Week ending 11/7/13

This November has started off well!  We've started some new units and all the students seem to be really enjoying them!  

Important information: 

• Monday is our day to shop the book fair.  We will be shopping 2:15-2:45.  Today, Friday, we are going to preview the books and made a wish list for those we are interested in.  Students will bring home the lists and you can decide together which, if any, books you'd like your child to buy and then send in the correct money.  Keep in mind there is tax on items.  If you choose to send in money, please do so in a zip loc bag with their name on it.  If you would like to join us at the book fair, you may come in Monday, sign in at the office and meet us in the library at 2:15. 
• Tuesday, November 11, there is no school.  
• Over the next week, your child will have an extra homework project centered on heritage and culture.  This ties in with our Social Studies curriculum.  Information and bears (chosen by the students) were sent home in backpacks today.  Please be as creative as you'd like and send back whenever it's complete, but not later than November 17th.  
• For the next 2 week, we are working on a special math unit titled, Measuring for the Art Show.  It is focused on number facts, strategies for counting, and a math congress of sharing and respecting ideas.  There may not be regular math homework and if not, please practice either number facts or Xtramath.  
• We are starting the at home reading response.  Students have practiced in school and they are READY!  I'm so excited for them and they are looking forward to it.  The reading response is based on a skill we are working on during the week in the classroom.  It is completed 1x a week on the computer (or iPad) and may take students awhile until they become more comfortable with typing.  If it is very difficult, you may type for them as they tell you their thoughts.  The link and all the information can be found here on my website...

          http://www2.newton.k12.ma.us/~megan_deking/FOV1-00057CFD/

3, 2, 1 ideas you should know about our week:

3 skills we've worked on are: naming, identifying, and learning about non-fiction features of books (such as labels, captions, and photographs), discussing our measuring strategies of large size paper and how we counted our cubes (students a variety of ideas and we needed to sort out which ideas worked and why they worked), and we started finishing up our United States unit by talking about the U.S. Constitution.  

2 events this week were honoring veterans at our ceremony Tuesday am and previewing the book fair. 

1 thing you should know is that by practicing adding 10 to 1 digit numbers will help us become faster mathematicians.  -Eli