4th grade happenings the past two weeks.
Language Arts
The learners have started new book groups. The are doing different activities and facilitating meetings on their own for this round. It is nice to see how they handle different aspects of group work in this situation. You can really see how the structure and practice of facilitated book groups gives them the tools to have successful coversations about literature on their own. Learners had the opportunity to choose the books they didn't "get" in the Realistic Fiction group or were able to choose a Fantasy book, which they are connecting to our Read Aloud novel, Tuck Everlasting that we finished a few weeks ago. These groups range in size from independent study (1) to six learners all based on choice.
In Writer's Workshop we've been working on Revising for Word Choice and Voice. We talked about how action verbs help a story be more engaging. Then we had a short review of verbs, especially action verbs. We learned/reviewed the subject and predicate of a sentence. We talked about formal vs. casual voice in our writing and when it is or isn't appropriate. We recognized how much dialogue helps a story's "Voice". With all of these minilessons, we then went back to our current draft to improve it. We learned more about how to have a meaningful feedback conference with peers, and had a chance to practice. There is a Six-Trait Checklist connected to their "Light" essay homework this week. Please note that these are traits and expectations well be working on improving all year and I do not expect all learners to include all of these things. We have had a lot of practice with Ideas, Voice, and Conventions. We'll continue working on mulitparagraph organization, word choice, and sentence fluency through Writer's Workshop.
Word Work happens every Tuesday morning. There has been some confusion regarding homework and expectations and so I am yet again, trying something new. We began buddy checks with learners still mastering No Excuse Words. They will now be testing each other at school on their new lightning, shark, and turtle words. They will bring home a list of Shark and Turtle words that they need to practice at home, so that they can be quizzed the following week on their mastery. those learners who mastered their No Excuse List are working in a small group on other grammar and spelling skills.
It's Electric
Learners have been conducting different experiments with electricity. They have used cells (batteries), wires, light bulbs, and other means to make a curcuit. They should understand what curcuits are, including short, open, and closed. (They know to never create a short curcuit.)Gina Reidy helped the learners explore Conductors and Insulators. They experimented with switches this week. Many learners created their own switches using different material, while others worked with actual switch components.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
DECEMBER 8
Good Afternoon,
Sorry I did not write an update for math last week, my little ones were so sick that I never had a chance. I am sending this out without Lale's, but will post hers when I get it. Thanks for being patient.
We have been quite busy the past few weeks:
Math:
We have officially begun fractions. We started looking at ways to divide crazy cakes or shapes into two equal halves last week. We looked at the connection between shapes and noticed that two triangles could be put together to make a square. This helped us to prove that our shapes were divided equally by looking at the area. We also talked about symmetry and congruent shapes during the activity. This week we used geoboards to learn more about halves. We first figured out the area of the geoboards and then talked about how to divide it into two equal shapes. We built on our knowledge learned during crazy cakes to design crazy shaped halves. Learners noticed the relationships between fractions and division by noting that if the area of the geoboard was 16, half of that would be 8 because 16 divided by 2 equals 8. Next week we will begin to explore fourths, thirds, etc using these same methods.
I have noticed that many learners are continuing to practice their multiplication facts at home, but many are not. I am leaving this up to your learner, but am assessing them at school. It is very obvious who has been practicing and who hasn't. If you need suggestions for practicing them please don't hesitate to ask. I posted a dice game to the update blog as one example. If your learner practices every night for five minutes they should master them quickly.
Social Studies:
We began looking at why the California missions were built. We talked about the Spanish desire to establish presence in California and keep the Russians from claiming it as their own. We talked about how mission life changed the way of life for the native tribes and looked at the positive and negative effects the missions had on California. Learners then selected a mission that they will learn more about. They will begin researching their mission in class next week and will present their mission to the class. This way all of the learners get to learn about the different missions. We will then complete a group project that uses the information learned to share with others. Stay tuned.
Age of Sail Volunteers:
Unfortunately after I posted the final volunteer list for the Age of Sail program five people responded asking if they could go. I would like to be respectful of the fact that we don't always all get to email as quickly as others, and propose a lottery. I will do the lottery and let you know Tuesday if you are selected. We can only bring six parents, so I will ask Paula to give up her spot to help with the demand. I hope you understand, but I want to be fair. Please email me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Elysha
Good Afternoon,
Sorry I did not write an update for math last week, my little ones were so sick that I never had a chance. I am sending this out without Lale's, but will post hers when I get it. Thanks for being patient.
We have been quite busy the past few weeks:
Math:
We have officially begun fractions. We started looking at ways to divide crazy cakes or shapes into two equal halves last week. We looked at the connection between shapes and noticed that two triangles could be put together to make a square. This helped us to prove that our shapes were divided equally by looking at the area. We also talked about symmetry and congruent shapes during the activity. This week we used geoboards to learn more about halves. We first figured out the area of the geoboards and then talked about how to divide it into two equal shapes. We built on our knowledge learned during crazy cakes to design crazy shaped halves. Learners noticed the relationships between fractions and division by noting that if the area of the geoboard was 16, half of that would be 8 because 16 divided by 2 equals 8. Next week we will begin to explore fourths, thirds, etc using these same methods.
I have noticed that many learners are continuing to practice their multiplication facts at home, but many are not. I am leaving this up to your learner, but am assessing them at school. It is very obvious who has been practicing and who hasn't. If you need suggestions for practicing them please don't hesitate to ask. I posted a dice game to the update blog as one example. If your learner practices every night for five minutes they should master them quickly.
Social Studies:
We began looking at why the California missions were built. We talked about the Spanish desire to establish presence in California and keep the Russians from claiming it as their own. We talked about how mission life changed the way of life for the native tribes and looked at the positive and negative effects the missions had on California. Learners then selected a mission that they will learn more about. They will begin researching their mission in class next week and will present their mission to the class. This way all of the learners get to learn about the different missions. We will then complete a group project that uses the information learned to share with others. Stay tuned.
Age of Sail Volunteers:
Unfortunately after I posted the final volunteer list for the Age of Sail program five people responded asking if they could go. I would like to be respectful of the fact that we don't always all get to email as quickly as others, and propose a lottery. I will do the lottery and let you know Tuesday if you are selected. We can only bring six parents, so I will ask Paula to give up her spot to help with the demand. I hope you understand, but I want to be fair. Please email me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Elysha
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Help! ThereÕs Nobody to Play With!
Beat the Clock
What am I practicing? = Multiplication math facts, 1-6
What do I need? = A pair of dice and a kitchen timer
Who do I play with? = Yourself silly!
How do I play? = IÕm glad you askedÉ.
1. Set the timer for 3 minutes.
2. Roll your dice. What two numbers did you get?
3. Multiply the two numbers together.
Example:
4. Write down the product (answer) on your score sheet.
5. Roll your dice over and over again. Each time you roll, multiply the two numbers and write down the product on your score sheet. Keep playing until the timer goes off.
How do I win? = Add up all of your products. If your total is greater than 300 you win!
Score Sheet:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Friday, December 01, 2006
End of the first trimester news
It was so nice to see all of the children after the break. They came back eager to learn and dove right into lots of activities this week.
In the beginning of the week the learners were introduced to their Writer's Notebooks. We mentioned that most authors use a notebook of some type as a tool for writing ideas. I read an excerpt from my own notebook about a Fondue Party. I explained that these sentences and phrases decribing eating fondue, could maybe inspire me to draft a longer piece of writing in the future. I shared my experience of writing a gratitude list as well. Drafts of stories, poems, overhead conversations, and songs were also discussed as possibly entries. On Tuesday we had another lesson with our Notebooks regarding observations. Many details and good descriptions come from being a good observer. This skill is equally as important in other areas such as science and math. Many learners headed outside to write down observations of the moment to moment happenings outside room 11 at the CLC. These notebooks will travel back and forth between home and school for the time being. The homework asks for a couple of entries, as I want it to be more inspired than forced. If you see them following you around or hiding behind a chair with notebook in hand, you will know why. I gave them the expectations of writing neatly, skipping lines unless they are naturally small, neat writers, using margins, and scanning for no excuse words. However, I am not expecting final drafts, with perfectly edited work.
I hope you were able to go by the book fair and see the special table of 4th grade recommendations! It was nice to give the learners such an authentic connection to their writing in class. Thank you so much for buying books for the classroom! I can't wait to share them in the class library and as read alouds.
It was the third week of Enrichment. I was able to see sundials being made by the art group (Thanks to Sabrina for preparing detailed lessons, and for Tracey Fecher, Sarah and Adam Fecher's mom for stepping in to sub the class.) and creative movie making by the imovie group, thanks to Karen Venturi. I heard about the human body from the leaners working with Karen Friis and Betsy. I was interviewed by Eric, who is part of the newspaper group run by Jamie.
We got to revisit some of the concepts that were introduced at the Lawrence Hall Of Science a while ago. Gina Reidy came in and helped run some static electricity experiments on Tuesday. We did a little non-fiction reading and learned about the natural phenomenon called St. Elmo's Fire. It's not just a hit pop song from the 80's, believe it or not. Ask the learners about where the word electicity originated from (and why).
It was so nice to see all of the children after the break. They came back eager to learn and dove right into lots of activities this week.
In the beginning of the week the learners were introduced to their Writer's Notebooks. We mentioned that most authors use a notebook of some type as a tool for writing ideas. I read an excerpt from my own notebook about a Fondue Party. I explained that these sentences and phrases decribing eating fondue, could maybe inspire me to draft a longer piece of writing in the future. I shared my experience of writing a gratitude list as well. Drafts of stories, poems, overhead conversations, and songs were also discussed as possibly entries. On Tuesday we had another lesson with our Notebooks regarding observations. Many details and good descriptions come from being a good observer. This skill is equally as important in other areas such as science and math. Many learners headed outside to write down observations of the moment to moment happenings outside room 11 at the CLC. These notebooks will travel back and forth between home and school for the time being. The homework asks for a couple of entries, as I want it to be more inspired than forced. If you see them following you around or hiding behind a chair with notebook in hand, you will know why. I gave them the expectations of writing neatly, skipping lines unless they are naturally small, neat writers, using margins, and scanning for no excuse words. However, I am not expecting final drafts, with perfectly edited work.
