Sem 2 Week 4

There were some cold days and some really warm days this week. Perhaps spring is on the way.

Many students have not felt very well this week. I hope that everyone who had headaches are now feeling better.

A big thanks once again to everyone who brought in materials and loaned us flashlights for the science experiments and activities. These fun activities help a great deal in the learning process and your donations are greatly appreciated.

In Science this week we learned about the planets and did an activity listing the planets according the distance from the sun, size, and length of day compared to the earth.

On Friday we used flashlights to simulate the sun and graph paper to represent the earth. We shone the light onto the paper from directly above and noticed that the light formed a circle and was very bright. We then shone the light onto the paper while tilting the paper at an angle and noticed that the light formed an oval and was less bright. We concluded that this is why the equator is hotter than other parts of the world since the light at the equator shines directly above it. We will discuss this experiment more next week.

In Math we have begun two chapters on division. We saw how division and multiplication work together as fact families and knowing your multiplication tables will help you succeed well in division.

In English we read the story “Half Chicken” where we learned why weather vanes on top of building are often in the shape of a chicken. In phonics we learned about the prefixes un–, re-, and dis-. In Grammar we learned about action verbs. Next week we will read a play called “Backstage with Chris and Cassy” which will end theme 4.

Everyone did very well in this week’s English test. Don’t forget to keep reviewing your spelling and vocabulary every day and you will do better and better each week. Don’t forget to review this week’s work for our test on Monday.

Everyone wrote a dialogue or play on Friday afternoon and once they had finished there was a bit of time for some fun. I hope you all had fun playing cards, Uno, and painting.

In Social studies we started reading about how people throughout history have immigrated to the US for political or religious freedom, or for better work opportunities. We compared this to how many people have moved to Taiwan or from Taiwan for work or study.

Everyone is reading so much and it is great to see everyone with great books out during our morning and noon time quiet time. This reading will greatly improve your vocabulary and general knowledge. Please try and challenge yourselves in your reading but more importantly read what you enjoy. Well done to those who received certificates this week – Alica, Jonathan Chen, Jasmine, Nina, Nicole and Victor.

Well done to everyone for reading so well and helping our community wall grow.

Thanks to Nina’s mom we have some new books for our class library from the scholastic book order – “Grandma calls me beautiful”, “The Seven Chinese Brothers”, Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew”, and “Leprechaun in Late Winter”. I hope you will all be able to add these books to your reading log soon.

On Wednesday we celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick’s Day is a traditional Irish holiday where people wear green, eat green food, and tell stories about Leprechauns. We ate green pancakes and read a story about a little girl who didn’t receive any Valentines cards and was sad. A Leprechaun came to help her and eventually on St. Patrick’s Day she received her wish.

Please don’t forget to bring in your 2^nd hand books and toys on Monday and Tuesday for the flea market on Wednesday. Also, please join us at the Spring concert at the beginning of the Anniversary day celebrations. 3b will be doing a special dance based on soccer moves in honor of the “Soccer world cup” to be hosted by South Africa in a couple of months time. Join us and learn the “Diski”.

Well done to everyone for trying so hard in the group competition. Chairs are now being pushed in, everyone is ready for class on time, and everyone is listening really well during lessons. You are all stars!

Have a great weekend everyone

Mrs. DB