Friday, October 23, 2015

Newsletter for October 23, 2015

What We Learned This Week

Word Study

We reviewed and assessed our a sounds and patterns: VCe and vowel team (ai) and VC. I'll send these home on Monday. I also introduced nouns. Students should be able to distinguish between common and proper nouns.

Reading Workshop

I introduced fables and folktales. Students worked to identify the moral or lesson in the story. We will continue this and eventually construct our own fables.

I also started our study of inference. Students know they have to cite evidence to support their inferences.

Writing Workshop

Students planned and wrote short first person narratives. We will use these for revision next week where I will encourage students to "show, don't tell," by adding details that create a mental picture for the audience.


Students demonstrating the parts of a friendly letter kinesthetic.
We are anxiously awaiting our pen pals responses! 

Math

Students began their multiplication and division fact fluency with the following strategies: zeroes (zero groups of n), ones (one group of n), and doubles (two group of n). I define multiplication as "efficient addition of same sized groups." I will never say 8 x 3 as "eight times three," but will instead call it "eight groups of three." This subtle difference is very helpful in developing understanding of multiplication.

Students should be able to represent a multiplication fact as a number statement, addition, groups, and arrays. They should be able to represent number statements, addition of same sized groups, groups, and arrays as a multiplication statement.

Science

I showed a short video of the famous Apollo 13 space mission and its "Houston, we have a problem" situation to stress the importance of being able to communicate clearly.
To practice this, students took turns designing shapes behind blinds and talking their partners through the design process using only words. The results were interesting.


 
These first two were close, but you can see the miscommunication.


This example and the next show great communication.


It is also interesting to observe students' complexity of shapes they choose to build.

Important Dates and Reminders


I will highlight new and changed dates on subsequent posts in red.

October 26 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
October 29 - UA Trick or Treat Night
October 29 - Progress Reports Sent Home
October 30 - Halloween Party and Parade (Thank you room parents!)

November 2 - Early Dismissal at 11:05 NO LUNCH SERVICE
November 2 through 4 - Fall Conferences 
You can sign up for Fall Conferences by clicking on this link:http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0a4fa5ac2ea64-fall3
November 3 - No School Election Day/Professional Development
November 5 - Picture Retakes
November 9 through 13 - Terra Nova3/InView
November 19 - Thompson Park Tree Trek (Please let me know if you can chaperon.) 
November 25 through 27 - Thanksgiving Break

December 1 through 2 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
December 21 through January 1 - Winter Break

January 8 - End of Second Quarter
January 11 - No School Teacher Grading Day
January 18  - No School Martin Luther King Day
January 21 - Conferences, Early Dismissal at 11:05, NO LUNCH SERVICE
January 27 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm

February 1 through 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center donation drive
February 15 - No School Presidents' Day
February 16 - Ohio Wildlife Center Visit

March 2 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
March 18 - End of Third Quarter
March 21 through 25 - No School Spring Break
March 28 - No School Teacher Grading Day

April 6 - Early Dismissal Professional Development 1pm
April 12 and 13 - Ohio English Language Arts Assessment
April 20 and 21 - Ohio Mathematics Assessment

May 27 - Last Day of School for Students

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