Jan. 14 2011
Dear Parents and Friends,
There has been a lot of energy this week with the excitement over the snowfall! Hmmm. Today we’ll channel that by….
In Writing this week, we have finished up our first drafts of our Stuffed-animal short stories, and we have been conferencing with each other. We’ve been giving each other feeback, asking each other questions and responding to each other’s questions to clarify our stories. In the coming days we will be revising them, focusing on strong beginnings, potent words, and dialogue.
For Read-aloud, we are reading Winnie-the-Pooh. We’ve been using each little story (like Pooh’s run-in with bees and ballons to his run-in with Rabbit’s entrance) to look at how good authors introduce settings and characters, present a problem, then let their characters loose to work their way through the problem and usually learn a lesson.
In 2nd grade math, students worked this week on problems like this:
"Pretend that you need to build some new tables for us all to use in our classroom. Your are given five table tops. You are also given 17 table legs. You can make tables with four legs. You can also make tables with just three legs. Make all the tables you can using all the table tops and all the table legs you are given.
Question: How many three-legged tables will you end up with and how many four-legged tables will you end up with for your classroom? Answer with pictures, numbers, and words."
Students are also working hard to learn strategies for getting quicker with their addition and subtraction facts.
In Fundations, 2nd graders are learning to break big words down into their smaller syllables so they can more easily spell those words. They are learning, for example, that the word muffin gets split into two "closed" syllabes: muf/fin. Students now know that when two vowels are split by two consonants (as in this example), you split the word right down the middle between those two consonants. But, if the word is packing or fishing, you can't split up a ck or an sh so, instead, you split them like this: pack/ing and fish/ing.
First Grade Math: “We wanted to give you an update on what we have been working on in math. We are all going on a journey to Antarctica. Below you will find a link to my blog where you can see some cool Antarctica Passports. As part of this unit the students are learning about Antarctica and penguins. So far the students have decorated their folders and we have recorded their height and weight on their passports. They have cut out measurement strips that show their actual height. We have played a game called Journey to Antarctica where the students spend money for various necessities along their journey. Today we talked about the temperatures of the Atlantic, Pacific and Antarctic Oceans. The Atlantic and Pacific winter temperatures are 60 degrees and the Antarctic Winter temperatures are 30 degrees. In small groups the students were given a small glass of water and a thermometer. Their task was to get their water sample temperature and change it to be 60 degrees and then 30 degrees. They had hot water, cold water and ice to help them. They were all able to do it and loved it. Check in with your child about this experiment. What can they tell you?
More next week..... Donna”
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
David
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
January 7, 2011
Jan. 6, 2011
Dear Parents and Families,
We have had a busy first week back at school in everything from writing short stories to launching our Solids, Liquids and Gases unit to even dealing with sneaky stuffed animals. It’s great to be back in the classroom as we begin this stretch of what is usually the most productive time of the school year.
In reading, as we approach the 80th day of school, we are beginning our winter assessments of students’ reading levels. We’ve also revamped the At-Home Reading Log, and congratulations to Grant Mitchell for being the first to read 300 minutes and get a chance to reach into our classroom treasure chest!
We finished up our read-aloud book, Toys Go Out. We have been talking about a couple of interesting themes. First, Stingray, the grumpy know-it-all had been jealous about not having been picked by the little girl to go to the seaside. Still, her friends, the other animals, treat her with kindness and understanding, and they even save her life, and on the last page of the book, we see Stingray dancing joyfully on the Little Girl’s bed, fully-happy and joyful at last, transformed by the love of her friends. Another theme we looked at was, “Does it count as lying if you make something up to make a sad friend happier?” When Lumphy the Buffalo loses his tail jumping off the bed, and Plastic the ball tries to comfort him, we read…
“Oh, I need it very badly!”
“’What for?” Plastic wants to know.
Lumphy sniffs back his tears. He tries to think of an answer.
“You look tough without it,” says Plastic kindly, rolling around to examine Lumphy’s bottom.
“Really?”
“None of the tough buffaloes have tails,” lies Plastic. I read it in an animal book.”
“They don’t?”
“It’s the tough-buffalo fashion.”
Lumphy thinks for a minute. “Who needs a tail anyway?” he sniffs.
“I don’t.” says Plastic.
“I don’t either then,” Lumphy says bravely.
The culmination of this book led nicely into our Short-Story unit. As you know, we all brought stuffed animals into the classroom and began writing stories about them as we studied story structure including setting , characters, problem, and solution.
We found that just like Lumphy, Plastic, and Stingray, our stuffed animals are a clever and sneaky crew. They did things like hide in the plants and the bookcases every time we left the classroom. So, it hasn’t been hard to think up stories for them.
