Hello Room 109 Families! We were very busy this week preparing our famous people for our Room 109 Wax Museum! Our week has been filled with hard work, determination and fun!
Thank you to all the families who came today to support! We were all looking forward to presenting especially to you! 🫶 Bravo Room 109! You were amazing! It was so wonderful to see your work to see this project through to the end! More pictures of the Wax Museum are located in our class Google photo album. Enjoy! 💜
Plato School participated in National Airplane Day today! Each class created their best designed individual airplane! These are the rules of the competition: Paper planes to be made out of one piece of paper only either 8.5×11 or 9×12, no glue, stapling, ripping or paper clips, 2 tries per person and distance will be measured from the first point at which the plane touches the ground.
Congratulations to Billy & Aaron from Room 109 as their planes went the furthest in our classroom competition! 🎉 Best of luck to you, Billy in the all school competition!
Let’s see how far this plane goes! Showing everyone the design!Congratulations to Leo! (Sam’s Brother) First place plane winner this year and last! ✈🎉
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please check out Ms. Maria’s Home Notes for important information such as the end of the year activities, program information and The Plato Countdown which began today with the letter P for Paper Airplane Day!
*Please have your child practice the words to our program song at home entitled, Little Honda!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! We have had a very busy week together! We kicked off our week with the introduction of our Wax Museum Project! We are all very excited to become our famous person using our research and creativity! We will be representing inventors, athletes, humanitarians and scientists! As stated in my email, parents are invited to attend our Wax Museum on Friday, May 24th from 9-10 am! We hope to see you there to celebrate Room 109’s culminating project! 🪅
Using our research tools to investigate our famous people such as kid friendly websites, biographies, encyclopedias and The DesPlaines Library! 🔎Designing our layout for our poster presentation board! Creating our props & buttons for our Wax Museum! 🖌
Happy 8th Birthday, Stavros! We hope all of your wishes & dreams come true! 🎂
We love making special books for our friends for their Birthdays!!🥳
Our Greektown Sculputure Painting! 💙💚
We enjoyed completing our part of painting the Greektown Sculputure! Inspiration for the Plato Academy sculpture…Vincent Van Gogh’s Olive Trees series of paintings! 🎨
Challenge Centers/Choice Time!🫶
Hooray! Our puzzle is complete! Many days of perseverance! Our secret compliment game during Morning Meeting! ❤Ms. Lisa drew a rectangular flag. 1/4 of it was green. Draw what her flag might have looked like! Compare your flag with a classmate’s! How are they alike or different?Would you rather climb a tree or jump in a puddle? Why?LEGO Challenge: What can you construct that relates to SUMMER?
Supporting Ms. Beth’s Amazing Genius Projects!
We loved learning about what each of them was passionate about!❤
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please check out Ms. Maria’s Home Notes for important information such as the end of the year activities, program information and The Plato Countdown!
*Please have your child practice the words to our program song at home entitled, Little Honda!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week. This Monday, May 20th your child needs to have his/her Wax Museum Planning Sheet discussed with you and signature please! All items from home will be due on Thursday, May 23rd to ensure we have everything for our presentation on Friday!
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! First off, we would like to wish all of our Mom’s a wonderful Mother’s Day this weekend! May your families treat you like Queens! 👑
We are continuing with our study of Chicago! This week we watched a clip on how skyscrapers were built, went on a scavenger hunt both inside and outside to discover our vocabulary words such as foundation, archway, beam, siding, shingles and many more as it to relates to how structures are built! Ask you child about his/her favorite word(s) that they discovered on our hunt!
Ms. Stephanie’s Visit 📖
Ms. Stephanie has been visiting our classroom for these past 2 years! Our class created a special book for her explaining what we love about her visits! She read the book Chez Bob by Bob Shea. We chose a special pen with a character topper from one of the many books Ms. Stephanie read to us throughout the year and used it to create our special bird magnet! As always, the fun project was a hit! 🐦
Ms. Stephanie shows us all the fun supplies we will be using!Getting to pick our character pen!Thank you, Ms. Stephanie for another great year!Looking to see if our magnets work!Our birdies! Our class received Chez Bob for participating in the Monarch Program! This book received the most votes as a favorite among children! We are so excited to have this new addition to our classroom library! Our award is displayed outside our classroom! Ask your child which book he/she loved the most!
Welcome to Chez Bob, which seems like a real restaurant…until you realize…it’s on an alligator’s NOSE! Bob’s got a hidden plan for his customers: “Birds will come to eat, but I will eat the birds!” As they fly in from all over the world to dine on Bob’s face, something starts to happen that takes the lazy, hungry reptile by surprise—the birds stay. “More yummy birds!” he rejoices—he’ll want for nothing! But when the time is right, will Bob make the right choice?
