Salutations!

The children and I have begun reading one of my favorite stories of all time! As we share our last read aloud of the year, the children are currently meeting the characters of Avery, Wilbur, Templeton and Charlotte. What a wonderful book to end with as we see a friendship develop between two such unlikely characters. It is exciting to watch the children become so eager to hear the next part of the story each day. They are beginning to develop the sense that they truly know these characters, and are showing genuine concern for their well-being! We are also using the "read aloud" time to practice all of the comprehension strategies we have been working on this year, including: using background knowledge, visualizing, asking questions, making predictions, making connections, inferring, and drawing conclusions. I am also a firm believer that reading aloud to the children encourages the children to then want to read to themselves!

Speaking of reading, our last book orders of the school year went home today! Since we won't have school again until June 2nd, the only way to place your book club order this time around will be online, to ensure that the books will arrive in time.

 In order to place your last book order of the school year, visit:

http://pcool.scholastic.com/parentordering/login.jsp

username: osullivan

password: bookorders

 Orders are due the morning of Monday, May 31st.

Happy reading this summer!

Making Paper

The children had an in-school field trip last week as we wrapped up our unit on Saving the Earth. The ladies from The Grove in Glenview came to show the children how to make paper! They also showed them how to sort their garbage. Finally, the children made an art project out of reused materials! What a great way to wrap up our unit!

 Here, the children are tearing up used paper into small bits.

     After adding some water, everyone got the chance to help blend the paper into a slurry substance.

Max placed a screen over a bowl.

Adam and Albie helped poured the substance over the screen.

Adam and Lily lined up a piece of foam to press the water out. Evelyn and Max watch as paper begins to take shape in front of them!

David presses out any excess water with a rolling pin.

Here the children are sorting garbage into items that can be recycled, donated, or simply thrown in the garbage.

Zach and Tyler are making flowers out of an egg carton and scraps of colorful magazine paper!

Sophia, Ashley and Lily are hard at work!

What a fun time we had doing our part to help the planet!

Budding Entrepreneurs!

The children had their first Junior Achievement lesson yesterday! We are lucky enough to have a wonderful JA volunteer by the name of Colleen Younan. She works for Motorola in the area of finance. She will be coming in to teach the children 5 lessons. The theory behind Junior Achievement is below, as stated in their website.

"JA Worldwide is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs. 

Junior Achievement programs help prepare young people for the real world by showing them how to generate wealth and effectively manage it, how to create jobs which make their communities more robust, and how to apply entrepreneurial thinking to the workplace. Students put these lessons into action and learn the value of contributing to their communities."

During their upcoming lessons, the children will be thinking about the businesses that exist in the community, how taxes are collected and used, and how money flows from people to different businesses.  They will also be thinking about the effectiveness of unit vs. assembly production. The children will assemble paper donuts using both methods, and decide which way allowed them to accomplish the most.  Finally, the class will be presented with a variety of potential new businesses that would like to move in to the community, and they will have to vote as a class for which one would make the most sense for the needs of the community. 

Our lessons will be taking place over the next few Wednesday/Friday afternoons, so be sure to ask the children what they've learned!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

During one of our science lessons this week, the children were able to see how they could re-use something from their very own homes.  After learning about the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, the children realized that finding new uses for old things not only makes less garbage, but it preserves some of our natural resources! For a special assignment, they were asked to bring in a used milk gallon container. The children spruced up their milk gallons with some green and blue paint, added some bird seed and a perch, and tied a string on top in order to make their very own earth-friendly bird feeders!  What a fun and practical way to help our Earth!