I hope you were able to go by the book fair and see the special table of 4th grade recommendations! It was nice to give the learners such an authentic connection to their writing in class. Thank you so much for buying books for the classroom! I can't wait to share them in the class library and as read alouds.
It was the third week of Enrichment. I was able to see sundials being made by the art group (Thanks to Sabrina for preparing detailed lessons, and for Tracey Fecher, Sarah and Adam Fecher's mom for stepping in to sub the class.) and creative movie making by the imovie group, thanks to Karen Venturi. I heard about the human body from the leaners working with Karen Friis and Betsy. I was interviewed by Eric, who is part of the newspaper group run by Jamie.
We got to revisit some of the concepts that were introduced at the Lawrence Hall Of Science a while ago. Gina Reidy came in and helped run some static electricity experiments on Tuesday. We did a little non-fiction reading and learned about the natural phenomenon called St. Elmo's Fire. It's not just a hit pop song from the 80's, believe it or not. Ask the learners about where the word electicity originated from (and why).
From before break...
Language Arts
The learners ended their first round of book groups this week. Their
last discussions involved conversations about plot, theme, and
author's message. They continue to share their think marks that
include thoughts, predictions, questions, etc. about the story. They
were also responsible for writing a response paragraph regarding the
book. Another activity completed was connecting to the characters, by
writing a paragraph about a text to self, text to text or text to
world connection. The learners also did a related activity out of
their Daybooks for Critical Readers and Writers using text from Judy
Blume.
We had a mini lesson in Writer's Workshop about revising for ideas. I
read a passage and they drew pictures of the details to get a better
understanding about sharing detailed ideas. They also reviewed the
importance of sharing the 5 W's in writing a narrative...Who, What,
Where, When, Why. The learners will work on revising ideas while they
continue their drafts of unforgettable moments in their lives. The
learners continued their practice of cursive and use of commas during
language arts time as well.
Language Arts
The learners ended their first round of book groups this week. Their
last discussions involved conversations about plot, theme, and
author's message. They continue to share their think marks that
include thoughts, predictions, questions, etc. about the story. They
were also responsible for writing a response paragraph regarding the
book. Another activity completed was connecting to the characters, by
writing a paragraph about a text to self, text to text or text to
world connection. The learners also did a related activity out of
their Daybooks for Critical Readers and Writers using text from Judy
Blume.
We had a mini lesson in Writer's Workshop about revising for ideas. I
read a passage and they drew pictures of the details to get a better
understanding about sharing detailed ideas. They also reviewed the
importance of sharing the 5 W's in writing a narrative...Who, What,
Where, When, Why. The learners will work on revising ideas while they
continue their drafts of unforgettable moments in their lives. The
learners continued their practice of cursive and use of commas during
language arts time as well.
Monday, November 06, 2006
We continued working in our realistic fiction reading book groups. The focus this week was on finding difficult or interesting vocabulary. The children are supposed to make a guess at the meaning of the word and then look in the dictionary to find the actual meaning. Leslie, one of the moms facilitating a group, picked the word "serenely". It was being used to describe how someone said something. Each learner had a different idea of what the word meant, which really changed the meaning of the whole quote in the story. Passing through difficult words, and using context clues is normal at all stages of reading. However, I am hoping the learners will learn that building vocabulary will help them understand and enjoy books at a deeper level, and that they have resources for finding out the meaning of words. (For now it is hard copy dictionaries, although we will also be practicing with online dictionaries.) Most learners have been keeping up with their reading assingments and work assingments for their book groups. They are engaged and taking part in interesting conversations based on the notes they take while actively reading the book.
In writing, we are taking a look at personal narratives. Learners read an example of an unforgettable moment of someone's life. The learners then shared some of their own unforgettable moments. The learners are now in different stages of prewriting. They are either writing down a timeline, using transitional vocabulary like After That, Next, etc., or writing a sensory chart to help when adding detailed sentences to their drafts. I'll be using their writing samples as part of my Writing Training at Noyce (which will have me out of the classroom next Tuesday).
In math, we continued to refine our skills in addition. We also started to look at how quickly we could recall our multiplication facts. I am going to hold all learners accountable for knowing their x-facts (2,4,5,6,8,9,10's). They can practice at home for a few minutes each night to help them acheive this. Some learners learned efficient strategies for long division and double digit multiplication. I will expect them to use these strategies when solving problems with larger numbers. We will continue to build on our multiplication and division skills over the next couple of weeks, and then will start to look at fractions.
It was time for the annual pumpkin seed estimation activity. They made predictions before the pumpkin was open, made a new estimation from looking at the large pile of seeds scooped out of the pumpkin, and then counted the seeds for an actual total (521). The learners also guessed the height of the pumpkin in inches and had to convert their guess into centimeters. Some used addition and some used multiplication to covert from inches to centimeters.
The Halloween Carnival was a big success as I am sure you have heard from the learners themselves. The 5-8 learners really did a good job creating and running a spooky, fun, engaging experience.
The learners ended the explorer unit by creating different projects in groups. They shared what the learned about Cortez, Cabrillo, Viscainio, and Drake through different means. Projects included a power point presentation, a skit, a song, a point of view journal reading, and different drawings, maps, and posters. We are now ready to start learning about early California settlements including Fort Ross and the California Missions.
In science, the learners created objects to defy gravity using magnets, and also learned how to make a compass with a magnet. This week we will finish the magnet portion of our unit by making electromagnets. We will begin the electricity focus next week.
In writing, we are taking a look at personal narratives. Learners read an example of an unforgettable moment of someone's life. The learners then shared some of their own unforgettable moments. The learners are now in different stages of prewriting. They are either writing down a timeline, using transitional vocabulary like After That, Next, etc., or writing a sensory chart to help when adding detailed sentences to their drafts. I'll be using their writing samples as part of my Writing Training at Noyce (which will have me out of the classroom next Tuesday).
In math, we continued to refine our skills in addition. We also started to look at how quickly we could recall our multiplication facts. I am going to hold all learners accountable for knowing their x-facts (2,4,5,6,8,9,10's). They can practice at home for a few minutes each night to help them acheive this. Some learners learned efficient strategies for long division and double digit multiplication. I will expect them to use these strategies when solving problems with larger numbers. We will continue to build on our multiplication and division skills over the next couple of weeks, and then will start to look at fractions.
It was time for the annual pumpkin seed estimation activity. They made predictions before the pumpkin was open, made a new estimation from looking at the large pile of seeds scooped out of the pumpkin, and then counted the seeds for an actual total (521). The learners also guessed the height of the pumpkin in inches and had to convert their guess into centimeters. Some used addition and some used multiplication to covert from inches to centimeters.
The Halloween Carnival was a big success as I am sure you have heard from the learners themselves. The 5-8 learners really did a good job creating and running a spooky, fun, engaging experience.
The learners ended the explorer unit by creating different projects in groups. They shared what the learned about Cortez, Cabrillo, Viscainio, and Drake through different means. Projects included a power point presentation, a skit, a song, a point of view journal reading, and different drawings, maps, and posters. We are now ready to start learning about early California settlements including Fort Ross and the California Missions.
In science, the learners created objects to defy gravity using magnets, and also learned how to make a compass with a magnet. This week we will finish the magnet portion of our unit by making electromagnets. We will begin the electricity focus next week.
We continued working in our realistic fiction reading book groups. The focus this week was on finding difficult or interesting vocabulary. The children are supposed to make a guess at the meaning of the word and then look in the dictionary to find the actual meaning. Leslie, one of the moms facilitating a group, picked the word "serenely". It was being used to describe how someone said something. Each learner had a different idea of what the word meant, which really changed the meaning of the whole quote in the story. Passing through difficult words, and using context clues is normal at all stages of reading. However, I am hoping the learners will learn that building vocabulary will help them understand and enjoy books at a deeper level, and that they have resources for finding out the meaning of words. (For now it is hard copy dictionaries, although we will also be practicing with online dictionaries.) Most learners have been keeping up with their reading assignments and work assignments for their book groups. They are engaged and taking part in interesting conversations based on the notes they take while actively reading the book.
In writing, we are taking a look at personal narratives. Learners read an example of an unforgettable moment of someones life. The learners then shared some of their own unforgettable moments. The learners are now in different stages of prewriting. They are either writing down a timeline, using transitional vocabulary like After That, Next, etc., or writing a sensory chart to help when adding detailed sentences to their drafts. I'll be using their writing samples as part of my Writing Training at Noyce (which will have me out of the classroom next Tuesday).
In math, we continued to refine our skills in addition. We also started to look at how quickly we could recall our multiplication facts. I am going to hold all learners accountable for knowing their x-facts (2,4,5,6,8,9,10's). They can practice at home for a few minutes each night to help them achieve this. Some learners learned efficient strategies for long division and double digit multiplication. I will expect them to use these strategies when solving problems with larger numbers. We will continue to build on our multiplication and division skills over the next couple of weeks, and then will start to look at fractions.
It was time for the annual pumpkin seed estimation activity. They made predictions before the pumpkin was open, made a new estimation from looking at the large pile of seeds scooped out of the pumpkin, and then counted the seeds for an actual total (521). The learners also guessed the height of the pumpkin in inches and had to convert their guess into centimeters. Some used addition and some used multiplication to covert from inches to centimeters.
The Halloween Carnival was a big success as I am sure you have heard from the learners themselves. The 5-8 learners really did a good job creating and running a spooky, fun, engaging experience.
The learners ended the explorer unit by creating different projects in groups. They shared what the learned about Cortez, Cabrillo, Viscainio, and Drake through different means. Projects included a power point presentation, a skit, a song, a point of view journal reading, and different drawings, maps, and posters. We are now ready to start learning about early California settlements including Fort Ross and the California Missions.
