Valentine Appreciations and Other News

Valentine Appreciations and Updates

A bright pink packet full of love came home in this week’s homework folders. Your child should share the assignment with you and make a plan for writing an appreciation for each child in Room 25. Attached to the back of the packet is a class list to help your child keep track of who they have written appreciation for. During our community circle this week we’ll be brainstorming reasons why we might appreciate each other to get the juices flowing. The packet also includes sentence starters to help writers start their appreciations. 

Appreciations are a requirement. Any other cards or goodies are completely optional and very often kids only do the appreciations!

The entire packet of uncut appreciations is due on Wednesday, February 10th, allowing plenty of time to write thoughtful appreciations without spending hours on it the night before. This project can require a little support from parents, but it brings so much more meaning to this  candy-happy holiday. Thanks for overseeing this at home!

Also, during the week of 2/8, your child will bring a shoebox-sized box to school to create a Valentine Mailbox. Reminders will be included on the homework packet in a few weeks. Please see the Valentine packet for more details on this. Our Valentine’s Day celebration will be low-key and student-centered with a focus on appreciation!

Tenmarks – For the next few weeks, students will be assigned one assignment to be worked on across the week. The assignments will vary between our two focus concepts right now: addition/subtraction and area/perimeter. Any other assignments available in student accounts can be worked on as a challenge!

FYI - Ms. Coleman will be joining district administrators and teachers in San Diego next week for an incredible conference and training in making the most of iPad technology in the classroom. I’ll be bringing back many new tricks to try with our class!

Help needed – Are you looking for something to do on Wednesday mornings from 9-9:55am?! If you are, we’d gladly sign you up for our open math center volunteer position. Please visit our signup genius if you are interested! http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0548a5ae28a20-math1

Don’t forget! - Room 25’s Interactive Art Show time is next Tuesday, 2/2 at 8:30 in the MPR!

Big Bucks

We have been so busy in Room 25 and haven't found the time to add Big Bucks in awhile.  Today was a great day for catching up.  Your child will be coming home with a pile of corrected papers.  Although most of our class work is stored in notebooks, journals and on Google Drive, the children enjoy looking at their progress on other work and homework.  We provide continual feedback to children on a daily basis about the work that doesn't come home. :)  Big Bucks is also an opportunity for practice adding larger numbers and counting money.

Special Scientist

David Attwood, Marina's grandfather, presented a wonderful lesson to the class about atoms and molecules.  He provided each student with a copy of the Periodic Table of Elements and discussed what these are.  The class enjoyed his hands-on examples of the elements and his slide shows showing diagrams of atoms.  Everyone was fully engaged and this was a real treat!

Character Webs

We have been learning about making inferences about characters using various books. After reading several books aloud, students shared inferences about character traits and supported these inferences with clues from the book. They also created webs in class for characters from their own "just right" books and the books they are reading with their reading groups. Next week, students will begin doing the same for their "just right" books they are reading at home. There is an explanation for the assignment and an example of a web we created together in the front of the Home Reading Journal. Each child should work on creating a web for no more than 30 minutes. Sometimes, an entire web will be completed in one night. Other nights, your child may only complete part of a web and should continue adding to this web the following week. All webs should be written in complete sentences, the inferences should be a character trait or feeling about the character and the clues should include examples of actions and dialogue from the book to support the inference. Thank you for your support at home!

Classroom Updates

We are off and running in Room 25, working every day toward our resolutions for 2016!

In math, we are continuing to deepen our understanding of multiplication patterns, strategies and properties. Consistent practice of multiplication facts at home is imperative to reach fluency by year’s end and any strategy that works for you and your child works for us. The Xtra Math is one way we support and quiz progress on fact mastery, but flashcards, Apps and games at home all support the overall goal. 

As we continue our study of the moon’s phases in science, we are working to read and understand myths and legends about the moon that come from all over the world. We have begun our own journey to write moon pourquoi tales to link science, reading and creative writing all together. We’ll be so excited to share these with you next month! Investigations and learning around matter and geography are happening alongside our moon study. The independent science experiment presentations have been great so far! Thank you for supporting this adventure in learning at home. 

We are wrapping up nonfiction reading and opening our hearts to characters in new fiction books. Throughout the next unit we’ll be thinking deeply about character traits (and exploring traits vs. emotions), analyzing relationships and growing theories about characters in our books. In coming weeks, you’ll see Home Reading Journals include post-it note work and entries related to character analysis. When you read aloud to or alongside your child, any questions that prompt thinking about characters (their traits/motivations/changes) will support what we are doing in our reading workshop!

Dates to note on your calendar:

Monday & Tuesday, January 18th & 19th: NO SCHOOL for MLK Jr. Holiday and Staff Development Day

Tuesday, February 2: Interactive Art Show - 8:30-9:20am, Multipurpose Room

February 15th-19th: Mid-Winter Break

Happy New Year,

Ms. Coleman and Ms. Barry