We studied another important writing organizer -- the topic sentence. We all took a look at the big plant in our classroom and we made a list of words to describe it. We suddenly realized that if Mr. Terko came into the classroom and saw “pointy, tall, fat, huge, green and thirsty” written on the board, he might think we had seen a monster! So, we started our piece off with, “In our classroom, we have a huge plant.” We figured that would keep Mr. Terko from being scared.
In Second Grade Math, we are continuing our study of math facts, learning four important strategies for tackling them – including learning the doubles (8+8 and
4 + 4)), the neighbors (8+7 and 4 +5), the tens facts (10 +8= 18 and 10 + 9 = 19), and learning the halves (if 9+9=18 is easy for you, then keep that in mind when you see 18-9=?)
In 2nd Grade Fundations , we just finished our unit on the suffixes –s, -es, -d, -ed, and –ing.
We began our unit on Solids, Liquids and Gases (“Excuse me, Mr. Bolger, is a
burp made of gas? What about when you – you know -- fart?” ) We’ll be doing multi-age workshops between now and the next seven weeks with students rotating among the classrooms Thursdays and Fridays to do experiments and learn the terminology like matter, properties, and state, atoms and molecules.
Calling all Singers: The Horizon Teachers along with para educators, Mr. Terko, Ms. Trasdiatti-Holmberg, and a couple of musician-parents, will be performing two songs in the upcoming Williston Variety Show (WCS auditorium on March 11??). We would love to have two or three more parents to join with us. We haven’t picked the song yet, but over the past several years, we’ve sung “Jumbalaya”, Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards), Aimie (Pure Praire League), It Don’t Come Easy, and Running Down a Dream (Tom Petty) We generally just have two or three rehearsals on Friday mornings before school, and then we do it. ). If you like to sing and these songs appeal to you, please email us.
Please help our classroom plants! We bought some nice hanging plants at the beginning of the year, and they are beginning to suffer now that they have outgrown their pots and dry-aired winter is fully upon us. I would love it if someone could drop by, check in on them, and give us some advice on how to help them stay alive and flourish in here.
And finally, thank you all, parents and kids, for the holiday gifts you gave me –The handwritten cards, baked goodies, the several gift cards, the cool gifts and the smiles and hugs at the door were all equally appreciated. I feel very luck to be working with you and your children. I learn from you, and from them each day, and I can’t wait to get to work in the morning. What a job.
Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.
David
Dear Parents and Families,
We have had a busy first week back at school in everything from writing short stories to launching our Solids, Liquids and Gases unit to even dealing with sneaky stuffed animals. It’s great to be back in the classroom as we begin this stretch of what is usually the most productive time of the school year.
In reading, as we approach the 80th day of school, we are beginning our winter assessments of students’ reading levels. We’ve also revamped the At-Home Reading Log, and congratulations to Grant Mitchell for being the first to read 300 minutes and get a chance to reach into our classroom treasure chest!
We finished up our read-aloud book, Toys Go Out. We have been talking about a couple of interesting themes. First, Stingray, the grumpy know-it-all had been jealous about not having been picked by the little girl to go to the seaside. Still, her friends, the other animals, treat her with kindness and understanding, and they even save her life, and on the last page of the book, we see Stingray dancing joyfully on the Little Girl’s bed, fully-happy and joyful at last, transformed by the love of her friends. Another theme we looked at was, “Does it count as lying if you make something up to make a sad friend happier?” When Lumphy the Buffalo loses his tail jumping off the bed, and Plastic the ball tries to comfort him, we read…
“Oh, I need it very badly!”
“’What for?” Plastic wants to know.
Lumphy sniffs back his tears. He tries to think of an answer.
“You look tough without it,” says Plastic kindly, rolling around to examine Lumphy’s bottom.
“Really?”
“None of the tough buffaloes have tails,” lies Plastic. I read it in an animal book.”
“They don’t?”
“It’s the tough-buffalo fashion.”
Lumphy thinks for a minute. “Who needs a tail anyway?” he sniffs.
“I don’t.” says Plastic.
“I don’t either then,” Lumphy says bravely.
The culmination of this book led nicely into our Short-Story unit. As you know, we all brought stuffed animals into the classroom and began writing stories about them as we studied story structure including setting , characters, problem, and solution.
We found that just like Lumphy, Plastic, and Stingray, our stuffed animals are a clever and sneaky crew. They did things like hide in the plants and the bookcases every time we left the classroom. So, it hasn’t been hard to think up stories for them.
We studied another important writing organizer -- the topic sentence. We all took a look at the big plant in our classroom and we made a list of words to describe it. We suddenly realized that if Mr. Terko came into the classroom and saw “pointy, tall, fat, huge, green and thirsty” written on the board, he might think we had seen a monster! So, we started our piece off with, “In our classroom, we have a huge plant.” We figured that would keep Mr. Terko from being scared.
