Upcoming Field Trips *UPDATE!*
Wednesday, March 7th - Cosmo Planetarium Starlit Journey Show (Objects in the Sky Science Unit)
*LOCATION, SHOW, AND TIME FOR THIS FIELD TRIP HAVE BEEN CHANGED!*
Field Trip Cost: ¥300 per child
We will leave UST at noon and return to school at 2:00 PM.
*If you already sent money to school for the scheduled field trip on March 7th, I will return 150¥ to your child.
Friday, March 23rd - Miraikan / Special Exhibit "Move into the wild life" (Animal Science Unit)
Student Admission/Parking Fee/Highway Fee: ¥1500 per child
*More information about this field trip (time, what to bring, etc.)
UST poetry week is March 5th - March 9th. We have a lot planned to celebrate poetry with UST students!
World Book Day - Dress up!
To commence our school's poetry week, we are asking students to dress us as their favorite book character for World Book Day on Thursday, March 1st. Children need to bring the book that matches the character they dressed up as (Ex. Frog from Frog and Toad).
Pick a poem, memorize it, recite it, and earn a raffle ticket!
To celebrate poetry throughout the week of March 5th, students are encouraged to memorize a poem at home and recite the poem to their class. All participating students will earn a raffle ticket for a chance to win a great prize!!! If your child is participating, please send a copy of the poem(s) to school so his/her teacher can check that the poem has been memorized.
Monday, March 5th - Funny Poem
(Pick a funny poem, memorize it, and recite it! = 1 raffle ticket)
Tuesday, March 6th - Rhyme Poem
(Pick a rhyming poem, memorize it, and recite it! = 1 raffle ticket)
Wednesday, March 7th - Haiku Poem
(Pick a haiku poem, memorize it, and recite it! = 1 raffle ticket)
*Grade K-2: Memorized funny and rhyming poems must be at least 6 lines or more
*Grade 3-6: Memorized funny and rhyming poems must be at least 10 lines or more
Poetry Slam Information
Each student is preparing a poem in his/her classroom to lead up to poetry week. On Wednesday, March 7th G1A students will present their poems to their class and the teacher will pick students to participate in UST's poetry slam.
Grades 1-3 will have two students from each class perform at the Poetry Slam and Grades 4-6 will have three students from each class perform.
Friday, March 9th - Poetry Slam Event
Currently we are still looking for three more parent volunteers to help judge our poetry event. If you are interested, please sign up by clicking here.
Thank you for helping make this event exciting and memorable for your child and UST!
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Wow! We had a very busy and exciting week at UST!
Tuesday, Feb. 20th - Japanese Culture Day
Wednesday, Feb. 21st - Chinese New Year / Valentine's Day Bake Sale
Thursday, Feb. 22nd - 100th Day of School
Reading
Readers Meet the Characters in Our Books
We learned that readers learn more about characters by imagining what they are thinking. Students picked a "just right" book from their book bin and thought, "Hmm, what would the character think in this part of the story? If I were the character, I would be thinking _________________________."
Fluency Practice Passages
This week I started meeting with students one-on-one to introduce Fluency Practice Passages. If your child did not participate in this activity, he/she will meet with me next week.
Fluency is a key foundational skill that helps students read complex text with greater understanding. When students read with accuracy and expression at an appropriate reading rate, their fluency supports their comprehension. Repeated reading practice with short passages improves word recognition and automaticity!
Students published their personal narrative paragraphs this week!
Our next Writing project will focus on writing poems to prepare for UST's poetry slam. G1 students will write acrostic poems about animals.
We are finishing our Math chapter all about length and measurement. This week we learned that we can measure lengths using non-standard units. Students worked with their Math partners to pick things around the classroom to measure using paper clips, Math links, popsicle stickers, and connecting cubes. Afterwards, we learned that using different non-standard units may give different measurements for the same item depending on the size of the non-standard unit. Next, students were introduced to the term "unit" to describe length.
Next week we will revisit what we have learned in Math during Term 1 and part of Term 2. Students will participate in Mid-Year activities to review the concepts and skills we learned in Math Chapters 1-9.
Chapter 1: Numbers to 10
Counting to 10, Comparing Numbers, Making Number Patterns
Chapter 2: Number Bonds
Making Number Bonds
Chapter 3: Addition Facts to 10
Ways to Add, Making Addition Stories, Real-World Problems: Addition
Chapter 4: Subtraction Facts to 10
Ways to subtract, Making Subtraction Stories, Real-World Problems: Subtraction, Making Fact Families
Chapter 5: Shapes and Patterns
Exploring Plane Shapes, Exploring Solid Shapes, Making Pictures and Models with Shapes, Seeing Shapes Around Us, Making Patterns with Plan Shapes, Making Patterns with Solid Shapes
Chapter 6: Ordinal Numbers and Positions
Ordinal Numbers, Position Words
Chapter 7: Numbers to 20
Counting to 20, Place Value, Comparing Numbers, Making Patterns and Ordering Numbers
Chapter 8: Addition and Subtraction Facts to 20
Ways to Add, Ways to Subtract, Real-World Problems: Addition and Subtraction Facts
Chapter 9: Length
Comparing Two Things, Comparing More Than Two Things, Using a Start Line, Measuring Things, Finding Lengths in Units
Our new Science unit is about Earth Resources. We will learn that animals, plants, air, water, rocks, and soil are natural resources.
Big Idea: There are many kinds of resources on Earth.
Essential Questions:
What Can We Find on Earth?
What Are Rocks and Soils?
What Can We Observe About Rocks?
How Do Soils Differ?
Where Can We Find Water?
How Can We Save Resources?
This week we completed our Social Studies chapter about the world. During this chapter, we learned a lot of information to help us answer the question, "What is the world like?"
Social Studies Lessons
Where Things Are Located
Maps and Globes
Land and Water
Continents and Oceans
Our Environment
Getting From Here to There
Our next chapter is titled Traditions We Share. During this chapter, we will start a Pen Pal project with grade 1 students that live in Ohio, United States of America.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you!
Have a good weekend,
Ms. Allison