We were all excited this week to start our One Book, One School reading. On Wednesday we had our assembly and learned the book is The One and Only Ivan. Some of us have read it before but all of us are excited to read it together. You can follow along on our weebly: http://whittieronebook.weebly.com/
Please don't forget to take our 5 essentials survey. The survey is focused on Whittier's educational practices and our overall school climate. Parents can access the survey from home at the following site: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/
Thank you,
Leslie and David
Reading: This week we continued reading Number the Stars. Our class has continued to have some wonderful discussions about the book. We've talked about the setting of Uncle Henrik's home and compared it to Copenhagen, where the novel first takes place. We also have talked about rising action and how it usually takes place in the middle of the story. Next week we will continue to learn about word choice and rising action. Ask your child how Copenhagen and Uncle Henrik's house are similar and different.
Centers: This week we worked on verb tenses, both past and future, read a fascinating article on the Tuskegee Airmen in Scholastic News, practiced our typing skills, and wrote in our journals. This week's prompt was, "Would you rather have $100 for yourself, or give $1,000 to a charity of your choice?" Students came up with a lot of creative responses! We also learned about the future tense. At first, future tense looks a lot like present tense, but the biggest difference is that future tense contains the word, "will" before the action verb. Ask your child for an example of a sentence that uses the future tense.
Writing: This week we continued presenting our biography projects. It has been great to see each students' creative assignments! Students have had fun showcasing their wonderful work. Next week we will kick off our next project: Mini-Research! Students will be able to choose any person, place, animal, thing, or event that they are interested in. We will do a lot of research and take notes in class during the research portion of the project. Ask your child what they are thinking of choosing to research for their mini-research project.
Math: This week we continued to work on fractions. We learned how to add multiple fractions with the same denominator and we went back to look at <, >, and = fractions. It seems students understood it much better after taking a break! On Thursday we went over our midterm student guide and we took the midterm test on Friday. Some students did not finish and they will have an opportunity to finish on Monday. Ask your child how they did on the mid-term test.
Social Studies: This week we finished working on our book creator assignment for the Southeast and we uploaded them to Edmodo. Students should be able to share their book with you. We also began presenting the books to the class. It's always fun to see what the students create. The students have an opportunity to put information they have learned on our class padlet. Here is the link for it http://padlet.com/lweiss97/Southeast. Ask your child what they have learned about the Southeast.
Science: Our students are now learning about magnetism from Mrs. Darley. Ask your child what they learned this week!
Miscellaneous Information
- The survey is focused on Whittier's educational practices and our overall school climate. Parents can access the survey from home at the following site: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/
- Wonderful Whittier Families:I am in need of some gently used clothing for the Whittier health office:
- Sizes 2T, 4T, and 6T boys and girls pants
- Sizes 4, 6, and 8 boys and girls pants
Thank you for your assistance!Anne GuerrierWhittier School Nurse - Oak Park District 97 presents...The 2016 Young Scientists Conference! It will return after a 3-year hiatus on Saturday, March 19, 9 AM - 10:30AM & 11AM -12:30PM at Horace Mann School. The Young Scientists Conference provides D97 students in grades K-8 an opportunity to interact with scientists in hands-on workshops. Workshops are led by professionals in all fields of science. Many scientists also volunteer throughout the year in educational partnerships with D97 schools through Oak Park Education Foundation's Science Alliance Program. Students are assigned to one 90-minute workshop based on grade level. Students must register and are selected from homerooms by lottery to help assure that all schools and grades are represented. Participants will be notified by late February. Please register at http://www.op97.org/
ysc2016/. Registration ends February 10th! If you have any questions, please email at youngscientists@op97.org. - Oak Park Education Foundation: Battle of the Bots (a FREE fun outing for elementary families) is on Feb 6 at Julian Middle School
- Oak Park Education Foundation: OPEF's Open House will be on Feb 27 at Beye (new location); it's a great way to introduce families to OPEF, with a morning of FREE hands-on projects for K-6 kids; plus folks can learn more about and register for Summer BASE Camp
- Oak Park Education Foundation: Staszak Annual Gala on 4/16; Peter Sagal, host of NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" newsquiz, will be our host! Always looking for volunteers to help with this important event, if you or someone you know loves to plan a party -- or if you have an angle on potentially awesome auction donors -- please email opefgala@gmail.com (which will reach Gala co-chairs Kandy Shapiro and Carrie Cotter)
