January 2, 2012

Happy New Year Sun Bear Families!

It was great to see all of the kids today. Everyone was excited and eager to share, and share, and share, and share. But, believe it or not, we did quite a bit today -- a great start to the new year.

In Language Arts we worked on making text-to-world connections through the story Ruby Bridges. This week we will continue to read a range of short stories, continuing the skill of making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. We have read several Patricia Polacco books and will read a couple more. In addition, we will read and discuss some Eve Bunting books. Eve Bunting writes beautiful stories about real issues, lending themselves to meaningful conversations and connections.

Next week we will begin survival fiction novels. The class is very excited! For this unit, they will be broken up into groups, each reading a different survival fiction story. Reading Response will be related to their book and will be discussed in small groups. The books will be provided. I will also be reading aloud The Sign of the Beaver, another fantastic novel that can be connected to what they are reading in their book groups and relates to Early Colonization, where they are headed in Social Studies.

In addition, we begin Newspaper Buddies this month. A couple of times per month our class will get together with Mrs. Reed's class and will read and discuss current events as well as engaging in other activities together.

In Word Study, the kids picked up where they left off, writing creative stories using the same words they were working on before break. They will share their stories tomorrow, which is always an exciting time. I will be giving them an assessment of their current words on Wednesday. We will spend some time practicing this in class tomorrow.

In Writing, we learned about the three parts of a paragraph and discussed characteristics of well-written paragraphs. The kids then partnered up and practiced writing descriptive paragraphs, incorporating all three parts. Tomorrow morning they will share what they wrote. It was a good exercise. This week we will continue mini lessons on the mechanics and conventions of writing as a couple students work to finish up their personal narratives. Next week, we will move into non-fiction writing. More specifically, our Writer's Workshop will be tied directly to our next science unit -- The Solar System. During this unit, each student will research a topic and write a non-fiction essay about that topic.

In Math, we played games reinforcing a variety of number operations. The kids had a great time. We will stick with Number Operations this week and will then add in Measurement. We will continue Number Operations for the first 15 to 20 minutes of math each day throughout the year, allowing the kids to have time to practice their facts, gain confidence in their problem solving, and move forward in their computation skills and strategies.

Reminders and Announcements --

- We are planning to go to the library this Friday so long as the weather is agreeable. The kids will have the opportunity to get books on the Solar System in addition to checking out a couple books of choice. We will leave after lunch and will return by 3:30. During that time we will go to Mc Guffey Park as well.

- We will be planning a field trip related to our Solar System unit. We will either go to the Observatory here at UVA or possibly to the Richmond Museum of Science.

- Please remember to send your child to school with a water bottle every day.

- EXCITING -- Arch's is now offering Healthy Lunches on M, T, TH, and F. There are many options to choose from. If you are interested in ordering, please touch base with Kim. There is a website where you can order and pay for these lunches directly. What a great opportunity!

- Please make sure your child comes to school dressed for the winter weather. We do go out, even in the cold so please make sure jackets, gloves, and hats are at school daily.

- We now have a keypad on the door to the cottage. The code is the same as the main building - 1937. Thank you to Greg Cooley for installing this.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Happy New Year,

Annelise

-