I hope that everyone is enjoying these wonderful fall days! After wearing shorts last weekend, this weekend's morning temps were a bit of a shock. I was happy to have afternoon soccer games and pumpkin farm activities!
I want to thank Mrs. McDonald for coming in to be our mystery reader. I am sorry to say that I remembered the picture just after Miri had left, so we missed that opportunity. She read a beautiful book called Mrs. Rumphius. The kids and I loved it! We have wrapped up our first unit in reader's workshop and have begun our new unit; navigating nonfiction. We spent last week learning about how to extract the main ideas in our books and then the details that support the main idea. The kids are learning how to synthesize, understand and organize the information they read to build deeper understandings of the content and to get away from note taking the consists of copying random facts. We have used a few different mentor texts about gorillas and octopuses to learn how to do this. Ask your child about what they have learned about those animals as well as other discoveries they've found in their own nonfiction reading! The kids worked extremely hard last week to finish up their first personal narrative! We have published these pieces and will have a celebration with our kindergarten buddies on Monday! I will be providing apple sundaes as a special treat (sliced apples with a drizzle of caramel and a little whipped cream). I look forward to sharing these stories with you at conferences in November! In math, we have been working on a variety of problem solving strategies. The kids are using different diagrams to help them organize the numbers/quantities in a problem to help them figure out how to solve it. We also got set up on a program called XtraMath. More information will come home shortly so that you can use this program at home to build fluency with math facts with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Just a reminder to send back math tests if you haven't already! Thank you! In science we learned about the properties of a solid, liquid and gas. We also used grams to measure the weight of a solid. Next week, we will talk more about matter's different forms and properties. We will also introduce measuring liquid volume. In social studies, we learned about land forms such as a plateau, a mesa, and a butte. I would also like to thank all of you for your understanding with our snack policy! It has been wonderful to see all of the fresh fruits and veggies the kids are bringing in for snack. It is also great to see the delight when we get clementines for a birthday treat and strawberries for a special snack! Just a reminder that kids do not have school on Thursday, October 29 and Friday, October 30! Have a wonderful week! Thank you to Bailey, Brooke's sister, who came in to be our first mystery reader today! The kids loved reading The Day The Crayons Quit! Bailey also brought the kids crayons and paper! We had a great time! And, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROOKE!
Prior to our math MAPS testing today, we quietly listened to some classical tunes, peeled and ate a clementine. I have read this is supposed to calm the nerves and stimulate the brain. The kids seemed to enjoy it, at least.
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