October 2016 Update

mClass testing is finished!  Although it is a tedious task, the exercise permits my first in depth interaction with each of my students one on one.  We have sweet conversations before and after the test which is deeply gratifying.  Here I begin to know your children as individuals.  They are wonderful human beings!

To date, our units of study are:

Science: Weather: Students learn about the sun's energy as heat source.  We baked s'mores in solar ovens to demonstrate this fact.  Your children created hypotheses about what would happen in the solar ovens and then wrote about how they believed the sun works to warm to land, air and water on our planet.  We are now focused on some tools that measure our weather and includes a thermometer, a rain gauge, an anemometer (measures wind speed) and a wind vane (wind direction).

Reading:  A great deal of time is spent preparing students to know what to do during Readers Workshop.  Students understand they must be relatively self-sufficient during this time so that I am able to work with small guided reading or strategy groups. They've learned how to pick "just right" books, they know what to do when they have to use the restroom, get a bandaid, water etc. they've been instructed about what do when they run into tricky words and how to stop, think and wonder about their texts.  

Writing:  We have been writing personal narratives.  Students have complied a resource of "ideas" in order that they may continue to write even when they "finish" a piece.  

  Our focus for our personal narrative stories has been on writing about a "small moment".  We attempt to narrow the specific period of time we are writing about, to a window of 10-20 minutes.  For example, a story about watching an enormous wave destroy your sand castle vs. "My Day at the Beach".  Students develop an understanding of adding details to their story both with words and illustrations. You might ask your child to tell you their story "across their hand".  This tool allows students to practice telling their story in sequence: beginning, middle, middle, middle and end.  We will have our first author celebration on Friday, Oct. 7. No invites this time, but stay tuned.