December 4, 2009

Calliope Weekly Update
November 30-December 4, 2009
Week Fourteen

Happy December, Parents and Kids!

Literacy: Readers and writers are working on responding to text in guided reading groups. Many groups have finished up some longer selections, and vocabulary, fluency and comprehension continue to be a focus. All students continue to work in reading response journals and are reviewing how to write letters about our reading to our teachers.

Math: Fourth graders used raisins to study landmark data terms (mean, median, mode, range). Students predicted how many raisins would be in the box and compared predictions to data. Fourth graders also explored decimals to the hundredths place. Third graders have started a unit on operations, specifically multi-digit addition and subtraction. Students worked intensely to find $1.00 words...ask your child what this means!

Writing: Both classes are working on narrative writing. We are working on building stamina during writing, and how to add on and revise to make our writing stronger.

Word Study: Mr. B’s spelling groups are publishing silly spelling stories on a new class writing blog, stay tuned! There will be a spelling bee for Mr. B’s spellers next week (spelling test Thursday, bee on Friday). Fundations spellers worked on vowel-consonant-e syllable exceptions: /ive/ has a short vowel sound instead of a long vowel sound. Students are really seeing improvements in their spelling when they tap each word!

Social Studies: All 3-4 students worked cooperatively on a global address project: students worked in small groups to identify and map each section of our global address: 3-4 classrooms, Calliope House, Allen Brook School, Williston, Chittenden County, Vermont, New England, United States, North America, The World, The Solar System, and the Galaxy. Wow! This week, we worked in pairs to locate and label continents and oceans on a world map and countries, major cities and bodies of water on maps of North America.

Responsive Classroom: As we transition back and forth between the two classrooms many times each day, some students have raised concern over their property and school supplies while away from their desks. We had a conversation about the role of school supplies as tools for learning, and not collections (ex: fooeys and pencil cap erasers)—meaning no hoarding. Please encourage your child to keep any collections at home and tools for learning at school. Thanks. 

Ask me about:
• Emma’s Birthday
• My new table-group mates
• Friday morning meeting with Ms. Schoolcraft’s class
• TCT: snowflakes, knitting, board games
• Our class pets (our worms in our worm bin working day and night to compost for us)

Other: FUN NIGHT IS SATURDAY NIGHT! We hope to see you and your families at this exciting annual Calliope event. And yes, Ms S. and Mr. B. will be there! The WSD/Cochran’s ski & ride program begins 1/8. Please see the online edition of the School Bell for details. Tuesday, December 15th is a half day for students, please plan accordingly. Have a fantastic first December weekend…and hope to see you Saturday!

Mr. Bolger and Ms. Schoolcraft