In Second Grade Math, we are continuing our study of math facts, learning four important strategies for tackling them – including learning the doubles (8+8 and
4 + 4)), the neighbors (8+7 and 4 +5), the tens facts (10 +8= 18 and 10 + 9 = 19), and learning the halves (if 9+9=18 is easy for you, then keep that in mind when you see 18-9=?)
In 2nd Grade Fundations , we just finished our unit on the suffixes –s, -es, -d, -ed, and –ing.
We began our unit on Solids, Liquids and Gases (“Excuse me, Mr. Bolger, is a
burp made of gas? What about when you – you know -- fart?” ) We’ll be doing multi-age workshops between now and the next seven weeks with students rotating among the classrooms Thursdays and Fridays to do experiments and learn the terminology like matter, properties, and state, atoms and molecules.
Calling all Singers: The Horizon Teachers along with para educators, Mr. Terko, Ms. Trasdiatti-Holmberg, and a couple of musician-parents, will be performing two songs in the upcoming Williston Variety Show (WCS auditorium on March 11??). We would love to have two or three more parents to join with us. We haven’t picked the song yet, but over the past several years, we’ve sung “Jumbalaya”, Sunshine (Jonathan Edwards), Aimie (Pure Praire League), It Don’t Come Easy, and Running Down a Dream (Tom Petty) We generally just have two or three rehearsals on Friday mornings before school, and then we do it. ). If you like to sing and these songs appeal to you, please email us.
Please help our classroom plants! We bought some nice hanging plants at the beginning of the year, and they are beginning to suffer now that they have outgrown their pots and dry-aired winter is fully upon us. I would love it if someone could drop by, check in on them, and give us some advice on how to help them stay alive and flourish in here.
And finally, thank you all, parents and kids, for the holiday gifts you gave me –The handwritten cards, baked goodies, the several gift cards, the cool gifts and the smiles and hugs at the door were all equally appreciated. I feel very luck to be working with you and your children. I learn from you, and from them each day, and I can’t wait to get to work in the morning. What a job.
Have a great weekend. See you on Monday.
David
Thursday, December 16, 2010
December 16, 2010
December 16, 2010
Dear Parents,
First off, watch the video of the kids singing The Horizon Cookie-Baking Company song. We recorded them singing it in class today, and you can see the clip by cutting and pasting this link into your browser:
http://voicethread.com/share/1606588/
Tomorrow is our bake sale. Thank you to all of your who are cooking today with your child, helping to sell tomorrow, or helping by buying the warm clothes to donate to the mitten tree.
Horizon House on Channel Five News! Monday, look for Ms.Schwartz, Mrs. Powers, and four Horizon House Students (including our very own Kayla Cousino) on the morning news. They will be delivering the warm clothes that all of you have made possible by the cooking and the selling of the baked goods.
ABS Holiday Food Drive: if you can spare it, send in a can of food with your child to donate to the ABS Holiday Food Drive. All the donations go to the Williston Food Pantry. Thanks in advance!
In Economics today, we learned more about the difference between goods and services, and we read about how firefighters, by protecting all of us, are an example of people who provide a service to the community.
In 2nd Grade Math, students are learning "all the math facts in the world" (up to 20) by making a giant chart of them and noticing all the patterns. They're also solving challenging word problems such as "John had some crayons. he gave 5 to Jen. Now, he has 7 crayons left. How many crayons did John have to start with?"
Another one they did today was,
“ Ruben has seven snowballs. Samantha has nine more snowballs than Ruben. How many snowballs do they have in all?
We realized that it really helps if we use unifix cubes or pennies as our snowballs. That way, you can act out the problem as you’re reading it – and get to the answer. Second-Grade parents, challenge your child to explain to you using coins or a diagram how he or she would solve one of these two problems.
Continental Math: 2nd graders have been tackling some tough math problems and learning great strategies for taking them apart and solving them. Thanks again, Horizon-Parent CML Coaches
In 1st Grade Math, Students are on unit 3. The unit is called Lobster Legs and Whale Tails
This unit helps children continue to develop a solid understanding of basic operations and place value in the context of problem solving. They start with the crab problems that were introduced in unit two and then end up creating new problems using some lobsters. Then Mrs. Powers introduced a collection of games and activities designed to provide practice with addition facts to 10 and counting sums of money to 25 cents. The children have been doing a lot of sorting and graphing using some sea creatures. The upcoming lessons will focus on multiples of 2, 5, and 10. They will have opportunities to count and compare small collections of nickels, dimes and pennies. First-Grade parents: feel free to get out some money at home and have your child identify the coin and sort them into groups. Then have them count the coins by 1's, 5's and 10's.
