Bat Week
During the week of October 24-October 28, we spent our reading blocks reading fictional and informational bat books. Our bat theme carried over into morning meeting, word study time, and WIN (What I Need) Time.
The kids had fun during our fall party. Thank you to all of you who sent in snacks, drinks, and paper goods. The kids had the chance to create something out of their play doh. Leaf rubbing was another popular activity.
Your children have been learning all about multiplication. They've learned to think of multiplication as equal groups. They have learned to make arrays with equal rows. Our new math curriculum, iReady Mathematics, embeds word problems into every single lesson. The children are all getting more confident with tackling problem-solving tasks. They're also doing a great job explaining their thinking while using mathematical vocabulary. Most recently, students have learned to split harder facts up into two smaller but equal equations. We will continue to work on this. At home, please have your child practice math facts. I always send home a math facts sheet for homework, but flashcards are great too. Fluency with math facts is enormously helpful.
We will be working on multiplication in November as well. Soon, students will be introduced to the concept of division. We'll explore how multiplication and division are related.
During October we focused on characters in fiction. The main teaching points were as follows:
- Characters (like real people) have character traits (personality traits).
- Readers can tell the difference between character traits and emotions.
- Character traits can be positive, negative, or neutral.
- Readers think about characters' words, thoughts, and actions and use details from the text to make inferences about character traits.
- Characters' actions contribute to the story and move the story along.
- Characters often change over time.
- Characters often learn LIFE LESSONS in stories, and these life lessons can help us in our lives as well.
Our current reading unit will focus on text features in nonfiction texts. We will also learn and practice figuring out the meaning of new vocabulary words using word parts and context clues.
We have wrapped up our paragraph writing unit by writing a two-paragraph letter to an imaginary farmer. You should have seen your child's final copy come home.
The children wrote from the point of view of a pumpkin. Their letters needed to persuade the farmer that he/she should NOT choose them to become jack o' lanterns. Their first paragraphs gave reasons why they should not be chosen. Their second paragraphs were written to persuade the farmer to choose a DIFFERENT pumpkin instead.
Our next writing unit will be a personal narrative. Students will brainstorm small moments in their lives that they could turn into a story. We'll be learning and applying several different techniques as we write our stories.
We took our weather test. Prior to that students engaged in an activity that required them to make a model of a house then simulate strong winds with a paper "windmaker" (paper fan). Students observed what happened when the "strong winds" blew on their houses. Then they were given some materials to make the houses stronger.
Our next content area unit will be a social studies unit about Native Americans in the past and present. We will learn about some Connecticut tribes as well as other Eastern Woodland groups.
Morning Meeting is still our favorite way to start the day. Here are some examples of some recent morning meeting slides.
Monday, November 14, 2022 - World Diabetes Day, Wear BLUE
Friday, November 18, 2022 - CRAZY HAIR DAY!
Wednesday, November 23, 2022 - EARLY DISMISSAL
Thurs. & Friday, November 24-25, 2022 - THANKSGIVING BREAK, NO SCHOOL
Friday, December 9, 2022 - Report cards go home.
Friday, December 9, 2022 - PJ Day to raise money for Connecticut Children's Hospital
Thank you for stopping by!