MAY 2014 VOLUME 9, ISSUE VIIII

Anonymous

"Happy Mother's Day" means

more

Than have a happy day.

Within those words lie lots of

things

We never get to say.

It means I love you first of all,

Then thanks for all you do.

It means you mean a lot to me,

And that I honor you.

But most of all, I guess it means

That I am thinking of

Your happiness on this, your

day,

With pleasure and with love.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Important Dates:

5/1-5/2 NYS Math Test

5/8 Miss Zaccagnino’s

last Day

5/9 No School! Staff De-

velopment Day

5/11 Mother’s Day!

5/14 12:50 Dismissal—LASW

5/21-22 NYS Hands-on Science

Test!

5/23 Earth Spirit

Celebration

5/26 Memorial Day No

School!

5/28 Chorus & Orchestra Concert

2:00 & 7:00

Reading

We have a lot planned in reading as we tie up the year. We recently fin-ished a mini unit in Poetry and learned how author’s use figures of speech to en-hance their writing. A few things we learned about were personification, hyper-bole, simile, metaphor, and oxymoron!

We are currently working on a fantastic Fable unit. We are working in small groups to depict a fa-ble by determining the prob-lem, solution, and the moral.

Our groups are creating beautiful murals to share with the class. They are awesome and everyone is working so well together!

Soon we will begin to read two short novels based on the Revolutionary War time period. Phoebe the Spy by

Judith Berry Griffin and The Secret Soldier by Ann McGovern. Our background knowledge, after stud-ying the Revolutionary war, will really be acti-vated with these in-credible stories!

We have been

working very hard on

our nonfiction re-

search! We are

learning so much about

our amazing topics!

For the past couple of

weeks we have planned

and published them

using Microsoft Pub-

lisher. It is incredi-

ble what young minds

can do with a little

guidance. They have

exceeded our expec-

tations! Many of the

students have also

been wonderful “Lindy

Leaders!” They have

enjoyed helping their

peers and really mas-

tering some great

computer skills. To

celebrate our work,

we will be spend time

presenting our bro-

chures.

Our last unit

will be memoirs. We

will be enjoying some

free write time in our

writer’s workshop

notebooks and will

begin to gather seed

ideas to write memoirs

soon.

We will learn

how to capture a mo-

ment in time and real-

ly use descriptive lan-

guage to help you vis-

ualize our greatest

memories! This is a

challenging genre, but

we are confident that

the children are up

for the it!

“He who falls today may rise tomorrow.”

Pam Muñoz Ryan

Playground

The time is finally here when we can go outside

and enjoy the playground. Be sure to have an ex-

tra pair of sneakers in your locker and remember the

following rules:

Play tag on the grass only

No running on the playground

No flip flops or sandals

Slides are for down only

No one is allowed on top of the monkey bars

If you do not participate in gym class, then you

cannot play on the playground.

In math we will be

studying pre-fifth grade

skills. The main topics will

be Measurement and Deci-

mals. Students will be con-

verting measurements with

the Metric System and The

U.S. Customary System.

Understanding the relation-

ship and being able to con-

vert units is essential.

We will also be re-

viewing the many new frac-

tion concepts that have been

studied this year through a

variety of games and hands

on activities.

Math

“The rich person is richer when he becomes poor,

than the poor person when he becomes rich.”

-Mexican Proverb

Page 2

Farewell Miss Zaccagnino!

Mrs. Peters’ student teacher will be finished on May 8. We wish her all the best and thank her for her hard work, kindness, and warm em-brace! We will miss her very much! Miss Zaccagnino has a special connection with our class and has really made learning fun! She has become an excellent teacher! Thanks again and good luck in all you do! We will miss you and hope that a teaching job will find you soon!

Science This month we will complete two mini units.

First we will review plants and then move into a

unit on ecosystems. This unit will last approxi-

mately 2 weeks. Review items have been loaded

onto my science website and I will be adding the

study materials and dates for the Ecosystems unit

test.

At the end of this month, your children will take

part in the NYS Science Exam. This test consists of two

parts; Part 1 is a hands on assessment and Part 11 is a

multiple choice and short response format. We will be

busy practicing using many different science tools and

learning new vocabulary to help us become better sci-

entists. The children will be receiving a packet of sci-

ence vocabulary cards that they should be studying dai-

ly. I have also put a NYS review Jeopardy game online

for extra practice. Any of the jeopardy games will also

provide great review of this years units.

Miss Zaccagnino

We will be busy in social

studies learning about the Consti-

tution, Articles of Confederation,

and the branches of government.

We will also preview some histo-

ry of the Genesee County Muse-

um to help prepare us for our

field trip on Friday, June 6! All

parents are welcome. We will be

sending information home and

collecting $11 for the admission

for chaperones who would like to

attend.

Coniferous trees sur-

vive in mountains

because their thick

bark shields them

from the cold and

their needles are too

thin for snow to land

on.

The Pine Martin of the

Rocky Mountains sprouts

extra fur on its toe pads to

keep its feet toasty while

it scurries over snow.

Yaks are able to survive in moun-

tains because

there thick hair

and strong lungs

Alpine flowers live

in the mountains

because their roots

are deep in the

ground so the flow-

er does not blow

away.

There are many plants and animals who can survive on

mountains. Here are some of them. Llamas are able to

survive in mountains because their strong hearts and

lungs help them breath in high altitudes. The mountain

grass hopper has stiff flaps where wings use to be. In-

sects like butterflies, that still do fly, stay near the

ground so it won’t get blown away. The snow rabbit and

the mountain hare both turn white and hide against the

snow so predators don’t see them. On the bottom of

mountains there are tropical trees. When you get higher

you see coniferous and deciduous trees,. At the top tof

the summit , no plants grow there are just meadows.

Goats are able to

survive in mountains

because they have

special hooves that

are sharp around

the edges and soft in

the middle.

A few famous trees are the

upside down tree: is a tree that

looks like the roots are on the top

of the tree but they really are the

branches. The apple tree: once a

man named Sir Isaac Newton was

sitting under an apple tree, an ap-

ple fell on his head and that was

when gravity was discovered.

Johnny Appleseed's real name is

John Chapman.

A Sitka spruce: it only grows

11 inches in 98 years. Gopher

wood: the Bible says that Noah's

ark was made from Gopher wood.

No one knows when fire was

discovered-at least 1 mil-

lion years ago!

100,000 years ago peo-

ple lit tree branches for

torches and lit animals

fat on fires for light!

Different types of bikes

By Hannah

Recumbent is when the rider

leans back

Unicycle A bike with one

wheel

Tandem Is a bike built for

two

BMX Is a bike for dirt

Hills and has one

gear

Mountain

Bikes

Is also for dirt

hills and has a

small frame

Exercise

Bicycle

Does not go any

where but to ex-

ercise inside

Tricycle Has three wheels

The Colorado River formed the

Grand Canyon over 10,000,000 years

ago. The water of the river has very

small rocks that cut the layers of rock in

the Grand Canyon. The small rocks in in

the river are so small that we can not

even see them.

The Grand Canyon was also

formed by the wind, snow, rain, and ice.

These elements helped to cut the layers

of rock in the Grand Canyon.