In their Fundations class, the 2nd graders are learning the difference between there and their. They are also learning that in the words hunted spilled and splashed the endings sound very different, but they are all spelled with -ed.
Polar Express in Pajamas on Wednesday!
We will be watching the Polar Express on Wednesday as part of our holiday celebration. We will watch it and drinking hot chocolate for about an hour and a half in the morning. We are inviting the kids to wear their pajamas to school on Wednesday as a celebration of the hard work they have been doing over the last several weeks. There will be an official flyer in Friday's folder. Does anyone have any extra “hot cocoa” powder they’d like to donate for this event?
That’s about it for now. Stay warm, everyone.
David
Dear Parents,
First off, watch the video of the kids singing The Horizon Cookie-Baking Company song. We recorded them singing it in class today, and you can see the clip by cutting and pasting this link into your browser:
http://voicethread.com/share/1606588/
Tomorrow is our bake sale. Thank you to all of your who are cooking today with your child, helping to sell tomorrow, or helping by buying the warm clothes to donate to the mitten tree.
Horizon House on Channel Five News! Monday, look for Ms.Schwartz, Mrs. Powers, and four Horizon House Students (including our very own Kayla Cousino) on the morning news. They will be delivering the warm clothes that all of you have made possible by the cooking and the selling of the baked goods.
ABS Holiday Food Drive: if you can spare it, send in a can of food with your child to donate to the ABS Holiday Food Drive. All the donations go to the Williston Food Pantry. Thanks in advance!
In Economics today, we learned more about the difference between goods and services, and we read about how firefighters, by protecting all of us, are an example of people who provide a service to the community.
In 2nd Grade Math, students are learning "all the math facts in the world" (up to 20) by making a giant chart of them and noticing all the patterns. They're also solving challenging word problems such as "John had some crayons. he gave 5 to Jen. Now, he has 7 crayons left. How many crayons did John have to start with?"
Another one they did today was,
“ Ruben has seven snowballs. Samantha has nine more snowballs than Ruben. How many snowballs do they have in all?
We realized that it really helps if we use unifix cubes or pennies as our snowballs. That way, you can act out the problem as you’re reading it – and get to the answer. Second-Grade parents, challenge your child to explain to you using coins or a diagram how he or she would solve one of these two problems.
Continental Math: 2nd graders have been tackling some tough math problems and learning great strategies for taking them apart and solving them. Thanks again, Horizon-Parent CML Coaches
In 1st Grade Math, Students are on unit 3. The unit is called Lobster Legs and Whale Tails
This unit helps children continue to develop a solid understanding of basic operations and place value in the context of problem solving. They start with the crab problems that were introduced in unit two and then end up creating new problems using some lobsters. Then Mrs. Powers introduced a collection of games and activities designed to provide practice with addition facts to 10 and counting sums of money to 25 cents. The children have been doing a lot of sorting and graphing using some sea creatures. The upcoming lessons will focus on multiples of 2, 5, and 10. They will have opportunities to count and compare small collections of nickels, dimes and pennies. First-Grade parents: feel free to get out some money at home and have your child identify the coin and sort them into groups. Then have them count the coins by 1's, 5's and 10's.
In their Fundations class, the 2nd graders are learning the difference between there and their. They are also learning that in the words hunted spilled and splashed the endings sound very different, but they are all spelled with -ed.
Polar Express in Pajamas on Wednesday!
We will be watching the Polar Express on Wednesday as part of our holiday celebration. We will watch it and drinking hot chocolate for about an hour and a half in the morning. We are inviting the kids to wear their pajamas to school on Wednesday as a celebration of the hard work they have been doing over the last several weeks. There will be an official flyer in Friday's folder. Does anyone have any extra “hot cocoa” powder they’d like to donate for this event?
That’s about it for now. Stay warm, everyone.
David
Monday, December 13, 2010
December 13, 2010
Hello Parents!
A few notes:
1) The kids did a great job today presenting our advertisement for our upcoming bake sale. They presented, and then they sang the Horizon Baking Company song to our neighbors in Harmony House. The bake sale, as most of you know, is taking place on Friday -- from the morning sing-along through lunch and after school. We'll be doing shifts.
2) As part of our Economics unit, students, on Friday, did a lesson called, "Camp Mini-Haha" where everyone pretended they were going to go on a camping trip and needed to buy some essential items and some optional items. the classroom was turned into a store. Instead of real camping gear, we had several hundred cards laying on tables depicting, for example, different models of tents for different prices. Students were given $200.00 and needed to create a smart and frugal shopping list including food, a tent, etc.
It was a blast.
