Newsletter: Sunday, January 27, 2019

Our Classroom Updates...

Last week we dove deeper into our weather inquiry by testing the effect of wind on various objects.  The kids recorded their data and reflected on the results to try and come up with specific reasons why each object moved in a particular way.  We also began investigating extreme forms of weather in order to review our research skills and choose topics for our projects. 

In math, we completed and shared our time stories.   The kids did a wonderful job of documenting the passing of time in both realistic and fictional accounts. Multi-digit addition with regrouping was our other focus.  We worked through these with physical blocks and then were able to move to drawing them for each equation.  I noticed tremendous progress in their understanding and execution of regrouping with the illustration of the process.

As readers we have linked our author study of Gail Gibbons to our weather unit and the upcoming non-fiction writing unit.  Currently in writing, the kids are writing choice pieces.  Many of them have chosen to co-author a buddy book. 

This Week

This week our weather groups will work on research for their extreme weather topics.   We will begin to transfer our multi-digit regrouping strategies from addition to subtraction.  We will continue our author study as well as working on choice pieces in writing.  This is our last official week collecting items school wide for Wanna Buddy.  Hopefully our class will get the chance this week to meet Ms. Audrey.  They are really looking forward to speaking with her. 

Important Dates

January 29   Visitation for Prospective Parents

February 1     CFI Family Movie Night Doors open at 6:30; Movie at 7:00
February 7     SIC/PTP Meeting
February 14   Student led Conferences
February 15   11:30 Dismissal/Student Led Conferences
February 18   School Holiday

 During our weather study, we tested different objects against the power of our own wind.

A little outdoor enthusiasm....

Pattern creation has been a popular choice in explorations this week.  We are adding these to our collection for discussions of Math in the Real World.

Newsletter: Monday, January 21, 2019

Celebrating Our Learning

This past week we spent time reflecting on our learning during the last quarter so that the kids could choose the topics they wanted to share during gathering.  They soon began to realize the range of topics we have covered and how many of them have melted into others. It was amazing to watch them make connections as they analyzed the branches of their learning.  This was great prep work for thinking about student led conferences which are coming soon.

We have continued our inquiry into weather, monitoring the conditions each day, tracking the high and low temperatures, and looking at various tools used to measure and record weather conditions.  Last week we did not make it quite as far as we had planned into our unit, so we will play catch up this week.  As writers, the kids have thoroughly enjoyed exploring poetry in many forms.  This was clearly evident in our learning celebration as we shared some of our favorites with the school.  The kindergarten and first grade classes later came and told us they had been inspired and are now planning to do poetry also.

We began working with time this past week, learning the parts of the clock and reading time to the nearest half hour.  On Friday, we started writing a math story which includes the time recorded as it passes during the story.  Initially, we began writing a story together and then the kids began their own versions.  We will revisit these Tuesday.

In reading, we have been building comprehension strategies as we charted our predictions during read alouds and examined the reasons behind our predictions.  Questioning the basis for our predictions pushes us to think about what is happening in the story and what might happen next.  Do our predictions make sense?  Are we understanding the gist of the story? These are the questions we discussed this week to strengthen our comprehension skills.

 

This Coming Week

We will continue our unit on weather and begin to work on group expert projects on extreme weather events.  These will be completed in class.  In writing, we will begin to explore non-fiction pieces.  As mathematicians, we will continue working on our independent time stories and practice telling time to the nearest 5 minutes.  We will also include addition and subtraction of larger numbers this week as well.  As we look at our understanding of the text in reading, we will work to organize and articulate the gist of the story and determining the importance of factors in the story.

Important Dates

January 24   Information Night for Prospective Parents 

January 29   Visitation for Prospective Parents

February 1     CFI Family Movie Night Doors open at 6:30; Movie at 7:00
February 7     SIC/PTP Meeting
February 14   Curriculum Night/Student led Conferences
February 15    11:30 Dismissal/Student Led Conferences
February 18   School Holiday

Our Thought for the Week...

Our class enjoyed making the morning announcements each day.

We relished the fruits of our labor when it finally came time to publish our poetry.

Here are a few of our favorite pieces of poetry which some chose to share in gathering.

Creative 

explorations.

Learning more from Ms. Audrey and Jake.

Snapshots of our gathering:

Newsletter: Sunday, January 13, 2019

Poetry, Weather, and More...