In science, the learners created objects to defy gravity using magnets, and also learned how to make a compass with a magnet. This week we will finish the magnet portion of our unit by making electromagnets. We will begin the electricity focus next week.
In writing, we are taking a look at personal narratives. Learners read an example of an unforgettable moment of someones life. The learners then shared some of their own unforgettable moments. The learners are now in different stages of prewriting. They are either writing down a timeline, using transitional vocabulary like After That, Next, etc., or writing a sensory chart to help when adding detailed sentences to their drafts. I'll be using their writing samples as part of my Writing Training at Noyce (which will have me out of the classroom next Tuesday).
In math, we continued to refine our skills in addition. We also started to look at how quickly we could recall our multiplication facts. I am going to hold all learners accountable for knowing their x-facts (2,4,5,6,8,9,10's). They can practice at home for a few minutes each night to help them achieve this. Some learners learned efficient strategies for long division and double digit multiplication. I will expect them to use these strategies when solving problems with larger numbers. We will continue to build on our multiplication and division skills over the next couple of weeks, and then will start to look at fractions.
It was time for the annual pumpkin seed estimation activity. They made predictions before the pumpkin was open, made a new estimation from looking at the large pile of seeds scooped out of the pumpkin, and then counted the seeds for an actual total (521). The learners also guessed the height of the pumpkin in inches and had to convert their guess into centimeters. Some used addition and some used multiplication to covert from inches to centimeters.
The Halloween Carnival was a big success as I am sure you have heard from the learners themselves. The 5-8 learners really did a good job creating and running a spooky, fun, engaging experience.
The learners ended the explorer unit by creating different projects in groups. They shared what the learned about Cortez, Cabrillo, Viscainio, and Drake through different means. Projects included a power point presentation, a skit, a song, a point of view journal reading, and different drawings, maps, and posters. We are now ready to start learning about early California settlements including Fort Ross and the California Missions.
In science, the learners created objects to defy gravity using magnets, and also learned how to make a compass with a magnet. This week we will finish the magnet portion of our unit by making electromagnets. We will begin the electricity focus next week.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
It has been a busy week. Here are some of the things we worked on.
Language Arts
Book groups started this week! Leslie, Lora, Betsy, Maureen and Charlene are facilitating the five book groups. (Thanks, Ladies!) Shilo, Dog Friday, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Dear Mr. Henshaw, and Yang the Youngest and his Terrible Ear are the five realistic fiction novels we are reading. By choosing the same genre, realistic fiction, I am hoping that the learners will have talks outside of their book groups regarding the rich characters in their stories. This round included the parent facilitators modeling active reading while introducing the story. (Often called "the hook"). Reading the first chapter helps get the right pronunciation of names and places, and help establishes the tone of the story. The learners created illustrations and wrote letters to me to show their understanding of what they've read so far. The learners signed an important Reader's Contract. The expectation is if they cannot finish the story, they need to work on reading at home. (There should be plenty of time to read during the week.)
Jamie ran small groups during Reader and Writer's Workshop time this week. The learners worked on their Explorer multiple intelligence projects, proofreading for capitalization and understanding plot in reading during this time. While the class was working in smaller groups, I was able to do many independent reading assessments. (Thanks, Karen for making copies.) I also gave a non-fiction writing pre-assessment. We will be part of the whole district writing assessments in March/April, and this is a good benchmark piece to have to show growth.
Art
The children had a very cool art project with Sabrina in Art this week. The chidren completed very life-like portraits (minus the blue and yellow faces) in art this week. These stained glass style portraits are clinging to our windows. Come check them out when you have time.
Math Agreement
We spent the morning talking about the math homework this week. As a class we shared our thoughts about these problems. Many learners expressed that the problems were too hard, many expressed that they were successful solving most of them. We then talked about how to get support with these problems. It was interesting to hear their insights. Many learners were afraid that if they had their parent help them, they would show them how to solve the problem in a way that they didn't understand, but provided them with an answer. They were afraid that this wasn't what I wanted. They really weren't sure if asking for help was ok. I told them that I expected that they would need help, and it is ok to ask for support. One of the learners asked a great question. He wondered what he should do when his mom showed him a strategy that didn't make sense to him, even when she explained it. We talked about how we all solve problems differently and that it was alright to learn new ways, and that they could also teach you their way of solving.
So, to help with these concerns, as a class we created a math help agreement to share with you to support you and your learner with math problems.
Goal: Math is not just about the answers. It is about how we show our thinking and explain how we solve the problems.
When and how do we get help?
*Read the problems with a parent or adult
*With your parent underline the important facts given and figure out what the question is asking (don't solve here, just talk about the problem so that it makes more sense)
*Write down the important information and the question using words and numbers
*Choose a strategy to try (draw a picture, make a list, etc)
*Try strategy on own (this means the learners should try it on their own, but you can also solve the problem and then come together to share the problem, what you each did, and the results. Did you have different answers, why? Where did you do something different?)
*Share thinking with parent
*You can check with a calculator here if you would like, but often the learners strategies will be different than what you might choose, so don't impose your strategy on them. One way is to work on the problem separately from them and then share the steps you took.
*If they are stuck at any time, they should email me questions so I can respond with strategies to help get them started. I told them I check my email several times a day, so they would get a response quickly.
*If you have tried the problems, but are feeling frustrated, put it away and create two whiteboard problems and solve them.
I want to walk you through the first problem we did today. Many learners raised their hands when I asked who thought this problem was too hard.
First, I had a copy of the problem on the board and we read it together. We cleared up any of the words they didn't understand. We talked about how digital camera's have a memory card that stores information and that there are lots of different sizes of memory cards.
Second, together we underlined the important information in the problem. We underlined 32 mb and each picture holds 2.6mb. We then underlined the question "how many pictures can the card hold?"
I told the learners that if I was going to solve this, I would need to draw a picture. I drew a square on the board and said, "I took one picture of Teo,how many mb is this picture?' We looked back at our underlined information and figured out the pic. was 2.6mb. Then I drew a second square. How many mb was my pic of Kelsey? 2.6. I wrote that on the square. I stopped then and asked how much space I had used for two pictures? We talked about how we learned that decimals are like money, so it would be easy to add 2.6+2.6. We got the sum for two pics. This would be a good way to get your learner going at home, then have them work on it on their own. Many of them were amazed at how easy the problem actually could be. Lots of them thought they needed to do 32 divided by 2.6 and had no strategies to solve this. Everyone could solve it the way we did it in class today, actually many of the learners that raised their hands in the beginning saying it was too hard were the ones solving it.
I wanted to provide you with a glimpse of how I supported the learners to solve this. I think sometimes it is hard to find ways to support your learner in math because they might solve problems differently than you or I were taught. I would suggest moving away from jumping in with a problem like 32 divided by 2.6, and instead breaking it down even further. I appreciate the discussion this homework assignment created, and want to provide you with as much parent education in math as I can. Please hold your learners accountable to our math help agreement. I hope now they are on the same page as me.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or need support.
Have a terrific weekend,
Elysha and Lale
Language Arts
Book groups started this week! Leslie, Lora, Betsy, Maureen and Charlene are facilitating the five book groups. (Thanks, Ladies!) Shilo, Dog Friday, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, Dear Mr. Henshaw, and Yang the Youngest and his Terrible Ear are the five realistic fiction novels we are reading. By choosing the same genre, realistic fiction, I am hoping that the learners will have talks outside of their book groups regarding the rich characters in their stories. This round included the parent facilitators modeling active reading while introducing the story. (Often called "the hook"). Reading the first chapter helps get the right pronunciation of names and places, and help establishes the tone of the story. The learners created illustrations and wrote letters to me to show their understanding of what they've read so far. The learners signed an important Reader's Contract. The expectation is if they cannot finish the story, they need to work on reading at home. (There should be plenty of time to read during the week.)
Jamie ran small groups during Reader and Writer's Workshop time this week. The learners worked on their Explorer multiple intelligence projects, proofreading for capitalization and understanding plot in reading during this time. While the class was working in smaller groups, I was able to do many independent reading assessments. (Thanks, Karen for making copies.) I also gave a non-fiction writing pre-assessment. We will be part of the whole district writing assessments in March/April, and this is a good benchmark piece to have to show growth.
Art
The children had a very cool art project with Sabrina in Art this week. The chidren completed very life-like portraits (minus the blue and yellow faces) in art this week. These stained glass style portraits are clinging to our windows. Come check them out when you have time.
Math Agreement
We spent the morning talking about the math homework this week. As a class we shared our thoughts about these problems. Many learners expressed that the problems were too hard, many expressed that they were successful solving most of them. We then talked about how to get support with these problems. It was interesting to hear their insights. Many learners were afraid that if they had their parent help them, they would show them how to solve the problem in a way that they didn't understand, but provided them with an answer. They were afraid that this wasn't what I wanted. They really weren't sure if asking for help was ok. I told them that I expected that they would need help, and it is ok to ask for support. One of the learners asked a great question. He wondered what he should do when his mom showed him a strategy that didn't make sense to him, even when she explained it. We talked about how we all solve problems differently and that it was alright to learn new ways, and that they could also teach you their way of solving.
So, to help with these concerns, as a class we created a math help agreement to share with you to support you and your learner with math problems.
Goal: Math is not just about the answers. It is about how we show our thinking and explain how we solve the problems.
When and how do we get help?
*Read the problems with a parent or adult
*With your parent underline the important facts given and figure out what the question is asking (don't solve here, just talk about the problem so that it makes more sense)
*Write down the important information and the question using words and numbers
*Choose a strategy to try (draw a picture, make a list, etc)
*Try strategy on own (this means the learners should try it on their own, but you can also solve the problem and then come together to share the problem, what you each did, and the results. Did you have different answers, why? Where did you do something different?)
*Share thinking with parent
*You can check with a calculator here if you would like, but often the learners strategies will be different than what you might choose, so don't impose your strategy on them. One way is to work on the problem separately from them and then share the steps you took.
