It's hard to believe another two weeks have passed. The year is definitely feeling underway.
Thank you to all who were able to come out for Go-To-School-Night. It's always great to see you face to face and share a day in the life of your child.
Please keep those Fall Parent Reflections coming - they are super helpful to gain insight and to communicate your child's needs. Remember, they are due by the end of the month (Friday). So far, I only have about half of them.
Don't forget about our upcoming conferences on Oct. 20 & 21. If you need to change your time, the document is still open. Please feel free to choose a different opening, or personally contact another classmate family to make an exchange.
In these opening weeks of math, we have spent time reacquainting ourselves with multiplication. Through the use of arrays, we continue to explore the concept of multiplication, while enhancing our automaticity of facts. We have also been developing our mathematical vocabulary: factors, product, multiples, composite, prime, commutative, etc.
I have had the wonderful opportunity of reading with each child to assess their just right guided reading zones. This has helped me to check in with your child about his/her reading habits, oral expression, accuracy, rate and comprehension. This week we are starting our book groups. These groups will meet during our "SQUIRT & Work" time.
As we move forward in our writing, we are ready to move from generating ideas, into choosing an idea for our personal narrative. Over the next few weeks we will choose our topic and begin planning and structuring our writing. Our Writer's Workshop framework starts with a mini-lesson where I teach the kids a strategy to use. Next, the kids work for 20 - 30 minutes of writing time, often attempting that kiss or strategy. Our final minutes are spent sharing out with one another. Sometimes they will share with the whole class, or a neighbor. We celebrate our learnings and generate energy for our next sessions.
Lately we have been spending time bringing our SS and Science study together as we explore why the Earth looks the way it does and how it effects our land and mapping. Discussing and learning about the physical characteristics of our planet, including plate tectonics, and the land and water features we use in mapping, we are off to a great start. This will lead us into a science study about waves and the transfer of energy as well as learning about landforms.
Please read the letter I forwarded regarding keyboarding.
I hope you all had a lovely weekend and have had a nice start to this week.
Here are some fun pictures:
RECESS!
Array Cards for Multiplication Facts
Picture Day
Strong Feelings to Enhance our Writing
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