Comic genius Bob Shea cooks up a tasty tale that proves anyone, even hungry alligators, can have a change of heart and learn to be a good friend.
Center Challenges/Choice Time! ❤
LEGO Challenge! Can you construct a skyscraper that can withstand a strong wind?We sure CAN, Ms. Lisa! 🙌Comparing Before/After Pictures from The Chicago Fire! What do you notice? 🔍
Congratulations to Ms. Ela’s Class!🎉We loved visiting/holding your baby chicks!🐣
Our Chicago…🏙❤💙
We finished our Chicago Skyline project we began with Ms. Emma! We also created the words Our Chicago for the title of the project. Each person chose a letter to color details that we learned in our Chicago investigations this far! Enjoy the pictures of our mural!
Time 🕰
A great read-aloud explaining aspects of time!Exploring our clock with different time increments!
We continue to explore time including what the hands on the analog clock represent, how to tell AM vs PM and the increments of 5 in between each number! We spent time noticing the ruler and clock during our mindset math exploration by comparing/contrasting the two tools to a number line! What we noticed: 12 is represented in some way, spaces, increments of numbers, AM/PM…IN/CM, measurement of time & measurement of physical objects! What are we curious about? How was the clock invented? When was the clock invented? What is a clock made of? Why did someone invent a clock? Great thinking Room 109! Let’s find out! 🔍
Feeding Cornflake, Our School Snake! 🐍
Ms. Maria educated us on Cornflake and his eating routine! We were fascinated that his food is a mouse! Ms. Maria asked us which end do you think Cornflake will eat first? The head or tail? What do you think?
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please check out Ms. Maria’s Home Notes for important information such as this upcoming week, Ms. Demetra’s & Mr. Patrick’s Class’s Service Project!
*Please have your child practice the words to our program song at home entitled, Little Honda!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! We had a wonderful week together in Room 109! Our main highlight was our “I Survived the Chicago Fire” Escape Room! We were assembled in teams of 3 to take on the challenge in 60 minutes or less! Our last group finished with seconds to go…So exciting!!🎉 Our challenges were the following: PLOT…Reading 12 cards and deciphering between true/false statements. Then placing these events in order according to how the events happened in our novel to figure out clue #1. CHARACTERS…Matching characters to our novel with descriptions. Then writing each full name and following a code to find one letter per name to solve the clue #2! VOCABULARY…Matching each word with words that describe it! Placing in order to spell a new word to figure out clue #3! The final task each group tackled was…THE SECRET MESSAGE! Using clues along the way and a picture code system each group discovered the very important message about The Chicago Fire…It will take a long time, but the forest will grow back! What a fun and engaging way to use our knowledge!
We did it! We solved the SECRET MESSAGE! 🙌Reflection Piece on our Escape Room! I appreciate the feedback in order to learn as well! 💗
Ms. Emma’s Visit!🏙
We explored iconic structures today in class with Ms. Emma from the DesPlaines History Museum! We played a game in which we tried to identify buildings from their pictures using a word bank. We recognized some from our visits to Chicago and of course one from the Chicago Fire! Using the inspiration from these amazing structures we moved on to creating our own class skyline! We used different materials such as straws, pipe cleaners, paper, sequins, do-a-dot markers ect. I will post pictures next week when our final product comes together! For now enjoy some 🚧 Under Construction 🚧 pictures! Stay tuned for updates!
Challenge Centers/Choice Time! ❓
Our math challenge…Ms. Lisa made 3 batches of cookies there were 8 cookies in each batch…What are 2 ways to find the total number of cookies? What other strategies can you use to find the answer? Can you think of similar problems with an answer of 24?Searching for CAUSE and Effect in our novel! We did a mini-lesson using a video book clip, “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” which Room 109 has fond memories of this wonderful book! We then applied our knowledge of cause and effect to our novel after discussing ways we saw this in the video clip! 💗 We love our reading time each day! We are especially enjoying theI Survived Series! 💗Lego Challenge…Can you create Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow?? 🐮We write everyday in Room 109! This is a special card for Ms. Stephanie to thank her for all of her visits this year with us! 💗We love creating our own books too! 📚Marble Painting! One of our favorites! 🎨
Mystery Science 🔍
Why is it so hard for firefighters to put out wildfires? 🔥 Room 109 has been very curious about fire since we began our Chicago Unit. We shared many thoughtful ideas about the above question! We also explored what other questions we had about wildfires and what this topic made us curious about! Our challenge piece was to invent other ways to bring water to a wildfire! Please take a moment with your child and discuss his/her ideas!
