Weekly Update 1/31/14

I can't believe it's the end of January already!  It's gone by very quickly I have to say! 

Here's some important information for you and your family:
* There is an early release day on Wednesday, February 5th.  Dismissal at 12:30.

* Literacy morning: Please join us on Thursday, February 6th for literacy morning.  From 8:30-9:00, you'll be in the auditorium hearing about literacy at Memorial Spaulding and from 9-9:30, you'll be in the classroom working on a folktale activity with your child.  

* Don't forget to send your child in with hats, gloves, and boots for recess (snow pants if you'd like) because they will go out unless it's too cold or rainy.  

* Expectations for reading response - students will complete the reading response each week and it's due on Friday.  If for some reason, they can not get on, they can send me an email or write it on a piece of paper a response (could be a prediction or a connection if you don't know the prompt).  Please start this early in the week so it is completed.  Working on skills we are working on in class is very important!

* Continue practicing those math facts, however you have chosen to do it.  I can really see improvement since the beginning of the year.  

* Progress reports will be ready on Monday, February 3.  They are electronic just as they were last year. If you have any questions, please check in with Ms. Sheehan in the office.  I really enjoy teaching every child in this class and I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with them and see them grow and change.  They have come so far this year and I look forward to seeing their continued progress from now till June.  They are amazing!

* Don't forget to check out "What did we learn this week?"  It's  a great conversation starter!

What's happening in room 235?

In literacy, we finished up the fables section of our folktales unit.  We've worked a lot on identifying the characters, setting, conflict, and lessons in each story.  We also started working on writing group fables.  I'm am very impressed with how well groups have worked together, made decisions as a group about the lesson, setting, characters, and problem, and began writing their fable.  We will continue this into next week and then begin typing them and adding illustrations to make a final book.  Next week, we'll also start learning about pourquois.  In Fundations, we've been working on the r-controlled syllables.  These syllables have -ar, -er-, -ir, -or, and -ur.   We will continue working on this next week as well.   In writing, we continue to work on our opinion writing around books.  You'll see some of this work at literacy morning.  We've also been taking time to write back to our pen pals in NY.  

* Ask your child the elements of a fable.  

In math, we finished up the Art Show lessons by focusing on addition strategies they can use when working with larger numbers.  We've learned 3 strategies that can help them.  In unit 6, we will continue to focus on addition strategies and place value.  

* Ask your child 1 to show you 2 ways to add 43+58.

In social studies, we have finished our Mexico unit!  We learned about the painter Diego Rivera, watched a video of children in urban and rural areas, and wrote a postcard listing the important facts we've learned.  

Weekly Update 1/17/14

It's been a busy week in room 235!
A few reminders….
* A homework expectation is that students complete the reading log online 1x a week.  This week, many students did not complete it.  Please help your child organize their time to complete it each week.
* There is no school on Monday, January 20.
* Don't forget to keep practicing those math facts at home!  Whether it's extra math, flash cards, or worksheets…the more practice the better!
* Please let me know if your child is getting picked up by someone other than the usual.  It's very important to know dismissal routines.  Thank you!
* Don't forget to check out "What did we learn this week?" each week!  The students spend time typing and thinking about what they want to share with you so please see their wonderful comments! It's on my website!

What's happening in room 235?
* In literacy, we've finished up mid-year assessments and have started reading groups around Mexico to correlate with our social studies unit.  We are learning about the land, the people, activities, and children's lives.  We have finished up our unit on questions and inferencing and will be moving on to folk tales next week.  In writing workshop, we've been working on writing friendly letters.  We've started writing letters about our favorite character and favorite parts.  It's important for students to identify which part is their favorite and be able to give evidence or reasons why it is.  Simply saying, "This is my favorite part because it's funny." is not enough.  I'm encouraging students to tell which parts are funny to prove the book is funny and to convince me it's funny.  In Fundations, we've worked on trick words and -or or -ar words.  We will continue practicing the -r controlled syllables next week as well.
* In math, we continue to work on "The Art Show" project.  We've completed measuring the papers with cubes and a blue print and have now started working on adding tens and ones and talking about addition strategies for larger numbers.  We will continue working on this next week.
* In social studies, we talked about the Mexican holiday, Day of the Dead, and why it's important to the people of Mexico.  We also talked about what a marketplace looks like on Saturday in Mexico.  We compared it to a flea market or farmer's market around here.
**Ask you child how school went today and if it was any different?  Today we talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and how he wanted all children to be able to play together regardless of skin color or background.  When students arrived, they saw signs saying "No blue eyes children can sit here." or "Only blue eyes children can sit here."  We continued this throughout the day during whole class lessons or lining up for recess.  We read a book about Martin's life and talked about how the people may have felt.  We also talked about how they have felt today.  Some said they felt it was unfair, they felt lonely, sad, mad, and unsure of what to do.  We agreed that's how many people have felt in the past, and maybe still today.  We created an animoto video for you…click on the link below and it will take you there!  We drew our portraits and typed ourselves what our dreams were.  Hope you enjoy it!
We all have a dream.

Weekly Update 1/10/14

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful break!  We enjoyed seeing friends, teaching Lily to ice skate, and relaxing.  I hope you had time to do the same.

We've been very busy here in room 235 this week!  A few reminders…
* Please continue to send in snow gear, even if it's just cold out.
* There is no school on Monday, the 20th.  
* If you have any cleaning wipes, tissues, or hand sanitizer you'd like to send in, please do!  It's that time of year for colds.
* I was so excited to be able to spend some of the gift cards over break.  I picked up some books for the classroom boxes as well as whole class read alouds.  I also picked up some new games/activities for recess time as our other games were wearing thin.
* Earlier this week, we did an activity called, "What's in my teacher's bag?"  I brought items in that were important to me or helped describe me and the students had to infer what each item said about me.  For example, from a Starbucks gift card, students inferred that I liked coffee.  From a picture of my family, they inferred that family was important to me.  Also, from a running magazine, they inferred that I like to run and be healthily.
A little homework: I would like each student to bring in a bag next week with 3 items.  Each item should help us to infer what the student likes or help us to describe the student.  Please send these items in a bag (plastic bag is just fine), Monday through Wednesday and we will share at meeting time.  Thanks for your help!  

What's happening in room 235?
In literacy, we've been focusing on mid-year assessments as well as questioning and inferring.  Both of these skills are important for students to learn as they become better readers.  The better they can question, the better they are understanding the story.   Next week during reading workshop, we'll be doing guided reading groups using books about Mexico to tie in our social studies units.  In the past, students have really enjoyed these books.  We will also finish up our questioning unit and move to Folk Tales the following week.  In writing, we've been reviewing some grammar, such as common and proper nouns and punctuation.  We also did some creative writing about snow.  On Friday, we wrote an opinion piece on a topic we care about.  This is the beginning of the opinion unit, which we will get into more in the next few weeks.
*Ask your child what they wrote about!
In math, we finished up our geometry unit on polygons, solid figures, and comparing/contrasting shapes.  We began a 10-day unit on measuring and addition called The Art Show.  We began by measuring with cubes and comparing our answers.  Some of the paper is small, some of it is very large and students loved measuring each one!  We will begin to have discussions about how we measured, our results, why measurements may be different, and other ways we could measure more accurately.  We will begin making a blue print for each piece of paper next week.
*Ask your child how big the yellow paper was!
In social studies, we continue learning about Mexico.  We have learned about the geographic regions, compared the rights and responsibilities of children in the U.S.A and children in Mexico, and shaded in a map of Mexico to show different landforms and areas.
*Ask your child to share one fact about a region they learned about.