Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on October 6, 2014
It’s getting to be that time! Cold & flu season is near. We can use donations of Kleenex for our classroom to get us through the fall and winter. Please send in a box, and thanks!
Our first early release day is this Tuesday. Please note there is no lunch that day. However, I will give students the opportunity to eat snack at our usual lunch time if you wish to pack one, since their bodies will be used to eating at that time.
Fall Festival is coming on Friday, October 31! I have one parent signed up to come in and run the activities that day, from 9:30-11:00. I can use 3 more. The crafts will be ready, and I’ll demonstrate them for you then. If you’d like to volunteer, please contact me: kavery@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us
Math facts homework begins tonight. Please see the notice I sent home today. It explains procedures; notes your child’s individual level; includes tips; has your child’s Xtra Math account information attached; and references other resources. You can access the A+ Flashcard Creator and Math Fact Cafe (quiz maker) directly from our blog under “Parent Resources.” To give parents and students time to get used to the new routine, try out Xtra Math, and explore the above resources, our first quiz will be two weeks away on Friday, Oct. 17. Quizzes will be weekly thereafter.
Our Field Trip to Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) is upon us! We leave Friday at 9:00. Please send in lunch with your child, in a completely disposable container (e.g. no metal silverware or Tupperware that you want returned). Please, no nuts: there isn’t a “no nuts” table in the lunchroom there. We will return at the end of the school day and eat snack then. Also please dress your child comfortably in layers. If you drop your child off at school that morning, please plan so that your child is here by 8:45. I know, there are a lot of details–but it will help our day run smoothly so we can focus on the fun learning to be had there!
In particular, we’ll be observing and analyzing economics from a historical perspective. We’ve been learning in class what goods are and to distinguish between want and needs. We will learn this week the difference between goods and services, and where to find them in our community. We’ll bring this to bear during our walk through OSV, and introduce students to the importance of consumers and producers to the economy of a community. Students will then “produce” a “good” (toy; art; print) from long ago in activities led by OSV’s education staff. Try taking a virtual tour at home by using their interactive map with your child: https://www.osv.org/village-map
Other learning to note this week:
In math we are learning to add 3-digit numbers by combining the ones, tens, and hundreds. This week students will be introduced to regrouping in the ones and tens places. When they add 127 + 136, for example, they will be physically combining 7 and 6 ones and trading in for a ten and 3 ones. The ten then gets added to the 2 tens and the 3 tens, and finally the hundreds get added together. It is especially important that students understand the concept of trading, or regrouping, before being trained to “carry the 1.” We have found time and again that kids in elementary school and above make errors and lack understanding when adding and subtracting if they don’t own this concept first. Try using the base ten block pictures and the base ten mat in the homework packet when doing problems on this week’s homework. Alternately, you could put the base ten mat in the sleeve protector and your child could use a dry erase marker for drawing dots (ones), lines (tens), and hundreds (squares) to prove hisorher thinking.
In writing we have learned about the purpose of opinion writing. We have also studied examples and learned to use our pillar framework to help us organize our thoughts. We then expounded on the ideas in the pillar to write whole paragraphs, and edited them for upper/lowercases, periods, spaces, and spelling of some words. Look for them when they come home–wow! Students will be learning about the writing craft by editing run-on sentences and unclear phrases in small groups. Then we will follow the same process for learning about informative writing, including the nature of it (it’s factual; includes and introduction and conclusion; contains details and examples that prove our thinking; uses sequential transition words first, also, finally, etc.)
