September 1, 2014

Thank you to everyone that contributed last week! We had so much going on, and it wouldn’t have been successful without you!

I am disappointed to announce that we will not be able to grow our caterpillars / butterflies as planned. The company that ships the larva are located in California, and they have placed a hold on all live insect shipments due to extreme heat conditions. I placed our order almost two weeks ago, and they have still not been able to ship them yet. 

I am not sure yet if they are going to refund me the amount of our kit, or give us a “store credit” to use for a later unit. I am currently working on a project for our next unit [Microscopic World], but if you would like for me to refund your $5.00 I would be happy to do that.

Hopefully we will have a chance to try the insects again later in the year. 

iPads:

Several students are having trouble getting Moby Max to load on their iPads. We use this site every week because it offers very valuable practice with a variety of skills, as well as progress monitoring. Ms. Samantha checked the “Usage” on some of the students’ iPads last week and found that they were nearly full! 

Please check the amount of available storage on your child’s iPad, and go through the games / apps that are downloaded. Occasionally deleting old games will help it run quicker and more smoothly at school. 

Reading / Language Arts (yellow folder):

We will be reading What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? [along with other books by Steve Jenkins] and discussing animal adaptations specific to their habitat.  

Students will be creating their own animal and describing its unique adaptations, as well as researching animals from the book. 

In Language, we are still using our Writer’s Checklist to form complete sentences in response to our text. We will also be creating questions, and responding to them in complete sentences. 

Math (blue folder):

We will be finishing Ch. 1 in the “My Math” textbooks this week. We have been practicing adding numbers with and without pictures, and discussing the concept of addition and equal. 

I can always be reached by email at lisaainsworth@benedictdayschool.com any time that you have a question or concern! :)