Globe Trotters

For some of us, spring break is a time for travel. I know that some of you are headed to Florida, Colorado, Mexico, and other destinations. But did you know that your children have already embarked on some far-ranging travels of their own? With passports in order, they have taken off for Egypt, Chad, Norway, Ireland, Iceland, Japan, Brazil, and beyond. As part of our Social Studies lessons, the boys and girls are using an online program called Culture Grams to research a country of their choosing. Culture Grams offers a kids-eye view of 68 nations.

The boys and girls have been exploring topics such as landforms and climate, life as a kid, schools, food, holidays, and games and sports. Some have even discovered how to say common words and phrases in the language of their countries. They will use the notes they collect to write short reports. This new digital research comes on the heels of our virtual tour of the seven continents and text-based activities that had children comparing and contrasting their lives to those of children in other lands all around the globe. It's been a wonderful journey!

Our journey as science writers continues, too. Our latest experiments involve catapults built from Popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and plastic spoons. The boys and girls began by launching ping-pong balls and cotton balls to see which went farther. This led to what we call "further investigations." Some were curious to test how far objects like Legos, marbles. erasers, and magnets might go. Others set up trials to determine whether objects went farther if the catapult was placed on a desktop rather than on the floor. Some of our hypotheses have surprised us! The writing that accompanies these experiments is highly structured and organized. After four or five experiments each, the boys and girls are mastering the form. They'll try transferring these skills and their newfound knowledge about force and motion to a slightly different kind of information writing - science books - when we return from spring break.

Reading goal clubs have been meeting this week at Reading Workshop times. Children chose to focus on stamina, fluency, or comprehension and work with others to practice the strategies that have been our focus for the last few weeks. Our math lessons on time, data collection, and graphing wrapped up with a unit test on Thursday. Those are being sent home with your child today.

Finally, I want to thank you for attending parent-teacher conferences over the last two weeks. It was my pleasure to meet with you. I am grateful for the interest you showed in what I had to share about your child's progress and for your insights about how things are going. I know that our conversations help make me a better teacher.

Happy spring break! Safe travels!

Mark Your Calendars:

Mon., April 10 - We'll have our first of five shorts visits from a Junior Achievement representative.

Wed., April 12 - Early Release Day for students

Fri., April 14 - No school

Mon., April 17 - No school for students

Tues. April 25 - Book Fair and Cake Walk, 5:30-7:00 PM

Fri., April 28 - Field trip to Nicolet High School to see "Alice in Wonderland"

Missing Books:

I am missing two books that I checked out of the Whitefish Bay Library for our character study unit. They are: "Stink and the Freaky Frog Freakout" (McDonald) and "Ivy and Bean Take the Case" (Barrows). If the titles sound familiar, please check for these at home and send them back to school. Thanks!