January 8, 2016 Upcoming Dates…
Thursday, January 14 – Family
Meeting
Monday, January 18- No School
-by Gwendolyn
Saturday, January 23: Tubing at Mt.
Pleasant 10:00-12:00
Friday, February 5: Progress Reports
Happy New Year! NOVICES
Ahhh… It i s good t o be b ack! T he Novices are w ell-­‐rested a nd enthusiastic! We are taking a small break from number sense and are s pending some time exploring g eometry. The Math Magicians h ave had a b last this w eek r eaching into t he mystery bag, u sing t heir s ense of t ouch, then drawing each shape t hey f eel. A nd w e h ave had a great t ime making these two d imensional shapes on g eo-­‐boards too! A ll t he w hile, w e have b een creating an a nchor chart t o describe t hese shapes using technical math t erms like edges, v ertices, and angles. T he Masters of Math have b een t aking t heir geometry k nowledge t o the n ext l evel, d elving deeper i nto shapes as w e prepare to learn about fractions. After completing a s hape scavenger hunt, w e each created o ur o wn What S hape A m I ? w hich are now h anging in the h allway to challenge o ther students. In L iteracy, w e have b een reading lots of seasonal stories together; Snowballs by L ois E lhert helped u s recall o ur p ersonal experience of building snowmen. T his and our r ecently gained knowledge of shapes led t o the creation of snowmen c ollages, which are now h anging in t he h allway. And many of o ur writers are creating stories about t heir a dventures over w inter break. Our stories still t ake many shapes-­‐ some are told t hrough drawings w ith labels, some include a w hole sentence, while s ome stories have grown into books w ith chapters-­‐ a ll d evelopmentally appropriate a nd a ll a ppreciated by the Novice audience! In Theme, w e had a lot of f un working on a project for our H ead S tart friends. They s ent u s a note saying that t here w as a g ingerbread man loose in o ur school! I n pairs, w e wrote funny stories a bout t he shenanigans that g ingerbread m an got i nto when h e sneaked i nto our classroom! We also c ompleted our study of communities by taking a c loser look at different k inds of m aps. After exploring continents, countries, states, and cities, w e each created maps and included where w e c ould find ourselves on t hem! Next, a s the w eather t urns c older, w e will start l earning about w eather systems. PLAYERS
The Players are back in action after enjoying a wonderful two weeks relaxing with family and friends. We all had so much fun during break; we couldn't wait to start writing about everything we did and share our work with our friends! We shuffled our literature circle groups a bit and each group has started a new book for the new year. We've got a great variety of books going on-­‐ one group is learning about rain forests while reading Afternoon on the Amazon; one group is learning about how optimism can change everything in The Chalk Box Kid; another group is laughing their way through Ms. Krups Cracks Me Up, and the last group is revisiting one of their favorite authors from last year, Judy Blume, and reading Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. In Math, both groups dove right back into multiplication. Emily's math group has been working their way through the book The Best of Times-­‐ it's full of fun poems that have taught us different strategies to use while thinking about multiplying. They love comparing and contrasting the different methods they use to work through problems, and have learned a lot from each other! Rebecca's math group just can't get enough of long multiplication problems! This week, they've begun applying two and three digit multiplication problems in order to solve for the square footage of animal enclosures in the zoos that they are designing. This combines with their excellent work in Theme, where they are designing their own zoos including working within a set budget for purchasing animals and using their designated land appropriately for all of the animals. They've come up with incredibly creative designs which will soon be revealed to the whole school community! Stay tuned for more! APPRENTICES
The Apprentices have started off 2016 with some tremendous work! In Math, both groups have been working on multiplying fractions, whole numbers, and mixed numbers, building on much of what we covered last school year. Dan and Ellen have been impressed with the complex thinking the students have demonstrated in their problem-­‐solving. Meanwhile, in Literacy, everyone has been working very hard on wrapping up our state research projects. We're typing up our reports, revising and editing each other's work, and talking a lot about how to organize sentences and paragraphs effectively. We also started working on the final piece of our research: a collage of images from our state, in the shape of our state. This has been a lot of fun and has involved a lot of math, planning, and creative problem-­‐solving. In addition, the Apprentices happily welcomed a new student, Ian, to our classroom! We've all enjoyed getting to know him and showing him the ropes of our school. In Theme, The Apprentices have been learning about the system of government that was in place before the Constitution was written: The Articles of Confederation. We've been role-­‐playing as delegates representing the 13 states, proposing laws for our fledgling country to the other delegates. The civil, persuasive discourse being had is a thrill to sit in on, and it's been a great way to experience a form of politics. The students have really embraced the roles of their states by basing their arguments, proposals, and votes on the historical information of their state, rather than their personal beliefs. Oh, and it's becoming abundantly clear why the Articles were abandoned in favor of a new system (the Constitution)...just ask an Apprentice why!