Newsletter 10/28/16

We finished up our unit titled "We Are Readers!" this week, discussing how to read with partners and how to "read" emergent  ("favorite") books.  A lesson called "put a pinch of you in" taught us how to speak with a partner about books while adding an "I think..." statement.  You can model this at home, too, and then ask your child's thoughts.  We also learned that we can read favorite stories by looking at the pictures and words, using character voices and retelling the story with "connecting words". This is a hard concept.  We connect pages using words like "and", "then", "next", and "finally" (to name a few).  Ask your child to use connecting words as they "read" the favorite books coming home each night.  We will be practicing this all year.

We finished our first piece in Writing Workshop!!!  We chose one piece to "fix and fancy up" (edit) and focused on that all week.  Our partners helped, too.  Then, on Friday, we celebrated all that we've learned as writers!  We shared a snack of pumpkin seeds and toasted our success with "bubbly".  See photos below.

We solved a problem in math this week where we had to compare two amounts and prove which was more and which was less.  We are learning to understand what a problem is saying, think and plan how we are going to solve it, and then begin.  We also measured around the room comparing lengths of items to a train of 10 cubes (see photos).  We are learning new mathematical vocabulary all the time!

We had hands-on science fun while carving pumpkins this week!  Thanks again to those who volunteered!

Thank you to the Bolton, Himel, DiBenedetto, Doody, Murphy, Nichols, Patel, Katz, Eising, Sedlock, Kohlberger, Webb and Malone families who donated toward our classroom library this week! I hope I didn't forget anyone; I'm overwhelmed by your generosity.  We are so excited about our great new books!

News and Notes:

• Have you sent in your child's cold weather emergency clothes?
• Have you sent in your child's spiral notebook?
• Picture retakes 11/3.  Please let me know if you want one.
• Halloween Parade (for K only!): Monday 10 am.  We'll be walking up from the K side of the school, across the front sidewalk and into the front door.  All parents should be outside on the edge of the front walkway.  See you then!  

CHEERS!

WE ARE AMAZING AUTHORS!

Comparing Lengths