3) For our read-aloud book, we are reading a book called Toys Go Out (2006) by Paul Zelinsky. It's a book about a handful of stuffed animals who start out inside a backpack that "smells like a wet bathing suit." Later, Lumphy, the buffalo, gets peanut butter all over him. The stuffed animals debated: Is food on a stuffed animal dirt? "It's just food," says Lumphy. "It's not dirt." "Nope. Food is dirt," says Stingray, "when it's mashed into your fir it's dirt." We debated that question too.
Well, Lumphy is scared to death of the washing machine, not to mention the basement where his stuffed-animal friends tell him there are things like spiders and ghosts and sharks and things. Today we read about how Lumphy hides in the closet in the girl's soccer shoe (head-first) so he won't have to get washed. But, he gets stuck, and now, who knows when anyone will find him and get him out.
Kids shared how they would have this problem turn out if they were the authors. Ask your child how they think it's going to turn out for Lumphy.
4) At-Home Reading: students picked their five books today from our class library to put in their cubbies and read during the week. Many also had a chance to choose two books to sign out and take home. If your child didn't bring home books today, he or she will finish choosing tomorrow. Please help your child collect and bring back classroom books he or she has finished.
5) There will be a half day tomorrow.
7) My apologies for being out of touch for the last three weeks or so . I didn't write during Report Card/Conference time, and then the Bolger family got hit by the bug, and it's rattled through all of us in the last ten days or so. But we're on the mend, now, and I'm glad to be reconnecting with you about all that's happening in here.
Take care, everyone.
David
A few notes:
1) The kids did a great job today presenting our advertisement for our upcoming bake sale. They presented, and then they sang the Horizon Baking Company song to our neighbors in Harmony House. The bake sale, as most of you know, is taking place on Friday -- from the morning sing-along through lunch and after school. We'll be doing shifts.
2) As part of our Economics unit, students, on Friday, did a lesson called, "Camp Mini-Haha" where everyone pretended they were going to go on a camping trip and needed to buy some essential items and some optional items. the classroom was turned into a store. Instead of real camping gear, we had several hundred cards laying on tables depicting, for example, different models of tents for different prices. Students were given $200.00 and needed to create a smart and frugal shopping list including food, a tent, etc.
It was a blast.
3) For our read-aloud book, we are reading a book called Toys Go Out (2006) by Paul Zelinsky. It's a book about a handful of stuffed animals who start out inside a backpack that "smells like a wet bathing suit." Later, Lumphy, the buffalo, gets peanut butter all over him. The stuffed animals debated: Is food on a stuffed animal dirt? "It's just food," says Lumphy. "It's not dirt." "Nope. Food is dirt," says Stingray, "when it's mashed into your fir it's dirt." We debated that question too.
Well, Lumphy is scared to death of the washing machine, not to mention the basement where his stuffed-animal friends tell him there are things like spiders and ghosts and sharks and things. Today we read about how Lumphy hides in the closet in the girl's soccer shoe (head-first) so he won't have to get washed. But, he gets stuck, and now, who knows when anyone will find him and get him out.
Kids shared how they would have this problem turn out if they were the authors. Ask your child how they think it's going to turn out for Lumphy.
4) At-Home Reading: students picked their five books today from our class library to put in their cubbies and read during the week. Many also had a chance to choose two books to sign out and take home. If your child didn't bring home books today, he or she will finish choosing tomorrow. Please help your child collect and bring back classroom books he or she has finished.
5) There will be a half day tomorrow.
7) My apologies for being out of touch for the last three weeks or so . I didn't write during Report Card/Conference time, and then the Bolger family got hit by the bug, and it's rattled through all of us in the last ten days or so. But we're on the mend, now, and I'm glad to be reconnecting with you about all that's happening in here.
Take care, everyone.
David
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
October 19, 2010
October 19, 2010
Dear Parents and Families,
We have been writing up a storm this week. Today, we talked about how a story can be as simple as you telling about something funny you saw; it could be something you notice that someone has said. You decide to tell someone what you heard. That’s a story.
When you open your eyes and notice the cool things that are happening around you --- your story practically writes itself. I had kept a journal on the amazing things that came out of my kids’ mouths when they were young. I ended up typing it up, and I have been reading from it this week. I have been pleased to see that the kids have gotten excited: “I’ve got a story!” cried Jagger this morning. “Can I tell it?” And when he told it, it was a great story. “Write it down!” we all said, and by the end of writing time, Jagger had written four stories. Many others followed suit – telling their stories and then sitting down to purposefully write them. We also focused on using “talking marks” (quotes) and writing what people say to give the story energy.
In the coming days, I would like to begin a home-school journal wherein your child writes to you from school, and then your homework is to read it and write back. More on this next week.
In Reading, we are working in reading groups (“guided reading”). Here is where I challenge students with books with more challenging text and more unpredictable storylines. Meanwhile, other students are reading books at their desks independently (books that are “just right” for them; they can read them comfortably on their own.) And of course, there is the at-home reading. Your child should have come home with this week’s reading log. Please fill it out and return it on Monday.
