Mrs. Ross's Classroom Blog: Happy Friday

I cannot believe that we have less that two months of school left! Time flies when so much learning is happening! :)

Important Things That You Need to Know:

Early Dismissal: On Wednesday, April 11, we will have early dismissal. School will dismiss at 12:10 on Wednesday. If your child will be going home a different way, please send me an email or a note to school.
Shakespeare's Fundraiser: On April 12, we will have our monthly Eat Out & Support RBE fundraiser at Shakespeare's Pizza. A flyer is coming home in your child's Friday Folder - you must either bring the flyer in or show an electronic copy on your phone. You can click here for the flyer. This fundraiser is good ALL day & at ALL Shakespeare's locations!
Next Year Paperwork: Is your child returned to RBE next year or will your child be going to a different school. A paper is coming home in your child's Friday Folder today for you to fill out & return. This paper helps us to plan for next year's class placements. This form and money needs to be returned to the office by April 20.
Salina Yoon: Salina Yoon is an award-winning author of young children's books. Some of her books are the Be A Friend, Penguin, Bear, Duck & Porcupine book series, and lots of others. We have read several of her books in class and the kiddos LOVE them!!! :)

On April 19, Salina Yoon will be visiting RBE!!!!
Coming home in your child's Friday Folder is a yellow paper where you can order an autographed copy of Salina Yoon's books. This form and money needs to be returned to Mrs. McKinzie by April 18.

RBE Spirt Day Change: Friday, April 20 is our next Spirit Day at RBE. Originally, it was scheduled to be a Career Day, but since it we just had Career Day with Read Week, this has been changed. April 20, will be Sports Day - your child can represent their favorite team or sport!

Summer School

We know that with summer comes a lot of different opportunities, but it is important for ALL students to continue to read, write and work on math over the summer. A great opportunity that CPS provides is FREE summer school to ALL students! If you would like your child to be enrolled in Summer SunSation please complete the enrollment form online or click here to print off the form.

Library Field Trip

We will be going to the Daniel Boone Regional Library on April 17. We will be leaving around 8:45 and returning before lunch. If your child brought back his/her library card application, I am taking them to the library this weekend. If you did not return the application, and you still would like your child to receive a library card, you have two choices: 1) you can send in the application to school before April 17 and your child's card will be mailed to you or 2) you can take the application to the library.

April Snow brings May Variety Show

The Variety Show is a RBE tradition. If your child would like to try out for the show, the form must be filled out and returned to Mrs. Sharp by April 27. You can click here to print off the form, or your child can request a copy from me.

Look What's Been Happening in Moss World!

Math

This week we started our geometry unit. We have learned that when you are describing a shape that you are telling it's attributes. This unit is FULL of vocabulary words! Below are the vocabulary words that we have covered this week. It will be important to keep reviewing these vocabulary words with your child.

Polygon: a shape that is made up of straight line, is closed, and lines never cross
Parallel Lines: lines that will never cross
Angle: space created when two line meet
Right Angle: a 90 degree angle (the corner of a piece of paper)
Vertex: the point where to sides meet
Side: edge of a shape
Quadrilateral: a shape that is a polygon and has 4 sides, 4 angles & 4 vertices
Pentagon: a shape that is a polygon and has 5 sides, 5 angles & 5 vertices
Hexagon: a shape that is a polygon and has 6 sides, 6 angles & 6 vertices

Next week, we will continue to work on geometry. We will learn about: 3-D shapes and partitioning (dividing) shapes into equal parts.

Writing

We started opinion writing this week. This week, we talked about the importance of using VALID reasons to support your opinion, and developing a counter argument or reason. Our first opinion piece was on our favorite ice cream. The students came up with 3 valid reasons (reasons that could only be used for their ice cream). Being yummy was not a valid reason, but because "Cookie 'n Cream ice cream has Oreo chunks, and Oreo's are my favorite cookie" was a valid reason. They also tried their hand at a counter argument also. You need to come and check out all of our opinion ice cream writing - they are hung up in the hallway.
Next week, we will go back to our Which is Better writing and write our final opinion paragraph. We will take everything that we just learned this week and put it into this paragraph. We will edit our writing and start to publish next week. The kiddos are super excited about this piece of writing. We will be having a writing celebration and inviting parents in when we get finished with this project!

Reading

We continued to work with fairy tales this week. However, instead of comparing different fractured fairy tales, we were looking at the same story from different point of view.
Next week, we will be looking at author's purpose and comparing texts on the same topic.

Science

This week, we started a new science unit on weathering and erosion. We have learned that "Weathering makes the mess and erosion cleans up the mess." Weathering is the process when wind, water or ice breaks down rocks into small pieces. Erosion is when wind, water or ice moves rocks, sand or topsoil to another location. Weathering and erosion changes the Earth's surface. I know that I shared with you the proficiency scale for this unit before Spring Break, but I wanted to share it again.

Next week, we will talking about how the Earth has changed, but specifically looking at the Earth's History and comparing the Earth's surface changes over long and short periods of time. We will be discussing how volcanoes, earthquakes, flooding, landslides, and weather & erosion have changed the Earth's surface. Below is the proficiency scale that we will be learning from next week.

Nutrition Class with Mrs. Zapata!

If your child has been at RBE in previous years, you may have heard about Mrs. Zapata and her Nutrition Classes! These classes are a part of the Family Nutrition and Education Program sponsored by the University of Missouri Extension. If you would like to check out their website you can click here. This week, we learned about how to keep bacteria from growing and spreading as we cook in the kitchen: clean, cook, chill and separate. We also sorted food into the five food groups: dairy, protein, fruits, vegetables and grain. Ask your kiddo about what they learned! Mrs. Zapata is also known for her taste testing sessions - this week we taste tested Wheat Thins and flat bread.

Pictures From the Week

Checkout everything we have done this week! We had nutrition with Mrs. Zapata - twice, wrote our ice cream opinion piece, built shapes out of straws and bread ties, went to Mrs. Blumberg's class to see their nonfiction show case, and read some great books!