*If they are stuck at any time, they should email me questions so I can respond with strategies to help get them started. I told them I check my email several times a day, so they would get a response quickly.
*If you have tried the problems, but are feeling frustrated, put it away and create two whiteboard problems and solve them.
I want to walk you through the first problem we did today. Many learners raised their hands when I asked who thought this problem was too hard.
First, I had a copy of the problem on the board and we read it together. We cleared up any of the words they didn't understand. We talked about how digital camera's have a memory card that stores information and that there are lots of different sizes of memory cards.
Second, together we underlined the important information in the problem. We underlined 32 mb and each picture holds 2.6mb. We then underlined the question "how many pictures can the card hold?"
I told the learners that if I was going to solve this, I would need to draw a picture. I drew a square on the board and said, "I took one picture of Teo,how many mb is this picture?' We looked back at our underlined information and figured out the pic. was 2.6mb. Then I drew a second square. How many mb was my pic of Kelsey? 2.6. I wrote that on the square. I stopped then and asked how much space I had used for two pictures? We talked about how we learned that decimals are like money, so it would be easy to add 2.6+2.6. We got the sum for two pics. This would be a good way to get your learner going at home, then have them work on it on their own. Many of them were amazed at how easy the problem actually could be. Lots of them thought they needed to do 32 divided by 2.6 and had no strategies to solve this. Everyone could solve it the way we did it in class today, actually many of the learners that raised their hands in the beginning saying it was too hard were the ones solving it.
I wanted to provide you with a glimpse of how I supported the learners to solve this. I think sometimes it is hard to find ways to support your learner in math because they might solve problems differently than you or I were taught. I would suggest moving away from jumping in with a problem like 32 divided by 2.6, and instead breaking it down even further. I appreciate the discussion this homework assignment created, and want to provide you with as much parent education in math as I can. Please hold your learners accountable to our math help agreement. I hope now they are on the same page as me.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions or need support.
Have a terrific weekend,
Elysha and Lale
Thursday, October 12, 2006
In lieu of an update this week we will just be sharing some photos from our field trip today. It was a lot of fun. Here are some questions to ask your learner.
What are some different kinds of circuits?
How can you make electricity?
What happens when electrons build up?
What was the "grossest" thing you learned today in the grossology exhibit?
What was your favorite thing about the museum classes?
Don't forget to look at some pictures from the trip on our class website.
Have a fantastic weekend!
What are some different kinds of circuits?
How can you make electricity?
What happens when electrons build up?
What was the "grossest" thing you learned today in the grossology exhibit?
What was your favorite thing about the museum classes?
Don't forget to look at some pictures from the trip on our class website.
Have a fantastic weekend!
Thursday, October 05, 2006
ANOTHER BUSY WEEK
Language Arts:
This week we focused on point of view and it's meaning as it relates to people and to literature. We read an excerpt from Later Gator by Lawrence Yep in our Critical Reading and Writing Daybooks. After reading part of the story, told by a boy named Teddy, we rewrote a part of the story from Teddy's father's point of view. The learners' rewrites were very creative and showed a clear understanding of "voice" in writing and how that changes with point of view. Beware... your child may be asking for a pet alligator!
Explorers:
The beautiful and thought provoking book, Encounter by Jane Yolen, was read aloud to the class. It's about Christopher Columbus' first meeting with the Taino, through the eyes of a Taino boy. It lead to some interesting discussions. I then read excerpts from Christopher Columbus' journal about his 1492 voyage. They were surprised to hear some similar events and how different the perspectives were. For homework this week, learners practiced this skill by writing a journal entry as if they were an explorer.
We worked on gathering information from written articles about specific Explorers in small research groups. We also continued to work on our Explorer trading cards. They will be up in the room if you would like to learn some interesting facts about California explorers. The learners used reading materials to access information about the explorers. It was a nice activity to work on finding important information in text.
SEL:
We had a lovely class meeting where many people gave learners very genuine, meaningful compliments to others in the class. Everyone was aknowledged at least as a class. It was a warm way to end Tuesday.
Magnets:
Students quantified the obsevable magnetic action of 1 to 3 magnets and a paper clip in an experiment entitled, "How close can you get?". It was a review in measuring in centimeters and millimeters as well. We also completed an activity testing magnetic strength through magazines. The learners were quite impressed with their strength. Next week we will begin to look at magnetic poles.
Math:
This week learners played math games and continued working on their math menus. We completed an assessment and are going to start looking at fact recall over the next coule weeks. I have noticed the learners have a variety of great strategies for solving problems and are enthusiatic about challenging problems. This creates a nice environment for taking risks in math. Next week math volunteers start!
Have a terrific weekend!
Elysha and Lale
Language Arts:
This week we focused on point of view and it's meaning as it relates to people and to literature. We read an excerpt from Later Gator by Lawrence Yep in our Critical Reading and Writing Daybooks. After reading part of the story, told by a boy named Teddy, we rewrote a part of the story from Teddy's father's point of view. The learners' rewrites were very creative and showed a clear understanding of "voice" in writing and how that changes with point of view. Beware... your child may be asking for a pet alligator!
Explorers:
The beautiful and thought provoking book, Encounter by Jane Yolen, was read aloud to the class. It's about Christopher Columbus' first meeting with the Taino, through the eyes of a Taino boy. It lead to some interesting discussions. I then read excerpts from Christopher Columbus' journal about his 1492 voyage. They were surprised to hear some similar events and how different the perspectives were. For homework this week, learners practiced this skill by writing a journal entry as if they were an explorer.
We worked on gathering information from written articles about specific Explorers in small research groups. We also continued to work on our Explorer trading cards. They will be up in the room if you would like to learn some interesting facts about California explorers. The learners used reading materials to access information about the explorers. It was a nice activity to work on finding important information in text.
SEL:
We had a lovely class meeting where many people gave learners very genuine, meaningful compliments to others in the class. Everyone was aknowledged at least as a class. It was a warm way to end Tuesday.
Magnets:
Students quantified the obsevable magnetic action of 1 to 3 magnets and a paper clip in an experiment entitled, "How close can you get?". It was a review in measuring in centimeters and millimeters as well. We also completed an activity testing magnetic strength through magazines. The learners were quite impressed with their strength. Next week we will begin to look at magnetic poles.
Math:
This week learners played math games and continued working on their math menus. We completed an assessment and are going to start looking at fact recall over the next coule weeks. I have noticed the learners have a variety of great strategies for solving problems and are enthusiatic about challenging problems. This creates a nice environment for taking risks in math. Next week math volunteers start!
Have a terrific weekend!
Elysha and Lale
Monday, October 02, 2006
Dear Families,
We would love to create an enrichment program for the fourth grade. Currently the fourth grade is the only grade without a seminar/enrichment program. The 5/8's participate in the Fine Arts Block. Coming from the 2/3 team, we saw how important it was for the learners to have choice and participate in enrichment opportunities. We would like to carry this model into the fourth grade and hopefully will be able to participate with the 2/3's enrichment once during the year. We are currently looking for people that would be interested in running an enrichment class or working as an aide. There are 30 learners, so it would be great to have four choices offered each session. If you are new to the CLC, enrichment is a wonderful opportunity for community members to share their passions, interests and expertise with the learners as well as provide opportunities to extend learning into different areas. Enrichment classes need to have an educational goal or outcome. Ideally we would like the enrichment classes to tie into some part of the 4th grade curriculum or fulfill a designated need. This may sound daunting but we are committed to help volunteers develop enrichment classes into educative experiences that build on the current 4th grade curriculum. You may teach the class on your own or alternate with another community member. We also often need aides for enrichment.
We have many ideas, and would love to build on your ideas as well. This program can ONLY exist with the support and enthusiasm of the community. We hope that you will consider leading or aiding in an enrichment class. If you are interested please contact us as soon as possible.Some Ideas:
Math in Cooking Computer and typing Fort Ross costume design Exploring patterns Artist study
Illustrator study Simple Machines Patterns in art Knitting Author study
Book group Patterns School Newspaper Music Drama
Reader's theater Human body Ca Government Sewing Blogging/Web Page design
Local Service Learning Math on the menu Wordplay Statistics Poetry/Perspective Writing
Pen pal writing Gardening Math Board Games Mission Power Points Pioneer living
We are hoping to have 3-4 sessions this year
Session 1: November 8-December 6
Session 2: January 19-Feb 9
Session 3-4: TBA
Here is the specific date information:
Day: Wednesday
Time: 8:45-9:45
Weeks: 4
The only exception would be if we did enrichment during the second session the day would be changed to Friday.
DAY: FRIDAY
TIME: 8:45 – 9:35 or 9:45
WEEKS: 4
Please email us as soon as possible with your questions or ideas. We are happy to support you in any way and can also help you with curriculum connections. We appreciate your support!
Sincerely,
Elysha and Lale
We would love to create an enrichment program for the fourth grade. Currently the fourth grade is the only grade without a seminar/enrichment program. The 5/8's participate in the Fine Arts Block. Coming from the 2/3 team, we saw how important it was for the learners to have choice and participate in enrichment opportunities. We would like to carry this model into the fourth grade and hopefully will be able to participate with the 2/3's enrichment once during the year. We are currently looking for people that would be interested in running an enrichment class or working as an aide. There are 30 learners, so it would be great to have four choices offered each session. If you are new to the CLC, enrichment is a wonderful opportunity for community members to share their passions, interests and expertise with the learners as well as provide opportunities to extend learning into different areas. Enrichment classes need to have an educational goal or outcome. Ideally we would like the enrichment classes to tie into some part of the 4th grade curriculum or fulfill a designated need. This may sound daunting but we are committed to help volunteers develop enrichment classes into educative experiences that build on the current 4th grade curriculum. You may teach the class on your own or alternate with another community member. We also often need aides for enrichment.
