Happy Second Winter Break?

Can you believe this!?  Well, I can't.  And next week is crazy, too.  Let's all send positive energy to Mother Nature...enough snow, already!

I'm going to start with a few reminders...

1. The kids' Cultural Projects are due on Wednesday, February 19th.  They have all the requirements and grading rubrics in their Take Home folders. 
2. The Valentine's Day parties have been rescheduled for Wednesday, February 19th.  Our party is 1:15-2:15 pm.  All parents are welcome...no siblings, please.
3. Please go through your child's Take Home folders...review their graded work and sign the Wills' Wax Museum info sheet.  Normally this info sheet comes home with a date for the actual Wills' Wax Museum. With the INSANE winter we are having, I just didn't feel comfortable putting a date on there...we are looking at mid-March...and we will give you at least two weeks notice so you can take off of work to come visit this wonderful culmination of our Language Arts/Social Studies unit.

Language Arts/Social Studies
In social Studies we are discussing people who have made a positive impact on our country.  We are combining those standards with our reading for information standards and VOILA...the Wills Wax Museum is born.  As a class we have been reading about Harriet Tubman and her contributions to our country.  I have been modeling reading for information and taking notes using index cards.  Each fact written down is then organized into sub-categories...this will help in making sure the kids collect plenty of information about their famous person. The students have each picked a person they are interested in learning about and have begun collecting facts themselves.  They each have an organizer that will help them categorize their facts and keep track of the resources they use.  Each student will read a book, as well as research online, to gather information.  Then, using my Harriet Tubman information, I will model making a time line using each fact card I have written.  Using the order of that time line, I will model the writing of the biography of this famous person.  Here's the hitch...I will write it from first person...as if I am Harriet Tubman.  The kids will make their own fact card timelines and write their own biographies...from the first person perspective.  All of this legwork is done at school.  At home they will need to find an artifact or outfit that helps represent their famous person AND practice the speaking of their biography...but that will be a ways down the road...so no worries!  If you want ideas of how your child might dress to represent their famous person, peruse the blog posts from previous years...you DO NOT, I repeat, you DO NOT, need to spend ANY money in order to do this...you will see wigs made of cotton balls, costumes using parents' old dress up clothes, etc...but this will give you some ideas.  I will also be brainstorming with the class different ideas for each student if they need help figuring it out. Please feel free to email me with any questions.  This coming Wednesday your child will be bringing the biography book home with the assignment to write at least five note cards.  This will give you the opportunity to see the person they are representing.  Please allow them to do this assignment independently. Thanks!

Math
We have had a mish mash of math lately...some problem solving, some multiplication and division (the unit we're headed into), some line plots and measuring, some algebra...math has been as crazy as our schedule...however, once we return on Wednesday, we will be focusing on problem solving when using the operations multiplication and division..this will involve reviewing the most efficient ways to multiply when multiplying a 2- or 3-digit number with a 1-digit number.  For those that have that algorithm mastered, we will review the most efficient ways to multiply 2-digit numbers by 2- or 3-digit numbers.  Division will be similar...we will discuss all of the strategies we use to divide, but we will focus on efficiency.  For those students who haven't learned the long division algorithm...this will be the focus.  It is ESSENTIAL that if your child has not hit the mark for mastering basic facts in multiplication and division that they are practicing at least three times a week.  The hardest thing about this unit is when you are stumped as to how many 6s are in 48?  Its very hard to remember what you are doing when you get lost in that thought...so PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!

I will leave you with these pictures....I have been so impressed with their work on these "Ella Tales!"

"Writing Groups Discussing 'Ella Tales' on PJ Day"