Mrs

Mrs. Orr’s Classroom News

January 17, 2008

Dear Moms and Dads,

"Everyone can be great," stated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At our school wide assembly on Wednesday Ms. Baker’s class read poems and sang songs by African American people. A friend of Ms. Baker’s named Paij Wadley-Bailey read a book called Happy Birthday Doctor King to our class. She gave several examples of how people look different from one another and the reasons. She told a cute story about a little boy in her preschool class and her nose nostrils. You might ask your child to tell you the story.

I also read a book about Dr. King and we came upon the word segregation. We practiced segregation in our classroom in ways such as the water fountain was off limits to some of us, some of us couldn’t have the good table seats, some of us always got to do things first, and we didn’t talk to kids in the "other group". At the end of this role-playing, most children could feel that such rules were unfair.

This week we are working on a report about liquids. Mrs. Kurzman came in to observe us working on our report. She was very impressed about how engaged your children were and how they use vocabulary words such as viscous and transparent so well. She had to remind herself that your children were first and second graders! Our focus for our report is: "Not all liquids are the same". Your little scientists had many examples or details to support this focus. Our next step was to elaborate upon the details. For example, in the detail "Some liquids do not mix" we can add another sentence to elaborate such as "Baby oil and water do not mix."

Last Friday we took part in an experiment with our learning partners mixing a solid and liquids. Below are some photos for your enjoyment.

We are making a mixture with our learning partners. We are mixing water, oil, and salt. We found out that when the water could not hold anymore salt, it would stop dissolving and rest on the bottom of the container. The water was "supersaturated". If we kept adding more salt, the mixture acted like a lava lamp!

Here are some questions to ask your child this week:

How did Martin Luther King, Jr. make a difference?

What did Paij talk about? (Martin Luther King, Jr. and that many people look different and there are reasons for the way they look)

Can you tell me about the science experiment you did with unflavored gelatin and apple juice? (the mystery solid (gelatin) dissolved in the apple juice and caused the apple juice to become a solid)

Can you tell me one way liquids can be different from one another?

Dates to Remember:

January 21^st: No school due to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

January 25^th: PTN Popcorn sale at snack time

January 31^st: Winter Concert with Mr. Close at 6:30. My students should be here at 6:15 and take their seat in the gymnasium.

EVERY THURSDAY: Reading chart (homework) is due.

EVERY FRIDAY: We’ll try to write in our home/school journals to you. Therefore, please return them to school by each Wednesday.

I think that is it for this week. Enjoy your sharing time with your child.

Kathi