We have many ideas, and would love to build on your ideas as well. This program can ONLY exist with the support and enthusiasm of the community. We hope that you will consider leading or aiding in an enrichment class. If you are interested please contact us as soon as possible.Some Ideas:
Math in Cooking Computer and typing Fort Ross costume design Exploring patterns Artist study
Illustrator study Simple Machines Patterns in art Knitting Author study
Book group Patterns School Newspaper Music Drama
Reader's theater Human body Ca Government Sewing Blogging/Web Page design
Local Service Learning Math on the menu Wordplay Statistics Poetry/Perspective Writing
Pen pal writing Gardening Math Board Games Mission Power Points Pioneer living
We are hoping to have 3-4 sessions this year
Session 1: November 8-December 6
Session 2: January 19-Feb 9
Session 3-4: TBA
Here is the specific date information:
Day: Wednesday
Time: 8:45-9:45
Weeks: 4
The only exception would be if we did enrichment during the second session the day would be changed to Friday.
DAY: FRIDAY
TIME: 8:45 – 9:35 or 9:45
WEEKS: 4
Please email us as soon as possible with your questions or ideas. We are happy to support you in any way and can also help you with curriculum connections. We appreciate your support!
Sincerely,
Elysha and Lale
Friday, September 29, 2006
BUSY WEEK IN ROOM 11
Language Arts
One of my goals in Reader's Workshop is improving the scope, depth and manner we have book discussions in class. Many times the discussions are directed to and from the teacher. We are working on trying to move the discussion to one that is student driven and directed. This of course is facilitated and modeled by the teacher to help add depth to the comments, questions, etc. that come out of our talking about books. We used our class read aloud book, Tuck Everlasting, to practice the "turn and talk" and "stop and jot" methods of being engaged with books. You can ask your learner about them. After discussing what makes a successful book cover, and looking at samples, we created new covers for the books that we have written reviews for during Writer's Workshop. The completed book reviews are now hanging in the classroom. Come in and check them out when you have a moment. We began author's chair, which gives an opportunity for different learners to share and celebrate their writing. We worked on commas in a series and commas in compound sentences in our skills books. After teaching commas in a compound sentence, sometimes commas begin to pop up before every "and" in a sentence. Helping your child edit for the correct use of commas will help straighten out this initial confusion. For example. Bats sleep all day, but they eat mosquitoes and other insects all night. (correct). I like ice cream, and cookies. (not correct)
Magnets
We read a passage about three types of magnets (natural, temporary, and permanent). The learners had to answer questions by finding evidence in the non-fiction text about "How Magnets are Made". We then began an experiment called "Fish and Clips". The students learning more about scientific process skills such as collecting, organizing, reporting, and interpreting data. They also worked on math skills such as displaying data on a graph, inequalities, and whole number operations. We also compared results as a class by learning about averages and how to calculate them. At the end of the week we made predictions about magnetic strength through various objects. The learners were impressed with the strength of the magnets and wrote interesting conclusions about the results. Next week we will continue with magnetic strength and begin learning about magnetic poles.
Explorers
This was a busy week learning about early California Explorers. We learned about why explorers starting their explorations in order to find faster routes to Asia and riches along the way. We learned about Cabrillo, Drake, and Viscaino. We learned who the first explorer to sail along the California coast was. We also learned how California was named, and how the exploration of the "New World" would change California forever. We also started looking at our year long theme "It takes many perspectives to tell the story of California." We created a poster that is now on the wall in the front of the classroom that will remain there all year. When we learn about different individuals that influenced California history, we will add their name and photo to the poster. Stay tuned for an exciting project at the end of the year that will use this information. We concluded the week by starting to create trading cards for the explorers we read about. Next week learners will do a more in depth study of specific explorers and their significance and create journals from the perspective of an explorer.
Math
This was our second week of math menus. The learners did a great job this week, and it seemed like we were really in the swing of things. These menus gave both Jaime and I opportunities to work with small groups of learners on specific skills. Some groups are currently working on efficiency when adding large numbers or several numbers, while others are looking at algebraic equations and solving for variables, estimating, and exploring ratios. Working in small groups allows us the opportunity to provide learners with specific skills to improve their accuracy and challenge their thinking.
It has been a long week, so we will wrap up for now. We hope that you have a fantastic weekend, and as always please contact us if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Elysha and Lale
Language Arts
One of my goals in Reader's Workshop is improving the scope, depth and manner we have book discussions in class. Many times the discussions are directed to and from the teacher. We are working on trying to move the discussion to one that is student driven and directed. This of course is facilitated and modeled by the teacher to help add depth to the comments, questions, etc. that come out of our talking about books. We used our class read aloud book, Tuck Everlasting, to practice the "turn and talk" and "stop and jot" methods of being engaged with books. You can ask your learner about them. After discussing what makes a successful book cover, and looking at samples, we created new covers for the books that we have written reviews for during Writer's Workshop. The completed book reviews are now hanging in the classroom. Come in and check them out when you have a moment. We began author's chair, which gives an opportunity for different learners to share and celebrate their writing. We worked on commas in a series and commas in compound sentences in our skills books. After teaching commas in a compound sentence, sometimes commas begin to pop up before every "and" in a sentence. Helping your child edit for the correct use of commas will help straighten out this initial confusion. For example. Bats sleep all day, but they eat mosquitoes and other insects all night. (correct). I like ice cream, and cookies. (not correct)
Magnets
We read a passage about three types of magnets (natural, temporary, and permanent). The learners had to answer questions by finding evidence in the non-fiction text about "How Magnets are Made". We then began an experiment called "Fish and Clips". The students learning more about scientific process skills such as collecting, organizing, reporting, and interpreting data. They also worked on math skills such as displaying data on a graph, inequalities, and whole number operations. We also compared results as a class by learning about averages and how to calculate them. At the end of the week we made predictions about magnetic strength through various objects. The learners were impressed with the strength of the magnets and wrote interesting conclusions about the results. Next week we will continue with magnetic strength and begin learning about magnetic poles.
Explorers
This was a busy week learning about early California Explorers. We learned about why explorers starting their explorations in order to find faster routes to Asia and riches along the way. We learned about Cabrillo, Drake, and Viscaino. We learned who the first explorer to sail along the California coast was. We also learned how California was named, and how the exploration of the "New World" would change California forever. We also started looking at our year long theme "It takes many perspectives to tell the story of California." We created a poster that is now on the wall in the front of the classroom that will remain there all year. When we learn about different individuals that influenced California history, we will add their name and photo to the poster. Stay tuned for an exciting project at the end of the year that will use this information. We concluded the week by starting to create trading cards for the explorers we read about. Next week learners will do a more in depth study of specific explorers and their significance and create journals from the perspective of an explorer.
Math
This was our second week of math menus. The learners did a great job this week, and it seemed like we were really in the swing of things. These menus gave both Jaime and I opportunities to work with small groups of learners on specific skills. Some groups are currently working on efficiency when adding large numbers or several numbers, while others are looking at algebraic equations and solving for variables, estimating, and exploring ratios. Working in small groups allows us the opportunity to provide learners with specific skills to improve their accuracy and challenge their thinking.
It has been a long week, so we will wrap up for now. We hope that you have a fantastic weekend, and as always please contact us if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Elysha and Lale
Friday, September 22, 2006
Updated Update...
Reader's Workshop
We had a conversation about what it means to be an "active reader" this week. Strategies active readers use can include marking up the text (with post it notes!), questioning, visualizing, and predicting. We practiced with a resource book called, Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing. We read an excerpt from The Lad, by Jane Yolen. If you've seen your learners wanting to "stare you down", ask them why. The learners answered personal letters from me in their Reader's Notebooks. Along with emphasizing correct friendly letter format, the learners are engaging in literature response; deepening their reading comprehension. I attended a wonderful district workshop with colleagues on Wednesday about learners responding to literature. It was affirming for practices I already value and teach in the class. It was also inspiring. I came away with new thoughts and ideas that I'll implement this year.
Writer's Workshop
We're about to publish our book reviews. Writing four specific paragraphs about our books is proving challenging. Our zealous writers are working on effective summaries vs. long retellings. More hesitant learners are learning to add detail and learning that expectations for paragraphs are raised in fourth grade. They are all learning how to be better at following directions, using resources to help guide writing, revising and editing.
Magnets
The unit began with expressing what we know about magnets and what we want to know about magnets. Partners were given a piece of magnetite (lodestone). They learned a little about the history of magnetite as well as observed what happened when iron filings were poured on and near it. They then were given manmade magnets and a cup of things including coins, screws, wires, and paper clips. They are questioning and wondering about why certain things stuck and others didn't. We'll be finding out more in the coming weeks...including the connection between magnets and electricity.
Explorers
The learners came up with some very important questions about California explorers that they'd like to answer. They were given a choice of different types of projects based on multiple intelligences. In groups, they will be researching different California explorers. They'll be working on internet and hard copy research, using "active reading" skills and notetaking skills of nonfiction writing. They will then teach the other learners about their explorers by sharing timelines, drawings, models, songs, skits, etc.
Last week we began to talk about what we already knew about California. We talked about the native people that lived here. This week we connected that to what was happening in Europe and why these countries started exploring. We talked about what it would have been like for there to be no maps and basically a vast unknown. We read about Columbus and Magellan and their expeditions. I really wanted the learners to think about what it might have been like for the native people to be "discovered" by these explorers. To simulate this, Karrie's class INVADED us today after recess. They came in with a bag of shiny tokens and stickers symbolizing that they were a unified group with new things. Karrie quickly noticed the fabulous materials in our classroom and offered them up to her class. She also banished our class to the floor so her group had comfortable seats to sit in. Of course she asked me to consider helping my class to follow her orders by offering me some tokens for my help. It was a bit chaotic, but the learners felt betrayed and angry. They were upset and felt like their space was being invaded. It was a fabulous learning experiment. After Karrie's class left, including their mess, we talked about how we felt and many made the connection between us and the native people living in the "new world". This led us to a fabulous discussion about what happened to the natives, how they might have felt, and how the exploration of the "new world" changed their lives. We will continue to talk about this as we learn about the history of California during the year.
