Hi,
We visited elephants in Tennessee today! We had a video-conference with a scientist from the Elephant Sanctuary. We began researching elephants at the sanctuary after reading the book, The One and Only Ivan. The book is told from a gorilla's point of view about his life in the circus mall with a performing elephant. Ivan helps the animals find homes in a zoo with other animals. We then started discussing and researching pros and cons of zoos and wrote persuasively about zoos using info from our research. While I was researching, I found the elephant sanctuary website and inquired about their e-learning program.
The kids chose an elephant from the sanctuary and learned about her. They took notes and wrote their questions and some did posters and powerpoints. We've been watching the elephants on the elephant cam at the sanctuary also.
Today, we met with Mr. Montgomery through our video cam and saw videos and information about the elephants and asked him lots of questions. We heard many interesting and amusing stories about the specific elephants and ended up having to switch our lunch time quickly because our 30 minutes conference lasted 80 minutes! It was wonderful. Ask your child about their favorite part and what they learned about helping and caring for all animals.
Mrs. Korfanta featured our class on her blog. http://forestcreekcoyotech.blogspot.com/
Check it out!
Tomorrow, we have an architect coming to speak with us about his job and how he uses all academic areas as well as interpersonal skills at work. It will be fun!
More excitement to come on Thursday!
Sincerely,
Pam
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Thank you for all the wonderful, thoughtful presents! Award for Service Club, Science Day tomorrow, Pen Pal Trip, Symphony Trip, Texas Heroes essays and presentations due on Thursday, May 16, read on...
Hi,
Thank you for all your generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week. You are all so wonderful! Thank you, especially, for all of the flip flops for Honduras! I am so excited to be helping the children there and for your children to be a part of it.
Our Service Club won an award! We were chosen the Youth Volunteer of the Year for Forest Creek Elementary and will be accepting an award at a ceremony on Thursday, May 23 at the Performance Arts Center on McNeil Road. There will be breakfast at 7:30 am and presentations begin at 8:00. The ceremony should last about an hour. All of your children are encouraged to attend (then come to school). You would have to provide transportation. Our entire class, whether they were able to stay after school for Service Club or not, have helped in all of the projects that the club did. Many of you also came to the Round Rock Serving Center to volunteer on Saturdays. (We are volunteering this Saturday from 9-10) We would love to have you come and accept the award with us. Then we will come back to school to learn more the rest of that day.
Science Day is tomorrow. We will be participating in activities that deal with science and music, nurses, toxicology, Archaeology, and the Grand Canyon. It is going to be a fun day!
Next Tuesday will be our trip to The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility to see our pen pals. We are so excited to see them and go on this trip. We are going to have a tour of the facility and play some games. We are also going to take our recorders and play a song for them. It will be so wonderful! You are all invited to join us. We will be leaving at about 9:15 and returning at about 11:15.
The Symphony trip will be on May 21. Please let me know by Friday morning if your child needs a sack lunch from the cafeteria. I will only order a lunch for him/her, if you let me know. Thanks so much!
This week we had a wonderful time with our mealworms. Some of them have turned into pupas and we are waiting for the final transformation to beetles! Your children used their creative skills to write diaries from the meal worm's point of view. They are wonderful, imaginative, and funny. We will bring the diaries to share with our pen pals and then I will send them home. Enjoy!
We read a lot of non-fiction about science this week and summarized as we read. We read an article about how animals adapt to hot temperatures and how they use color to protect themselves from predators. Continue to read fiction and non-fiction over the summer and be sure to talk about what was read.
Our read-aloud book, The One and Only Ivan is quickly becoming a favorite. We described each character today thinking about inner characteristics based on their actions, as well as outer characteristics or appearances. Ask your child about this book. The language used is so rich and the characters are very memorable. I love it.
In math we are learning more about division and about measuring angles. We will be using protractors to measure and will be doing more long division strategies in problem solving context. Be sure to continue to practice facts over the summer as well as math vocabulary. Find math in everyday life and discuss.
Our Social Studies Texas Hero essay and project is due on Thursday, May 16. Be sure that your child is researching, including a bibliography, and ready to do a presentation. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you again for all the wonderful treats and gifts this week. I feel very appreciated. I so appreciate your support and enjoyed talking with you during our conferences. I definitely appreciate the hard work and kindness of your children all year and especially at this time of the year. They are wonderful!
Sincerely,
Pam
Thank you for all your generosity during Teacher Appreciation Week. You are all so wonderful! Thank you, especially, for all of the flip flops for Honduras! I am so excited to be helping the children there and for your children to be a part of it.
Our Service Club won an award! We were chosen the Youth Volunteer of the Year for Forest Creek Elementary and will be accepting an award at a ceremony on Thursday, May 23 at the Performance Arts Center on McNeil Road. There will be breakfast at 7:30 am and presentations begin at 8:00. The ceremony should last about an hour. All of your children are encouraged to attend (then come to school). You would have to provide transportation. Our entire class, whether they were able to stay after school for Service Club or not, have helped in all of the projects that the club did. Many of you also came to the Round Rock Serving Center to volunteer on Saturdays. (We are volunteering this Saturday from 9-10) We would love to have you come and accept the award with us. Then we will come back to school to learn more the rest of that day.
Science Day is tomorrow. We will be participating in activities that deal with science and music, nurses, toxicology, Archaeology, and the Grand Canyon. It is going to be a fun day!
Next Tuesday will be our trip to The Court at Round Rock Assisted Living Facility to see our pen pals. We are so excited to see them and go on this trip. We are going to have a tour of the facility and play some games. We are also going to take our recorders and play a song for them. It will be so wonderful! You are all invited to join us. We will be leaving at about 9:15 and returning at about 11:15.
The Symphony trip will be on May 21. Please let me know by Friday morning if your child needs a sack lunch from the cafeteria. I will only order a lunch for him/her, if you let me know. Thanks so much!
This week we had a wonderful time with our mealworms. Some of them have turned into pupas and we are waiting for the final transformation to beetles! Your children used their creative skills to write diaries from the meal worm's point of view. They are wonderful, imaginative, and funny. We will bring the diaries to share with our pen pals and then I will send them home. Enjoy!
We read a lot of non-fiction about science this week and summarized as we read. We read an article about how animals adapt to hot temperatures and how they use color to protect themselves from predators. Continue to read fiction and non-fiction over the summer and be sure to talk about what was read.
Our read-aloud book, The One and Only Ivan is quickly becoming a favorite. We described each character today thinking about inner characteristics based on their actions, as well as outer characteristics or appearances. Ask your child about this book. The language used is so rich and the characters are very memorable. I love it.
In math we are learning more about division and about measuring angles. We will be using protractors to measure and will be doing more long division strategies in problem solving context. Be sure to continue to practice facts over the summer as well as math vocabulary. Find math in everyday life and discuss.
Our Social Studies Texas Hero essay and project is due on Thursday, May 16. Be sure that your child is researching, including a bibliography, and ready to do a presentation. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Thank you again for all the wonderful treats and gifts this week. I feel very appreciated. I so appreciate your support and enjoyed talking with you during our conferences. I definitely appreciate the hard work and kindness of your children all year and especially at this time of the year. They are wonderful!
Sincerely,
Pam
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