The Bee Shop was a success! Thank you to all the families who helped to support this important cause! As you can see they enjoyed their experience! 🐝
Happy 8th Birthday, Sam! We hope all of your wishes come true this year! 🎂
Our classmates creating a special book for Sam!
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please check out Ms. Maria’s Home Notes for important information such as this upcoming week, Ms. Demetra’s Class’s Service Project!
*Please have your child practice the words to our program song at home entitled, Little Honda!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! We have been very busy investigating and reading our novel about the Chicago Fire! We completed our pamphlet project which correlated with our novel, I survived The Great Chicago Fire, 1871! We explored the characters Oscar and Mr. Morrow,The Plot (Beginning, Setting, Main Problem and Conclusion), New Terms such as sear, soot, ricochet, stench, linger and ember, 4 Facts about The Great Fire and compared The Peshtigo fire to The Chicago Fire! We watched an interview with Lauren Tarshis which explained how she created her I Survived series along with her discussing the Chicago Fire with a Firefighter. We also watched a clip on what is considered to be one of the deadliest fires…The Peshtigo Fire in WI which happened on the same date as the Chicago Fire! On Friday this week, we marched our way around the building singing our parade song entitled Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow! Take a moment and have your child sing it for you and ask, “Why was the Peshtigo Fire overlooked?”
What do you predict will happen in our last chapter of The Great Chicago Fire of 1871? 🔥
Praying Mantis!
Illustrating our parts of our song for our class parade!Researching a picture of Mrs. O’Leary!
Fun News…Our Praying Mantis egg sack arrived this week! We investigated their life cycle as part of our research! We are counting down the days until they hatch! Stay tuned!
Earth Day! 🌎
We took a moment to journal ways to help improve our Earth!
Choice Time 🫶
Working on interesting vocabulary from the Chicago Fire! 🔍
Cheez-It Perimeter Challenge! 🟧
In honor of my son, Peter’s 20th Birthday today, we celebrated & challenged ourselves to The Cheez-It Perimeter Challenge! Each friend received a small bag of Cheez-It’s (One of Peter’s favorite snacks) and we each built perimeter using clues, then made up our own picture! Some friends are some along the way, some for snack time and some are bringing the bag home!
Investigating the question…Will the Chicago Fire happen again? We brainstormed ideas in our groups based on our thinking! We will be creating a group writing project about this very important question! Take a moment and ask your child what he/she believes!
Looking for Similies in our novel and creating our own!
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please have your child practice the words to our program song at home entitled, Little Honda!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please take a moment to read Ms. Maria’s Plato News. Important information is always located in the home note email.Take special note of Ms. Anna & Ms. Soraya’s classes for their service project! 🐝
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! It has been a fabulous week in our room! We completed our individual flags inspired by our study of the Chicago Flag. I love how each symbol tells a story about each of our classmates! Bravo, Room 109!
Organizing our class flag!
Investigation of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871! 🔥
We continue to enjoy our class novel, I survived The Great Chicago Fire of 1871. We have been finding many similes and love all the descriptive words which make this novel so interesting to read! We discussed why so much of Chicago burned…Wood! So many things were made from wood back then from homes, sidewalks and fences. We discovered the following structures survived the fire…Chicago Avenue Pumping Station. St. Ignatius College Prep. Police Constable Bellinger’s cottage at 21 Lincoln Place (2121 North Hudson, today). 2323 and 2339 North Cleveland Avenue also survived the blaze. We looked to see what these buildings had in common! Please discuss with your child our findings!
Challenge Centers/Choice Time ❓
Investigating Perimeter! 🔍
Using pattern block shapes, we created pictures of our choice and applied our knowledge about finding perimeter.
Taking a moment to notice our Plato Tree! It’s so beautiful in spring! 🌺
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please take a moment to read Ms. Maria’s Plato News. Important information is always located in the home note email.
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! WELCOME BACK! I hope you all had an enjoyable break with your families! From our morning meeting sharing time it sounds like everyone had a wonderful time!
Did you watch the solar eclipse? I hope so! What a unique experience for everyone to experience this amazing part of science! Above is a photo from a friend of mine who was able to capture the eclipse using a filter. So cool! During school, we listened to some fun facts and acted out a reader’s theater about the eclipse! The next total solar eclipse is predicted to happen in 2024! Using our mathematical brains our class will be the ages of 27-29 and Ms. Lisa will be 70! WOW!! 😉
Trying out our eclipse glasses! 🌞Created a hopscotch that went up to the number186!Writing about our Spring Break Adventures! ⚓Our Fraction Flags! 🇬🇷Creating sentences!
