Happy Saturday!

Hello, everyone...can you believe we've been in school a little over a month?!  I feel so blessed to have such a great class...we are accomplishing so much!

Language Arts
In Language Arts we continued to focus on making inferences this week...we used a great story, No David! by David Shannon to begin our discussion of inferring.  I then read Cinderella, the traditional tale, and asked the students to infer meaning from certain phrases in the text.  Making inferences is one of the hardest "during reading" strategies and we will continue working on it all year.  I chose Cinderella because we are headed into a super fun unit about short stories where your kids will be reading many different versions of Cinderella and eventually writing one of their own. This may be my very favorite LA unit of all times!  I had quite a few groans when I told the class (boys were groaning) that we were going to read Cinderella...but I promised them that by the end of the unit, they won't be groaning anymore...they will LOVE Dinorella, Bigfooterella, Chickerella, etc!! 

This week I introduced the Editing and Revising Pit Stops in Writer's Workshop...I am so excited that I will be having Teacher Conferences with some kids next week on pieces that are almost ready for publishing!

I began the cursive letter instruction this week...and the kids have a Zaner Bloser copy of all upper and lower case letters in their take home folders.  Please leave them in the Return to School side of the Take Home folder...this is for their review whenever they need it...at home or in school.  Don't forget to visit the Zaner Bloser site, which can be found on the side bar menu of my blog.  It allows the kids to make a handwriting worksheet using their Word Study words or any other words they choose!

Math
This week's focus was problem solving with multi-step word problems...and using DIFFERENT strategies to solve them...not just the algorithm.  The kids did a fantastic job using the strategy decomposing numbers and using models to represent the equation. The one area that I see a weakness (take the word weak lightly) is when using words to explain their thinking...so this is our new focus as we move into multiplication and division...yes, you heard right...Monday we start multiplication and division...with a focus on solving multi-step problems. They need to be able to use different strategies to solve the problem and then explain in writing to show complete understanding...this unit on multiplication and division includes the formula for area...and we will eventually take this another step where they will use their skills and knowledge to design and create their own candy bar...more to come on this next week!

ALSO...new math site added to menu bar...called Math Magician...its is GREAT for timed basic facts!!  CHECK IT OUT!

Social Studies
As I'm sure most of you know by now (still waiting on 5 parent signatures), the kids have been assigned a project.  After going over all the directions and answering lots of questions, one child said, "This is the BEST project EVER!!"  If while you and your child are discussing the project you have ANY questions, do not hesitate to email me...I'm happy to chat about it.

This week we discussed different regions and the characteristics within the regions.  We talked about physical geography, natural resources, and climate.  This coming week each student will choose one of our fabulous 50 states, research the characteristics within that state, and create a brochure to inform others about their state.  The kids are SO excited to have the laptops in the classroom and I'm excited to get them on them!  I will take pictures so you can enjoy seeing it too! 

Miscellaneous News
I was asked this week about neatness in school work and I just wanted to answer that question for everyone so we're on the same page.  I do not insist on neatness unless we are working specifically on handwriting or a final draft.  Let me be clear, I will not accept work I cannot read, but I am ok with legible writing that isn't neat...most of the time I do not WANT them focusing on their handwriting...that takes away from the skill or idea I need them to write about.  During Writer's Workshop the focus should be on the idea...but their final draft will be very neat.  During Daily Language, they only have 5-10 minutes, so their focus should be on task completion and the language skills, not neatness.  I FULLY support you making your child write neatly at home.  And will speak to your child directly if you need "back up"...but I have SOOOO much to accomplish during the day, that it is not my main focus.  Feel free to email me if you have questions about this.  Thanks!

This coming week will be our SECOND full week of the school year...hard to believe we've had so many days off...so expect your little people to be more tired than usual!  Have a wonderful and hopefully relaxing weekend...