Friday, October 27, 2017

Highlights 10-27-17

Hello families,

This week we've been busy s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g and growing our brains. We do this all the time when we choose just right books to read. We do this when we stretch out words to write all the sounds we hear. We do it when we practice handwriting and forming our letters carefully. We stretch our brains when we practice reading new sight words. These are commonly used words that don't always follow traditional spelling patterns so we just have to know how to read them on sight. We got 2 new tools to practice this skill during readers workshop. We have little practice booklets to help us practice reading lists of sight words as quickly as we can read our own names. We also learned a roll and record game to practice reading and writing these sight words.

We began fact power in math that it letting us show mastery of math facts within a pattern and move onto the next more challenging level. With each level our brain gains more power in working with numbers! We are using this power to look for different combinations of the same sum within a story. For example, "I have 9 things on my plate. Some are peas. Some are carrots. How many peas can I have? How many carrots?" This week we used cubes to help us model combination stories like these. We drew pictures to represent the combinations as well as equations to match. Students shared out ways they represented their work and ways to thought about combinations. Some students began using a more organized strategy to try to find ALL possible combinations!









We have also been talking about this concept of stretching and growing our brains in relation to our work in social studies about having a growth mindset. This means being willing to try new things, make mistakes, and keep getting better at things that are hard for us. Sometimes when things are hard we feel like "I can't do this!" It feels frustrating. When we have a growth mindset instead we say "This is hard but I'll try my best!" We read a book to help us learn about the science behind the growth mindset and our brain called Your Fantastic, Elastic Brain: Stretch It, Grow It by JoAnn Deak, Ph.D. We shared lots of examples from our own lives about when something was hard but we kept trying, or when we made a mistake and learned from it.




We read a few books all together this week too. We read the book our class wrote: Fabulous Fox, Fabulous Fox, Who Do You See?, a book about letters and sounds: Alphabet Mystery by Audrey Wood, a book about teamwork: Swimmy by Leo Lionni, and a fun Halloween book: Big Pumpkin  by Erica Silverman.




This week our anticipation and excitement for Halloween continued to grow. We started learning and singing some Halloween songs together. We did a fun "spiderweb" greeting during morning meeting. We also began reading some books with this holiday theme. Next Tuesday is Halloween. We'll do more fun learning activities to celebrate during the school day and we'll have a special snack in the afternoon. Please remember there are no costumes or candy allowed at school.






We continue to have regularly scheduled mind and body breaks to energize when our engines are running low or when we need to expend extra energy (especially on rainy days), or calm down when our engines are running high. We also challenge our brains with cross-body exercises with Mr. Catman!










Dates to Remember:
Tuesday October 31 - Halloween - No Costumes at School
Thursday November 2 - Clothing Drive and Potluck Dinner 5:00-7:00 pm
Wednesday November 8 - Early Release at 12:15 (Teacher In-Service)
Monday November 20 - Family Conferences - No School for Kids
Tuesday November 21 - Friday November 24 - Thanksgiving Break - No School


Have a great weekend!
❤ Mrs. Fox

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