October 7, 2013

Dear Parents,

A couple of quick notes on the day:

We had a very exciting time this morning at Morning Meeting. We  were practicing saying the continents ("Asia, Africa..." ---ask your child to tell you the chant). I asked the kids if they knew that  at one time, the continents were  connected as one land mass...Well, you'd think I'd told them we were going to have an extra half hour of recess.  Xander leaped up. "It was called Pangea!"  Jasper cried out, "And they're still moving!" Someone else said, "Look! Right where Europe and Asia meet, there are plates colliding RIGHT NOW."  "And look! The continent of  Asia and the continent of Africa meet right THERE!"
You could practically see the steam coming off these kids' heads. Over the coming months, I will be inviting the students to pick topics that interest them and do research and write a report. I think this particular class will jump on that.

"It was called Pangea!"

In Reading, we talked about using sticky-notes to mark where the author is really describing the main character. While PJ, Nina's dad, led a book group, I was able to walk around and conference with kids on what character traits they were finding in their books.

Also in Reading, as I said, we began reading groups this week. In addition to doing a class-wide reading lesson each day, and conferencing with students as they try out in their "independent", "just-right" books the reading strategies they are learning, I will now be meeting with your child and his or her reading group two to four times per week.

Book Bags: For the younger kids, this means taking home the book they've read that day to reread it (with greater fluency ---hopefully out-loud to you or to a sibling). It will go home in  their "book bag" (a blue folder) to be sent back the next day in the same "book bag" (blue folder)

In Read-Aloud, we thought it would be a good idea to celebrate October by reading kind-of-spooky mysteries. We started with The Curse of the Squirrel. by Lawrence Yep. We noticed that just like in our own writing, the author first told us about who was in the story, and then, as Charlie noted, "Just when it seemed to be getting kind-of boring, the author wrote, 'SUDDENLY..'." at the most exciting moment, and we knew we were now into the second part, the SUDDENLY part of the story.

We ended our day with our Team Time. Ask your child what he or she is working on this week during Team Time  (aka WIN time).

And enjoy this beautiful, warm weather. I'm psyched to think that I could be snowboarding in about six weeks, but these last few warm days are just gorgeous.

Take care, everyone.

Mr. Bolger