Room 7
February 8, 2008
Friday’s Message:
Book Fair
Students made their choices and counted out their coins to pay for their book/s. It was hard for some students to make a choice with limited funds (a real life experience!)
Thank you to the parents that assisted / checked the students as they counted their sets of 100 cents.
Watching it Grow
Leah’s mom, Lynn, did a science experiment with yeast. First she talked about yeast being alive and told them the three things that makes something alive: it eats, breathes, and grows. They were going to find out which food makes yeast grow the most by feeding it.
Students measured equal amounts of warm water (300 ml) and yeast (one package) into each bottle. The first bottle had just water and yeast. Then they put
( one tablespoon) of other “ingredients” into each of the other bottles: #2 sugar,
#3 sugar and salt, #4 sugar and baking soda, and #5 sugar and vinegar. (I gave you the materials needed in case your child would like to do this experiment at home ).
Lynn put balloons on top of the bottles to trap the gas the yeast makes when it grows. Students also could observe how “fluffy” the ingredients got. Have your child tell you what food made the yeast grow the best. They might even want to tell you the order to the least. Thanks, Lynn.
We then made the connection that yeast is sometimes in bread, and that’s why some breads rise/ are airier than others. When yeast is an ingredient, it’s eating and producing a gas (just like they could observe in the bottles) and it makes the product/dough fluff up.
Breads Around the World
Alexander brought pandesal from the Philippines. He showed and told us where the Philippines are, and that it is made of at least 7,000 islands. He explained when his parents were young, they moved to San Francisco with their families. Growing up and now they still eat most of the same Filipino foods they enjoyed in the Philippines. One of the foods is pandesal. Traditionally this bread is eaten for breakfast with coffee or hot chocolate. But you can eat pandesal any time of the day. Alexander likes flattening the pandesal and putting in the toaster. When he showed how he flattened it for toasting, he added that one of the ingredients in pandesal is yeast. He also eats it as a snack, with vanilla soy milk. Sometimes he even dips it in the soy milk.
Celebrating the New Year
Lucas’ and Mari’s moms, Luci and Tammy, visited our class today. They taught us about the lunar new year calendar. They also explained some of the symbolism of foods. Then they did a craft project with us. They ended with a new year’s treat for us to taste and a li see for everyone. Thank you Lucy and Tammy!
In class students have been preparing for the new year. They’ve been writing and painting with mobuts, Chinese brushes. I’ve also brought Chinese candies for them to taste; these candies are fruits / vegetables that have been dried, then dipped in sugar. Ask your child what kind they tasted and what it represents.
100th Day of School
We have been doing many activities around 100. Students have made number squares to 100; we’ll be using these squares to make a number quilt. They’ll be making a bag of trail mix by picking up 10 sets of ten “goodies” with chopsticks (a fine motor skill). We did 100 jumping jacks. They wrote what they wished they could have 100 of, and why. My favorite activity was getting them to be quiet for 100 seconds (just kidding.)
Star Student
***Leah Shear*** was the star this week. ***Alexander Arriola *** is the star next week.
Valentine’s Day
Next Thursday is Valentine’s Day. We will have a class party. Jenn, Isabel’s mom is organizing it. She may be calling you to bring things for the class. The party will be held the last hour of the day, 1:50- 2:50. Parents/ younger siblings are invited.
A class list is attached. If your child is planning to pass out cards, please let him/her
“address” the cards to their classmates.
Field Trips
Attached are the field trip forms for our trip to Lunar New Year presentation / Chinatown on Tuesday, February 19 and the Theaterworks production/Lake Merritt
on Friday, February 22nd.
I need parent drivers for these trips. Please turn in the permission slips at the beginning of next week so I can determine if we have enough drivers.
I color coded the field trips forms to help me keep things organized. Thanks.
READING
Read and record in your Reading Log.
WRITING
Write five things you love to do with the people in your family. Explain/ extend why each activity is so special to you.
MATH
Have your child sort their valentines cards two different ways. Use all their valentines each time. Then make two separate graphs to show how the valentines were sorted.
The total should be the same on both graphs. Encourage your child to make two different kinds of graphs to show the information.
Then answer the following questions.
What kind of Valentine do you have the most of?
Which Valentine was your favorite? Why?
What makes a Valentine special?
FLOUR and FLOWER
Students have been introduced to homophones, words that sound the same, but have different spellings/meanings (knead / need, sun / son, I / eye, road / rode).
Bread is one of the many foods the uses flour. Help your child discover at least six other foods that use flour. They can look for the word on packages where ingredients are listed or maybe they know of recipes where you use flour. List the foods under the heading “flour is used.” Besides each word have your child draw or cut out a picture of that particular food.
Now do the same activity under the heading of “flower.” Go on a nature walk and draw flowers you see or cut out pictures from magazines, newspaper ads, etc., or even use real flowers (but I told students to only pick from their own yards). If you know the name of the flowers, have your child write it. Do at least 6 flowers.
Students will be sharing and doing a math lesson with the foods. We’ll also share our garden of flowers.
Posted by jueleong at February 14, 2008 11:54 AM