PTA Book Fair

Tomorrow morning (Monday, November 24) our class will attend the PTA Book Fair. Your child will have an opportunity to purchase both new and used books. Please feel free to come in and join your child in choosing his books; meet us at 8:00 in the Community Hall. If you are unable to come but want your child to be allowed to purchase books, please send money to school in an envelope labeled with your child's name. Please see more information in this week's Shamachar.

Gulshan Society Lake Park Field Trip

We had a wonderful field trip to Gulshan Society Lake Park yesterday and put all of our learning into practice as we saw and discussed plant parts and what plants provide for other living things. We were amazed to see roots above ground, leaves larger than our bodies, and stems covered in rings. We also saw both people and animals using plants in various ways.

While walking around the park, we made notes on clipboards so we could take our data back to our classrooms and explore it as scientists. What a wonderful opportunity for first-hand learning!

Upcoming Events

Field Trip:
We will be taking a field trip this Tuesday, November 18 to the Gulshan Society Lake Park to explore plants for our unit of inquiry. We will be leaving the school at 10:30 and returning around noon. Please see the permission slip your child is bringing home today. Also, if you are interested in joining us and helping chaperone, we would love to have you! Please send me an email.

Individual Photos:
This Thursday, November 20 our class will take individual student photos. If you would like your child to wear anything special, please dress her accordingly that morning. You will receive a copy of the photos in the near future, which you can then order if you choose.

Bloomball Mall:
This Thursday, November 20 the fifth grade classes will be putting on 'Bloomball Mall' to practice the business skills they have acquired during their unit of inquiry. We will attend the event for a short time during which your child will have the opportunity to purchase items of all sorts (i.e. treats, small toys, etc.)  Your child of course is not required to purchase anything, however, if you would like him to be able to, please send in no more than 500 taka and we will help to ensure the money is managed accordingly. Please send small bills rather than just one 500 taka note.

UN Day:
AISD will celebrate UN Day on Wednesday, November 26 at 8:15 am. It is a wonderful celebration and all parents are invited to attend. Please meet us out on the big field rather than come to classroom or to the hallways as it gets quite congested. I promise to take lots of photos to share.

Measuring Pumpkins

How can pumpkins promote math practice? We explored this by measuring pumpkins in a variety of ways. We compared height, circumference and weight before then opening the pumpkins and scooping out the seeds. Many of us found the goo to be "scary" so we had to be risk takers and get our hands dirty. This brought us to a great discussion about how scientists often get dirty in their work!

We followed this by carving our pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, which was a new activity for many of our teammates. Thank goodness we had Shilpa's (Pavitra's mom) help as we worked!  

 Reminder: We are always looking for volunteers in our classroom. Not only is it a great opportunity for you as parents to get a first-hand glance into our classroom, but it's fun! Please consider volunteering during our learning centers (11:25 - 12:15). Email me if you are interested, and thanks for considering!

What's Been Happening in KG-M?!

We have been busy the past couple weeks with all sorts of learning. Check out some of our favorite activities:

We have been busy being botanists and studying plants in detail. We explored various items and tried to determine what linked them together.

After further discussion and learning we revisited these items and tried separating them into two groups: items made from plants and items not made from plants. This made us wonder about how plants can be manipulated. Many of us thought that only items of green color are made from plants!

This led to further investigation of various materials made from plants and how they are produced. We watched videos and read books to get us thinking.

Through this exploration one of us made the claim "Everything is made from plants". We are now exploring this idea and finding support for as well as questioning the claim. We will inquire further into this claim to eventual prove or disprove it.

We have also been botanists as we have planted our own small garden, and we have even planted personal bean plants.

Our garden is growing like crazy! Stay tuned for pictures.

We also have been developing as mathematicians. We are studying measurement and are doing all sorts of measuring activities to help us hone our skills.

We were very excited to have a guest speaker visit our class! Mr. Galaty is a professional mathematician and we were very interested in hearing him talk about seeing math in the world. He encouraged us to develop our math skills by practicing and noticing math around us.

Finally, we had the opportunity to 'adopt' one of the SAISA boys volleyball teams, and were very excited to cheer on the TAISM Eagles. Our cheering even helped them win a close game!

See even more pictures of the tournament by clicking here.