Friday, January 15, 2016

January 19-22, 2016

  • Our class is participating in another donation drive for The Gathering Place. They are collecting travel sized hygiene products such as shampoos, lotions, soaps, mouthwash, etc. We prefer the small ones as many homeless people don't have room to carry full sized products on their person. Any help is appreciated!
  • Classroom Supplies: We have run out of spiral notebooks for math! If you have any extra unused spiral notebooks at home, we would appreciate if we could use them for math.
Dates to Remember:
  • January 18 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School
  • January 27 - Science Fair
  • February 5 - Space Odyssey Parent-Child Dance, 6:30 - 8:30 pm


Science - 
Literacy - 
  • List the author's purpose for writing the following piece. 
  • Constructed Response: In the text, Wildlife Refuge, give three examples why the writer thinks it's a good idea to take a field trip to the Wildlife Refuge.

Wildlife Refuge Field Trip
Dear Mr. Smith and Mrs. Nieto, 
We have a problem. The wildlife here in the city is very limited. There is not a lot of opportunity to learn about conservation and wildlife preservation. If we took a field trip to The Wildlife Refuge, our problem would be solved. Trenton, Diego and I would like to take our class for a great learning experience. In addition, we will provide a study guide to students to identify the animals and provide information about conservation of endangered wildlife. If we went on a field trip, we will learn about the wildlife from around the world and how rivers provide a natural habitat for them to live and breed. This information would help us to understand the importance of science in our day to day life. We would use math to make a budget and figure out a way to earn money. These skills will be very useful again and again. We will learn how to make a schedule with target dates. This will provide us with a plan that covers the entire project from start to finish. The preparation of the study guide will require lots of research and organization of information. The first thing to do is research, research, research! Next, we will choose a fund raiser (with your approval, of course). This will earn money for the field trip. The parents will hopefully chip in their time and money, if we don't get enough. We will prepare a plan schedule. This will provide the dates that team members will need to accomplish the steps toward our goal. My competent adult model is the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. It shows us step by step how to plan a trip and what to see. Now, you are asking why should I approve a trip to The Wildlife Refuge? How does this improve student learning? Besides the fact that the project planning, fund raising, budgeting and reporting will provide an excellent learning opportunity, it will provide education. It will also provide awareness of wildlife and the importance of conservation. This project will be evaluated by its successful planning and its ability to involve our class in wildlife conservation. The trip will be evaluated by the student participation on the trip and a plan of conservation that identifies what we can all do to protect and respect wildlife so they will still be around when we have children.
Sincerely, 
Your student