Sunday, September 25, 2016

Monday News

Dear Families,

Thank you for attending open house. This week, we will be leading all school morning meeting.

The scholastic order is due on Wednesday. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Last week, the students played the role of teacher and taught each other about different life cycles.

We started cursive and the students are very excited. Your child can practice reading cursive at home.

Remember that your child should be reading for at least 20-30 minutes at home. Do not worry about pushing your child to read "harder" books. Volume is very important and  students should look forward to reading.

Please look for a permission slip for Burnt Rock Farm and Camel's Hump Alpacas coming home this week. We will need a couple chaperones.

Enjoy your week,
Anna

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Monday News

Dear Families,

We kicked-off writing workshop this year with the Olympics Fanfare theme by John Williams playing our opening ceremony as each student was handed their writing notebooks. We are starting with a unit on realistic fiction. This week we will develop believable characters by creating their external and internal traits.

In reading workshop, we will continue to read, read, read. We will look at characters in stories and look at how characters develop throughout a story. Students will place their understanding of character development on a progression. The first stage is a retell. If your child tells you everything that happened to the character in the story, then their understanding of that character is in the first stages of understanding that character. The second stage is to notice character feelings. For example, your child may say, “The character felt lonely, even though she had a dog”. The third stage is to notice character traits. An example would be that the character was sneaky and untrustworthy. The last stage is to notice the lesson or the theme. For example, your child may notice that the character realized that, “You should appreciate the friends you have”.  Reading comprehension strategies are developed on a continuum or progressions. The students learn to place their comprehension strategies on these progressions, so they can set goals and monitor their understanding. We are focusing on character development in both reading and writing workshops. You can talk to your child about the characters in their books at home.

The homework this week:
Math: Workbook pages assigned by math teacher
Reading: Read for 20-30 minutes each night
Math Homework is due Friday, September 23rd

Alison will teach the students about nutrition on Thursdays. During Thrilling Thursday, we focused on life cycles. All living things have life cycles. Alison showed us garlic and we discussed how it propagates with the bulb. We will plant garlic in the school gardens. Students learned that garlic and leeks are both alliums.
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Class Schedule:
Mondays - Spanish
Tuesdays - Library, Music, Physical Education
Wednesdays - Art
Thursdays - Physical Education
Fridays - Guidance
Important Dates:

  • 9/21, Wednesday, Open House, 6:00-7:00 pm
  • 10/11, Tuesday, Hike Day, 9-1:30pm (rain date, 9/13, Thursday)

Our class will lead all school morning meetings on the following dates:

9/30/2016
10/28/2016
1/6/2017
3/10/2017
5/12/2017

Enjoy your week,

Mrs. Carter

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Monday News

Dear Families,


The homework folder will come home Monday with the students' first official homework. There will not be a formal grade on the report cards for homework, however I will have students stay in from recess to complete homework if it is not returned by Monday. Math pages will go home each Monday and should be completed by Friday. You will notice that I do not expect a reading log from students. I believe that reading is part of our everyday lives and it should be enjoyable. To create reading lives, I do not want a timer set for reading. I have a guideline of a minimum of 20-30 minutes of reading each night. This can include reading recipes, reading directions to board games, reading poetry, reading picture books, reading series, etc. It is also important to listen to reading. Please enjoy books alone and with each other. Find a comfy place in the house and make reading a daily routine that everyone looks forward to! With that said, there needs to be some accountability that students are reading at home. There will be monthly book reports (starting in October) about a book from home. If students are not reading, they will not have a book to report on. Please contact me if you’d like help finding a book for your child.


The homework this week:
Math: 3rd graders – page 9
4th graders – pages from workbook
Reading: Read for a minimum of 20-30 minutes each night
Math Homework is due Friday, September 16th


Pictures from last week:
Creating rules and expectations for our outdoor classroom on Thrilling Thursdays.
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A routine of outdoor classroom is to silently observe in our sit-spots; where we notice, ask questions and observe changes each week.
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Students discussed the difference between a drawing and a scientific diagram. 



Our class joined Ms. Aitken's class to clear an area for our outdoor classroom. 










 Each day begins with a morning meeting. There is a greeting, a share and an activity. Students sit in a circle so that everyone is included. This is the spiderweb greeting. We will use this greeting later in the year to discuss shapes and acute, right and obtuse angles.



Class Schedule:
Mondays - Spanish
Tuesdays - Library, Music, Physical Education
Wednesdays - Art
Thursdays - Physical Education
Fridays - Guidance
Important Dates:


  • 9/21, Wednesday, Open House, 6:00-7:00 pm
  • 10/11, Tuesday, Hike Day, 9-1:30pm (rain date, 9/13, Thursday)


Our class will lead all school morning meetings on the following dates:


9/30/2016
10/28/2016
1/6/2017
3/10/2017
5/12/2017


Enjoy your week,
Mrs. Carter



Monday, September 5, 2016

Monday News

Dear Families,

We had a great first week of school. The students played games and did activities to get to know their classmates. We read The North Star by Peter Reynolds. We have started to create rules and expectations in our classroom. We also had our first outdoor day on Thursday. The students voted to name our days outside, “Thrilling Thursdays”. We started to discuss organisms and looking at how scientists classify.

First homework assignment due Friday:

The students will be personalizing their writing notebooks. The writing notebook is a place for writers to catch all the inspiration they find in their lives that could lead to a piece of writing.  We personalize the notebook with pictures and memorabilia of important moments, all of which call to mind stories we might want to write about in some form. Collect pictures and magazine clippings to personalize your notebook. Parents may email the pictures to me and I will print the pictures if you’d like.

Class Schedule:
Mondays - Spanish
Tuesdays - Library, Music, Physical Education
Wednesdays - Art
Thursdays - Physical Education
Fridays - Guidance
Important Dates:

  • 9/21, Wednesday, Open House, 6:00-7:00 pm
  • 10/11, Tuesday, Hike Day, 9-1:30pm (rain date, 9/13, Thursday)

Our class will lead all school morning meetings on the following dates:

9/30/2016
10/28/2016
1/6/2017
3/10/2017
5/12/2017

Enjoy your week,
Mrs. Carter

Thrilling Thursdays