Everyone seemed thrilled to be back together after the break. We shared many stories of family trips, traditions, and several new pets. We are very close to wrapping up our poetry unit. The kids have selected their favorite poems to publish in a poetry book and are putting the finishing touches on those this week. We have jumped into our weather unit and each child had created their own weather journal to observe and record the weather each day at school. We have been examining sky conditions, temperature, wind and precipitation. At the end of the week, each table created a rain gauge to measure the daily precipitation in our garden area.

As readers we have been taking a closer look at the questions we ask ourselves while reading. While tracking the specific questions the kids were thinking during our read aloud, The Wizard of Oz, they began to realize the questions were guiding them toward what might happen next. as we continue this study, we will begin to focus on the process of making predictions and how this builds into comprehension.

In math last week, we worked with larger numbers, building them with manipulatives and writing them in various forms. We used beans and blocks to create these numbers, grouping them as ones, tens and hundreds. Then we had the opportunity to examine how these groups change when we add to the number. Through these explorations we are gaining an understanding of multi-digit addition.

This Coming Week

We will continue our unit on weather and begin to work on group expert projects on extreme weather events. In writing, we will publish our poetry books. We will look more closely at making reasonable predictions as readers. As we explore building larger numbers in a variety of ways, we will work on multi-digit addition and subtraction.

Important Dates

January 14   Class Pictures 

January 17   Our Gathering at 2:20

January 18   11:30 Dismissal 

January 21   MLK Holiday 

January 24   Information Night for Prospective Parents 

January 29   Visitation for Prospective Parents

Amazing, on the day your class is learning about concrete poems, you realize your shirt graphic is one large concrete poem! Perfect timing.

What better way to learn how to transform your 6 Room Poem notes into a finished piece of poetry than from a fellow poet sharing her strategies.

Our guest reader shared this wonderful book which complements our current efforts with Wanna Buddy perfectly.

One of our science shares this week was a small dead snake. The student's question: can you tell what might have killed this snake and how do you know? This question pushed them to examine the evidence carefully and process the information they knew about animal relationships.

Observing and recording the weather:

Thanks for all of the thoughtful donations. Keep them coming!

Friday we voted on name choices for our new hamster. The winner is...Shadow! Enjoy a little video of Shadow below. He will be joining us in the classroom this week. Notice, the minute the door opens, he is ready to escape! He won't be visiting homes for another week or so.

Newsletter: Sunday, January 6, 2019

Welcome Back

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed some restful time with your families. We have several events coming up in the next few weeks so please pay attention to the important dates below.  Just before the break, our class experienced a sad event with the passing of Via.  After some time spent grieving and many class discussions, the kids decided they would like to adopt another hamster.  I visited many pet stores over the break with my own children, and we found a little friend we thought would work well with the class.  He is adjusting at my house and we are helping him learn to hang out with kids.  He will likely join the class next week.  In the meantime, our class will decide on the perfect name for him.  Enjoy his photo at the end of the blog.

This week, we will continue looking at our thinking as readers through questioning that leads to predictions.  Prior to the break, we had just begun working with multi-digit computation in math and we will continue with this topic in the coming week.  Poetry will still be our focus in writing as we explore new types of poems to add to our repertoire.  We will also launch a new science inquiry into weather this week.

Wanna Buddy

Our  class has truly developed a heart for those in need during our study of homelessness and hunger.  As a result they have decided to make a difference by collecting items to help an organization called Wanna Buddy.  Jake Pleming has a family friend, Ms. Audrey, that collects for and works directly with those in need through Wanna Buddy. Jake will be interviewing her so I would like for each child to come up with at least 2 questions they would like answered about homelessness or hunger.  Some examples they've mentioned: How do people become homeless?  What do homeless people need most?  How do they get to the doctor?

Please talk about these questions with you child. They will be part of tomorrow's homework.  Then we will submit them to Jake for his interview.  

As you clean out please remember, we are collecting:  ● Blankets ● Pillows ● Hats ● Scarves ● Gloves ● Coats/Jackets/Raincoats ● Personal hygiene products

Important Dates

January 10   SIC/PTP Meeting 

January 14   Class Pictures 

January 17   Our Gathering at 2:20

January 18   11:30 Dismissal 

January 21   MLK Holiday 

January 24   Information Night for Prospective Parents 

January 29   Visitation for Prospective Parents

Here we are playing Race to $1.00 and later, Race to $2.00.

We had the opportunity to visit Ms. Tinsley's third grade share fair to learn from their animal projects.

                                                                                                                                     

We had a fabulous team of volunteers at our cookie decorating activity to make sure everyone stayed within their budgets.

 Here's our new friend set to join the class next week.  Now, we just need to find a name...