Week of October 17

Highlights

What better way to begin a week than with a birthday to share with a classroom full of wonderful kids! Thank you to all for helping this be one of the best birthdays yet. And, then to end the week with a day as special and wonderful as Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day! It was fantastic!

In Language Arts this week we were writers, readers, creators, interviewers, and connectors. The kids worked hard on their personal narratives, employing new strategies for generating ideas, and beginning to look at the qualities of good writing. They certainly are eager and proficient writers and story tellers! We will continue our narratives this week, adding conferences and revision to our repertoire.

We also began making connections with text we read, more specifically learning how to note parts of text that remind us of something related to our lives. Paying attention to how stories and print can remind us of our own experiences forces the kids to look at text differently, and is the first strategy for making connections with what we read. This week we will talk about and practice making text to self connections as well. The students will practice these strategies in their independent reading books by keeping post-its nearby and writing the connections on post-its and sticking them next to the relevant text. We will also practice it as a class with our read alouds.

To end our last read aloud, Maniac Magee, we talked in depth about the book and the main character, listing characteristics that describe him. We then made comparisons between his attributes and our own, looking at specific times in our lives when we have demonstrated certain characteristics. Each student picked a shared attribute and illustrated scenes from his/her life and from Maniac's life when that attribute was prominent. It was wonderful to see what characteristics were chosen and the insightfulness that went into selecting the connecting scenes. Please take a minute to see these creations up on our walls in our room.

In Math, we continued to explore place value, comparing the place of a digit with the value of the digit. The students are practicing putting numbers in standard, expanded, and word form, strengthening their understanding of how our place value system works. This week we will be rounding numbers and jumping into number operations, from subtraction to multiplication. Tomorrow I will introduce Speed Racer, an individualized way for students to practice their math facts at the same time, at their own pace, while providing me with information about how each is progressing through their facts.

Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day was such a special event. The kids were delighted to share their classroom, work, and friends with all of our guests. It was heartwarming to hear each child give tours of the room, explain what we are up to in class, and talk about CDS in general. There was such pride and happiness in the air. And, the interviews were fun to listen to. The kids came up with the creative questionnaire as a class and had a blast interrogating their guest(s).

When asked what her greatest talent is, one grandmother responded with "talking". When asked what he wanted to grow up to be when he was a child, one grandfather responded with "smart". The responses were compared and talked about all the way to the Jefferson Theater for our WSC. Being at the Jefferson was such a treat and the kids did a great job! We then went to the park and ended our day and week at the library.

Reminders and Announcements

- Next Monday, October 31st, is our Harvest Festival. We will host an activity for which we will need volunteers to set-up, manage, and clean-up. Once we decide what our activity will be, I will let you know. SCHOOL DISMISSES FOLLOWING THE HARVEST FESTIVAL at 11:30 AM, unless your child is signed up for Kids Camp with Ms. Breeden. Please call Kim if you need to sign your child up.

- On Tuesday, November 1, we have Parent/Teacher Conferences and there is NO SCHOOL for the kiddos. If you need to sign your child up for Kids Camp, please call Kim. I will post a sign-up sheet with conference times tomorrow. Let me know if you are unable to meet on November 1st so we can set up a different time. Please note that care is not provided for children during conferences unless your child is signed up for Kids Camp.

- Hopefully we will be able to go to Riverview Park this week. We will meet tomorrow to determine the day and I will let you all know.

- Please help your child remember to bring his/her independent reading book to school on a daily basis.

There is no doubt that this will be another great and busy week! Please let me know if you have any questions.

All the best,

Annelise