Ms. Stephanie’s Visit! 📚
We enjoyed our visit from Ms. Stephanie! She read Avocado Asks by Abe Momoko. A deliciously funny book about identity and being confident in your own skin—featuring the world’s most popular superfood, the avocado! We created our own rock avocados with their own personalities!
Our new unit of study is our own Windy City…Chicago! 🏙
We will be investigating our Chicago Flag, The Great Chicago Fire and Chicago Architecture! We began our adventure with connecting pictures of different sites in Chicago to come up with our unit of study! We brainstormed all the factual information we know about Chicago and presented it to our classmates! We discussed the meaning of a suburb and city…”A suburb is a place where people live just outside of a city or town.” We wrote about a place we would like to visit in Chicago! At the end of our week, we began our novel, I Survived The Great Chicago Fire, 1871 by Lauren Tarshis. We are reading the novel as a group and we all have our own copy to keep! We made predictions about the cover, discussed Historical Fiction, and wrote in our journals about the first character we met, Oscar and will he be able to escape the Great Fire!!
Our Identity Flags! 🫶
Inspired by our investigation with the Chicago Flag we were curious about the symbol meanings on other flags including the Greek Flag! We discovered every symbol has an important meaning to the place it belongs to! From that discussion we are creating our own Identity Flags! We brainstormed what would be important to display on our own individual flags. Some ideas included heritage, food, hobbies, important people to us and much more! Stay tuned for the final flag display by Room 109!
Investigated what all the symbols represent on the Chicago Flag!Carefully planning out our flag design!Question of the day…How do you think The Great Chicago Fire started? Very interesting thoughts, Room 109!
Friendly Reminders…
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please take a moment to read Ms. Maria’s Plato News. Important information is always located in the home note email.
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! Thank you all so much for attending your child’s conference! They did an amazing job with their portfolios and explained to you, all that is important to them in our classroom!
Getting Ready!! Portfolio Conferences! 🌟
We spent much a great deal of time reflecting on our important pieces to share for conferences. In preparation, we also chose a friend to practice what we would like to say!
Theater Class Performance…🎭
Choice Time!❓
Happy Birthday Martin! 3/31🎂
Happy early 8th Birthday Martin! We hope you have an amazing day and all of your dreams come true this year! 🍀
The Class Vote Is In!! ⍻
We will be raising Praying Mantis in our classroom to study their metamorphism! Our class did a silent vote between Butterflies, Lady Bugs and Praying Mantis. We will be doing some research to get to know our “Little Friends” before they arrive! Room 109 is quite curious! Here are some of the questions they asked…How big do they grow to be? Why are they called Praying Mantis? Do they bite? What do they look like before they morph? Are they always green? What is their habitat?
Fun Photo Shoot!! 📸
Friendly Reminders…
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please take a moment to read Ms. Maria’s Plato News. Important information is always located in the home note email.
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! It has been an awesome week together at Plato! We spent some time investigating Leprechaun Magic and Four-Leaf Clovers! Our Mystery Science Lesson entitled, Why are Four Leaf Clovers so rare? inspired us to go outside and look for our own! Below are some questions that guided us through the lesson…
Why are four-leaf clovers so rare?
What did this lesson make you curious about? What other questions do you have?
Please discuss with your child what he/she discovered about Four Leaf Clovers!🍀Can you find any in your yard?
Room 109 running to find the clovers! We looked at the attributes of a four leaf clover and discovered some other plants/flowers that were similar, but not quite the same! Here is one of the patches of clovers we found! Do you have any in your yard? 🍀
Room 109’s New Design! 🌟
Ms. Lisa switched some items around in our classroom to create a larger space to learn and play! We did a scavenger hunt to see where everything is located! We shared our reflections on if we did/or didn’t like the new set-up and everyone loves it! Below are some of our reasons! Ask your child what has changed in our room!
Choice Time❓
Question of the day…If you could taste a color of the rainbow which one would it be? Why? We wrote four reasons we each are lucky!
WANTED!!! ☆
There was a leprechaun on the loose and he is causing all kinds of mischief! We brainstormed good descriptive words and similes that describe our leprechaun so it will help others identify him!
Happy Birthday Vasiliki! 🎂
Happy 8th Birthday! We hope all of your wishes come true this year!
Greek Program Practice! 👯
Way to go Room 109! You will rock the performance tomorrow!