Your child’s reading level:
I am going to need a few more days to email your child’s assessed reading level to all of you. It’s been a surprisingly-busy week. In the meantime, I have let your child know what book level (by letter) I think is a good one for him or her (each book should have a letter written in the top right-hand corner – the letters go from A to Z and are roughly associated with grade-level from K to grades 7 and 8). You can look at the books your child is bringing home to get a quick look at his or her assessed independent reading level at the beginning of this year. Here is a chart that tells how the letter roughly correlates with grade-level (of course there are overlaps.)
A-C= Kindergarten
B-I = Grade One
H-M = Grade Two
L-P = grade Three
O-T = Grade Four
S-W = Grade Five
V-Y = Grade Six
X-Z = Grade Seven, Eight, and Above
Do you wonder if a certain book is the right independent level for your child? Look here before hitting Barnes and Noble. You can go on the Scholastic website to make sure you’re not overshooting or undershooting. Scholastic has a leveling database; if you type in the name of a book, then click on the book’s image, they’ll tell you the letter associated with the reading level. Fountas and Pinnell also has a database on their website (it’s excellent), but they charge you about $15.00 for 20 visits.
Here is how you access the Scholastic Database:
1. Google Scholastic Book Leveling
2. (There is no login necessary)
3. Go to the top where it says Shop by Grade and Search
4. In the Search window, type the name of the book you are leveling.
5. When the book image appears, click on it.
6. Find the Guided Reading Level on the left.
7. Jot that reading level in the top right-hand corner of our hard-copy book.
Good luck. This should be helpful.
Speaking of Scholastic, you should have received in your child’s folder an instruction sheet on how to order Scholastic books online. Let me know if you have any questions. It’s a smart way to order: no lost checks or order forms.
Timeliner: Today, your child also brought home a brief “Timeliner” project as part of our study of “Today and Long Ago.” Please fill this out over the break and return it on Monday, too. I have enclosed a sample of the final product in the Friday Folder. Thanks for helping.
Our Stone Soup Harvest Festival was a rousing success today. We ate delicious soup and bread, and we dosey-doed around the garden to some awesome fiddle music. Special thanks to Kim Van Buren for ladling out the soup for hungry mouths!
Take care, everyone.
David
Dear Parents and Families,
We have been writing up a storm this week. Today, we talked about how a story can be as simple as you telling about something funny you saw; it could be something you notice that someone has said. You decide to tell someone what you heard. That’s a story.
When you open your eyes and notice the cool things that are happening around you --- your story practically writes itself. I had kept a journal on the amazing things that came out of my kids’ mouths when they were young. I ended up typing it up, and I have been reading from it this week. I have been pleased to see that the kids have gotten excited: “I’ve got a story!” cried Jagger this morning. “Can I tell it?” And when he told it, it was a great story. “Write it down!” we all said, and by the end of writing time, Jagger had written four stories. Many others followed suit – telling their stories and then sitting down to purposefully write them. We also focused on using “talking marks” (quotes) and writing what people say to give the story energy.
In the coming days, I would like to begin a home-school journal wherein your child writes to you from school, and then your homework is to read it and write back. More on this next week.
In Reading, we are working in reading groups (“guided reading”). Here is where I challenge students with books with more challenging text and more unpredictable storylines. Meanwhile, other students are reading books at their desks independently (books that are “just right” for them; they can read them comfortably on their own.) And of course, there is the at-home reading. Your child should have come home with this week’s reading log. Please fill it out and return it on Monday.
Your child’s reading level:
I am going to need a few more days to email your child’s assessed reading level to all of you. It’s been a surprisingly-busy week. In the meantime, I have let your child know what book level (by letter) I think is a good one for him or her (each book should have a letter written in the top right-hand corner – the letters go from A to Z and are roughly associated with grade-level from K to grades 7 and 8). You can look at the books your child is bringing home to get a quick look at his or her assessed independent reading level at the beginning of this year. Here is a chart that tells how the letter roughly correlates with grade-level (of course there are overlaps.)
A-C= Kindergarten
B-I = Grade One
H-M = Grade Two
L-P = grade Three
O-T = Grade Four
S-W = Grade Five
V-Y = Grade Six
X-Z = Grade Seven, Eight, and Above
Do you wonder if a certain book is the right independent level for your child? Look here before hitting Barnes and Noble. You can go on the Scholastic website to make sure you’re not overshooting or undershooting. Scholastic has a leveling database; if you type in the name of a book, then click on the book’s image, they’ll tell you the letter associated with the reading level. Fountas and Pinnell also has a database on their website (it’s excellent), but they charge you about $15.00 for 20 visits.
