Hi,
Today is the day that Texas gained its independence from Spain in 1836. We celebrated by learning about Lorenzo de Zavala and Sam Houston. Later we will be comparing and contrasting these two historical figures and signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence. We also went to a very fun website about Texas and played a 3D simulation of a girl or boy in 1836 who is traveling to Washington-on-the-Brazos in search of his/her father. We ran out of time to finish the game so your child may want to play at home. The site is http://www.txindependence.org/. Have fun and celebrate Texas!
Next week begins our Camp Write Along week! On Monday, we will have a practice writing test to practice completing the revising and editing multiple choice part of the test and planning, drafting, revising, editing, and writing a final copy of a composition in the four hour time frame. We will have lunch at our normal time. We will test from 8:00-10:00, take a snack/stretch/bathroom break from 10:00-10:30. Continue testing from 10:30-11:30. Break and eat lunch then continue again at the end of the day.
Writing Camp begins on Tuesday! Our room will look like a campground and your children can bring in a sleeping bag/blanket, & pillow. They can dress up in camp type clothes and/or hiking boats. We will sing camp songs with a writing twist and review skills and practice our writing. We will then use the data from the writing test to help plan our fun and educational review of strategies during writing camp. We will also play some math games, and do some social studies activities. It will be so much fun and will help us become better writers. Let me know if you have any trees or camp type decorations that we could borrow to help transform our classroom into Camp Write Along-Bartholomew's Bat Campsite! I will be decorating at about 4:15 on Monday afternoon. Thank you Mrs. Slape for donating fire wood and red lights!
Don't forget to write letters for your camper! You can email letters to me or put them in my box in the teacher work room. I will be passing out a letter each day Tuesday-Friday. Encourage family members to write letters also! The kids will love to read your writing and read about your experiences!
Reading-We read articles about King Christian X of Denmark and compared the information learned in different sources. We learned that confirming your facts is important so we need to read more than one article when we research. We also continued to work on text structures and read about famous Texans.
Writing-What wonderful personal narratives were read today! We shared many of them and heard lots of great leads, interesting small moment stories, and strong word choice. We heard some super imagery (sensory words) and thoughtful conclusions. It is very difficult to get all that onto only 26 lines of paper! Our writers are rocking!!!!!
Math-We are working on measurement which will include area and perimeter. We will be doing many hands-on activities during our writing camp week to practice measuring using different tools and units. We will continue to practice math facts and problem solving as well.
Social Studies-We will be learning more about the Republic of Texas and challenges that the new country faced which led to statehood.
Dates to Remember:
Monday, March 5-Writing Test -4 hour testing-Reading Logs due
Tuesday, March 6-Friday, March 9-Writing Camp!
Wednesday, March 7-Early Release Day 12:45
Thursday, March 8-Writing Club 2:45-4:00 in library
Friday, March 9-Hoe Down for K, 1, 2
Monday, March 12-Friday, March 16-Spring Break
Monday, March 19-Back to school-Spring Break reading logs due!
Tuesday, March 20-Service Club 2:45-4:00
Thursday, March 22-Pen Pals visit for PE activities
Tuesday, March 27 & Wednesday, March 28-STAAR Writing Tests
Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy Texas Independence Day Celebrations in Austin and UT Explore at the university! Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Pam Bartholomew
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