Families

I am so excited to be starting our new social studies unit o families. Teaching about cultures and diverse families is one of my favorite topics. We will be talking about what makes a family and looking at many different kinds of families. This it will be fun and open up opportunities for creativity through writing and art. If you have any photos of you and your family that your child could use for some of the projects, please send them in. You will want to send photocopies, as they will be glued to something and will not be returned in the same condition they are sent. I will be sending a reminder home. This week students view photos of different families and had a open discussion about what they noticed about the families. We discussed what makes a family and shared a little about our ow families and looked at similarities and differences across students. On Tuesday asked each student to describe their family in one word, however, students found it difficult to choose only one word. How would you describe your family How would your child describe your family? Here of a few of the many words students used: smart, athletic, kind, loving, hard working, outdoorsy, happy and weird.

Looking at families and what makes a family has made me think about the students and the friendships and bonds students develop in our classroom and a Crocker Farm, not only with teachers and peers in the classroom but other sport staff and administrators as well as reading buddies and siblings and friends of siblings in other grades.

In reading we have started the digraphs "th" and "wh" ad are on to unit 2 in "The Adventures of Superkids". We have started our "How To" writing unit and students have practiced reading steps and discussing materials in order to make a pumpkin volcano and tomorrow we will practice further with making sun butter and jelly sandwiches with a partner. We are having a lot of fun!

Have a great weekend and keep up the great reading. 

Pronouns and P-P-T's

Students have been learning about both nouns and pronouns. They are now identifying and listing pronouns and nouns on their own. We have noticed that pronouns are also our memory words. In Room 4 we read a lot. We don't only read a story once or twice, but sometimes even in three different ways to build our fluency and comprehension. We respond to texts independently and in small groups by discussing and also through our writing. I am very please with the progress. Keep reading with your kids; it is making an awesome impact on the reading I am seeing in the classroom.

In math we have started learning about P-P-T (or part-part-total) and the missing addend. Students are counting on and using the number line to help them find this. Some students are even starting to count on with numbers larger than 10. We are practicing counting by 5's and some of us by 2's. Students are starting to notice patterns and connecting to even and odd numbers. I have mentioned to parents the new math we are incorporating based on a developing a deep understanding of numbers and building numeracy skills. Here is a link to the program and the training I am in the midst of: https://www.mathrecovery.org/how-it-works/addvantage
Currently Kindergarten and First grade teachers in the district are being trained, as well as some middle and high school teachers.

Every Friday we read with our third grade reading buddies in Ms. Joyce's class. Students seem to be really enjoying it and forming wonderful friendships with these older students. Be sure to ask your child about their buddy and what books they have read with him/her.

I have enjoyed the conferences I have had with families thus far and look forward to meeting with the rest of you. Thank you all so much for your support and involvement in your child's learning. You have all been so generous with supplies. The only thing we could use is a small donation of extra snack (non-parishable) for a backup snack for days when students might forget their snack.I am hoping to make a BJ's run this weekend, but if anyone can donate, it would be so wonderful! 

On the Road to Success

I am already seeing so much growth from students! Today we finished Unit 2 of math and all students (every single one) aced it! This is no surprise though because with the new 2-block structured math we are doing, each student is engaged, math is hands-on and differentiated. There are more opportunities for teacher check-in's and students are doing more learning through exploration and numbers talks, where they have more opportunity to share their thinking. Less teacher-talk and more student involvement. The next unit in math we will focus on part-part-total and looking at addends.


In reading students are now fully emersed in the new Superkids curriculum, working on digraphs: sh, ch, and tch. Students have shown us how strong their segmentation of phonemes are through all of the data that we have collected and now to build fluency we are working on recognizing word patterns and onset and rime (beginning sound and clumping the second sound together). We are also encouraging students to take the larger words and break them apart, Students worked on this during our first guided reading from our Superkids Readers. Students took a copy of these home today and I encourage you to read them again and again with your child to build fluency. The story's title is, Patch in a Pinch. Students also practiced thinking through the story and isolating the problem/solution.

Students are wrapping up their Small Moments stories and putting final touches, such as labeling, adding think and speech bubbles, illustrating and adding a cover, before publishing. It was nice to sit down with each student and edit his/her story. Our next units will be How To and All About stories.

We have also been working on our Second Step curriculum, where students have been discussing anger, frustration, looking and body language and talking about emotions. We have been discussing self-help/management skills but also, how to help and comfort a friend. Students have some wonderful strategies and ideas, such as taking deep breaths and finding a quiet space to calm down.

As a reminder, next week we start conferences, so keep your eyes peeled for a conference date/time reminder in your child's folder. I look forward to meeting with each of you! Enjoy your weekend!

Local Library Book Sale!

Hi Room 4 Families! Just wanted to let you know that Belchertown's Public Library has a used book sale October 10th-October 15th! I think it is open to the public October 11th. When I first started teaching I traveled around to all of the Library Book Sales, collecting books for my classroom library and I remember Bechertown's as being the best. It has over 50,000 discarded library books and TONS of children's books. They are $.25-$1.00 each and in good condition. If you have time, it might be fun and worth checking out. I may pop over there one day after school this week. 

http://www.friendsofclapplibrary.org/fall-book-sale.html

Community Field Day Fun!

Students had so much fun at Community Field Day today! Students worked together at 12 different stations and showed tremendous amounts of CARE.Some of the activities included: cup stacking, relays, leaf blowing, parachute, pass the ball, and many more. I hope you have a chance to ask your child about it! Have a great 3-day weekend!

          

       

Bowling for 10 & "Spare" time math

Hello Families,

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend math night! I am thrilled your child had the opportunity to show you some of the things were are doing in class and share with you about his/her day! It was so nice to chat, even just for a moment with each and everyone that attended. I look forward to talking with you more at conferences later this month.

Students had a blast today on our (disco) bowling field trip to Spare Time Bowling in Northampton. Not only did they show off their bowling and dance moves, but they wowed us with their math, putting what we have focused on with combinations of 10 and adding and subtracting within 10 with the pins. Students were very engaged and independent and excited that they could add, subtract and explain their numeracy skills up to 10 with a lot of fluency. Bowling will also be a great experience to use as a shared writing activity topic for our next writing unit launch. A big thank you to all of the extra donations we got from families and to all of our wonderful chaperons!

Tomorrow is Community Field Day in the morning and then reading buddies in the afternoon, followed by gym. Not a bad way to end our week, right? I hope you all enjoy a long weekend with your child! I hope everyone has some time to enjoy the beautiful weather and sunshine as the leaves are slowly starting to change. I know it is one of my favorite times of the year (not too cold but we are starting to get the awesome fall colors).

Keep up with the reading! I am already noticing a lot of growth in both math and reading. Here are some ideas for some quick math practice that you can do with your child practically anywhere:

• Counting forwards from a given number (not 1, but start at 32, 68, 119, or 127?)
• Counting backwards across decades ( 92, 91, 90, 89, 88...)
• Skip counting: 2's, 5's, 10's (for a challenge try 3's)
• "Flash me _________ (# 1-10) on your hands/fingers; Now show me ___ (same #) a different way".
• Counting on: Give student a big number and a number under 10. Students should stick big number in their heads and count of from that number with the smaller one, using their fingers.
• Start looking at coins and money (we will learn about this later in the year)
• start looking at time (we will look at later in the year).
• Play board games
• Measure and counting in the kitchen.
• addition and subtraction story problems verbally (could do these in the car).

Thanks so much for your support! So many donations still coming in. Only things we could use on our wish list are: multicultural crayons and markers and colored cardstock paper.