Here is how you access the Scholastic Database:
1. Google Scholastic Book Leveling
2. (There is no login necessary)
3. Go to the top where it says Shop by Grade and Search
4. In the Search window, type the name of the book you are leveling.
5. When the book image appears, click on it.
6. Find the Guided Reading Level on the left.
7. Jot that reading level in the top right-hand corner of our hard-copy book.
Good luck. This should be helpful.
Speaking of Scholastic, you should have received in your child’s folder an instruction sheet on how to order Scholastic books online. Let me know if you have any questions. It’s a smart way to order: no lost checks or order forms.
Timeliner: Today, your child also brought home a brief “Timeliner” project as part of our study of “Today and Long Ago.” Please fill this out over the break and return it on Monday, too. I have enclosed a
Our Stone Soup Harvest Festival was a rousing success today. We ate delicious soup and bread, and we dosey-doed around the garden to some awesome fiddle music. Special thanks to Kim Van Buren for ladling out the soup for hungry mouths!
Take care, everyone.
David
Friday, October 8, 2010
October 8, 2010
October 8, 2010
Notes From the Week
(Some of this is a recap of notes I sent home on Monday and Wednesday.)
Monday:
We had a great field trip today to the Flynn. As you know, we've been studying Today and Long Ago. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House on the Prairie series, lived at the end of the 1800s and traveled west with her family to homestead. She wrote all about the pioneer life. The play we saw today had a simple set and only four characters: Ma, Pa, Mary (her older sister), and Laura.
Our class learned about how people 130 years ago traveled not by car but by wagons and horses. They learned that many families grew and raised all the food they ate. They learned that especially if you lived in "the country" you might not even be able to see anyone else's house from your front doorstep, so you mostly played with your brothers and sisters. They learned that it took Laura and her family 3 months to travel from Wisconsin to Kansas by horse and wagon. They learned about homesteading, the threat of wild animals, and the threat of locusts. They learned that Laura became a writer by keeping a journal and by learning to describe for her blind sister, Mary, the many sights she saw.
Another thing we saw was the excitement -- a mixture of hope and fear -- that the Ingalls family-- and many other pioneer families felt whenever they headed off into unknown lands looking for land and work. Pa kept saying, "C'mon Ingalls Family! We got places to go!" He also was famous for saying, "THAT'S the pioneering spirit!" Another thing he said was, "When something bad happens, something good always comes of it."
Tuesday:
For writing, we talked about how sights and smells remind you of things that have happened to you. We took a walk up on the hill behind the classroom. We got very quiet and we felt the sun on our faces. We smelled the damp grass. We heard the rattle of leaves falling through the branches of trees. We went around and shared any stories we had about things we like to do with our families in the fall. We also picked grass and wrapped it with rubber bands to make sheaves of wheat. We’re letting them dry. Then, we’re going to use them to create a fall scene in our classroom.
Wednesday:
We took a walk down the hall and put sticky notes on paintings of fall that we liked. We talked about what we noticed. We planned our own paintings. Then, we returned to the classroom, read a story about Fall, and we each did rough drafts of a personal Fall scene that we’ll be painting and then writing about. We also read from James and the Giant Peach and we noticed how when James climbed into that peach, escaping his miserable aunts and his bare-wood bed, he must have been scared. We talked about how nice it was for him that Spider wove a comfortable hammock-bed for him, and Grasshopper and Glowworm said kind words to him, and…
“Already he was beginning to like his new friends very much. They were not nearly as terrible as they looked. In fact, they weren’t really terrible at all. They seemed extremely kind and helpful in spite of all the shouting and arguing that went on between them. ‘Good night, old green grasshopper,’ he whispered…”
We talked about how, just like James, our class is embarking on an adventure together this year – our classroom is our peach. And if we can all try to be thoughtful and kind and caring to each other, and apologize if we hurt someone, we, like James, will like our new friends very much, and they will like us very much, and we will end up having, together, accomplished very much.
Thursday:
Thank you to Hannaford Supermarkets for sponsoring an exciting, zany, energetic, emmy-award-winning producton called Foodplay. The two main characters were a coach and a student. They did juggling and dancing and prank-playing, and they did an excellent job of teaching kids to
1) eat five fruits or veggies per day (scary, isn’t it, parents?),
2) read the ingredients on the packages (and notice what the first ingredient is because that’s the biggest ingredient) and
3) Look out for high fructose corn syrup ‘cause it’s pretty-much just sugar.
Friday:
We began the day with a Morning Meeting sing-along. We couldn’t help it. “Cutter, Cutter, bo-butter, banana fanna fo-futter, fee-fi mo-mutter…. In Math, both first and second graders are deepening their understanding of patterns. With a new month, we have a new, emerging pattern to figure out in our Number Corner. In Reading, we are practicing picking books that are just right for us using the five-finger rule (as you read, every time you come across a word that you can’t read, you put one finger down on the page.) If you put all five down before the page is through, it’s a good reminder that you should put this book aside and read it later in the year. Right now, you should pick a book that is easier for you.
