Week Ending 4/27/18

It's finally starting to feel like Spring these days!
We've had a busy week wrapping up some units and we started sharing the China projects as well.

Important information:

• Thursday, May 3rd, is an early release day with dismissal at 12:30.
• China projects are due on Monday, April 30.  This project is a great way for your child to be showing how they can manage a long term project and be proud of it in the end.  Please be sure they are here on Monday.  The expectation of a due date are very important.  
• If you have any extra cleaning wipes at home, we'd love to have them!  

3, 2, 1 things we've been doing in room 250...

In reading workshop, we listened to many stories and we learned how camels got their hump, how beetles got their beautiful colors, and why the turtle's shell is cracked.  

* Ask your child about one of those stories.

2 math skills we've really focused on this week were measuring and data. Students needed to measure carefully arm spans and jumps of those on their team.  They showed great team work and I was impressed with how they worked together and supported each other.  We then took that information and created a bar graph and frequency line to discuss what we noticed.  

1 China lesson we finished up was learning about the Chinese New Year.  

* Ask your child to tell you one thing they learned about the Chinese New Year.

Week Ending 4/13

What a beautiful day today!  I hope this is the start of warmer weather and more sun!

I hope you all have a wonderful break.  Be safe, have fun, do activities together, and enjoy the time you have together!

3, 2, 1 things you should know about our week...

3 math activities we worked on were the Coin Task and students could choose which task they worked on.  If they felt they wanted to stay with the coins and find the combinations, they could do that or they could choose to try the next coin task which gave less information and required some more thinking on their own.  We also worked on Hitting the Target, where again students could choose to work with whichever set of numbers they felt comfortable with.  On Thursday, we worked on using an open number line but the way (the jumps) could be however they were comfortable with as long as they could explain their strategy.  We also started working on compensating numbers and some students chose that way to solve as well.
* Giving students more choice with which task they are working on has added a nice buzz to the classroom and it's interesting to see that they are really picking which task fits them.  Knowing which task is right for them is a wonderful skill and we've asked them how they felt about their choice to reflect.

2 Pourquoi stories we heard for a read aloud and practiced reading with a partner for fluency, teamwork, and reading practice were How Grandmother Spider Got the Sun and How Chipmunk got His Stripes.  We also heard as a read aloud, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears.
* Ask your child how Chipmunk got his stripes?

1 lesson we worked for social studies was focusing on the urban and rural areas of China and comparing the 2.
* Ask your child one thing they saw in the urban areas and one they saw in the rural areas.

Week Ending April 6

Hello families!  Can you believe it's April already?  We have less than 50 days left this year!

Important information:

• If you'd like to do some book shopping for yourself or for our class, you can do so at this link and browse books for your child and shop the Wishlist for our class. Book Shopping
• Please send in any tissues, paper towels, or wipes you may have a home that you could donate to the class.  Thanks in advance!
• The week of April 16th is vacation week.  

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

3 skills and activities we've been working on during reading workshop are identifying the lesson in the fables we've read, reading fluently with our partners a fable and deciding whether to read together or take turns, how to help each other with words respectfully if needed, and how to read like we talk, and today we are working on readers theater for fables.  Reader's theater helps students read fluently, build their confidence to read in front of the class, and allows for another expression of fables.

* Ask your child which reader's theater they participated in today.  

2 math skills we worked on were telling time and making/showing arrays. Since students have reviewed time before and arrays were easy to catch on to, students were given three choices each of those days to work on which area of time or arrays they felt they needed to the most.  The activities available were anywhere from practice telling time, to elapse time, to solving a larger problem using timing of a football game.   The arrays activities were also a variety from the basic skill, to showing more thinking, and to using different numbers.  Students are working on how to choose an activity that is just right for them, what to do if it's too easy or too hard, and how to reflect on their math choice that day.  We've been having more professional development in the Responsive Classroom area of academic choice and I'm really looking forward to adding more of it into our regular routine.  

1 fun visitor we had today was the Museum of Science sharing with us a presentation on Life Cycles. 

* Ask your child, "What is the largest living thing?"  Parents - Do you know what the largest living thing is?