Week of March 31, 2008

We will be making final preparations this week for AIMS Testing. Please take time to review each and every homework assignment with your child. No reading selection for the next three weeks.

Recorder/Violin Field Trip

Thursday, March 27, 2008
The class performed for customers at the local McDonald's restaurant. The students were delighted to have McDonald's for lunch instead of the school's cafeteria lunch.

Week's Reading Selection-3/24/ 08

Your child is reading “If You Made a Million” by David M. Schwartz. This selection introduces children to the relative values of coins and paper money and to the decision-making aspects of earning, spending, and saving money. You may enjoy discussing this selection and doing these activities with your child. Together you can develop and explore your child’s language skills.
More About Money
Ask your child to share what she or he has learned about money from the selection. You may be able to find these other money-related books in your local library:
• Max Malone Makes Million by Charlotte Herman. Henry Holt, 1992.
• The Monster Money Book by Loreen Leedy. Holiday House, 1992.
• The Go-Around Dollar by Barbara Johnston Adams. Simon & Schuster, 1992.
Dollars and Cents
Encourage your child to find out some of the ways you and others made, spent, and saved money as children. Suggest
that your child interview you, other family members and friends of the family. Work with your child to create a booklet titled “Money in the Past.” Encourage your child to share the booklet with family members and friends.

Week's Reading Selection-3/17/ 08

Your child is reading “Cocoa Ice” by Diana Appelbaum. This story, set in the early 1800’s, tells about a trading schooner that enables a community in Maine to trade ice for chocolate with a village on a Caribbean island. You may enjoy discussing the story and doing these activities with your child. Together you can develop and explore your child’s language skills.
Life in the Past
Share with your child what you know about daily life and customs of past eras. You may be able to find these books about past eras in your local library:
• Giants in the Land by Diane Appelbaum, Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
• Ox-Cart Man by Donald Hall. Vicking Penquin, 1983.
• House, House by Jane Yolen. Marshall Cavendish, 1998.
Connecting Communities Everywhere
In “Cocoa Ice,” the tropical delicacy chocolate is shipped to Maine far to the north. You and your child can learn about how your community is connected with communities around the word through trade. Help your child find and read labels on clothing, packaged food, and other products to find out the countries they came from. You might have your child write a list of the products and the countries.

Week's Reading Selection-3/10/08

Your child is reading “Boom Town” by Sonia Levitin. In this historical fiction selection, a girl named Amanda helps her family out during the gold rush by making pies and selling them to the miners. Soon a town – a boom town- springs up around her business. You may enjoy discussing the story and doing these activities with your child. Together you can develop and explore your child’s language skills.

More Books from the Past
Discuss with your child the fact that many stories are set in the past.
You may be able to find these stories in your local library:
• Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression by Kate Lied. National
Geographic Society, 1997.
• Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell. Greenwillow, 1997.
• Dust for Dinner by Ann Turner. Harper-Collins, 1997.

Back in Time
Pretend that you and your child can travel to a time in the past. Decide where you would go and which time period in that place in history most appeals to you. If you can find some pictures of that time period, look at them together. Talk about what
would be different in your lives if you lived back then and what would be the same as today. Make a list of these differences and similarities. Suggest that your child draw a picture of what you both might be dressed like during the trip to the past.

Week's Reading Selection-3/3/08

Your child is reading “Yippee-Yah!” by Gail Gibbons. This nonfiction book tells about life on long cattle drives in the Old West. You may enjoy discussing the book and doing these activities with your child. Together you can enrich his or her language skills.

Reaching to Find Out
Your child may enjoy reading other books written and illustrated by Gail Gibbons. You may be able to find these
and several others in your local library:
• Caves and Caverns. Harcourt Brace, 1996.
• Soaring with the Wind: The Bald Eagle. Morrow Junior Books, 1998.
• Beacons of Light. Morrow Junior Books, 1990.

A Special Family
Talk with your child about how ranchers use a symbol on their gates and cattle to identify the ranch. Explain that when designing a symbol ranchers think of a special feature of their ranch. Talk about some of the things that are special about your family. Decide with your child how to illustrate these traits to make a family symbol. You can draw the family symbol
together and explain it to
other family members.