November 4 - 8, 2013

November 4th, 2013

Dear Families,

The Harvest Festival was a BIG HIT this weekend! I hope you all had a wonderful time enjoying the festivities with your children and with other Caraway families and friends. Now that we've had the Harvest Festival to kick off the first weekend of November, we will begin to think more thoroughly about our ancestors, most of whom moved here before us, the many things that we are thankful for, and of what we can do for others. 

I just love, love, love this time of year! Don't you? 

Math: This week we will begin our unit on Addition Strategies.  We will teach the students strategies for math facts using a research based philosophy written by an Australian company, Origo.  In RRISD we believe students learn best by using thinking strategies instead of memorizing procedures for computations.  According to James Burnett, Calvin Irons and Allan Turton, the authors of The Book of Facts: Addition, “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 (Fuston, 2003; Thornton, 1990).”  We begin our unit by teaching cluster facts that “count on 1” so students master the concept and develop a deeper understanding and thinking strategy.  Students who master the concepts of “count on” strategies will be given enrichment opportunities to develop their thinking further and apply their knowledge to problem solving situations.

Reading Workshop: This week in our reading workshop we will start the week off by reading Molly's Pilgrim and talk about pilgrims and our heritage.  A special note will go home in theTuesday folder explaining about a special research project to be completed at home. We will continue our unit on researching with non fiction literature. The children had so much fun learning about spiders, bats and pumpkins and this week we will start our research on Thanksgiving and spend this week writing facts about Thanksgiving, the Mayflower, and the Pilgrims.  Next week we will complete our research and begin using the facts collected from our research to make a Thanksgiving book.  

Writing Workshop: While still learning about non-fiction writing, we will be turning our attention to research. This unit will be full of factual learning about Pilgrims, Native Americans, The Mayflower, and the first Thanksgiving Feast. The children will be learning how to organize information being researched, along with using the elements of non-fiction while writing all about this fascinating subject!

Science: Students will be given opportunities to predict, explore, and describe whether a magnet attracts or repels various objects.   Students will explore the poles of magnets to experience attraction and repulsion.  Students should understand that a magnet has energy that can be used to push or pull different objects.

 The student knows that force, motion, and energy are related and are a part of everyday life.

 Habit #5:  Seek first to understand, then to be understood. I listen to others without interrupting.  I try to see things from their viewpoint.  I am confident in voicing my own ideas.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO!

 

Reminders:

*Please remember to send a healthy snack every day.  Snack time is @ 9:30am.

*Please make sure your child wears tennis shoes every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

*Please remember to have your child bring library books back to school by Thursday morning.

*Please remember to return your child’s book bag and all supplies on Friday morning.

Dates to remember:

November 2:  Harvest Festival

November 13:  Family Skate Night

November 27-29:  Thanksgiving Holidays

December 4:  Early Release Day

December 5:  Family Art Night

December 9-13:  Book Fair

December 23:  Winter Break Begins