Important Dates & Reminders
It's wonderful to have Makayla back!
*I will try to highlight new dates and information with red text.
Walking Club Volunteer Sign Up
Permission Slips
Students need signed permission slips for two activities next week: Walk A Mile and Highbanks Metro Park. I will send home new slips for students who have not turned them in on Monday.
Walk A Mile In My Shoes Day will take place next Wednesday, October 23rd.
From Mrs. Dobies, "Following a lesson about empathy, each student completed a sign that says, “I’m walking a mile for _____.” Some possible ways to finish that sentence would be, “a soldier far from home doing a hard job,” or, “someone who is sick in the hospital.”
Then next Wednesday morning, with these signs taped to our backs, we’ll walk twice around the Windermere block (total distance of one mile) and think about how we can take what we learn and use that knowledge and skill outside the walls of Windermere to make the world a better place.
Please find the permission slip for the Walk in today’s Friday Folder, sign it and return it to school on Monday. Also, please help your child remember to wear warm clothes and good shoes for walking next Wednesday. Thank you!"
To make this more meaningful, please discuss the idea of empathy and walking in someone less fortunate's shoes.
October 23, 2013 - Picture retakes
October 25, 2013 - Field Trip to Highbanks Metro Park for Earth Science. Thank you volunteers! Students should wear good hiking/walking shoes that can get muddy, pack a sack lunch and wear something they can zip and unzip as it is usually cool and the morning and warms up throughout the day. Please do not send umbrellas.
October 25, 2013 - End of the first quarter. Please avoid appointments this week as I'll be assessing.
October 28, 2013 - No school, teacher grading day.
October 31, 2013 - Halloween party (extended lunch from 12pm till 1:30pm, most students go home to change into costumes). Please note it is district policy that no costume may include any weapons or facsimiles.
November 4 - 7, 2013: Parent conferences. If you have not signed up, please contact me. I will send reminders of your date and time in your student's progress report and an email this week.
November 5, 2013: No school for students: Professional development.
November 27 - 29, 2013: No school - Thanksgiving.
December 11, 2013: Early release: Professional development.
December 23, 2013 - January 3, 2014: Winter break - no school.
January 6, 2014: First day back to school.
January 16, 2014: End of the second quarter. Please avoid appointments this week as I'll be assessing.
January 17, 2014: No school, teacher grading day.
What We Learned This Week
Word Study
Students studied y as a vowel modifier. Y produces long a (e.g., play), long e (e.g., baby) and long i (e.g., reply) sounds. Students spelled new words based on our week long study and identified corresponding sounds. Students recognized that long a sounds are usually represented by "ay" or "ey" while long e and i sounds are represented by a solitary y at the end of the syllable.
Students also learned about synonyms (same) and antonyms (opposite). This new learning was reinforced with a game of "Synonym Says." We will be working on synonyms and antonyms much more next grading period in our writing as we develop our writing vocabulary and when utilizing context clues in reading.
Reading
We continued to explore the use of context clues in isolation and with our read aloud as part of a "think aloud," where I model my own thinking for understanding unfamiliar words.
During reading conferences, students were given new "book marks" with their primary reading goal (comprehension, fluency, vocabulary acquisition, accuracy, becoming a "real reader," etc.) and specific strategies for achieving these goals. This builds student responsibility and understanding for what they're developing.
I'm hoping to wrap up our read aloud this week and plan to begin a Peter Sis author study of non-fiction texts.
Writing
We will be composing our first pen pal letters this week as part of a writing assessment. Please send an addressed envelope to school by Friday. A few students do not yet know who their pen pal is. Please help them choose one by Monday as audience is an important element for their writing. I will share copies of these letters during conferences. We worked very heavily on developing plans for our writing.
Mark Walter, author and UA graduate, visited us on Friday to discuss the writing process. H is a second grade teacher and was a terrific speaker, focusing on so much of what is important about pre-writing and revision. Mrs. Hastings is having the class make a Windermere A to Z book, using Mr. Walter's Buckeye A to Z book as a model. Our class is doing I for inquiry.
I is for inquiry
Math
Most students are comfortable with finding multi-digit sums and differences when the problems are set up for them. We worked on story problems where students have to determine which operation to apply, or applied math. We also practiced multi-step problems, e.g., Peg read 236 pages. Her brother, Paul, read 24 fewer pages. How many pages did they read? I intentionally leave out terms like "all together" or "in total" because they give too much support. Many students struggle with multi-step problems like these. They will automatically add 236 and 24 as their answer without understanding the question or will solve for the number of pages Paul read by finding the difference between 236 and 24 and will stop there. I have students actually act out story problems to help them better understand them and identify the necessary steps. Students are further challenged to co-write two step story problems to better understand them.
I will be assessing numeracy, operations, measurement (time) and fact fluency next week after a brief review as we approach the end of the quarter. I will share these assessments during conferences.
Science
The Franklin County Soil and Water Conservation District visited to discuss erosion how to keep our streams clean. They do a wonderful job of show how interdependent trees, plants, water, soil and humans are.
underground perspective of a stream ecology
We took our second field trip to Thompson Park where we focused on change in our trees (e.g., change in leaf color, loss of leaves, ground leaf decomposition, decomposers on the ground and base of trees such as mushrooms and worms, evidence of tree use by squirrels such as nut scraps, etc.). Students photographed their trees and will be uploading them and their observations in the next few weeks. I was very excited to see so many students exploring beyond their assigned trees and noticing maturing fruits and decomposers. A few students have not visited the Thompson Park Tree Trek blog yet. You can visit it with them by clicking on the link at right under "Favorites."
mushrooms (decomposers)
slug (decomposer)
walnuts (decomposition of mature fruits)
unidentified fruit
using all of our senses (smelling pine needles)
mature seeds and fruits (two very different looking seeds on the same tree)
mature pine cones decomposing having released their seeds
