Week of 9/26

We had another great week! The days just seem to fly by and find myself wishing I had them for just a little bit longer each day.

Highlights:

- We have been working hard on our Summer Read Book Reviews. We have brainstormed and created our first drafts and are moving into revising, editing, publishing, and illustrating.

- Dear Mr. Henshaw seems to be a hit with the class. It has prompted meaningful discussion just in the two days we have been reading it. We will begin small group Book Talks on Monday. I have asked the class not to read ahead as we will often try to predict what is yet to come in the book. Please feel free to read the book with your child. I will also be asking the kids to respond to their reading in different ways.

- In Math, we started an activitiy involving collecting, graphing, and comparing data. Through this activity, we will also introduce probability. This coming week, we will continue and potentially wrap up Data and Graphing, taking a closer look at line graphs, circle graphs, and introducing coordinate grids in a super fun way!

- In Social Studies, we continued to explore the geography of our state, learning about the regions of Virginia. We are investigating maps and Virginia's natural resources.

- In Science, we explored Meade Creek, looking more closely at the stream habitat. We will continue to study Virginia plants and animals as they relate to Virginia's regions next week, and begin to focus on plant structures and functions.

On top of all of this, the kids are learning a lot in all of their specials and are loving P.E.. We had a great time walking to the library and McGuffey Park today. The kids loved checking out books at the library (I limited them to 3 each). We will definitely go to the library on a regular basis. We also celebrated Adalee's birthday. Certainly an action packed week. It is just wonderful being in the downtown area, with so much right at our fingertips.

Announcements and Reminders:

- Ms. Thomas is no longer with CDS. Ms. Lockwood will be providing support for the equivalent time we had Ms. Thomas. This is a positive change and we are excited to have Ms. Lockwood.

- Please make sure your child has a water bottle every day.

- Back to School Night is this coming Wednesday from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.. I look forward to seeing you there.

- Please help your child remember to complete the Daily Learning Activities. Thank you!

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a great weekend!

Best,

Annelise

Week 2 and 3

Well, we are in the third week of school and we are busy, busy, busy. What a fantastic class we have!

Last week was packed with learning! In Language Arts, we continued to write in our journals, and explored the power of language. Specifically, we talked about descriptive writing, and the use of vivid adjectives in making our writing magnetic. Ask your child about salsa words. I am sure s/he can give you examples. In Math, we began our unit on Data and Graphing by creating a class graph, brainstorming what information we can extract from the graph and then collecting data from our classmates and constructing individual bar graphs. In Social Studies, Ms. Reed began a unit on Virginia, beginning with Virginia geography. What a treat to have her for that time! And in Science, Ms. Lockwood continued with rivers, introducing Meade Creek and talking about the watersheds in Virginia. We were supposed to spend more time exploring Meade Creek on Friday but the weather decided otherwise. Hopefully this week. We made invitiations for grandparents and special friends, started Morning Meeting, did yoga and kickboxing during P.E., and met with our Book Buddies for the first time.

This week in Language Arts, we are diving into our summer books. We talked about what it means to be a book critic and the components of a book review. Each child will be writing his/her own book review of a book s/he read over the summer. This project will introduce the Writing Process as we will go through each step to get to our final product. In addition to this writing project, we will begin Book Groups on Thursday. Our first book is Dear Mr. Henshaw, another Newberry Award winner. The class will read the book at home and will meet in groups to talk about it at school. Your child can read the assigned pages independently or you can read them together. In Math, we are continuing with Data and Graphing. We are working on interpreting graphs and using the information to problem solve. These kiddos are impressive. Today, when looking at a bar graph and figuring out what information we could take from it, one child said, "Well, we inferenced from the graph that Pups Place has the best pizza." And, there were many other insightful responses as well. We also introduced two new math games. Adria brought in Yamslam, an exciting dice game and Tomas brought in Battleship, which is great practice for the kids as we will be playing Battleship on coordinate grids to end our graphing unit. Thank you for sharing with our class!

