Welcome Back!

We had a great day at school today! Students were ready to work hard and we had a very productive day.  Please read the notes that went home this afternoon regarding the different Sharing Routine (story retellings) that will be starting next Monday, April 15 and the class newsletter.  Your child's individualized spelling list  (blue sheet) also came home today in the Daily Folder.  Here are some fun ideas to help your child practice his/her spelling words:

• Type all of your spelling words on the computer using a different font.
• Look at your words.  Find a way to sort your words.  Put them into groups.  Make sure each word belongs to a group!  (You could sort by beginning or ending sounds, by what the words mean, by number of beats in the word, etc.)
• Write your words in a list.  Highlight the vowels in one colour.  Highlight the consonants in another colour.  Count and total.  How many vowels are there?  How many consonants are there?
• Rainbow Write:  choose markers or crayons to write your words.  Make sure to use several different colours to make it colourful!
• ABC Order - Put your words into ABC order.
• Write a sentence for each of your spelling words.  Make sure that you include uppercase, punctuation and the spelling word.  Also, make sure that your sentences makes sense!  Challenge yourself to make sentences that are longer than 6 words!
• Write your words using crazy letters!  You can use bubble letters, squiggly letters, swirly letters or more!  Have fun and make them as cool as possible.
• Write a story using as many of your spelling words as you can in your story.
• Search and Find:  Write a list of your spelling words.  Grab a book.  Search for your spelling words in the book.  Anytime you find a word, put a tally mark next to the word that you found!

(Ideas from Spelling Task Cards by Amy Lemons.

Students really enjoyed our Math activity today called Scoop and Sort.

First, each student scooped some objects into their cup.

Then they counted their objects into "10 cups" (little Dixie cups) and put them on the Tens side of their chart. 
Any extras went onto the Ones side.

Finally, students recorded their counting on their worksheet.  They wrote down how many tens, how many ones and what the total number was.

(Idea from Place Value Packet of Fun by Cara Carroll.)

The boys and girls are very excited about tomorrow.  Mr. Morrison is taking the class to the Rec Plex to use the gymnastics equipment.  They will be leaving right at 9:00.