Between the Holidays

Greetings A-4 Families:

It's been a long time since I've sent out an update due to the positioning of Conferences and Thanksgiving Break.  I hope you all had a wonderful time with family, friends and food!

It will be good to have these three full weeks before heading off to our Winter Break.  It was nice this past week to get back into the routine.

This time of year, in between holidays, often proves to be a difficult time of year to command the children's attention.  This past week I noticed that our group was having a very difficult time with focusing, using their time well and applying manners.  My greatest concern has been the lack of quality and effort on their work.  There were a few times I came down a bit tough on them to let them know that this is unacceptable.  There have been some complacent, lazy and rude behaviors sneaking in.  I am trying to encourage them to bring their best, try their best and really be the people they want to be.  I would truly appreciate some home conversation to support the aforementioned and encourage a strong finish to 2016.  

Moving along in math, we are currently working with the next level of multiplication and division.  Using the distributive method (open arrays and break-aparts), we are learning to do double digit multiplication and up to triple digit division.  We have also been exploring these concepts through games and problem solving scenarios.  These methods help build foundational understanding of the processes.  Standard multiplication algorithms will be taught in 5th grade.  We will continue to explore different ways to problem solve, even if it is a bit longer, but the benefits of stronger contextual understanding make it worth it.

This past week we celebrated our grand finale of our narrative writing.  The kids were divided into groups of 6 or 7 to share their stories.  Whereas many celebrations include food or presents, we feasted on words and offered compliments to one another as we recognized the wonderful accomplishments of our peers.  This has been a very meaningful experience to the kids.  They really took this to heart and offered valuable and positive feedback to one another.  I am really proud of them all.

Our book groups continue, though we are nearing the end of our books.  As we come to a close, with the break so near, we will take some time to shift our focus to a study of characterization and character traits.  With the completion of our narrative unit and the ending of our book groups, I look forward to integrating our reading and writing into a mini-unit of Literary Essay over the next few weeks.

As we continue our study of the Regions of the United States, we are focusing on the North East.  We are using a virtual textbook which takes us on a tour of significant places in the region.  We will 'visit' places like Plymouth, MA, Hershey, PA and Washington DC.  Along the tour we will learn about the Mayflower Compact, some of the first factories and the birth of our government.

Be sure to browse the pictures below.  We always have a wonderful time connecting with out 1st grade buddies and our IDEA Lab time.

Again, thank you for your continued support.
Enjoy your weekend.

Book Fair

Array Game

Typing our Stories & Writing Partner work

Thanksgiving Assembly

Time with Buddies

Division Problem Solving

Choosing our Government

IDEA Lab

Filling the Machine

Division Game

Writing Celebration

November

Fall Greetings!

It's good to be back into routine, even though it was a shorter week.  Between conference days, STEAM week, Halloween, and the Cubs, things were starting to get a bit wacky!

Election Week
This week we held an Emoji Election.  This allowed for all students to be active in a democratic way and cast a vote of their own opinion.  "Cool Dude" the emoji with sunglasses won.  Now it is up to us to decide how we might use the emoji throughout the year.  Our Town Hall Representatives will be collecting ideas to bring forth into the decision making process.

Reading
We are continuing our book groups during our reading time.  The emphasis is to build a 'readerly life'. As we read our assigned chapters, we have been dissecting our focus weekly.  First, we focused on character, then building connections to the story, finding interesting vocabulary and now selecting passages of good writing or deeper messages.  Each week a new reading segment is assigned, as well as one of the aforementioned focuses.  I am quite pleased with how well the students are doing with this process.  They look forward to their group time and are very interactive in the group discussions.

Writing
We have finished our full drafts of our personal narrative.  These past few weeks we worked on multiple drafts, introductions, adding details and building dialogue.  Next we will be working toward the final stages of drafting and revision and work to type it into our Google documents.

Keyboarding
With the Book Fair coming up, we will use our IDEA Lab time getting a jump start on "Typing Club".  Earlier this year a letter regarding keyboarding was sent home.  Keyboarding skills has become an integral part of digital literacy and important that it be taught, practiced and supported.  We recognize the importance of this skill, but also know that practice is key.  In our attempt to build a balanced partnership, we will be getting the kids started on the program and dedicate a few weeks to this at school, but in order for this skill to carry over successfully, home practice will be essential.

Math
We just finished our latest unit (Unit 2&3) where we focused on "BIG" numbers, place value and learned the US traditional algorithms for addition and subtraction.  Whereas the teaching of these concepts is complete, we will continue with lots of embedded practice, as this is a skill that takes time and practice to fully integrate.  The yellow and white math assessments for unit 2/3 came home in orange folder this weekend.  Please recall that M = meets, P or PM = Partially Meets, N or NM = Not Meeting the criteria for the concept being assessed.  We are not necessarily expecting full mastery of every point, but overall growth from the beginning to the end of each unit.  Please be sure to return these and we will file them in our binder portfolios here at school.

SS & Science
After finishing our Cooperative cycle of learning about Landforms, we will continue our study of mapping with our next focus: Regions of the US.  This will take us through the rest of the year as we concentrate on one region at a time, beginning with the NorthEast.

Please take note that with the change of weather, kids are more likely to get sick.  Please help your child come prepared for outdoor time.  Fresh air is important, but so is proper warmth!

Celebrating with the CUBS!!

Emoji Election

Sharing STEAM projects with Buddies

Hope you are enjoying this gorgeous fall weekend! :)

Halloween

I apologize for not sending this out earlier.  We had a wonderfully fun Halloween. A special thank you to Sarah Stuart and Tracey McDowell for organizing fun games and activities.