Announcements
On Monday Fieldwork to the SkatePark: On Monday, we plan to take the Crew across the street to the Skatepark for Expedition. We will be putting all we have learned so far about force, motion, inclined planes, and wheels & axles into practice! Most families filled out a permission slip at the beginning of the year called the REMS Perimeter Permission Form, but I will reach out to you if you still need to complete it. We plan to be there from 2:40-3:30 on Monday. I forgot to tell our crew- so you are welcome to tell them. I will announce it first thing Monday morning. :)
(here are repeated announcements)
Next Tuesday Valentine's Day Card Exchange: Valentine's Day is next Tuesday! At REMS, we do not celebrate with food or gifts, and everyone in our Crew will pass out valentines to everyone. They can be homemade or store-bought, and a list of first names can be found HERE. We cannot have students pass out candy or food. My suggestion is to begin having your child write out 2-3 names each day, rather than a large chunk right before. Your child should also bring a box to school on that day, approximately shoebox size with access to drop in valentines, and his or her name clearly displayed. What a great, authentic opportunity for writing and practicing handwriting! This is another experience that brings our crew close together. Please let me know if you have other questions!
*Please make a Valentine Card for your child's 4th grade buddy.
*Please note: do not send extra gifts, treats, or candies for buddies. There have been a lot of hurt feelings in the past from some buddies giving gifts and others not getting any- so we strongly ask that only cards are exchanged.
Next Wednesday Cereal Box Donation: Ms. Sami's 4th grade crew is doing a cereal box challenge (here is a video from last year). They are asking for every family in the school to send in one full cereal box by February 15th. You are welcome to send these in any time on/before Wednesday. The goal is to beat last year's record of 245 cereal boxes! After the challenge, the cereal boxes will be donated to a local food bank. Our crew has collected 17 boxes to donate! Thanks!
REMS Auction, Save the Date!
When - Saturday, March 4th at Cielo
Theme - 1920's, Speakeasy - Dressing up is fun and we hope you do! But if that's just not you, that's ok too!
Where - Cielo At Castle Pines
Time 6 - 10 pm
Step back into the Roaring 20s to an exclusive speakeasy for our Renaissance Community! We'll have hors d'oeuvres & signature drinks to enjoy while you bid on awesome items and experiences in the Silent & Live Auctions including Teacher Time, Crew Art, exclusive Travel Packages, theme baskets & more!
Enjoy this adults-only event to visit with other Renaissance parents and our teachers and staff. Childcare will be available, provided by RSS! Whether you're looking to cut a rug on the dance floor, take pictures at the photo booth, or take home one of our prize packages, there's something for everyone while we support our school!
Early Bird Tickets On Sale Now! Now through February 10th, individual tickets are $65 and couples tickets are just $85! For families and businesses that wish to sponsor our event, each level of sponsorship also includes event tickets for you and all your friends!
School Newsletter: Check out all the updates and announcements in this week's school newsletter. School Newsletter Link.Thanks for staying updated!
Ongoing Volunteer Opportunities:
-Teacher Helper Volunteers (at home projects- Thursday; in-classroom helper Friday morning; and iPad helper Friday afternoon)
Calendar
Tues 2/14: Valentine's Card Exchange
(No Community Reading this week)
Fri 2/17: No School; Teacher Professional Development
Mon 2/20: No School; Presidents' Day
Sat March 4th: REMS Parent-Only Auction- hope to see you there!
March 9th: Winter Hike
March 13-24th: No School; Spring Break
Crew Highlights
Learning Update:
In writing, we have been working on revising. Students selected a previously written story and added more details to the pictures and more words to tell more about that memory. How fun to hear their prideful reflections at our debrief circle of what they added.
*What is something that you are celebrating as a writer? What is something that you want to get better at as a writer?
In reading, we have been talking more about the theme, message, or "heart" of the story. Students are able to tell me literal messages based on the last page, but have a harder time generalizing it to the bigger picture. We have reading books by Leo Lionni to talk about themes of friendship, community, bravery, and kindness. After reading A Color of His Own, our crew used watercolor to paint their own chameleon. I look forward to hanging these in the classroom to celebrate the theme of friendship and community.
*Talk about the theme or message of the story after you read your books at night.
In phonics, we are working on the letter Ee. Students are sharpening their listening skills to identify the middle sound of words, such as men, hip, fan, and sun. Hearing and identifying these middle vowel sounds is important for reading and writing. We added for and no to our sight word list. For those who want challenge sight words, they can practice went and was.
This week's unit on Build Shapes has given us many opportunities to use manipulatives, as we are looking at how one shape can be made from other shapes. Our crew loved using Magnatiles to explore how two right triangles can be used to make a square. And on another day, that a trapezoid, rhombus, and triangle can be used to make a hexagon.
*As you are out in the world, ask what shapes within shapes do you see? (Ex. A square house with rectangle bricks, a rectangle path made of square tiles, and so on).
In expedition, students were given the challenge that Mr. Ken needs to move all these tubs. What can he use? After much discussion, they drew their ideas, and we noticed that they all featured the simple machine: the wheel and axle! We have been having fun learning about how the wheel and axle helps to move loads by reducing the amount of friction from the ground. During exploration time, students designed elaborate inclined planes for little cars. With the LEGO Education Kits, students worked on making a racecar, which features four wheel and axles. We made a list of all the things that have wheels to make our lives easier. What a important simple machine that we use everyday!
*Make connections at home. What has a wheel and axle? If you feel inclined, send me pictures, and I would be happy to share them with the crew. This was a big hit with the levers!
Ms. Erin, our librarian, heard that we were learning about shapes and read a delightful story that featured a square and triangle as the main characters.
I uploaded a shortcut to Vooks, which can be accessed through their Clever Accounts. As described on Google, Vooks is an entire library of storybooks brought to life with beautiful animation, read-aloud narration, engaging music and sound, and read-along text.My favorite part is that it highlights the word as it is read, which help emerging readers follow along. Please feel free to access and use this resource!
Here are a few pictures from PE, where groups were rotating through different stations. Some groups had "choice time."
Part of "choice time" was bouldering on the wall.
And then one group was doing archery with Mr. Doug.
How fun to see so many hitting the target!
Welcome to 100th Day!
100 Days of School reading booklet.
New Seating Arrangements
Another view of our new seating arrangements.
We had a fun movement that was moving our bodies while counting to 100.
Working on our reading challenge-
Can we read 100 books today?
Building inclined planes and using wheel & axles to learn more about simple machines.
The LEGO challenge was to build a racecar.
I posted pictures to Seesaw- so you can check out what your child created. :)
Our crew has come up with MANY examples of wheel and axles. Can you spot one that is not on our list? Go on a wheel hunt and email me your pictures.
Some worked on making collections of 100- woohoo!
During writing, we had some the following writing prompts.
Answers included:
~I wish I had 100: cats, cookies, puppies, cupcakes, paints, & books.
~Before I am 100 years old, I want to: ride a rollercoaster & be a Pokemon Master.
~If I had $100, I would: get a van, buy an octopus, buy a toy dinosaur, get a gift card to Target, buy big balloons, buy a Bugatti Divo, buy a mansion, and buy a real monster truck.
LOVE IT! 😃
Buddy Time!
Buddies played the game RACE TO 100.
This was so much fun! So I made a copy of it for Take Home Folders.
We doubled our goal! Way to go readers!!!
Silly hats to celebrate.Happy 100th day of School!
It feels like homevisits were just a blink ago. Look how far they have come!
Warmly, Ms. Lauren
