Welcome to Ms. Jue-Leong's Class

Room 7

May 24, 2007

Thursday’s Message

Flea Market
I’m sure your child was excited to show you what they bought. They learned about making choices and had fun with math. Most students were able to figure out the exact change needed to make their purchases. It was when they ran out of the exact change and had to give a coin of higher value (and needed to use subtraction skills ) that more students needed help.
We switched several times, opening and closing “stores” so they could be both the seller/consumer with different students. The final time, students decided whether they wanted to sell or shop.
Price tags were left on the objects so you could see how they spent their money and (of coarse) is needed for HOMEWORK.

Growing Lessons
Super surprise! Monday morning the kids insisted I needed to go outside to see something. I figured a swarm of ladybugs must be on our plants. (We did see ladybug eggs on them and observed several hatch.) But there it was, this big, beautiful planter box! It’s perfect! It’s more than I hoped for! Thank you so much!
This is my second year of trying to incorporate math and science with a garden. We’ve had a great year with our current garden, but I wanted to expand it When we planted our vegetable seeds in the Fall, it was hard for the students to work around the barrels. Now we’ll have plenty of room to grow things!
A special thanks to Blythe’s, Diana’s, and Mikayla’s parents, Deb and Arlene, Wendy and Dave, and Kristin and Brant, and Mr. Ramos, our school custodian, for getting it built!

Mosaics in the Garden
I knew students were going to do a mosaic, but it was a double surprise to find out they were doing it on the top edge of the planter box. The students’ personalized touch makes the planter box even more special. Thank you Karen, Mack’s mom, for overseeing this activity. Come and see this work of art.

Printmaking
Sirr Dezion’s granddad, Asual, started a printing project with the class. Students could choose from a container filled with his hand made stamps. Many of the stamps were his design and some were adinkra symbols, west African symbols that teach values and philosophy. He told what some of the symbols meant.
Students applied paint to a stamp, and then continued it across a piece of fabric.
They made a pattern with one stamp and color. Then they did random printing with other stamps. They are in the process of applying at least five stamps/ colors. They started this project yesterday, they will be working on it for a couple more sessions. Thank you Asual for coming back to work with us.

Breads Revisited
Emily brought Finn crisp from Finland. This bread is made from rye and can be eaten with any meal. They learned that rye is a whole grain which is high in fiber. I liked how Emily explained fiber: “It’s good for you because it helps vacuum your insides. “
When Emily pointed Finland out on the map, the kids could see how far up north it is. She explained because it is so far north, it’s a cold country. It’s also the land of the midnight sun. That means in summertime it’s always light! Even though it get a lot of light in the summer, they have a short growing season. In fact they don’t get a lot of fruit, so they eat mostly dried or canned ones. Fresh fruit is expensive. One berry that does grow there is cloud berries.
Finland has many lakes and flat plains. It does not have big mountains. Soccer is their favorite sport, but other sports include swimming, ice skating, and cross country skiing. We could see how these sports fit into the lay of the land.

Diana’s mom, Wendy, made Italian biscuits from Italy with the class. The recipe she used originated with sailors. It was a quick, easy bread that you scooped, then dropped onto a tray to bake. The rosemary and cheese that were added to the dough made our room smell sooo... good. Though this was just one kind of Italian bread, it was easy to see how the “average” Italian eats one half pound of bread a day! ( We talked about an average loaf of bread is about one pound.)
Wendy told us that even though they eat a lot of bread, pasta is the national dish of Italy. Then she told us a few things that were invented there: eye glasses, the thermometer, typewriter, the ice cream cone, and pizza ! We also learned that it has the most hotel rooms in Europe and 3000 museums! A lot of people visit Italy!
Diana told us Italy is just a little bigger than Arizona. It has a lot of beaches and three volcanos. One of the volcanos is named after the puppeteer in Pinnochio, Stromboli.

Field Trip / Picnic at the Park
Your child brought home a permission slip for our hike to Joaquin Miller Park and multicultural picnic. Please return the form no later than Wednesday, May 30. Thanks!

This will be the last homework assignment for the year!

READING
Read and record in your Reading Log.

WRITING
Write about something your bought at the flea market. Use complete sentences. Try to include the “w” questions: why, who, when, where, and what when you are writing your story.

MATH
Students kept the price tag on their items. Now have your child list what he bought and how much it cost. Have him/her find out the total amount they spent.
One way is to have you child count out coins for the cost of each item. Then make a pile for every dollar. Count how many piles/dollars and the coins left.

How much money did your child bring home in their “wallet?”

PLAY MY GAME WITH ME
Hopefully you saw / played your child’s game at Open House. Your child designed their own gameboard. Then they wrote the rules. When they played the game with classmates, some students had to add and/or revise and/or clarify their rules. They’ve played their game with other students. Now it’s time to play with YOU! Have fun!
Make sure they read the directions first. Keep the gameboard. There is nothing to turn in for this portion of the homework.

Posted by jueleong at June 1, 2007 08:24 AM