March 13, 2010

Calliope Weekly Update
March 8-12, 2010
Week Twenty-five

Conferences: I will be emailing a conference sign-up list to you over the weekend. Please email back with preferred times. Looking forward to seeing you.

Big-Basket Raffle: Please donate by March 17th. Our theme is Ice Cream Social. We have received two nice sets of bowls. Still needed: items such as sugar cones, sprinkles, scoops, syrup, spoon set, a Friendly’s gift card, etc. Thank you. Thank you!

Williston Variety Show: tonight 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Come see your teachers and friends perform! $5.00 at the door. Call ahead for availability.

Green Breakfast: March 17th! Hope to see you here 

Reading and Writing: We celebrated the completion of our research on Friday morning with a “cupcake” celebration—students decorated their own cupcakes in honor of the “icing on the cake” which was the presentations of our research. Students will work in guided reading groups starting next week and will be writing their second response to literature in the weeks to come.

Math: Fourth graders learned quick strategies for big multiplication problems. Third graders continued their work with fractions. Third graders explored area model, set model, and linear model fractions. Students used a variety of manipulatives to represent, compare and order fractional amounts. Students also learned several new games: Fraction Top-it, Wipeout, Building Rectangles, Fraction Memory and Fraction Riddles.

Word Study: Mr. B’s spelling group did a power cursive week, and will resume their work with sorting words by spelling concepts next week. Ms. S’s spellers began unit 7 and are studying the addition of suffixes to words ending /y/, as well as, learning the capital C, O and G in cursive.

Science: We kicked off our next science unit—States of Matter—this week. Students are learning how to identify the difference between solids, liquids and gases. Students worked in groups to create collage posters of each state of matter. Next week, we will explore the properties of each state in depth.

Responsive Classroom: We welcomed two new students to Calliope this week! Rudy is a 4th grader in Ms. Schoolcraft’s class, and his brother Wayne is a 2nd grader in Mrs. Dodge’s class. Calliope students have been warm and welcoming to their new classmate, and have done a great job showing the boys around, introducing themselves, and helping explain Calliope routines and rituals.


Ask me about:
• Friday’s surprise
• Writing for the Blue & Gold
• Our presentations
• Calliope Yellow Pages
• How to solve 999 x 999 in 40 seconds or less. Can you do it, parents?!

Please Enjoy the warm weather and don’t forget to “spring ahead” this weekend!