Daphnia, Ella, Rectangles...Oh My!

No...I'm not speaking a made up language...those are some of the many things that filled our week...read on to find out more!

LANGUAGE ARTS
We are reading and writing a lot these days!  This week the magazine Storyworks has provided some in depth conversations and work with PLOT in fiction stories.  The story "Good Enough" was a wonderful example of an author's message, and although a few of the kids had trouble inferring all of the meaning, EVERYONE understood the author's message.  It allowed for a wonderful "life lesson" conversation about what really matters about people. It was one of my favorite parts of this week, actually!  In Language Arts/Science we are also reading for information about the organisms that have come to live in our room and about the ones we are expecting to arrive this week...daphnia, snails, fiddler crabs, and newts...I have found many articles that fit the reading levels of the kids in our room...and have been able to differentiate based on the rigor of the articles.

ELLA...is the theme in writing right now...your child is creating a wonderful ELLA tale...we have so many different versions in the classroom right now.  This has been a step by step process...as you know, we have read and listened to A LOT of Cinderella versions...then we listed the important/necessary elements of an ELLA story...next the kids and I mapped out Bubba the Cowboy Prince on a graphic organizer that focuses on the rising action, climax, and falling action of a story....the kids then took their own ideas and filled out that same organizer to help plan their story.  Now they are writing the story inserting all kinds of objects and dialogue to help showcase their THEME...this coming week they will meet with a peer to share stories and help shape each others writing...and then of course, we will publish these stories using the COW (have I mentioned how much I love the COW!!)  

MATH
While working on multiplication the kids and I have been very busy...our work with factors led to an activity involving rectangles...this activity started off fairly simply...each small group was given a few numbers and it was their job to create as many rectangles as possible for each number.  For instance, with the number 20 there would be six rectangles (1x20) (20x1) (4x5) (5x4) (2x10) (10x2)...we made rectangles for the all of the numbers 1-30...and then as we recorded the findings I was able to teach the definitions and SHOW them what perfect square numbers are...so we discussed square roots.  I was able to teach and SHOW the definition of prime numbers...and the kids began predicting which numbers above 30 were prime.  I like to tell you about these higher level discussions because when you see the rectangle papers come home you probably think..."my kid did this last year"...but a lot goes on with each assignment that you can't ever see!  On the same note...we have been using some simpler multiplication to teach the kids all of the steps in solving word problems and explaining their reasoning.  For instance, they solved a problem about soccer balls this week.  They had to show nine groups of five and then subtract three based on the word problem.  They could use any strategy to solve and different tools to check.  In their explanation, they had to tie the operation they used to the wording in the problem...for instance, if they subtracted they needed to tie it to "because the team lost three of the balls."  Or if they multiplied they had to mention that "there were nine groups of five so instead of adding nine five times, I multiplied."  May sound picky, but a deep and thorough explanation is necessary in order for the reader (me) to understand the inner workings of your kids' amazing minds....so often they just want to say, well I multiplied because I had to. ;-) IN CLASS we have been working on how to use the distributive property when multiplying numbers like 3,245 x 6!  And for those that have that mastered, next week we will be delving into 345 x 12 while the rest of us learn the most efficient way to solve these problems, the algorithm.  This is a very long update on Math, but I want to make sure that you are aware that I am working to challenge all levels within the classroom, even though the homework may not reflect that all the time!

SOCIAL STUDIES
The kids are in the final stages of their travel brochures.  I have 18 rough drafts in my bag to review this weekend...then the kids will put the finishing touches on their final drafts...they will hang in the classroom once they are finished, but the grade sheet will come home (just like the map project...it is hanging in classroom, but grade sheets came home this past week!)

SCIENCE
As I referenced above...we've started our science unit!  We started off the unit observing daphnia,  minute freshwater organisms!  We used hand lenses and the microscope to get a close look at all of its body parts.  We put them in vials and saw the changes in population of daphnia within just one week!  You can actually see the brood pouch through the daphnia's clear shell (carapace), so the kids knew they were going to have babies soon! We also now have aquariums set up...the kids added the duckweed, anacharis, daphnia, and the snails this week.  This coming week we will be receiving fiddler crabs and newts, and we will be discussing food chains, food webs and other organisms found in fresh water habitats.

FALL FESTIVAL AND PUMPKIN MATH
So...by now you have hopefully seen the letter informing you about our Fall Festival Party...thank you to all of the parents who have sent in the donation...our room parents and I really appreciate that!  This week you will receive information about the day AFTER October 31st...otherwise known as November 1st...haha...I make myself laugh.  Anyway...on November 1st from 9-10:30 we will have a fun activity called PUMPKIN MATH...and we need 4 or 5 parents to participate...the letter will ask if you are available and would like to come...it also lists some items we'll need donated for the activity...if you can't come, but can send in a pumpkin or one of the other items listed, please note that on the letter!  I will take tons of pictures of both days, so look for an animoto video sometime the first weekend of November.

CONFERENCES
This Thursday I will conference with all of the parents I wasn't able to meet with in September.  I look forward to sitting with you and discussing your child's progress.  If you have anything in particular you'd like to discuss, shoot me an email so I can have any and all information you are looking for...also, if you've forgotten your conference time, please email me and I 'll send you a reminder.

Hopefully I haven't left anything out...have a great weekend!!