Weekly Update 12/6/13

I hope everyone had a nice few days off and are ready for the last few weeks before the December break.  I hope you all enjoyed your holidays with family and friends.  We had dinner at my parent's house and my husband and Lily went to NY to visit  before Thanksgiving day so we were all surrounded by family!
Important Information:
* Each week, on Friday, I will send you a reminder to check out the "What did we learn this week?" page on my website.  On Thursdays and Fridays, students type what they think is the most important piece they learned this week.  This will allow them some typing practice, sentence and punctuation practice, a chance to review weekly concepts, and an opportunity for you to see what students have written.  Use this as a chance to start a conversation about what your child is learning or what they liked best this week.
* As the days get colder, students continue to go out for lunch recess for some running around and fresh air.  Please send clothes accordingly.
* Starting next week, I will be sending home a project about Heritage Bears.  This is a great chance for all of us to learn about where we all came from and what's important to our families.  More info will come next week.
* We have 2 more full weeks of school before break.
* School is closed Saturday, the 21st through Thursday, January 2nd.  If you will be away before that or after, please let me know.

What's been happening in room 235?
In literacy, we've been focusing on non-fiction features and purposes.  This past week, we've each written a book about the features of a non-fiction book.  We listed the word, added an illustration or photograph, and then the purpose.  Students did a great job showing each feature and creating a neat and informative book to share with you.  They will be going home soon!  In writing, we've been working on those books as well.  We also brainstormed a few more tiny seed topics that we could write for a narrative story.  Students had wonderful ideas!  I look forward to seeing their writing.   Next week, we will be working on writing our pen pals back and our narrative writing.  When writing our narrative stories, we will again be using a checklist to be sure we are including all the pieces of writing that we've discussed so far.  This helps students become more responsible for their own writing and self assessments.
In math, we've spent a good deal of time on problem solving.  We're really focusing on what the question is asking us, what information do we already know, and what words or numbers are most important.   Also, during our challenge work, I've been encouraging students to really try and think about the problem before running up to me.  They can do it!  It may be difficult at first and in the end they may need some help but I'm really working with them to build independence and to trust themselves that they can get started and try different solutions on their own.  They need to believe in themselves they can get started…they need to believe they can do it…and they need to believe and trust that's it's ok to make mistakes!
In science, we have discussed the sun, the moon, day and night, and have focused on our line of learning.  We write in our journals what we think or what we've learned during the lesson and then we draw a line under.  After talking with a partner, we write any new information we learned under the line.  Each child has something to offer and this is a great way for students to share what they know with a peer.

***We've spent lots of time lately talking about making mistakes.  Many of us get stuck when we have made a mistake or with something difficult.  We've been having great discussions regarding what happens when we make a mistake, is it a glitch or a huge deal, and how can we move past it?  We've learned when we make mistakes, our brain grows and stretches.  I've also been having them think about what happens if they never try?  They'll never know they can do it!