Catie's Weekly Newsletter-September 14, 2012

Hello families, 

If you subscribe to the blog, you will get an e-mail update any time I post anything new.   Thank you to the great turn-out on Thursday night - all but five students had family members there!  If you weren’t able to come and have questions, please feel free to e-mail me. I have packets ready for students to take home for those who were unable to make it.

Math

Last week we focused on growing patterns.  The students were familiar with repeating patterns (ie ABC, ABC....), but a continually growing pattern of tiles and blocks was new for them.  Below is an example of one of the patterns we did in class:

Practicing with these kinds of patterns helps students begin to think algebraically as each arrangement grows by steady increments.  Next week, we’ll work on addition and subtraction strategies that will build speed and fluency.

Writer’s Workshop

We began our Writer’s Workshop this week by designing our “Ideal Writing Spaces.”  The kids sketched and described the space in which they could do their best writing.  They chose places as diverse as the hammock in their backyard, a tree house, a field of flowers, and their own bedroom.  I ask them to imagine that they are in this space at the start of each workshop.  We also began to generate a topic list of things they care about. Next week we’ll continue focusing on developing places they can “mine” for writing ideas.

Reader’s Workshop

Reading this week was primarily focused on developing a consistent silent reading routine and finding “just right” books.  I also introduced reading logs and next week will begin teaching reading strategies that they will practice with their independent reading books.

Grains

We began harvesting grains from our grain garden with Steph this week.  We also read about grains, looked at them with jeweler’s loupes, and tasted some.  Next week will be a big grain week.  We’ll finish harvesting them, we’ll do some more grain tasting, we’ll thresh, winnow, and grind our grains, and we’ll do some baking.  Please see my “Parent Help” section below for more on this.

Volunteering

My room parent (Bonnie) and I will put together a volunteer list next week.  If you signed up to volunteer for any of the things on the survey, we’ll be contacting you shortly to get started.  Those of you that volunteered to drive/chaperone our Site Monitoring trips (thank you!) I will be contacting you separately early in the week.  Our first trip will be on Wednesday, Sept. 26th.

Ask Your Child…

Here are some great conversation starters that you can try with your child to get them talking about what we’re doing in room 203:

- How did your class decide how to narrow down your class agreements (aka rules) to just five things?
- What is a grain?
- What are you reading?

Parent/Family Help

1.  Grain-based food:  On Tuesday, we are going to have a class “Grain Tasting.”  This is an opportunity for the kids to taste a variety of foods made with different grains.  Examples of the grains we’ve learned about are wheat, oats, millet, quinoa, corn, rye, rice, and spelt.  If you would like to donate a grain-based food (either homemade or store bought) for this event, please contact me ASAP.  I will make and purchase whatever we still need at that point.

2.  Grain Stations: On Thursday from 2:00-2:45PM, we are going to thresh, winnow, and grind our grains into flour.  It is always helpful to have one other adult help me out with these stations.  Let me know if you can help by e-mailing me.

Important Things Coming Up...

Sept. 19 - Late Opening (school starts at 10:40 AM)
Sept. 20 - Individual Picture Day (9:00 AM)
Sept. 22 - Autumn Equinox
Sept. 26 - First trip to Columbia Children’s Arboretum

Thanks for sending such curious students to school each day,

Catie