Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on October 27, 2014
Dust off those boots! Our annual Harvest Hoedown is here. This Friday, students will be kicking up their heels as we square dance in the gym. They are invited to wear western gear to school that day (jeans, boots, hats, whatever). Please no weapons (just a good rule in general at school, no?) and nothing kids have to change into/makeup to apply/etc.
In the classroom, we will host our own Fall Festival. Students will have some fun making fall crafts, designing pumpkins to be used in descriptive writing lessons, and learning about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated by many South American and Mexican American families (more at http://www.celebrate-day-of-the-dead.com/day-of-the-dead-facts.html).
Please remember our school rule about not sending in food/drink for the class, and no tree nuts or peanuts in our classroom (lunch is OK), and thanks!
Last week in writing, students learned about the qualities of good personal narratives. This is one of 4 genres that will be our focus this year, across Shrewsbury. Good personal narratives are about one moment in time, with the action stretched out and description thrown in to put readers in the picture. We learned to generate topics to write about, and how to find the “story seed”–the small moment that should serve as the basis for the main event. As an analogy, we encourage students to think about a watermelon. The melon is your big idea, for example, My Vacation. A slice of the melon is your narrowed focus, for example, My Day at the Magic Kingdom. But the story seed, the one event that should comprise your story, would be one thing that you did there, for example, Going on Splash Mountain.
Students will continue to refine their small moment ideas this week, and they will begin to write their stories after some lessons entertaining beginnings and description of setting. To that end, we’ll be taking a sensory walk on our Nature Trail to look, listen, touch, and above all, describe the experience of being there. Here’s a helpful look at personal narratives, with kids and families in mind: http://www.timeforkids.com/files/homework_helper/aplus_papers/PersonalNarrativeSampler.pdf
At math time this week, students will be learning the fine points of regrouping when subtracting, across the tens and hundreds (think 213 – 156). They will be working with base ten blocks to model the process and show understanding. They will be showing it another way by drawing base ten pictures (squares for hundreds, etc., like on homework). And they will finally learn to “cross out” the number in the tens and hundreds place to regroup–what we used to call “borrowing”. The difference between how we learned it years ago and how it’s taught today is that we’re making sure students have a real sense of the numbers involved and what the process of regrouping is really all about. In your homework packet in the center I have included a step by step picture guide so you can help your child at home if they need it. Whether they do or not, it’s always wise to ask them questions: How many hundreds/tens/ones are in that number? Will you need to regroup? How do you know? Does your answer make sense? Could you prove it another way?
The homework and classwork will often ask kids to check their subtraction with addition. I noticed 2 things last week to be aware of at home: 1. Some students are simply taking the numbers they got with subtraction and writing them any which way (e.g. 212 + 150 = 62). 2. Some students aren’t doing the actual addition to prove the subtraction is correct–this is an important step to see that their answer makes sense. So when checking their homework, I suggest asking your child to explain the addition to one or more problems to see they’ve got it.
As always, I’ll do my best to answer questions you have about our classroom or our curriculum. Thanks for all you do!
