Update for December 7, 2012

Hello from room 14!
I want to thank you all for helping your children out with their Passport projects and presentations.  They all turned out wonderful and I enjoyed hearing and reading about each family and their experience with immigrating to the US.  Last Thursday (11/29) we had  a wonderful presentation by a Park Interpreter from our local parks department.  She talked with the class about different adaptations that animals have to survive in the wild and the class even got to participate in a couple of activities to help them understand what it would be like to have these adaptations.  This was a wonderful introduction for our new science unit, Structures of Life.  Speaking of science, we have officially started our second unit.  Over the past two weeks students have looked closely at seeds and have learned that seeds are found in the fruit of a plant.  Did you know that scientifically speaking a tomato, cucumber, or green bean are all considered a fruit even though we commonly think of them as vegetables?  We also have set up mini sprouters and are currently seeing what happens to seeds if we just add water to them, no soil or other nutrients.  In social studies we spent time this week reading California Indian Legends and discussing the importance of them and what they tell us about different Indian groups.  In Math we started a new Problem of the Month this week that fits nicely into our current unit of study on geometry.  Students are exploring the different atributes of polygons such as triangle and rectangles.  In our problem of the month they are also looking at how they can create larger shapes using smaller ones.  In writing we began discussing and writing our first multi-paragraph essay of the year. Right now we are writing the essay together as a class so students will learn the process and structure required.  In music last week Ms. Weston taught the class an Isreali folksong and dance.  It was a lot of fun watching the class work together to make the dance.  This week in music they learned a holiday song and were able to play on different percussion instruments to accompany the song.  For PE the class worked on different drills and skills such as skipping in a line, walking with high knees, etc and played a cooperative game. 
Please be sure to read this weeks Dispatch to find out about all the other events going on in school in the upcoming weeks such as Dine Out, Book Fair, and Dare to Care Day. 
 http://bit.ly/Dragon_Dispatch