Buckaroo news for April 6th-10th

Believe it or not, we only have about seven and a half weeks of school left!  Where did the time go?  The kiddos know that I don't want to talk about it because it makes me sad that they will be leaving me soon but there are some upcoming events that I want to make you aware of as we end the year.  See the schedule of upcoming events below.
Here is a snapshot of our week of learning!  In word study, we worked hard to learn how to use /tion/ and /sion/ in words.  This was a challenging study but as soon as I say the word "challenge" they perk up!  I've also assessed each student one last time on word features.  It is the same assessment I gave in the fall and again in January to determine word study teams.  Due to this re-evaluation of your child's needs in word study, we've changed teams.  They are very excited!  In writer's workshop, we have begun to study our last form of writing which is informational writing.  We've been singing songs about endangered animals with one of them being the giant panda.  We decided to research this information.  We are doing this as a whole class to learn how to read informational text and to use the internet effectively to learn and record facts onto sticky notes.  We then worked together to organize our notes to then use to write a cohesive report of what we've learned.  Soon, each child will get to self-select a topic of choice in which to research.  In social studies, we have begun our study of economics.  We began by talking about needs and wants and then moved on to consumers and producers.  We will talk more about this next week and then move on to a study about motion.  In math, we finished up telling time to the hour and half-hour today and will begin graphing and using data to answer questions.  In reader's workshop, we will begin to take a closer look at how nonfiction texts differ from fiction texts and the features that nonfiction texts have that help the reader to understand complex information.  
                                 Our Schedule for Next Week:
Monday - P.E.   Tuesday - Art   Wednesday - Music   Thursday - Library   Friday - P.E.
                               Upcoming Events You Don't Want to Miss:
April 24th - Springtacular at SCE
April 30th - Art Show at SCE 6:00-7:30
May 7th - Literacy Night at SCE  
May 15th - SuperGames
May 25th - Memorial Day - No School
May 26th - Expected hatch day for our chicks!!!!!!
May 28th - Our Class Musical - Begins at 2:40 - You won't want to miss this!
June 2nd - Last day of school

This is a Scottish Corners garden on the side of the school but it looked like a big mess.  We cleaned up this garden on Monday, April 6th.  This garden needed help!  We are going to plant vegetable plants in it and on the side so the bugs don't get in we are planting marigolds from last year's seeds.

We found a rabbit's nest in our garden.  

G. is holding up last year's tomato plant.

The green plants are called strawberry plants.  It looks a little like poison ivy because it has three leaves but it's not!  The green stuff is called chlorophyl.  We didn't pull up the strawberry plants because they were already growing.

If you're wondering what that big purple thing is by C. it is her dress.  We cleaned the garden.  This is after we pulled out all of the weeds and tomato plants.  That big wooden thing is called a bed but not the kind of bed you sleep in.  This summer, you are more than welcome to walk over to our garden and help yourself to all of the goodies that are growing there.  

Y. is holding our poster with needs on it.  Needs are something you need to survive.  Needs are things that you need to live like food and water.

This poster has all of our wants on it.  Some wants are Shopkins and stuffed animals.  B. is blocking the poster.  Wants are toys, doughnuts, and candy.  They are things we can live without.  

S. made a 100 out of triangles and squares.  This is a new math game and you have to use pattern blocks to solve the pattern that is on the paper.  S. did the hardest way to do it with triangles.  There are other ones you can do like lovebirds, George Washington's hat and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s two fingers that mean "peace."