Math
In math this week we continued with our math menus. The menus were filled with several activities. Each learner completed an activity with Jamie and I, played a partner game, a challenging multi-step problem of the week, and a couple independent skill sheets. We are continuing to work on how to explain our thinking using both numbers and words, learning how to use estimation as a strategy, adding several numbers, and reviewing basic math facts.
Reader's Workshop
We had a conversation about what it means to be an "active reader" this week. Strategies active readers use can include marking up the text (with post it notes!), questioning, visualizing, and predicting. We practiced with a resource book called, Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing. We read an excerpt from The Lad, by Jane Yolen. If you've seen your learners wanting to "stare you down", ask them why. The learners answered personal letters from me in their Reader's Notebooks. Along with emphasizing correct friendly letter format, the learners are engaging in literature response; deepening their reading comprehension. I attended a wonderful district workshop with colleagues on Wednesday about learners responding to literature. It was affirming for practices I already value and teach in the class. It was also inspiring. I came away with new thoughts and ideas that I'll implement this year.
Writer's Workshop
We're about to publish our book reviews. Writing four specific paragraphs about our books is proving challenging. Our zealous writers are working on effective summaries vs. long retellings. More hesitant learners are learning to add detail and learning that expectations for paragraphs are raised in fourth grade. They are all learning how to be better at following directions, using resources to help guide writing, revising and editing.
Magnets
The unit began with expressing what we know about magnets and what we want to know about magnets. Partners were given a piece of magnetite (lodestone). They learned a little about the history of magnetite as well as observed what happened when iron filings were poured on and near it. They then were given manmade magnets and a cup of things including coins, screws, wires, and paper clips. They are questioning and wondering about why certain things stuck and others didn't. We'll be finding out more in the coming weeks...including the connection between magnets and electricity.
Explorers
The learners came up with some very important questions about California explorers that they'd like to answer. They were given a choice of different types of projects based on multiple intelligences. In groups, they will be researching different California explorers. They'll be working on internet and hard copy research, using "active reading" skills and notetaking skills of nonfiction writing. They will then teach the other learners about their explorers by sharing timelines, drawings, models, songs, skits, etc.
Last week we began to talk about what we already knew about California. We talked about the native people that lived here. This week we connected that to what was happening in Europe and why these countries started exploring. We talked about what it would have been like for there to be no maps and basically a vast unknown. We read about Columbus and Magellan and their expeditions. I really wanted the learners to think about what it might have been like for the native people to be "discovered" by these explorers. To simulate this, Karrie's class INVADED us today after recess. They came in with a bag of shiny tokens and stickers symbolizing that they were a unified group with new things. Karrie quickly noticed the fabulous materials in our classroom and offered them up to her class. She also banished our class to the floor so her group had comfortable seats to sit in. Of course she asked me to consider helping my class to follow her orders by offering me some tokens for my help. It was a bit chaotic, but the learners felt betrayed and angry. They were upset and felt like their space was being invaded. It was a fabulous learning experiment. After Karrie's class left, including their mess, we talked about how we felt and many made the connection between us and the native people living in the "new world". This led us to a fabulous discussion about what happened to the natives, how they might have felt, and how the exploration of the "new world" changed their lives. We will continue to talk about this as we learn about the history of California during the year.
Math
In math this week we continued with our math menus. The menus were filled with several activities. Each learner completed an activity with Jamie and I, played a partner game, a challenging multi-step problem of the week, and a couple independent skill sheets. We are continuing to work on how to explain our thinking using both numbers and words, learning how to use estimation as a strategy, adding several numbers, and reviewing basic math facts.
Friday, September 15, 2006
What a Busy Week...
Dear Fourth Grade Families,
It has been a busy week in room 11! We have done lots of amazing things that have kept us quite busy.
Language Arts
This week in Language Arts, we worked on Book Reviews. We are working toward a four paragraph review, which will include a summary and specific reasons for liking and recommending the book. We visited Maeve Knoth, the parent volunteer librarian, who shared a Robert Mc Closky book. She was impressed with the number of learners were able to make many connections to Homer Price. We introduced a skills book that has proofreading exercises that will help us with our published work. I have decided to give the rest of the spelling assessments at school. Thank you for helping me out in that experiment. I appreciate the space and trust to try new things with your learners, to find the best ways to provide individualized instruction.
Math
This week we started our math groups. Learners were placed in small groups of 5 or 6 with a menu of math activities to choose from. Different groups played different games. After giving the assessments I noticed we have a wide range of math levels in our classroom. Most learners have strategies for adding multi-digit numbers, and some have mastered this. Many learners just need practice with refining their strategies for accuracy and efficiency when adding. I want them to start using different strategies when solving problems (rounding, estimation, break apart, etc), when appropriate. Some learners will start to look at adding decimals.
Some of the games we played this week were:
Race to $1.00: Learners trade in coins until they reach one dollar.
24: A card with 4 numbers is placed on the table and learners must use all numbers and a combination of operations to get to the number 24. This was a challenging, yet fun one!
Making Change: A pile of product cards with costs are turned over and added together, then change was made.
Beat the calculator: Learners tried to beat the calculator when solving multiplication problems.
Close to 100 & 1000: Two games that not only work on adding two or three digit numbers to 100 or 1000, but also involve estimating, subtracting, and multiple addends. Many different math skills needed and refined...all wrapped up in a fun math game.
Learners also were required to solve a multi-step problem of the week and clearly explain their thinking using numbers and words. Practing these types of problems will improve the learners abilities to problem solve.
California Review
Before jumping into explorers, we wanted the learners to think about what they learned last year about California. It was amazing how much they retained. The learners worked in small groups to discuss what they knew about California's regions, the Native Americans that inhabited the state and the resources they used, and what makes California such a desirable place to live. Next week we will share what we know and talk about what we want to learn about explorers. We will be creating a time line that we will add to over the course of the year.
Science
Before beginning the science unit we wanted the learners to experiment with the scientific method and scientific processes. In order to do this, we completed a gummy bear experiment where we asked the question: What will happen to a gummy bear if we soak it in 60ml of water overnight? Then we made a hypothesis. We made observations, took a variety of measurements on day one, and recorded our data. On day two our gummy bears almost doubled in size. It was very exciting. We repeated the process from the prior day and then compared our results. Learners discovered that most people's gummy bears increased in every area, except the density which decreased. We also talked about how altering one variable could change the outcome of the experiment. Learners made new questions for experiments they would like to complete. We hopefully will get to some of them next week. Some of the questions included:
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked overnight in salt water, lemon juice, milk, soda?
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked in water for one week?
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked in hot water over night?
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked in water and put in the freezer overnight?
Stay tuned for all things gummy bear...
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/gummybear/gummybear.html
Artifact Museum
This week we completed our artifact museum. Learners displayed their artifacts in class and we wandered around to read everyone's write up. Learners took notes about different artifacts and then wrote a letter to one of their classmates about their artifact. It was a nice way to learn more about one another. We really enjoyed looking at the pictures and were so inspired by the family story books. How amazing. Please stop by our room and read about the artifacts if you haven't already.
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/museum/museum.html
That is all for tonight, have a fantastic weekend!
Elysha and Lale
Dear Fourth Grade Families,
It has been a busy week in room 11! We have done lots of amazing things that have kept us quite busy.
Language Arts
This week in Language Arts, we worked on Book Reviews. We are working toward a four paragraph review, which will include a summary and specific reasons for liking and recommending the book. We visited Maeve Knoth, the parent volunteer librarian, who shared a Robert Mc Closky book. She was impressed with the number of learners were able to make many connections to Homer Price. We introduced a skills book that has proofreading exercises that will help us with our published work. I have decided to give the rest of the spelling assessments at school. Thank you for helping me out in that experiment. I appreciate the space and trust to try new things with your learners, to find the best ways to provide individualized instruction.
Math
This week we started our math groups. Learners were placed in small groups of 5 or 6 with a menu of math activities to choose from. Different groups played different games. After giving the assessments I noticed we have a wide range of math levels in our classroom. Most learners have strategies for adding multi-digit numbers, and some have mastered this. Many learners just need practice with refining their strategies for accuracy and efficiency when adding. I want them to start using different strategies when solving problems (rounding, estimation, break apart, etc), when appropriate. Some learners will start to look at adding decimals.
Some of the games we played this week were:
Race to $1.00: Learners trade in coins until they reach one dollar.
24: A card with 4 numbers is placed on the table and learners must use all numbers and a combination of operations to get to the number 24. This was a challenging, yet fun one!
Making Change: A pile of product cards with costs are turned over and added together, then change was made.
Beat the calculator: Learners tried to beat the calculator when solving multiplication problems.
Close to 100 & 1000: Two games that not only work on adding two or three digit numbers to 100 or 1000, but also involve estimating, subtracting, and multiple addends. Many different math skills needed and refined...all wrapped up in a fun math game.
Learners also were required to solve a multi-step problem of the week and clearly explain their thinking using numbers and words. Practing these types of problems will improve the learners abilities to problem solve.
California Review
Before jumping into explorers, we wanted the learners to think about what they learned last year about California. It was amazing how much they retained. The learners worked in small groups to discuss what they knew about California's regions, the Native Americans that inhabited the state and the resources they used, and what makes California such a desirable place to live. Next week we will share what we know and talk about what we want to learn about explorers. We will be creating a time line that we will add to over the course of the year.
Science
Before beginning the science unit we wanted the learners to experiment with the scientific method and scientific processes. In order to do this, we completed a gummy bear experiment where we asked the question: What will happen to a gummy bear if we soak it in 60ml of water overnight? Then we made a hypothesis. We made observations, took a variety of measurements on day one, and recorded our data. On day two our gummy bears almost doubled in size. It was very exciting. We repeated the process from the prior day and then compared our results. Learners discovered that most people's gummy bears increased in every area, except the density which decreased. We also talked about how altering one variable could change the outcome of the experiment. Learners made new questions for experiments they would like to complete. We hopefully will get to some of them next week. Some of the questions included:
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked overnight in salt water, lemon juice, milk, soda?