We ended the day with a great presentation from the Williston Fire Department. Special thanks to Thom Moore – firefighter and EMT, He’s Harley Moore’s dad.
Note: you should find a “Class Friendship List” (aka telephone list) in your child’s backpack today.
That’s it for now. Have a restful weekend.
David
Notes From the Week
(Some of this is a recap of notes I sent home on Monday and Wednesday.)
Monday:
We had a great field trip today to the Flynn. As you know, we've been studying Today and Long Ago. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House on the Prairie series, lived at the end of the 1800s and traveled west with her family to homestead. She wrote all about the pioneer life. The play we saw today had a simple set and only four characters: Ma, Pa, Mary (her older sister), and Laura.
Our class learned about how people 130 years ago traveled not by car but by wagons and horses. They learned that many families grew and raised all the food they ate. They learned that especially if you lived in "the country" you might not even be able to see anyone else's house from your front doorstep, so you mostly played with your brothers and sisters. They learned that it took Laura and her family 3 months to travel from Wisconsin to Kansas by horse and wagon. They learned about homesteading, the threat of wild animals, and the threat of locusts. They learned that Laura became a writer by keeping a journal and by learning to describe for her blind sister, Mary, the many sights she saw.
Another thing we saw was the excitement -- a mixture of hope and fear -- that the Ingalls family-- and many other pioneer families felt whenever they headed off into unknown lands looking for land and work. Pa kept saying, "C'mon Ingalls Family! We got places to go!" He also was famous for saying, "THAT'S the pioneering spirit!" Another thing he said was, "When something bad happens, something good always comes of it."
Tuesday:
For writing, we talked about how sights and smells remind you of things that have happened to you. We took a walk up on the hill behind the classroom. We got very quiet and we felt the sun on our faces. We smelled the damp grass. We heard the rattle of leaves falling through the branches of trees. We went around and shared any stories we had about things we like to do with our families in the fall. We also picked grass and wrapped it with rubber bands to make sheaves of wheat. We’re letting them dry. Then, we’re going to use them to create a fall scene in our classroom.
Wednesday:
We took a walk down the hall and put sticky notes on paintings of fall that we liked. We talked about what we noticed. We planned our own paintings. Then, we returned to the classroom, read a story about Fall, and we each did rough drafts of a personal Fall scene that we’ll be painting and then writing about. We also read from James and the Giant Peach and we noticed how when James climbed into that peach, escaping his miserable aunts and his bare-wood bed, he must have been scared. We talked about how nice it was for him that Spider wove a comfortable hammock-bed for him, and Grasshopper and Glowworm said kind words to him, and…
“Already he was beginning to like his new friends very much. They were not nearly as terrible as they looked. In fact, they weren’t really terrible at all. They seemed extremely kind and helpful in spite of all the shouting and arguing that went on between them. ‘Good night, old green grasshopper,’ he whispered…”
We talked about how, just like James, our class is embarking on an adventure together this year – our classroom is our peach. And if we can all try to be thoughtful and kind and caring to each other, and apologize if we hurt someone, we, like James, will like our new friends very much, and they will like us very much, and we will end up having, together, accomplished very much.
Thursday:
Thank you to Hannaford Supermarkets for sponsoring an exciting, zany, energetic, emmy-award-winning producton called Foodplay. The two main characters were a coach and a student. They did juggling and dancing and prank-playing, and they did an excellent job of teaching kids to
1) eat five fruits or veggies per day (scary, isn’t it, parents?),
2) read the ingredients on the packages (and notice what the first ingredient is because that’s the biggest ingredient) and
3) Look out for high fructose corn syrup ‘cause it’s pretty-much just sugar.
Friday:
We began the day with a Morning Meeting sing-along. We couldn’t help it. “Cutter, Cutter, bo-butter, banana fanna fo-futter, fee-fi mo-mutter…. In Math, both first and second graders are deepening their understanding of patterns. With a new month, we have a new, emerging pattern to figure out in our Number Corner. In Reading, we are practicing picking books that are just right for us using the five-finger rule (as you read, every time you come across a word that you can’t read, you put one finger down on the page.) If you put all five down before the page is through, it’s a good reminder that you should put this book aside and read it later in the year. Right now, you should pick a book that is easier for you.
We ended the day with a great presentation from the Williston Fire Department. Special thanks to Thom Moore – firefighter and EMT, He’s Harley Moore’s dad.
Note: you should find a “Class Friendship List” (aka telephone list) in your child’s backpack today.
That’s it for now. Have a restful weekend.
David
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