Classroom News: April 23rd

Dear Barn Swallow Families,


Last week the students worked on writing independent choice stories.  Some students are working on fiction stories, some are writing personal narratives, and some chose to write other non-fiction stories.  We have been learning about the parts of a flower.  The students used a variety of magnification tools to get a good look at the various parts of flowers.  Ask your child to identify the parts of flowers in your yard or neighborhood.  (Stigma, pistil, stamen, ovule, sepal, petal, stem, and pollen)  We went for a flower walk around the neighborhood to look at the wide variety of blooms.  At the school and garden students selected flowers to bring back to class to study further.  The students made diagrams of flower parts.  We continued planting starts of tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers for our school garden.  Out class spent Friday afternoon learning about 'pioneer band-aid plants' also known as weeds.  Students learned about the important role that 'weeds' have in preventing erosion in exposed soil in nature.  Students spent time digging out the roots of 'weeds' in their gardens and mulching the exposed soil with leaves.  During math, first graders used number lines and number grids.  They played games to figure out missing numbers.  The students asked questions and used clues to figure out mystery numbers.  Second graders reviewed telling time, regrouping with addition, and measuring.  They started working on fluency with single digit subtraction facts.  The week ended with the annual FGCS Earth Day Bike Ride.  


We have two garden work parties coming up and we really would love (and need) your help!  The first work party is on Friday, May 4th, after school.  The last one of the school year is Friday, June 1st, after school.  If your family is interested in adopting the school gardens for a week (or weeks) during the summer, we would greatly appreciate it.  We are in need of family volunteers to deeply water the gardens and pick, as well as eat, any ripe vegetables and fruits.  Interested?  Please let me know! 


Thank you families!


Sincerely,


Sherry