January 19, 2018

Ms. Thomas and Grant talk "code" during technology class this week.

There is nothing as constant as change....
It is our goal to provide your child with quality educational experiences, using current research about what is best for supporting each child's learning! As we attend workshops, conferences and other schools around the country, we gain insight into what other colleagues are doing to enrich their curriculum and how it might impact our own teaching practices. In the past few years we have critiqued our curriculum and asked ourselves "what could we do better?" This year our focus into teaching research introduced the writing skills to produce a brochure that focused on a need each child identified for an agency that served either wild or domestic animals.  Now, as we move forward to researching biographies we are going to have children identify character traits in many people we know as visionaries and/or heroes. We feel that this will provide children a clearer understanding of the qualities that impact the lives of regular human beings and result in our seeing them with greater insight.

Thank you to parents who were able to attend the 2nd/3rd grade parent coffee last week. You can view our presentation (including guiding questions for parents) and some great hero resources for parents we shared.  Please note that this year’s presentation about heroes will be more of a collaborative experience, which will emerge from the ideas and interests of the students, instead of an individual speeches experienced in the past.  This year our hero study will focus on the characteristics of heroes.  Students will choose character traits of heroes, which they will support with specific examples they find while reading about heroes’ lives.  Students will work with Emily Stone, our new Drama Specialist, who will facilitate creativity and role playing into the hero process and presentation.

Social Studies and Literacy

Our work this week focused on investigating brief biographies with a partner. The children discussed character traits they found evidenced in the lives of the people they read about. They found specific examples that demonstrated these characteristics and recorded them in their literacy journals. Ask your child; "What biographies did you explore this week? What interesting facts did you learn about these people? Which character traits did you identify and what evidence did you use to support your thinking?"

Ask your child about their learning in other areas:
Technology

Word Study
Check in with your child about what spelling rule that he/she has been practicing.

Math
We have been discussing how to find information from both pictorial and bar graphs. Today the children each made a graph to share data with their classmates.  On Monday we will discuss and compare the graphs that are posted on our cubby walls just inside the classroom door.  You are always welcome to stop in to see what we are learning about.

Kindergarten Buddies-writing stories together

Homework 

This Week's Homework due 1/22 . Reading Log and Math pages 71-72

Next Week's Homework due 1/29

• Math pages 73-74
• Read for at least 20 minutes Monday through Friday and complete the Reading Log

Update:  Patricia Polacco
We learned this week that Ms. Polacco has been going through a difficult time recently.  She has had some health challenges and lost her horse of many years and several of her smaller animals to old age.  We are going to make an effort to send her a package of cheerful letters and notes in the coming week. If your child wants to make a special picture at home they are more than welcome to bring it in to add to our larger OES gift package.