Dream Catchers!🌚
Our class discovered the importance of dream catchers to the Native Americans, their original customs and many different versions! We created ours by using paper plates, hole punchers, paint, glitter, string, beads and feathers! Sweet dreams Room 109! May your dream catchers catch the bad and let through the good!
Some of the early dream catchers were used on cradle boards!
Friendly Reminders…
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play. Coats, gloves & hats are necessary to have at school due to the weather. Boots & snow pants too! ☃ Once the weather stays consistently warmer, Room 109 will bring home all their snow gear! Our plan is to send it home before spring break.
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week. It is important for your child to empty this folder on Friday and return it empty on Monday the following week.
*Please take a moment to read Ms. Maria’s Plato News. Important information is always located in the home note email.Please take note of the Greek Independence Program tomorrow, 3/15. Please have your child there by 9:45 sharp! There is no school after the performance on that day. If you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out!
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Hello Room 109 Families! We had a wonderful week together! Thank you to all who participated in St. Baldricks! Our commitment to service at Plato is one of our greatest priorities! So much positive energy as we cheered on our class shavees, Aaron, Billy, Loki and Will! It was so much fun cheering you all on!
Eagle Song Novel 📚
We finished our novel Eagle Song! Our focus was the main character, Danny and how he changed throughout the novel. We loved reading our novel together highlighting and discussing certain quotes and similes!
Challenge Centers & Choice Time! ❓
Multiplicity Lab…About How Many Do You See? Our LEGO Challenge…What can you create that reminds you of Spring? 🌺What is your favorite thing you learned about your Native American Tribe? Please write to me what and why. Illustrate a picture!
Mindset Math! Taking a Fractional Walk ⅙
Our class discovered how to connect fractions to distance and the number line by finding as many different rectangles as they can with a perimeter of 17 units. Here are some of our guiding questions: What rectangles did you find? What made finding these rectangles challenging? What patterns do you notice in the perimeters that require fractional side lengths? What other patterns do you see? Can we find all the rectangles for a given perimeter? Why or Why not? How are fractions connected to length?
How Close to 100? 🎲
Through this game we are learning how to build flexibility with multiplication through this area game. We discussed the following questions once we were finished. How did you figure out how close to 100 you got? What are some strategies that your developed for playing the game? How did you decided where to place your rectangles? What made it hard to get to 100?
The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses…🐎
We read this beautiful picture book by Paul Goble. This is the story of a Native-American girl who shares a special bond with horses and seems to understand them in a deeper way than most people. Findingcomfort in their companionship in a way that she does not with her fellow villagers, she eventually becomes one and is wild and free. Here are some questions that guided our thoughts…Is this a good title? Why? What is the most important event? What is your favorite part of the story? What image comes to mind? Room 109 also examined the art with the following questions…What shapes or images repeat? Do the horses look similar? What about other images?
We enjoyed working with the oil pastels and putting our personalities into our drawings! We took time to reflect on our art which included writing about the following questions: Describe your process, materials and tools. How did you create this artwork? What do you like about your artwork? Is there anything you would change? What did you learn?
Ms. Stephanie’s Visit 🌟
Ms. Stephanie read Sulwe to our class. Sulwe just wants to be beautiful and bright, like her mother and sister. Then a magical journey in the night sky opens her eyes and changes everything. In this stunning debut picture book, actress Lupita Nyong’o creates a whimsical and heartwarming story to inspire children to see their own unique beauty. Room 109 discussed the ways they are bright like a star! Please take a moment to listen to their thoughts on this. 🌟 They created their own stars!
Friendly Reminders…🤩
*Please fill out the class permission form from Ms. Maria for our field-trip on 3/14 to see Pigeon at the Metropolis Theater in Arlington Heights! Thank you!
*A reminder that all lunches/snacks need to be nut free. Thank you for your cooperation!
*Please continue to send a healthy snack & water bottle with your child as we don’t have snacks to give if a child forgets. As the weather changes please have your child dress appropriately for outside play. Coats, gloves & hats are necessary to have at school due to the weather. Boots & snow pants too! ☃ Once the weather stays consistently warmer, Room 109 will bring home all their snow gear!
*Please label clothing that is sent to school.*
*Green folders are our designated “Take Home” folder. Be sure to check this folder for important notes and/or work from your child! Please have your child empty the folder each week.
*Please take a moment to read Ms. Maria’s Plato News. Important information is always located in the home note email.Please take note of the Greek Independence Program on 3/15. There is no school after the performance on that day. If you have additional questions, please feel free to reach out!
*Please encourage your child to spend 15-20 minutes reading, playing card games, writing/illustrating in a journal etc.
As always, please reach out via email if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