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked in water for one week?
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked in hot water over night?
What will happen to a gummy bear soaked in water and put in the freezer overnight?
Stay tuned for all things gummy bear...
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/gummybear/gummybear.html
Artifact Museum
This week we completed our artifact museum. Learners displayed their artifacts in class and we wandered around to read everyone's write up. Learners took notes about different artifacts and then wrote a letter to one of their classmates about their artifact. It was a nice way to learn more about one another. We really enjoyed looking at the pictures and were so inspired by the family story books. How amazing. Please stop by our room and read about the artifacts if you haven't already.
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/museum/museum.html
That is all for tonight, have a fantastic weekend!
Elysha and Lale
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Community Meeting and Volunteering
Good Evening to all,
We wanted to send out a reminder that the first community meeting will be tomorrow night. For those of you interested in learning about
volunteering in the classroom, Marianne and Joan will be leading an inspiring and sometimes humorous talk on Thursday night before the Community Meeting, 6pm-7pm. All 2-4 parents are invited.
Lale will be hosting another volunteer training in our classroom for volunteers working on her days (she will be sending out an email to follow this one). I however haven't decided when this will happen yet for math volunteers. As I mentioned at Back to School Night, I am still playing with the structure of math in our classrooms. I have set up a model that I will be trying out tomorrow for the first time. If this goes well, I will be able to provide more concrete information about volunteering needs during math. I would like to send out a couple of times that we will most likely need math volunteers. Please email me directly if you are interested in any of these times and order of preference. I will compile the names of people interested and get back to you next week.
I am thinking math volunteers will start either the last week of September or the first week of October. My only request is that if you sign up for a math slot, I will need you to show up each week, or find a replacement. I am envisioning break out groups with volunteers and you showing up will directly effect the ability to run these groups.
Thanks for your interest!
Elysha
Here are a list of some volunteer job openings. I will be adding more as needed.
MATH
Thursday:
9:05-10:25 ____________________
Friday
9:15-10:25 ____________________
UNIT
(I would like to have an on call person for each day. I will let you know earlier in the week if you will be needed)
Thursday:
11:15-12:25 ___________________
Friday:
11:15-12:25
RECESS DUTY
10:25-10:45
M _______________
T _______________
W_______________
Th_______________
F________________
BUDDY READING OR ONE ON ONE ASSIGNMENT HELP
Thursday:
10:45-11:15______________
Friday:
10:45-11:15______________
There will be more jobs coming out as needed.
Good Evening to all,
We wanted to send out a reminder that the first community meeting will be tomorrow night. For those of you interested in learning about
volunteering in the classroom, Marianne and Joan will be leading an inspiring and sometimes humorous talk on Thursday night before the Community Meeting, 6pm-7pm. All 2-4 parents are invited.
Lale will be hosting another volunteer training in our classroom for volunteers working on her days (she will be sending out an email to follow this one). I however haven't decided when this will happen yet for math volunteers. As I mentioned at Back to School Night, I am still playing with the structure of math in our classrooms. I have set up a model that I will be trying out tomorrow for the first time. If this goes well, I will be able to provide more concrete information about volunteering needs during math. I would like to send out a couple of times that we will most likely need math volunteers. Please email me directly if you are interested in any of these times and order of preference. I will compile the names of people interested and get back to you next week.
I am thinking math volunteers will start either the last week of September or the first week of October. My only request is that if you sign up for a math slot, I will need you to show up each week, or find a replacement. I am envisioning break out groups with volunteers and you showing up will directly effect the ability to run these groups.
Thanks for your interest!
Elysha
Here are a list of some volunteer job openings. I will be adding more as needed.
MATH
Thursday:
9:05-10:25 ____________________
Friday
9:15-10:25 ____________________
UNIT
(I would like to have an on call person for each day. I will let you know earlier in the week if you will be needed)
Thursday:
11:15-12:25 ___________________
Friday:
11:15-12:25
RECESS DUTY
10:25-10:45
M _______________
T _______________
W_______________
Th_______________
F________________
BUDDY READING OR ONE ON ONE ASSIGNMENT HELP
Thursday:
10:45-11:15______________
Friday:
10:45-11:15______________
There will be more jobs coming out as needed.
Monday, September 11, 2006
New Photos
We hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I have posted pictures of many of the learners with their artifacts onto our website. They really chose fantastic items to share. Since we ran out of time and didn't get to actually create a museum with our artifacts, I have asked the learners to bring them back to school on Wednesday. Please remind them. I think they will really enjoy sharing and learning about each others families. I have also posted some pictures from math last week where we practiced estimating. We began with estimating small objects made from cubes and then we tried to estimate all the cubes in the class. The learners came up with a range of estimates from 2500-4000. Then they used arrays to count the cubes quickly. We found out that we had 3180 cubes. We were impressed with how close our estimate was.
Please continue to check our website for updates. If I know you are looking at it, it will inspire me to keep it up to date!
We hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. I have posted pictures of many of the learners with their artifacts onto our website. They really chose fantastic items to share. Since we ran out of time and didn't get to actually create a museum with our artifacts, I have asked the learners to bring them back to school on Wednesday. Please remind them. I think they will really enjoy sharing and learning about each others families. I have also posted some pictures from math last week where we practiced estimating. We began with estimating small objects made from cubes and then we tried to estimate all the cubes in the class. The learners came up with a range of estimates from 2500-4000. Then they used arrays to count the cubes quickly. We found out that we had 3180 cubes. We were impressed with how close our estimate was.
Please continue to check our website for updates. If I know you are looking at it, it will inspire me to keep it up to date!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
BTSN Information from the Room Reps
Betsy Adams and Maureen Murphy
PRT Reps for Lale and Elysha's class
Hello Passeggi/Beller Families.
We wanted to give you a heads up about Back to School Night this Thursday. As mentioned previously, please bring your checkbook and be prepared to write a check payable to Maureen Murphy to pay for classroom expenses for the year. We will give you a detailed description of the expenses at back to school night or you can click on the attachment to see a written description for each classroom expense. Please be aware that this is a voluntary contribution except for the $10 all families are asked to pay for the classroom water. If you want to write a check before hand you may put it in the Scheinman family folder. If you choose to contribute the full amount the total is $50.
We'd also like to collect for field trips for the year (with the exception of the milestone) and will be asking you to write a check for $88, again payable to Maureen Murphy. We'll be asking you to sign permission slips tomorrow as well and you can turn the check and permission slips into the ADAMS family folder. The field trips are listed (along with cost) on Lale and Elysha's class website. There are also scholarships available for fieldtrips. Please see Stacy Emory for more details.
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your support.
We wanted to give you a heads up about Back to School Night this Thursday. As mentioned previously, please bring your checkbook and be prepared to write a check payable to Maureen Murphy to pay for classroom expenses for the year. We will give you a detailed description of the expenses at back to school night or you can click on the attachment to see a written description for each classroom expense. Please be aware that this is a voluntary contribution except for the $10 all families are asked to pay for the classroom water. If you want to write a check before hand you may put it in the Scheinman family folder. If you choose to contribute the full amount the total is $50.
We'd also like to collect for field trips for the year (with the exception of the milestone) and will be asking you to write a check for $88, again payable to Maureen Murphy. We'll be asking you to sign permission slips tomorrow as well and you can turn the check and permission slips into the ADAMS family folder. The field trips are listed (along with cost) on Lale and Elysha's class website. There are also scholarships available for fieldtrips. Please see Stacy Emory for more details.
Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your support.
Betsy Adams and Maureen Murphy
PRT Reps for Lale and Elysha's class
Quick Reminders
Good morning!
A couple of quick reminders...
1. Back to school night is tomorrow at 6:30. Can't wait to see you all there.
2. Some of the volunteer jobs for the year still need to be filled. Please read the descriptions on our website and let us know if you are interested.
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/volunteers.html
3, I have updated our website to include all archived updates (in case you missed one or forgot something). Eventually we will only be posting updates to our website rather than
email. You can find the link on the class homepage:
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/index.html
4. Please make sure you email both of us. This ensures that we can all work together and are all aware of any questions or concerns that you might have.
ahsyle@gmail.com
lalebeller@gmail.com
5. New field trip added! I got a call yesterday regarding an overnight trip to SF that I tried to get us into earlier ,but it was full. Well, they had an opening for June. I have heard this is
a fantastic trip. This will be our milestone for the year. We will complete some fundraising to help cover the costs. If you have any ideas please send them our way. There is a
link to the trip on our homepage.
See you tomorrow,
Elysha and Lale
Good morning!
A couple of quick reminders...
1. Back to school night is tomorrow at 6:30. Can't wait to see you all there.
2. Some of the volunteer jobs for the year still need to be filled. Please read the descriptions on our website and let us know if you are interested.
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/volunteers.html
3, I have updated our website to include all archived updates (in case you missed one or forgot something). Eventually we will only be posting updates to our website rather than
email. You can find the link on the class homepage:
https://scclc.sancarlos.k12.ca.us/class/Elysha-Passeggi/elyweb/index.html
4. Please make sure you email both of us. This ensures that we can all work together and are all aware of any questions or concerns that you might have.
ahsyle@gmail.com
lalebeller@gmail.com
5. New field trip added! I got a call yesterday regarding an overnight trip to SF that I tried to get us into earlier ,but it was full. Well, they had an opening for June. I have heard this is
a fantastic trip. This will be our milestone for the year. We will complete some fundraising to help cover the costs. If you have any ideas please send them our way. There is a
link to the trip on our homepage.
See you tomorrow,
Elysha and Lale
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Second Week Update
It's been a busy week in the 4th grade! Here's a little bit about what we've been up to...
