Important Information:
- Goal Setting Conferences are scheduled for Friday, October 6th. School will be closed. Conference care is available during your conference time only.
- Please be sure that you have signed up for a conference on sign up genius and that you have filled out and returned your conference questionnaire. Your thoughtful response will help us prepare for your conference.
- Kindergarten library books are due every Monday. First Grade library books are due every Tuesday. Thank you.
- Please remember to return your child's take home folder to his/her backpack after you have checked it and removed any papers.
IB Investigation
We have heard from several families that they are currently transforming or adapting spaces in their own homes or that they know of local projects that have reimagined spaces to establish community. If you are aware of a story (personal, local or from afar) that highlights our central idea [People create and adapt space to establish community] please consider sharing it with us via email or in your child's take home folder.
All School Gathering
Language Arts
Reading Old Favorite Storybooks: Last week during Reading Workshop, we delved deeper into the world of our favorite fairytales and fables. Using these old favorites, children worked on making the words match the pictures on the page they are reading. They learned to recognized when their words don't match and how to take the time to go back and fix it. One day, while reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff, we used finger puppets of the troll and the littlest goat to help us remember to use the exact words of a character instead of summarizing and rushing to turn the page. This inspired children to use different voices for different characters. During Writing Workshop, we talked about the fact that writers write about what is important to them. As a group, the children created a long list of topics that are interesting to them to use in the future as writing prompts. We also read books and talked about what might have inspired the authors to come up with the ideas for the stories. Children worked on their own writing pieces based on topics from the list they generated. We also talked about how the use of an alphabet chart can help children independently label their drawings.
Readers Reread to Make Their Reading Voices Smoother: As we Build Good Reading Habits, the children add to their growing list of strategies into their journey as readers. When a book is first read, voices may sound "bumpy and boring," but readers reread without being told. They do this automatically, out of habit, working on making their voices smoother and smoother each time. We have practiced the skill of smoothing out our voices by rereading a sing song poem called "Make New Friends." As the children practiced reciting the poem, their voices smoothed out and they even began to use some voice inflections to sound more interesting and showing their theatrical side. The practice of smoothing out voices carried into our independent and partner reading time. During Writer's Workshop, the students practiced thinking about a subject in their mind, and then drawing that story idea onto a piece of paper. From that image they began to write words developing a story. The students shared their stories with one another from our class "share chair" having the opportunity to pass if they didn't want to share. The next lesson taught the children that writer's think about things from their daily lives to generate ideas for their writing, starting off with words to develop their story and creating illustrations later. This skill of words first and illustrations later was practiced in class. The students were asked to listen to a sentence read aloud, and then to close their eyes and create a picture from the words in their mind. They were then asked to go back to their tables to begin their illustrations. This lesson helped to demonstrate the idea that word interpretation is left up to the individual reader. All words create pictures and images in our minds, but that they differ from person to person reinforcing the idea of the importance of our words and details in our writing.
Math
Patterns: Last week we continued our study of patterns. The children learned that the segment of a pattern that repeats is called the 'pattern unit'. After practicing writing and reading patterns together, children were given the opportunity to create their own patterns. One day they used dots to organize their patterns and another day they cut and glued shapes to create patterns. The children were asked to circle the pattern units to show their understanding of the concept. One day we went on a pattern walk through the school. There are patterns everywhere! Understanding patterns helps children make predictions and knowledge of patterns is an important foundation for algebraic thinking.
Patterns: Our journey into observations of patterns extended into patterns we observe all around us, and made a running list of where they are found on the white board. The students became pattern detectives as they created, observed and made predictions as to which type of pattern was being unveiled one color at a time using a variety of math manipulatives. We observed and created growing patterns and visual patterns by looking through books with photographs of patterns found in nature, art and everyday objects. The children looked through books as inspirations to create their own patterns by organizing their shapes and color selections onto paper while looking at details and making connections between math concepts and the real world.