Nov. 20, 2009

Calliope Weekly Update
November 16-20, 2009
Week Twelve

Dear Parents,

Literacy: Both third and fourth grade readers have been working on gaining stamina during independent reading. We are also working on writing thoughtful responses to our reading, and journaling back and forth with our teachers. Students working with both Mr. B. and Ms. S for reading learned a comprehension strategy called “Read-Write-Think,” which prompts readers to interact with the text (underline, write in the margins—or use stickies if it’s not your copy!) when asked to read to find out, and answer questions about the text.

Math: Third graders continue their work with place value and worked with reading, writing, and ordering numbers to the ten-thousands place. Third graders created books, showing 8 ways to represent a large number. Next week we’ll wrap-up our study of place value and number sense. Fourth grade mathematicians explored algebra through in/out boxes. Clare Earley, a master teacher Mr. B is working with as part of a professional development experience, taught a lesson to fourth graders on Tuesday. Computational fluency continues to be a focus for fourth graders, as they set and reach for weekly goals on timed multiplication tests.

Writing: With Ms. Schoolcraft, students worked to develop their seed stories this week, revising to add “lively leads.” They shared “first sentences” of many of their favorite books, and compared action, question, thoughts & feelings, sound effects, and dialogue leads. Language arts this week focused on editing practice, as well as analogies and commonly misspelled words. Students in Mr. Bolger’s class did several “seven-minute writes” this week to build their bank of “seed stories.”

Word Study: Mr. B’s spelling groups ran the gamut of vowel teams, /dge/ vs. /ge/, and vocabulary word work, as well as, cursive handwriting! Fundations spellers worked with v-e syllable types, specifically in multisyllabic words, and reviewed closed, v-e, and closed syllable exception syllable types.

Social Studies: In Mr. B’s class, students learned that land maps are proportional pictures on paper of land and important things on that land (like cities or mountains or natural resources). They used the book Zoom and a Youtube video (check it out) called “The Powers of Ten” to learn how you can map everything from a square inch of soil to our town to our state to the continents --- all the way to a map of our known universe!

Four Winds: Students explored cones & conifers as part of the November 4-Winds lesson. We learned about designs in nature. We especially learned about how the Fibonacci sequence is all over the place in nature! We looked closely at how it appears even on a pinecone! Look it up on Google!

Ask me about:
• Male & Female cones
• Soda Pop, Don’t throw your junk in my backyard, Fish & Chips…Round Singing!
. The Youtube movie "The Powers of Ten."
. The nesting dolls.
. My reading chain.


Other: There will be no weekly update next week due to the Thanksgiving break. Please encourage your child to read over the long weekend. Have a peaceful, relaxing, and joyous holiday! Watch out…here comes December!

Take Care, Everyone!

David and Sarah

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