'words their way' - word study and sorts. Spell checks for the sorts will be taken after several sorts together and the tests will be on Mondays.

An Author came to visit us!

Anne Koffsky is an author and illustrator and has written and illustrated more than 20 books!

She came to speak to us and share with us her techniques!

She taught us about the importance of a strong connection between text and picture; Steps of the writing process: stop! think! Get an idea, do research... Very close to what we learn in our own writing workshops!

Thank You!

Our class got a really special gift today! We got a big bag full of wonderful books!

Thanks to all those parents who donated to our class!!! We are very excited to read them!

Ending off Literacy Month - reading our favorite book...

Dear Parents,

Please choose a time that you can come in and read to our class. 10:45 am is our best time - because that's reading time but if you cant make that time, we will be able to fit it in for when its good for you.

The book should be of interest to the whole class, preferably with pictures and should not take longer than 10-15 minutes to read.

I have sent home a letter, in your child's homework folder with a calendar of dates for you to check off a convenient date and time. Please send it back to school tomorrow.

Thank you so much!

Morah Rivki

Our Trip to Historic Richmond Town

It was a great experience for us walking through the 1800's village, with our tour guide who was dressed to fit the scene! She taught us the whole process 'from fiber to thread' and we all had a chance to practice. In those days, children our age had to do these jobs for real! We tried on the clothes that they used to make in those days and really got a feel for colonial times!

We had a walk around the historic town, but as we had a special program we did not have time to visit the inside of buildings, stores and houses. A lot of us are interested in going back to visit and asked me to let our parents know the address!

Historic Richmond Town
441 Clarke Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10306
(718) 351-1611

historicrichmondtown.org

Hours:

JULY & AUGUST:

Wednesday - Sunday: 11 am - 5 pm
Open village & outdoor demonstrations; self-guided tour.

SEPTEMBER TO JUNE:

Wednesday to Sunday: 1 pm - 5m

Tours:

Wednesday-Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

On to Earth Science now... Our first Chapter - Water!

'How does water change form?' is the big question of chapter 5. We will be learning all about the importance of water and the water cycle.

On Thursday we made a model of the earth's water - "What if all earth's water would fit in a bottle?"- Where is earths water? We labelled four cups for the four places that fresh water is found on earth: "atmosphere"; "lakes, rivers and streams"; "groundwater"; and "glaciers". We labelled a big bottle "oceans and seas" for the salt water that is found on earth. We then poured water into each cup:

	Amount of Water (total 2200 mL)
	Atmosphere (fresh water)		about drop
	Lakes, rivers, streams (fresh water)		about 4 drops
	Groundwater (fresh water)		13 mL
	Icecaps and glaciers (fresh water)		47 mL
	Oceans and seas (salt water)		2139 mL

We noticed how most of earth's water is found in oceans and seas and is salt water. We inferred why people should use fresh water wisely... because we need fresh water to drink and most of earths water is salt water!