Dear families,

Can you believe that we have already entered into the month of November? This last week of October has been another week packed full of learning fun... We had an amazing turn out on Wednesday with a ratio of 1 dad for each 2 children. Thank you, dads, for spending that quality time with us in the classroom. You were all amazing with the children, and even helpful in the clean up! We couldn't have asked for anything more! 

Reading Workshop:

This week in Reading Workshop we will be reading and discussing elements of fiction.  We will identify the characters and setting of fiction writing, as well as problem and the solution.  All of these elements make up the plot of a story.  We will read stories from many different genres and compare the elements of fiction. 

Writing Workshop:

This week in Writing Workshop we will begin our unit on Small Moments.  We will use children’s literature to model how authors pick a short moment in time to write a lot about.  We will focus on details and description.  We will continue to develop our craft by using the writing process.

Math:

We are starting a new unit this week called: Developing Count On Addition Strategies for Basic Facts.  

This unit will last for two weeks.  It is essential that all students are able to successfully calculate both mentally and with paper and pencil their basic facts.  Research shows that the most effective way for students to learn the basic facts is to arrange the facts into clusters.  Each cluster is based on a thinking strategy that students can use to help them learn all of facts in that cluster.  We will be doing the "Count On" cluster for the next two weeks.  Counting is a vital life skill and forms the basis of the Count On strategy, a strategy that is useful for more than half the number of basic facts that need to be mastered.  This unit includes Count On 1 (+1 facts), Count on 2 (+2 facts) and Count on 0 (+0 facts).  This unit also develops the concept of "turnarounds," the application of the commutative property of addition.  This property allows any number of addends to be combined in any order and the sum will always be the same.  The vocabulary your child will be introduced to in this unit include: Count on, one more, add one, addition, number sentence, turnaround fact, equation, Count on 2, two more, add two, equals, equal sign means "the same as" (NOT "the answer is"), zero. 

Science:

We are completing our unit on Force, Motion and Energy durin the first part of the week. After that, we will move into our next unit in Social Studies, which is maps and globes.  As a class we will compare the two and discuss how each is important.  We will learn about relative location and how using direction words helps us when we are making and using maps.

Thanks to you…

Tuesday Folders: Alina Postelnicu

Copies and cutting: Alina Postelnicu

Computer Lab: Carl Alagar

Homework Helpers: Jen VanMetre and Santrupta Bhatia

Thursday Reader: Samaneh Sayyar

And a continued thank you to all of you who are working with your children at home with their homework packets. You make a HUGE difference in their lives and mine! I appreciate you!

Reminders:

Saturday, November 3^rd 12pm-3pm Harvest Festival

Wednesday, November 14^th Thanksgiving Meal in the cafeteria

Wed-Fri, November 21-23 Holiday