I hope the DLA folders are working out. This week will bring additional Daily Learning Activities. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

A few notes and reminders:

- Please make sure your child has a water bottle each day. The kids are so active and need it throughout the day. Thank you for the large bottles of water that have been contributed.

- Please make sure your child has tennis shoes every day. It is not fun walking to and from Meade Park in sandals (I speak from experience).

- On Tuesday, we will be staying at Meade Park to explore the creek for Science. We will be back by 3:00.

- We are planning a field trip to the Rivanna River for Friday, October 14th. I will send out the details next week.

- We have started Morning Meeting and the kids can sign up to share. This is a great time to bring in that special something from home.

- Back to School Night is next Wednesday, October 5th from 6:30 - 8:30.



That is it for now. Look for photos in the next blog. I should have it figured out by then.


Have a great week!


Best,

Annelise

First Week of Third and Fourth Grade

What a fantastic first week of school!

This past week was overflowing with activities to get to know the site, to reconnect with one another, and to come together as a community. We toured our school, collaborated to set our classroom expectations, worked hard on our "ME" boards, put together time capsules, and did a lot of writing. We played math games, created personal rivers, and brainstormed our school and classroom themes. We were also introduced to Science and learned a bit about rivers as well as ways we can take care of our environment in our classroom and school.


Outside of our classroom, we were busy as well. On Monday and Thursday, we had Spanish with Senora B. and PE with Ms. Stacey. On Tuesday and Friday, we had Music with Ms. Kelly and walked to Meade Park with the entire elementary school for recess and PE. What a great place we have right in our backyard!


We also had our first assembly. The Chinese Art Performing Troupe from UVA came to teach our elementary students about Chinese culture, specifically through instruments, dance, and opera. The performance was rich and we all learned so much!


This coming week will continue to bring new experiences. In Language Arts, we will be exploring the power of language in a series of different activities. From interpreting poetry, to communcating with no words, to applying words in different situations, we will continue our conversation about our classroom theme Beyond Words... In addition, we will begin and hopefully finish reading assessments with each child. A walk to Jefferson Madison Library is also in our near future. Once I work out when that will be, I will email you with the details. Please have your child read every night for at least 15 minutes.


In Math , we will be doing pre-assessments in Numbers and Operations and diving into Data and Graphing. In order to help each student gain confidence in their math facts, I ask that your child practice his/her facts each school night for 10 minutes. Some are working on addition facts, while others are working on multiplication. Please help your child find a variety of ways to practice these facts. Printed lists, computer games or apps, games with dice and cards, and simply calling out facts are all great ways for the kids to practice. Please help them shake up the routine by practicing in a variety of ways. This will keep it fun. I will send home a sheet with guidelines and suggestions this week.


Notes and Reminders:

- Please have your child bring one Newberry book s/he read this past summer. We will begin talking about these books and rating them over the next couple weeks. If s/he did not read or complete a Newberry, just send in a book s/he did complete. No worries.

- On Tuesday, each child will come home with a DLA (Daily Learning Activities)/communication folder and a DLA journal. The folder will be used to transport work and communications to and from school. The journal will be used to keep track of the daily learning activities. A slip of paper with the DLA's for that day will be stapled into the journal at the end of each school day.

- On Monday, September 26, we will begin reading Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. Please have your child bring a copy of this book to school by the 26th. You can check it out at the library, order a used copy from Amazon, or pick it up at Barnes and Noble. We will be reading the book as a class and discussing it in small groups.

- On Tuesdays and Fridays we walk to Meade Park for recess and PE. Upon returning, the kids are very thirsty and have often finished the water that was brought to school. While we have sinks in the classroom to fill their water bottles, most would like cold water. We do have a refrigerator in the classroom and, if you would each like to bring in a big bottle of water, I am happy to rotate through those to refill waterbottles. Or, please send an additional waterbottle to school with your child so they have plenty to last the entire day.


I am looking forward to another wonderful week! If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me.


Have a great weekend!

Best,


Annelise