Language Arts
We began with creating our writing binders and completing a short writing assignment, based on The Important Book. It gave the learners a chance to quickly review and go through the steps of the writing process. We touched upon some of the "six traits of writing" such as word choice in this lesson as well. We explored our Write Source books, which will be used as a reference during Writer's Workshop. For Word Work we practiced cursive and introduced No Excuse words (there is a copy in their homework folder). During Reader's Workshop, we talked about our class library, genres that we are familiar with, and introduced our Reader's Notebooks. We filled out personal surveys about reading (the writing version was assigned as homework and is due on Tuesday). We'll give more details about Writer's and Reader's Workshop at BTS night next Thursday.
Math
This week math was filled with exploration and assessment. Before we did any math this week, we shared our feelings (both good and bad) about it. We talked about how we would spend the year building on what we already knew and that it was my job to help them to discover their strengths and help them grow. Then we read the book Math Curse where the girl discovers that everything can be made into a math problem. It is really a fantastic book! We then solved some of the problems from the book. We also spent part of the week working on transitions and expectations during math centers. The learners were really engaged and focused, which was impressive considering how many of us there are in the classroom! We played math trivial pursuit, explored coins and combinations that made one dollar, played Uh oh 99!, and explored geoboards. Thursday was spent completing a challenging math assessment. The learners worked incredibly hard considering that it was assessing what they should know by the end of fourth grade. I will give the same assessment at the end of the year to show how much they have grown.
Unit Study
This week we talked about the units we would be completing during the course of the year. The learners were really excited about the science units. We also talked about how they would use their knowledge from last year about California regions and Native Americans and build on it. We will be starting our electricity unit in the upcoming weeks and will also be learning about Explorers. We also talked about our larger theme for the year which is, "It takes many voices to tell the story of California." Learners also discovered that the white binders they were asked to bring in would house all their unit activities. The learners decorated covers for the binders. Next week we will use the artifacts to create an artifact museum. We will then start to look at how or why our family came to California and create family timelines. Stay tuned for more info...
Earthquake Kits
We have received some of these, but not many. Please send yours in if you haven't already.
Back to School Night
Don't forget that next Thursday is Back to School Night. We will be going over lots of curriculum and classroom information at that time so we hope you can attend.
Classroom Jobs
Most of the classroom jobs have been filled, but we still need a field trip organizer. All the trips are scheduled, so your job would basically be collecting money and recruiting drivers. If you are interested please email us directly so we can give you more information. It would be great to have someone in place before back to school night.
Volunteers
We have some opportunities in the classroom to volunteer. We are currently looking for some volunteers for our Book Groups in Reader's Workshop. include reading a novel and participating in a literature circle with a group of about 6-7 learners. There will be some information about how to facilitate and guide the learners, as we will try to have the learners take on the responsibility of running their meetings. I already have a few parents who did it last year and enjoyed it on board for this year. It will be happening on Monday and Tuesday mornings before recess time. It will most likely be a 45 minute slot that will start soon after school begins, but it may end up being scheduled a little later and ending before recess (10:25). If you're interested and available, email Lale at lalebeller@gmail.com.
There will be some more opportunities coming up as well.
If you have any questions or concerns about anything at all, please let us know, so we can address it. We're looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!
Lale and Elysha
lalebeller@gmail.com
ahsyle@gmail.com
It's been a busy week in the 4th grade! Here's a little bit about what we've been up to...
Language Arts
We began with creating our writing binders and completing a short writing assignment, based on The Important Book. It gave the learners a chance to quickly review and go through the steps of the writing process. We touched upon some of the "six traits of writing" such as word choice in this lesson as well. We explored our Write Source books, which will be used as a reference during Writer's Workshop. For Word Work we practiced cursive and introduced No Excuse words (there is a copy in their homework folder). During Reader's Workshop, we talked about our class library, genres that we are familiar with, and introduced our Reader's Notebooks. We filled out personal surveys about reading (the writing version was assigned as homework and is due on Tuesday). We'll give more details about Writer's and Reader's Workshop at BTS night next Thursday.
Math
This week math was filled with exploration and assessment. Before we did any math this week, we shared our feelings (both good and bad) about it. We talked about how we would spend the year building on what we already knew and that it was my job to help them to discover their strengths and help them grow. Then we read the book Math Curse where the girl discovers that everything can be made into a math problem. It is really a fantastic book! We then solved some of the problems from the book. We also spent part of the week working on transitions and expectations during math centers. The learners were really engaged and focused, which was impressive considering how many of us there are in the classroom! We played math trivial pursuit, explored coins and combinations that made one dollar, played Uh oh 99!, and explored geoboards. Thursday was spent completing a challenging math assessment. The learners worked incredibly hard considering that it was assessing what they should know by the end of fourth grade. I will give the same assessment at the end of the year to show how much they have grown.
Unit Study
This week we talked about the units we would be completing during the course of the year. The learners were really excited about the science units. We also talked about how they would use their knowledge from last year about California regions and Native Americans and build on it. We will be starting our electricity unit in the upcoming weeks and will also be learning about Explorers. We also talked about our larger theme for the year which is, "It takes many voices to tell the story of California." Learners also discovered that the white binders they were asked to bring in would house all their unit activities. The learners decorated covers for the binders. Next week we will use the artifacts to create an artifact museum. We will then start to look at how or why our family came to California and create family timelines. Stay tuned for more info...
Earthquake Kits
We have received some of these, but not many. Please send yours in if you haven't already.
Back to School Night
Don't forget that next Thursday is Back to School Night. We will be going over lots of curriculum and classroom information at that time so we hope you can attend.
Classroom Jobs
Most of the classroom jobs have been filled, but we still need a field trip organizer. All the trips are scheduled, so your job would basically be collecting money and recruiting drivers. If you are interested please email us directly so we can give you more information. It would be great to have someone in place before back to school night.
Volunteers
We have some opportunities in the classroom to volunteer. We are currently looking for some volunteers for our Book Groups in Reader's Workshop. include reading a novel and participating in a literature circle with a group of about 6-7 learners. There will be some information about how to facilitate and guide the learners, as we will try to have the learners take on the responsibility of running their meetings. I already have a few parents who did it last year and enjoyed it on board for this year. It will be happening on Monday and Tuesday mornings before recess time. It will most likely be a 45 minute slot that will start soon after school begins, but it may end up being scheduled a little later and ending before recess (10:25). If you're interested and available, email Lale at lalebeller@gmail.com.
There will be some more opportunities coming up as well.
If you have any questions or concerns about anything at all, please let us know, so we can address it. We're looking forward to seeing you on Thursday!
Lale and Elysha
lalebeller@gmail.com
ahsyle@gmail.com
First Week of School
Good Morning,
We hope everyone got a great nights sleep. Unfortunately my little one was up most of the night, he must have been excited for school to start as well! ; ) We wanted to update you on the snack days and volunteer jobs.
So far the following days are covered for afternoon snack:
Tuesday: Betsy Adams
Wednesday: We have an assembly that will go to the end of the day, so no snack is needed
Thursday: Vivian Brates
Friday: OPEN
Classroom Volunteer Jobs
Room Reps: Betsy A. and Maureen M.
Towel Washer: Stella G.
Library Liason: Vivian Brates
Book Club Coordinator: Vivian Lee
Snack Stocker: Stella G. (2-3 more needed)
Jobs Still open:
Field Trip Coordinator: You will create a permission trip packet that will go home and will organize them when they return, collect monies and coordinate drivers for each of the trips. (Time Commitment: one to five hours per month)
Cup washer:
Every few weeks take the cups home to be washed in the dishwasher. This is a bi-monthly job.
Shoppers (2 people): This is just in case we need something but have no way to pick it up. This is an as needed job
Snack Stockers (3-5 people): Over the course of the year learners will forget their snacks and sometimes even lunch. In our classroom we keep a snack drawer for just such occasions. We could use donations of healthier snacks for our snack drawer. Some examples are: granola bars, individually packed crackers, dried fruit, pretzels, trail mix, you get the idea.
Classroom Beautification Representative: this person will do a major clean up of the classroom once a month. In the past this job has been split by two people. Once a month (after school or on the weekend), you will dust the room, mop/vacuum the floor, and wipe the tables, counters and sink. This job is important to help keep all of us healthy. (Time Commitment: two hours per month)
We are looking forward to an exciting year and can't wait to greet the learners this morning!
Elysha and Lale
Good Morning,
We hope everyone got a great nights sleep. Unfortunately my little one was up most of the night, he must have been excited for school to start as well! ; ) We wanted to update you on the snack days and volunteer jobs.
So far the following days are covered for afternoon snack:
Tuesday: Betsy Adams
Wednesday: We have an assembly that will go to the end of the day, so no snack is needed
Thursday: Vivian Brates
Friday: OPEN
Classroom Volunteer Jobs
Room Reps: Betsy A. and Maureen M.
Towel Washer: Stella G.
Library Liason: Vivian Brates
Book Club Coordinator: Vivian Lee
Snack Stocker: Stella G. (2-3 more needed)
Jobs Still open:
Field Trip Coordinator: You will create a permission trip packet that will go home and will organize them when they return, collect monies and coordinate drivers for each of the trips. (Time Commitment: one to five hours per month)
Cup washer:
Every few weeks take the cups home to be washed in the dishwasher. This is a bi-monthly job.
Shoppers (2 people): This is just in case we need something but have no way to pick it up. This is an as needed job
Snack Stockers (3-5 people): Over the course of the year learners will forget their snacks and sometimes even lunch. In our classroom we keep a snack drawer for just such occasions. We could use donations of healthier snacks for our snack drawer. Some examples are: granola bars, individually packed crackers, dried fruit, pretzels, trail mix, you get the idea.
Classroom Beautification Representative: this person will do a major clean up of the classroom once a month. In the past this job has been split by two people. Once a month (after school or on the weekend), you will dust the room, mop/vacuum the floor, and wipe the tables, counters and sink. This job is important to help keep all of us healthy. (Time Commitment: two hours per month)
We are looking forward to an exciting year and can't wait to greet the learners this morning!
Elysha and Lale
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