Dear Families,
We've had a busy two weeks since returning from February vacation. It was an unexpected surprise to have a flood day last Friday. I think the kids would have preferred some snow. Recess is a little muddy. The kids should still have warm coats, hats and mittens. The playground can be very windy. Yesterday the wind chills were at 25 degrees so some children were pretty cold outside in their spring jackets. Thankfully next week looks sunny and warmer.
Our Read-a-thon for Haiti was a huge success. Thank you very much for your support. Our class raised $509.00. The salamander wing raised $2266.95. The money has already been sent off the UNICEF's Haiti fund. The kids were proud of themselves and spent the whole time reading. I had planned to read them a story to break up the time but they didn't want to stop their own reading.
Many children have been forgetting to read at night. I have heard lots of reasons. The most frequent are that they were too busy and didn't have time or they forgot. I know life is busy, some days and weeks are busier than others, and it's hard to fit everything in. Please try to set aside at least minutes a night, even if it's in the car, to give your children the independent practice time which supports their reading progress. And, any stories you're reading with your child provides even more practice with story language, structure, and comprehension.
Book groups are humming along. It's such a treat to see the progress they're making. They all seem to enjoy book shopping once a week and having books they chose to read and reread throughout the week. During book groups they are doing some shared reading, learning strategies, and sharing what they learned about the story events and characters. We've had some pretty lively discussions.
Our latest writing unit is poetry. The kids really enjoy the freedom of writing something shorter. There great satisfaction for them when they can get one poem written during a writing session. So far we've talked about the difference between a poem and a story, poetic language and line breaks. Line breaks are a little tricky. They always read their poem aloud the way the want it to sound, emphasizing the important words and pausing for effect. Not all of them can see how to write the words on the page they way they want them read. They are so used to writing across the whole page and filling up the lines, that just writing a word or two doesn't feel right to them yet. It's a work in progress. Yesterday's lesson was on big feelings. Our discussion illicited lots of stories about siblings, getting in trouble, friends and sports
activities. I can't wait to see what their poems are about!
Mrs. Cory's Math group is exploring number patterns in this unit. Students are also expanding their computational skills. These skills develop with instruction, practice and discussion. The game sent home earlier this week is one to bring out frequently at home .and play together. I'll send home more copies of the sheets, but feel free to make other sheets at home. Let me know if you need the directions, more information, more sheets, just let me know. Hit The Target Game: The goal of this game is to provide students with practice in finding differences between 2-digit numbers and higher multiples of 10. It is an excellent way to help students practice decomposing two digit numbers and finding efficient ways to get from a number to the next ten (such as 20, 30, 40, 160, 240, etc.) Once they can see
that if the starting number ends with, for example, 2 as in 12, if they add 8 to the 12 to make the next ten, 20, then they can quickly add more tens to get close to the target number and then add on any ones needed to hit the target. The ability to do this is what allows us look at any number in any situation, anaylze it quickly, and use effective strategies to solve many types of problems. We are also collecting data and organizing it and finding the middle value (median).
Mrs. O's math group is working on geometry. We have learned about attributes and geometric 2D shapes. The kids are having fun with a game called "Guess My Rule" with the attribute blocks. The attributes of the blocks include: color, shape, size and thickness. We continue to practice time, money, measurement, reading graphs, and solving number stories. We are also doing some addition fact practice. The end of year goal is 20 facts in a minute and a half. You can see your child's progress towards this goal on the Unit 5 assessment that went home today. Any fact practice you can do at home for +0, +1, and compliments of 10 and any practice counting mixed groups of coins would be very helpful.
We have a Salamander wing dance on Monday at 1:45. You are welcome to take your child home when it's over. There will be a sign out sheet in the classroom. It will last 30-40 minutes. This has not been their favorite unit in phys. ed but it will fun to see what they've learned. I know they've worked hard and will be really fun to watch! I hope you can make it but also understand how hard it is for parents to be here in the middle of the work day.
Other upcoming events this month:
• Book orders due 3/10. You can order on line. The info is attached to the flyers that went home today.
• Book buddy visit at GMS on Friday, March 19th
• Maple Syrup presentation as part of our ongoing community unit from Mrs. Small on March 16th
• Parent conferences begin 3/30. Sign up sheets will go home early next week. Please be sure to return them quickly and indicate several choices. Slots will be filled in the order they're returned.
Have a great weekend,
Nancy
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